FamilyFriendsLovers

CONNIE stood by her locker watching people go. The locker door was open and she feigned digging for books, but looked around more than at what she was doing. She finally saw him.

“Matt,” she said just loudly enough for him to hear.

He stopped and wordlessly looked at her.

“C’mere,” she said.

He stepped over to her, still not saying anything; he just looked at her from under his unkempt black hair.

“So it happened, you asshole.” She paused a moment and looked around. No one paid attention to them. “I’m pregnant.”

Matt’s jaw dropped. “Bullshit!” he said too loud.

“Bullshit nuthin’,” she replied. “You need to find someone who can give me a freaking abortion without anyone knowing. Goddamn it, you’re an asshole!”

Matt’s eyes widened at the demand. “I don’t know anyone who can…”

“Well then ask your trashy friends!”

“But…!”

“You will find someone by Monday and you will pay for it or I will make sure your life is a complete hell. You got it?”

He looked at her, trying to take it all in.

“Remember, I’m a psycho bitch. You even said so yourself, and I have no problem living up to that rep. Got it?”

“I’ll…I’ll see what I can do…” Matt quickly turned and walked away, getting lost in the crowd.

Connie shut her locker and walked quickly to the bathroom where she locked herself in a stall and silently cried.



“HEY, Coop!” Josh cried to his friend in the hall.

“J-dude,” Cooper replied smiling.

“So Aprell and I are going downtown for dinner tonight. She said instead of you taking the two buses, we give you a lift. Just come on over after school and we’ll take off.”

“Oh…yea, that would be great,” Cooper replied. He looked down at his baggy khakis, short-sleeved button-down, and sneakers. “Yea, screw it, I don’t need to change.” He smiled. “That’s great!”



TODD sat down across the table from Abigail without being invited. “So what have you been up to?”

She shrugged. “Not much. Got fired, separated from my husband.”

“Youch,” Todd replied. “What happened?”

“You,” she answered nonchalantly.

Todd blinked in surprise. “Whoa, hey, don’t be blaming…”

“I’m not.” She waved her hand as she spoke. “It’s just that both things are connected to my…indiscretions.” A look of sorrow came to her eyes.

“I’m sorry about that, Gail, I really am. That sucks.”

“Well, it was my own fault.”

“Well, you obviously weren’t getting what you needed at home.” He looked at her. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Doubtful,” she replied.

“I’m serious,” his gaze on her intensified, “anything. I’ve always liked you, Gail. Maybe too much. But I’m off the clock, and I plan on being off for the rest of the day.”

She returned his gaze, looking into the intense grey of his eyes.

“MORNING, Dad,” Josh said walking into the kitchen. He was wearing his usual jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt. He dropped his backpack by the back door before getting himself a bowl for cereal.

“Morning, Josh,” Hal replied. “Hey, you want to do something tonight?” He picked up his mug and took a drink of his cooling coffee.

“Sorry, Dad, I have a date with Aprell. We’re going downtown to some Asian restaurant…” he trailed off thinking. “I can’t remember the name of it, but anyway, we’re going with her friends Zac and Alexis.”

Hal looked disappointed. “OK…”

“But, hey, let’s do something on Saturday,” Josh quickly said.

“Oh, sure…”

“Morning,” Michael walked into the room. He was dressed in khakis and a striped Oxford which he had tucked in.

“Good morning, Michael,” Hal replied.

Michael kept his backpack slung around his shoulders and walked to the cupboard. He pulled out a box of breakfast bars and took out two.

“Not staying to eat?” Hal asked.

“Naw. Deirdre’s coming to pick me up. Oh, can I borrow the car this evening? Sorry it’s late notice, but I’m getting together with her and don’t want her to have to drive all the time.”

“Uh, sure. I didn’t know you and Deirdre were back…”

“Yea, we talked it over and realized that the trouble was because of who lives next door. We’re fine now.”

Hal and Josh made eye contact. “Oh…”



“MORNING,” Connie walked into the kitchen, her pack more full than usual for the night’s stay at Carl’s.

Maggie looked over at her from the counter where she was packing herself a lunch. “Good morning, Con…” her voice trailed off. “Are you alright? You don’t look like you slept at all.”

“I’m fine, it’s just…you know…” She sat down to pour a bowl of cereal.

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t go stay at Carl’s tonight…”

“Mom, I want to go. I’ll be fine. I’m…looking forward to it.”

“OK,” Maggie replied. But her look of worry did not fade.



