Chapter 7: Big decisions and birthday party
"She was always a good student, with good grades and no behavioral issues. And then he came into her life and destroyed it completely! He seduced her, made her do something that she wasn't ready for and it's all his fault!"
"Mrs Gilmore, please, calm down."
"I will most certainly not calm down. My daughter's future is destroyed and it's all your son's fault, Mr Danes."
"Well, I'm pretty sure it gets 2 people to get pregnant." William said with a tired voice.
Luke and Lorelai sat silently on the stairs in the Gilmore's house and listened to these yells for over half an hour. It's been 2 weeks since they found out about the pregnancy, but they only told their parents about it a day ago. Luke wanted to do it as quickly as possible, but Lorelai could not find the courage inside her. And sure enough, when they finally did it, all hell broke loose.
They decided to tell Luke's father first, hoping he would take the news better than Lorelai's parents. William listened to them carefully, sat silently for almost ten minutes and finally said that he was gonna help them as best as he could. He couldn't however hide the disappointment in his eyes. He would expect something like this from his daughter, Liz was always the wild one in that family, but Luke was the responsible one. And Luke couldn't stand disappointing his father. But William's reaction was relatively calm and as supportive as it could be.
Lorelai's parents, however, were a whole different story. As soon as the words 'I'm pregnant' came out of Lorelai's mouth, the yelling began, and has not stopped. They immediately arranged for Luke's father to come to Hartford and discuss 'the proper, next steps'. They didn't however think to include Luke and Lorelai in this planning.
"Stop it, Emily. All this yelling is not helping and I'm getting a headache." Richard spoke firmly. He hadn't been very active in the discussion, still pretty shocked from his daughter's news. But he knew they had to have some sort of agreement and come up with the plan.
"I would love to stop yelling, Richard, but unfortunately no-one seems to have any kind of plan for this horrible situation. Unless you came up with something."
"As a matter of fact, I did. They will get married, they will leave here. We will help financially, and Luke will start working in my company." Richard stated.
"You can't be serious!" Emily protested. "Richard, this boy does not have what it takes to become successful in your firm. It'll end in disaster."
"Hey, that's my son you're talking about!" William, who had been nothing but calm all evening, suddenly raised his voice. "I assure you, he has what it takes to make it anywhere he wants to. The question is does he want to? Did it ever occur to you to ask Lorelai and Luke what they think of your plan? Maybe they have a plan of their own, maybe my son doesn't want to work for you. Either way, they should both be here, making these decisions. It's their life, after all."
"But that's ridiculous, they're only children."
"Well, maybe they're children, but they're about to have a child of their own. And nothing makes you grow up faster than this." William said. Lorelai was grateful for his words.
"Well, at least one person in this room gives a rat's ass about us and how this is our life that they're discussing." Lorelai whispered to Luke. "As if we want to get married at 16, that's ridiculous. And you can make your own decisions about your future jobs, you don't have to work for my father."
"Well, I would get married if you wanted to." Luke said, honestly. "I mean, yeah, it is a little ridiculous, but it's not more crazy than us having a baby. And that's happening."
"Yeah, but not by choice. It was an accident. And we won't fix an accident by making another mistake. This is like throwing gasoline on a fire. We made fire, we didn't mean to, but it's there. It is now our job to watch the fire, make sure it stays warm and safe, but we do not pour gasoline in it. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, Luke. You know I love you, but getting married is just crazy. We could never make it."
"Yeah, you're right." Luke had to agree with her. Marriage would not change anything at this point. "But just remember, whether we are married or not, I intend to watch that fire with you from now till the end."
"Thanks, babe. I'm gonna hold you to that." She was happy with what he said. He understood her completely, and he knew that just because she didn't want to get married it didn't mean she wanted to do this on her own. "Let's go downstairs, before they're gonna kill each other. "
"Lorelai, just go back upstairs, it doesn't concern you." Emily said when she saw them, not even bothering to address Luke in any way.
