Learning

Maxwell

She sniffs and yawns holding onto me. Did I ruin her life? She’s acting nonchalant right now but I can’t pretend not to feel her heart ache.

I don’t even remember finishing in her, how will I tell her I’m just as scared as she is?

I can’t ignore her worry, she can’t either. “Max stop thinking so hard, we’re going to be okay, maybe it’s a false alarm” I rub her back sighing. “What if it isn’t?” Her brown skin goes pale as she’s squeezing me tight.

That’s what I thought, uncertainty. “Baby stop, we’re going to figure it out” how is she being so calm? “I love you Trina” her skin heats up and she pecks my lips.

Trina wiggles in my arms rubbing her eyes. “Don’t you have to go?” She nods holding me tighter. “Daddy I’m sleepy”

Trina pulls a blanket over us falling asleep.

She gone get in trouble if I let her sleep the night, but my baby needs me so I can’t wake her up and make her leave.

My mom isn’t home so I could take Trina home and stay until she falls asleep. “Wake up babe” she whines squeezing me tighter. “Whyyy?” Trina is such a big baby. “So I can take you home and lay with you until you fall asleep”

Her face tells me she’s interested but doesn’t believe me. “I’ll stay with you babe I promise” she nods grabbing my hoodie and wrapping up in it. “Do you want to keep it Maxwell” I really do.

It’s her choice at the end of the day. “Yeah I do, what do you want to do mamas?” She shrugs, lightly putting her seatbelt on. “I couldn’t bare not having this baby, but I don’t know how that will affect you”

Me? “Don’t worry about me, what about you?” She looks at me then out the window. “Maxwell will you be here for me, every step of the way?” I nod rubbing her hand. “Of course I will Trina, that’s our baby not just yours”

Her cheeks turn red and she tries to hide her smile. Our child will be beautiful just like her. We’ve only known for two days, but her milk ducts started leaking so it’s for sure.

I’ll buy a pregnancy test to be 100% but we need to save money right now, especially since we have the evidence already.

I glance over watching her play with her tummy. I’m going to be a dad, at 17, she’ll be a senior in high school by the time the baby comes and I’ll be a graduate.

If I’m counting right our baby will be born in June, summer break will have started, then she can heal during the summer. When Trina starts her senior year our kid will be 2 months.

I can’t believe we’re about to be in control of a humans life. Actual parents. “Maxwell are you alright?” I blink and nod “why?” She rubs my hands smiling weakly. “You’ve been sitting in my driveway for 10 minutes, we can go inside”

Well, I guess the upside is that I won’t have to sneak it continuously. They’ll have to let me come in when I need to watch my kid and help Trina. I go inside with her hearing her phone ring.

“Yeah mom I’m home, um I’m about to go to sleep, I got really sleepy” Trina’s voice cracks a little so I rub her hands. I hope she calms down, her mom is going to rush home and see me. Then that would start a lot of drama, and stress isn’t good for her.

Trina

Maxwell is going to stress himself to death if I wasn’t around, I may be pregnant but it took both of us for this to happen, I need him to stop blaming himself so much.

We didn’t do it on purpose and we didn’t want to disappoint anyone, it just happened. I don’t know how we’ll explain that to our families but it’s what happened.

I love Maxwell and I know he loves me, so our baby will have a great relationship to look up to and learn from. “Max we should start a list of everything we’ll need to support ourselves and the baby”

He grabs my notebook and a pen sitting in my chair. “Get some rest, I’ll start the list” that’s so sweet, but I want to make the list too. “I’m not that tired baby, umm write down socks” he nods looking focused.

Too focused.

Two hours later.

“Maxwell lay down, we wrote down a lot and it’s almost midnight, we gotta get some sleep” he looks unsure and sits it down gently. “Everything is going to be okay Max, it’s just a blessing in disguise” he hugs me and yawns.

I don’t want my baby boy stressed, I don’t want him overthinking either. We’ll handle it straight on in the morning with clear heads.

I cuddle him letting my worries melt off of me for now. 16 and pregnant? What an adventure.