ABIGAIL left her hotel room, picked up the newspaper from in front of her door, and went down to the lobby. She had thought about asking Adrianna if she could stay there, but didn’t feel like having to deal with Dennis. She had thought of other women also, but decided that since it would probably be for a short time anyway, she would take some time to sort things out by herself.

If it appeared that it would be longer she would then get an apartment.

She crossed the street and went into a coffee shop where she ordered a large coffee and a blueberry scone. She sat at a small table and took the newspaper from her bag, opening it to the employment section.

She broke off a corner of the scone, ate it, and took a small sip of the dark coffee.

“Well, hello, Gail!”

Abigail jumped and looked up. Looking back at her was a young man in his early twenties, a couple inches less than six feet tall. He wore a bright blue T-shirt which showed off both his steel-grey eyes and muscular frame he got from time spent at the gym. He had thick black hair neatly comb with a part down the left side.

Abigail looked at the young man. A second passed before she recognized him. “Hello, Todd.”

“CARL?” Connie sat on her bed, leaning forward, her forehead in her free hand, her eyes rimmed red.

“Hey, Connie!”

Connie winced as she heard Carl’s happy voice. He always seemed to be in a good mood. “Carl, I’m not sure about tomorrow evening now…”

“Connie, you can’t back out now, what’s wrong?”

“Well, I’m not feeling well and…”

“Oh come on, Connie, what’s really wrong?”

She sighed silently and rubbed her eyes. “I’m just not sure it’s a good idea…”

“Why not? My parents are looking forward to it, your mom thinks it’s fine. The only person who thinks it’s not a good idea is you.” There was a pause and Carl spoke more slowly. “Connie, don’t you like me? Is that what this is about? Do you no longer want to see me?”

She spoke hesitantly, “No, it’s not that…it’s…it’s the whole thing with Matt.”

“Don’t bring that up again. I’ve already told you I don’t care! Or…are you thinking of dating him or something?”

“Oh God no!” she said, repulsed.

“Well, then there’s no reason for you not to come. It’ll be fun. I’ve already told you that. Just trust me on this.”

She sighed quietly again. “OK, Carl, I trust you, and I’m sure it will be fun.”

“Good!” Connie could hear the smile come into his voice. “Don’t forget to pack a bag and I’ll see you tomorrow, OK?”

“OK,” she replied quietly. Connie clicked off her phone and stared at the floor.



ABIGAIL walked to her car from Adrianna and Dennis's house when she heard Hal call her name. She looked down the street and saw him leaning against his car. He now stood upright and walked towards her.

“Yes, Hal?” She stopped and waited for him to walk to her.

“How long have you known about this?”

“I don’t know, not long, why?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know. I guess because when you and I spoke we had more important things to discuss.”

“More important…”

“Yes, Hal,” she interrupted, “like seeing if we could maybe save our marriage!”

“Well, I guess I now know how Josh feels.”

Abigail shut her eyes trying to maintain her patience. “Well good, now you can be closer than ever to him. Listen, Hal, maybe I should have told you. But I didn’t, OK? I didn’t and I’m sorry. Are you satisfied now?”

He looked at her in silence. “Oh, just forget it,” he said and turned away.



“DAD?” Carl walked into the doorway of his father’s study where Don was working on his computer.

Don took his hands off the keyboard and turned to face his son. “Yes, Carl?”

“How do you know if a girl likes you?”

“Well, uh, I guess you don’t at first. But then if you start having fun together and things are going well, then I guess…she likes you. Why? Something going on with Connie? Has she said something?”

“No.” He looked down at the white socks on his feet and leaned against the door. “I don’t know, sometimes I just can’t tell, you know.”

“Well, you two have had, what, a date and a half?” Don smiled as he said it. “I think after tomorrow evening you’ll know. But don’t worry about it. Dating is supposed to be fun, and if you’re not having fun, well, it wasn’t meant to be.”

Carl nodded slowly. He turned to go and Don suddenly spoke up, “Carl.” Carl stopped and looked back at his father who was slowly swiveling in his black office chair. “I’m glad you can ask me those questions.”

Carl nodded again and gave him a small smile. “Thanks.”



“AND why did you feel the need to pull Sally’s name into the conversation tonight?” Dennis asked Adrianna as they got ready for bed.

“Well your parents seemed a little too happy that Wendy was dying so you could get yourself a kid.” Adrianna put a rubber band around her ponytail of hair.

Dennis pulled back the covers and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Oh, don’t start reading things like that into the conversation. You know she didn’t mean it that way.”

“Alright, I guess you know best.” Adrianna lay down on the other side of the bed and pulled the covers up over herself.