"Yes, mother, it does. It concerns me and Luke. It's our baby. And you can wince at the word baby everytime if you want, but it's not gonna change the fact that we're having this baby. I'm just gonna propose something here. We still have 6 months till the baby comes. I am not gonna marry Luke, because I'll be 16 in a week and that is just ridiculous. But he will be here for the baby. So we have a whole 6 months to figure out living arrangements. For now let's just continue living as we do, me here, and Luke in Stars Hollow with his family. We can work this out later. " Lorelai said firmly. And because her parents were exhausted, they simply nodded and that ended their conversation. Nothing was decided yet, but at least they had a few more weeks of peace.
"Happy birthday, dear Lorelai, happy birthday to you!" When the song ended Lorelai forced a smile and blew out the candles on the cake. She naively assumed that her parents would cancel her 16th birthday party. She had already skipped the Debutante ball last week, due to the issue with the dress caused by her slowly but surely growing stomach. She was 3 months pregnant, which was confirmed by a doctor, and to the untrained eyes she was barely showing. However, her parents had to take her school uniform to be tailored a little and they insisted she would wear a little more baggy clothes in public. It seemed that after the first shock, they decided to not tell people for as long as it was physically possible. Which included throwing her a birthday party, as if nothing major was happening.
She hated it. She hated this party, and the fact that she had to pretend. Her house was full of people, half of which she was sure she never met before. Only the money that was generously gifted to her was bringing her a little happiness. Especially now, since she was about to become a mom, money was important. She had already taken out all of her savings from the bank, knowing that it would probably come in handy to have it ready to go. The situation in her house was tense, to put it delicately, and she wanted to have her own money to raise her kid. Of course, she knew that the money she had was nowhere near enough, but it was a start.
The future seemed scary, to both her and Luke. She knew she would not be able to finish high school, and if she wanted to be free from her parents she would have to get a job. And the job market for 16-years-old dropouts with babies was not great. There was also a matter of living arrangements - they decided to put off this talk for a while but it was an issue, hanging over their heads. Luke wanted to be there for the baby, so they would have to live together. But living in Hartford with Luke, the baby and her parents seemed crazy. Her parents never liked Luke, and now they just plain hated him. How was this ever gonna work? She considered the possibility of moving to Stars Hollow but that didn't seem like a good option, either. Luke's house was very small, they would have to share Luke's bedroom, and make a room for a baby, which seemed impossible.
"Lorelai, you could at least pretend that you're having fun."
"Sorry, mom, if I can't act as if everything is wonderful. Did we really have to throw this party? The food is awful, the smell is making me nauseous and I'm just tired and hungry." Lorelai said honestly.
"Lorelai Gilmore, me and your father did not raise you to be ungrateful. I worked very hard on this party, the food is not awful, it's delicious!"
"Well, then I guess my pregnant mind identifies this delicious food as something gross, because I can't stand the smell of it."
"Shhh!" Emily whispered forcefully "We discussed it before, there is no reason to tell anyone about your…. issue."
"God, mom. This is not a stomach flu, it won't go away on its own. I'm having a baby. A baby. I told you not to throw this party, I am too tired and hormonal to deal with this. And if you don't want me to tell people about my dirty little secret then you should just send them all home!" She was talking in low volume, but she raised her voice at the last few words and several people were now looking in their direction. She didn't care anymore, she just went upstairs and slammed the door behind her.
"Happy birthday, Lorelai," she said sarcastically to herself. "Really super."
She layed in her bed with head buried in her pillows for several minutes, when she heard a knock on the door. Of course, her mother couldn't leave her alone.
"Lorelai, it's me. Can I come in?" Thankfully, it wasn't her mother, it was Luke. She sat up starlight and gestured for him to walk in.
"Sure, come on in. You're probably the only person in the world who doesn't make me furious right now. At least I can talk freely, without having to worry about saying the right thing. I swear, with the level of shame my mother feels, you would think that she's the one who's pregnant." She ranted, angrily. "I have enough to worry about, without trying to hide the truth. People are gonna find out either way, doesn't she get it? Unless, she plans to send me away to some boarding school or to some nun convent."
