February Writing Challenge Tiebreaker
Mar 1, 2011 6:38:06 GMT -5
Post by Admin! on Mar 1, 2011 6:38:06 GMT -5
I’m Not Gonna Write You a Love Story- By Kayla
Cobalt sat at his desk, hunched over his notebook, jotting down an outline for his next paper in American Legal History, spidery handwriting spreading across the page. He pushed up his glasses, squinting nearsightedly at the page. He probably needed new glasses, he mused absently. Could he afford new glasses? The answer was probably not. Not until he got a new job. Apparently, employers look down on their employees getting into fights after hours. Even though this time it was absolutely not Cobalt’s fault. He couldn’t help it if he didn’t appreciate immature comments on his height and lack of sexual prowess. Sometimes words weren’t enough.
Moving on.
The twenty-year-old sighed, rubbing his cramping neck absently. He’d been at this for a few hours, and was contemplating getting dinner. He didn’t understand his roommate’s complaints about the cafeteria food. Food was food was food, as far as Cobalt was concerned.
Speaking of, where was his roommate? Cobalt had had the room they shared to himself the entire day. It was nice, but a little worrying. He actually liked Sam well enough. He’d feel badly if something happened to him.
As if on cue, Sam stumbled in, brushing the snow from his blonde hair. He grinned amiably at Cobalt, who nodded curtly back before turning back to his work. Sam, undeterred as he always was in the face of Cobalt’s brusqueness, flopped on his bed with a loud, dramatic sigh. When Cobalt didn’t respond, Sam sighed again, louder. Cobalt closed his eyes, counted to ten, and then turned around, raising his eyebrow and staring over his glasses. Sam gave his roommate a wry grin, rubbing his square jaw.
“Cobalt?” He asked, his blue eyes finding Cobalt’s own, “Have you ever been in love?”
The question was so apropos of absolutely nothing, Cobalt was taken aback. “Wh-what?” He stared at Sam, utterly dumbfounded, “No. Why?”
Sam sighed, running a hand through his short-shorn hair. “Because I think I’m in love. Her name is Rose.”
Uh. Okay. Well. Cobalt stared at his larger roommate, at a loss for what to say. “Oh.” He settled on, finally, “Well, that’s a little ridiculous.”
Sam blinked, looking up at the shadow manipulator, “Why’s it ridiculous?”
“Well, I dunno.” Cobalt shrugged, “Aren’t you supposed to like… just know if you’re in love? I mean, if you’re really in love, then there’s no thinking about it, right?”
Sam stared at Cobalt, brow furrowed. “You think?”
“Well, I don’t know.” Cobalt snapped, exasperated, “I just told you, I’ve never been in love.”
“Well, what about her?” Sam gestured to the picture of Elaine and Morgan that Cobalt had put up on his side of the wall. “You write and call her a lot. Aren’t you in love with her?”
“No.” Cobalt sighed, growing tired with this conversation already, “I love her, but I’m not in love with her. There’s a difference.”
Sam sighed, rolling over on his back and burrowing his face into the crook of his elbow. “Man, you are confusing,” He whined.
“Well, I don’t know what else to tell you.” Cobalt grumped, turning back to his work, “If you like her so much, then balls up and do something about it. If you don’t wanna, then obviously you don’t really like her all that much. Okay?”
Sam grumbled. “Fine.”
“Good.” A pause. “Heheh. Hey, you know it’s funny, because your name is Sam and hers is Rose, it’s like--”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shut up.”
-
Three days, and Cobalt was beginning to think that he had escaped any more unpleasant love talk. Sam had apparently dropped the subject, and the two returned to their infrequent, but much more comfortable conversations. Cobalt never asked what became of him and Rose, and Sam never gave any information. All was well.
Then one evening, Cobalt came back from a class to see Sam standing in the middle of the room with what appeared to be the entire contents of his closet strewn about the floor. Cobalt sighed; having a roommate was so much work.
“Sam?” Cobalt’s voice was quiet and seething, “Why did your closet just vomit all over the floor?”
Sam looked up at him, blue eyes uncharacteristically panicked, “I can’t decide what to wear!”
“Wear where?” Cobalt asked, at a loss.
“What?”
“…What?”
“What—wh—wear what where?”
Cobalt stared at him, exasperated and a bit confused, “Where. Are. You. Going?”
“Oh!” Sam flushed, rubbing the back of his head, “Sorry. I’m going on a date with Rose.” He let out a panicked laugh.
“And are you planning on wearing twenty shirts?” Cobalt eyed the mess on the floor. Shirts everywhere.
“No,” Sam glared at the shorter man, “I just don’t know what to wear.”
“Wow, really?” Cobalt gave Sam his best judging look, “What are you, a girl? Haven’t you ever been on a date before?”
“Yeah. It’s just…” He shrugged helplessly, “I dunno! I’m just suddenly super nervous, I don’t know.”
Cobalt was starting to feel bad for Sam. This whole business seemed an awful lot of trouble and he figured that while he figured Sam deserved it, for worrying so damn much about some stupid shirts, it would be kind of in bad form to just let his roommate get an ulcer while he was in the room.