“Jesus.” Dennis lay down next to her facing her, but keeping his arms close to himself. “Never, I mean never, bring up Sally’s name again, OK? Why does everything have to be so difficult with you?”

Adrianna reached over and turned off the lamp on her bed-side table. The room went dark, and she rolled over and gave Dennis a clumsy kiss on the lips. “Good night, dear. Sleep well.”

“A GRANDCHILD!” Mrs. Holmgren said reflectively.

Mr. Holmgren and Hal both looked at Dennis. “Dennis,” Mr. Holmgren said, “you’ve been a father for seven years and you didn’t know it?”

Dennis shrugged and took a sip of his Scotch.

“Well, this certainly is something!” Mrs. Holmgren exclaimed. “You go from no children to two just like that!”

“Yea, it’s different,” Adrianna said unsmilingly.

There was a moment of silence as all eyes looked at her.

“So when does he come to live with you? What’s his name?” Mrs. Holmgren asked.

“Well he’s coming to visit for the day this weekend so he can start getting to know us,” Dennis said. “The mother wants to keep him for as long as she can, of course. But he’ll start spending a day with us, and then entire weekends and any time he needs to so, you know, his mother can rest.”

“Such a tragedy for the poor thing,” Mrs. Holmgren said. “But at least he’ll be coming to a home with both a mother and a father.”

“What?” Abigail looked at her in surprise.

“Oh, you know,” Mrs. Holmgren said quickly, “I’m not saying that single mothers can’t be good parents, but I’m just old-fashioned. I think all children should have a mother and a father.”

“But mother,” Adrianna spoke up, “you suggested that Sally could adopt with another woman…”

“We’re not talking about Sally!” Dennis snapped.

Adrianna went quiet, but there seemed to be the smallest of smiles on her face.

“Well,” Mr. Holmgren said, “it is tragic, but all in all, if tragedy must strike, at least the boy has a place to come live. What did you say his name was?”

“Xander,” Dennis replied.

“’Xander’?” Mr. Holmgren repeated. “That’s an unusual name. Hmm.” He took a drink of his Scotch and water.

Hal sat in silence, taking in the conversation. Every once in a while he looked in Abigail’s direction. She did not return the gaze.



“PRO-CHOICE Pro-People, how may I help you?”

Connie sat on the edge of her bed. The tears had finally started to subside. “I think I’m pregnant.”

“OK, what’s your first name?”

“Connie.”

“And Connie, how old are you?”

“16.”

“There’s no reason to panic, Connie. Just stay calm, OK? Why don’t you come and discuss this with us. Do you know where we’re located and can you get here?”

“Can I have an abortion then?”

“We will discuss with you all the options that are available…”

“I know what I want. I want an abortion. I want to come in and get it over with.”

“Connie, first of all you have to come in and discuss it. Why don’t we set up a time…”

“Why can’t I just have it done?”

“Connie, you’re under 18. We have to have a discussion with you and your mother…”

“I don’t want her involved.”

“Connie, I’m sorry, but she has to be.”

Connie pressed End Call.

ADRIANNA opened the front door and let Abigail in to her house. “Hey, mom,” she spoke in a flatly cheerless tone.

“Hello, dear,” Abigail tried to smile, but furrowed her brow when she saw her daughter’s expression. “Is it that bad?” She whispered.

“Come on in,” Adrianna replied.

The two walked in to the living room where Dennis, his parents, and Hal were all seated in awkward silence.

“Glass of white?” Dennis asked in greeting.

Abigail looked around at the morose assemblage. “Uh, sure, since everyone else is. Good evening,” she nodded at Dennis’ parents.

They smiled softly and nodded back.

“Here you go, have a seat,” Dennis handed Abigail a glass of wine and directed her to an open chair. Hal sat on the other side of the couch from her where Mr. and Mrs. Holmgren were seated.

“Well, this is not bad news, just to get that straight,” Dennis said. He walked over and stood next to the chair Adrianna was in. “But, well, almost eight years ago, I…” He put down his Scotch on the rocks and indecisively rubbed his hands together. He fell silent and looked at the four parents looking back at him. “Umm, well, Abigail, you’re already aware of this evidently…but uh, today Adrianna and I found out, that we’re, uh, going to be parents to a seven-year-old boy.”

He looked around expectantly. Abigail looked at her daughter and took a drink of her wine. Mr. and Mrs. Holmgren looked at each other, and then at Abigail. Hal kept his eyes on Dennis, and took a drink of the beer he had been given.