"I brought you an apple. I noticed that you didn't like the food downstairs and you seem to like apples now. And I wanted you to eat something." He said.
"Thanks, I do like apples now." She said with a smile. He somehow always knew what to say or what to do when she was upset. "You're the best, Luke. By the way, this whole apple thing is super weird. I never liked them before, none of the fruit actually. I guess no paternity tests are required, this is definitely your kid in there. She or he will probably become a healthy eating freak, like you are."
"Oh, please." He laughed "With your power of influence, there is no way that our kid will ever listen to me. We will raise the biggest mama's boy or girl ever. I will show them by example that there is just no arguing with you. 17 years I live in the same town and I never attended any of these stupid town events, and since I met you I haven't missed one of them."
"I like how you said it. Our kid. It just makes it more real." She hugged him, grateful.
"By the way, I got you something." He said and reached into his pocket.
"Really?"
"Don't act so surprised, it is your birthday after all. Presents are not optional." He put a small velvet box in her hand.
"I really hope this is not an engagement ring. Because we discussed the whole marriage thing and it would just be so awkward to say no to you when you've been so nice to me all day." He rolled his eyes at her.
"Would you just open it?"
She looked inside and gasped. In the box was a beautiful golden locket with little "LL" engraved on the front. When she opened the locket, the left side showed a photo of her and Luke. It was taken by his dad on New Year's Eve, they were looking at each other, smiling and till now she had no idea this photo existed. The right side was empty.
"Luke, it's beautiful. You shouldn't have."
"It was my mother's. It used to have a picture of her and my father on the left side and me and Liz on the right side. My mom left it to me and told me to give it to someone special. I had it engraved with our initials and there's a spot on the bottom for our kid's initial. And the right side is for the photo of the baby."
She kissed him with a smile.
"Thank you, Luke. This is the best present I've ever gotten. And my grandmother gave me a real tiara for my 6th birthday, so that says a lot. Will you help me put it on?"
"Sure"
"I will never take it off. I promise." They sat on the bed, her head resting on his shoulder.
"What are we gonna do, Luke?" She asked him after a while. "Where are we gonna live, where are we gonna work, how will we support this baby?"
"Honestly, I have no idea, Lorelai. But we will figure it out. I will get a job, any job and I will get the money for us. And we can live here if this is what you want."
"I don't know what I want. But you really wouldn't mind living here? My parents hate you, you know that?"
"Well, thanks for those warm words." He chuckled. "Yes, I do know that. But if living with them is gonna bring me closer to my kid then I will do it."
"I have no idea what I would have done without you."
"Thankfully, you will not have to find out. But just for the record, I think you would've been fine. You're the bravest person I know, you would've figured it out and made it on your own if you had to."
"Thanks, babe. By the way, I never thought about the fact that both our names start with the letter names" Lorelai said, looking at her new necklace. "Maybe we could give our baby an L name also, it would be fun."
"Sure, it does sound fun. Do you have any specific suggestions?"
"There's a ton of fun L names. For a boy it could be Logan, Liam or Larry. For a girl Liv or Leah. Or we could just do it real simple and name the baby Luke Junior or Lorelai Junior." She laughed.
"Yeah, right" He rolled his eyes. "We have a few more months to make this decision. And the rest of the decisions."
"And in the meantime?"
"We continue to do what we've been doing. I, for example, would love to take my girl out for a date. 'Bid on a basket' day is almost here."
"Really? You would actually participate in that for me?"
"Sure, as long as you let me make the food."
"But I'm the basket maker, I'm supposed to do it."
"I think we both know that it's safest if I do it. But you can pick out a basket and decorate it as you wish. "
"Deal." She agreed, smiling. "I love you, you know that?"
"I've always suspected it." He laughed, "I guess you're in luck, cause I love you, too."
"That is lucky. In fact, I think it's the luckiest thing that's ever happened to me." she chuckled lightly. It was fun to laugh a little, and for a moment forget about all their troubles. After all, they were only a couple of teenagers.