“Uh,” Mr. Holmgren spoke up, “could you give some more details?” He looked back at Abigail. “Or perhaps you could shed some light on this?”

Abigail gave them a small smile and took another sip of her wine.

Mr. and Mrs. Holmgren looked at Adrianna. “Perhaps you could explain what you’re husband is saying?”

She took a breath and visibly tightened up, “Almost eight year ago, when your son and I had been dating for a month, your son got a girl pregnant and now that woman is dying of cancer and wants us to raise the child.”



CONNIE quickly walked into the bathroom on the second floor of their home and urinated. She listened for her sister and mother, and when she was sure they were occupied, she slipped out and back to her bedroom.

She shut the door and sat down at the chair in front of her desk. She leaned forward, resting her chin in her palm. She sat momentarily, and walked over and flipped on the radio to top forty. She listened for a minute, and flipped it off. She put her mp3 player in the speaker unit and turned it on to random. A young woman sang with simple digital percussion in the background and little instrumentation.

Connie looked at the time on the clock on her bedside table. She got out of the chair and walked over and looked outside for a few minutes. She looked at the clock and sat back down at her desk. She picked up the long slender instrument on which she had urinated a few minutes before.

There was a white ‘+’ sign surrounded by light pink.

“Oh, shit…” she said. The instrument dropped from her hand to the carpeted floor and she slumped over her desk. She felt suddenly light headed and started to cry. She put her mouth in the bend of her elbow so her shirtsleeve would mute some of the noise.

“I CAN’T believe that…just like that, you decided for the two of us that we were going to bring that child into our home,” Adrianna said, staring forward.

They were driving home and as they approached a stoplight Dennis looked over at her. “Why? He’s obviously my child, he needs parents and he seems like a nice kid.”

“Well, I guess what it comes down to is the math.”

Dennis pressed on the accelerator and glanced over. “What do you mean?”

“Well, seven years and nine months ago we were dating.”

“Oh, here we go.” Dennis replied irritably. “I’ve been wracking my brain, Adrianna, and I figured out that a week or two after you and I had our first date I slept with Wendy. One or two weeks. Jesus, we weren’t exactly monogamous after two weeks.”

“It wasn’t a week or two, it was a month. And I was monogamous!” She hissed.

“Well good for you! I guess you win the prize! Guess what? I don’t care! Hell, it’s not like you and I were sleeping together at a month.”

“So you were sleeping around for the first six months of our…?”

“No!” He shouted, interrupting her. “I did not sleep around for those six months, but yes, obviously I slept with someone during our first month. So the hell what?”

“So the…?” Adrianna stared at him in disbelief. “So now we suddenly have this child we’re raising that I had nothing to do with. This isn’t a puppy, you know!” She paused as a thought crossed her mind. “And we need to explain to both our families and all our friends where this kid suddenly came from. Oh, that’ll be fun! ‘So the hell what.’ I can’t believe you!” she turned away from him.



“HEY mom, it’s Dennis…Yea, I’m good, thanks. Listen, I have some news…no it’s good this time. Can you and dad come over this evening around 8.00?…Great. Hey, have you spoken with Sally recently?…Oh, that’s too bad. I’ll call her and see if I can get her to talk to me…No, it’s nothing like that…No, Adrianna needs to call her parents yet, but if they can make it, we want them here…Yea, it concerns both of us…Yea, OK, great. See you this evening…Yea, bye.”


“MOM?…Yea, is Adrianna. Hey, can you come over around 8.00 this evening?…Yea. Well, we went to the doctor to get the paternity results, and Dennis is the definitely the father so I guess I’m going to be helping him raise someone else’s child…I know, I know…Have you spoken with dad?…OK, I’ll call him. What are you up to today? How are you doing…You what?…Oh, jeez, you guys go in for counseling and you end up getting kicked out?…Yea, OK…OK, I’ll see you tonight…yea, bye.”



“SALLY, hey this is Dennis. I figured you wouldn’t answer, but Adrianna and I have some good news if you could come over this evening at 8.00. Don’t worry, I won’t hold my breath, but I hope you come. Alright, talk to ya.”



“DAD, hey Adrianna…I’m doing OK, but hey, can you come over this evening around 8.00? We have some news we want to share with you and mom…Well, Dennis’ parents are going to be here, too…Yea, that’s right…Ummm, I guess if Josh or Michael are around you might as bring them, too…Yea, either way, that’s fine…How are you doing?..I think things will turn out OK…Yea, I’ll bet…Yea, yea, OK….I’ll see you this evening…Yea, OK, bye.