“Well…” Cobalt waded through the sea of shirts, “It is February, so I think you can eliminate all of the short sleeved shirts, right?” Sam looked at him like the shadow manipulator was saving his life. Cobalt rolled his eyes and picked up another shirt. He squinted at it, “I… this might not be too clean. I dunno. There are some stains on it. D’you think she’ll care?”
“I dunno.” Sam ran a hand through his hair, “But let’s put it in the reject pile anyways.”
“So we have eliminated shirts that are too cold or not clean.” Cobalt deadpanned, “Brilliant.”
Twenty minutes later, the two roommates had narrowed it down to three shirts. “Well.” Cobalt clapped his hands together, “There you are, you’re welcome, you can take it from here, right?” When Sam gave him a pleading look, Cobalt groaned loudly, “What the hell are you asking me for anyways? I don’t dress nice. Who the hell cares anyways? I am pretty damn sure she’s already seen you around when you’re not dressed up. If she’s gonna judge you for dressing wrong, then she’s stupid. Can I please go get changed myself? I wanna go jogging.”
Sam sighed, “Okaaay. I just wanna let her know that I’m interested in this too, you know?” He looked up at Cobalt, his blue eyes pleading, “What easier way to say that than dressing nice?”
“Okay, look. Sam.” Cobalt leaned forward and put a hand on his roommate’s shoulder, “I’m only gonna say this once. For your own good. You. Are such. A girl. Just put on a damn shirt, or don’t put one on at all, I don’t care. Now excuse me, I need to wade around in the sea of discarded shirts for my running shoes.”
“Some roommate you are.”
-
“Hey, Cobalt?”
Cobalt glanced up from his book, peering at his roommate over the wire frames of his glasses. “Yeah? What’s up?”
Sam shifted from one foot to another, “Um. Rose is coming up to the room before we go eat. Is that cool with you?”
Cobalt blinked, “Sure. Uh. D-d’you want me to… like, leave or something?”
“No!” Sam blushed, “No, no. I was just… letting you know.”
Cobalt raised an eyebrow, “Don’t worry, I’ll be on my best behavior. No embarrassing stories.”
“I was more hoping you’d keep your sarcasm and blunt honesty to yourself for an hour.” Sam muttered, staring at his shoes. Cobalt snorted.
“Yeah, yeah, that too.” Thinking the conversation over, Cobalt turned back to his book.
“…So do you think I need to pick up the room or something? I mean, it is the first time she’s ever been up here.”
Cobalt shrugged, not looking , “Do whatever you want, man. But I’m not helping.”
“Dude, you’ve read that book like a billion times.”
“Well, I like it. Look, if you want, push all the mess to my side and blame it on me. I don’t care. But I am not moving from my spot.”
“You suck--” Sam’s indignation was interrupted by a knock at the door. Unceremoniously, Sam kicked all his dirty clothes on Cobalt’s side of the room, taking care to pick up a pair of dirty jeans and toss them on Cobalt’s head. Cobalt sputtered, but before he could say anything, Sam had bounded to the door and threw it open.
Cobalt sat up in surprise, “Rosie?”
Rose, as it turned out, was also Rosie, Cobalt’s partner in Beginning Ballroom Dance. Which Cobalt probably would have figured out if he’d decided to care about this whole affair. That ice promptly broken, Rose and Sam went out for another date, and before Sam closed the door, he gave Cobalt a jaunty salute, which Cobalt rolled his eyes at.
Sam was insane.
-
“…And I dunno, for some reason, Morgan’s taken it into his head that he wants a puppy. So that’s his latest craze. Oh, and he got your birthday present. He really liked it.”
Cobalt grinned, “I’m glad. Is he in? Can I talk to him?”
“Ah, sorry, Coby. You just missed him. I’ll let him know you say hi, though.”
“Thanks.” Cobalt dug around in his pocket for the keys, “So how are you? You seeing anyone or anything?”
“…What?” There was laughter on the other line, “Well, that was random. No, no I’m not. Why? Are you?”
Cobalt snorted, “Please. Of course I’m not.”
“Aww, Sarah not work out?”
“Nope.” Cobalt unlocked the outer door of the dorm, stepping into the warmth, “But I guess the reason I ask is ‘cause my roommate Sam’s like… totally smitten with this one girl. Won’t shut up about her.”
“Awww.”
“Yeah, well. It’s annoying to me. Keeps telling me that he hopes I find a girl someday so that I can feel how wonderful it is or something like that.” Cobalt rolled his eyes, “It seems like an awful lot of work.”
“…Yeah. Love is a lot of work.”
Cobalt paused, before saying, “Not all the time. I love you. You’re not a lot of work.”
Elaine laughed, “Good to know. So what are you planning on doing this weekend?”
“Well,” Cobalt stopped in front of his door, unlocking it and pulling on the handle, “My class let out early, so I’m going to—AUGH.” Abruptly, Cobalt slammed the door shut again, squinting against the unwelcome image he’d just been treated.
“Cobalt? What just happened?”
Cobalt stood there a moment, his eyes squeezed shut, before he raised the phone to his ear again. “…I think next time, I should call Sam before I come home early.”
“…You totally walked in on them doing it, didn’t you?”
“Yeeeah.”
Elaine burst into loud laughter, crackling and tinny over the cell phone line. Cobalt rolled his eyes, a grin growing over his own face. “Yeah, yeah, I’m sure this is real funny. I’m going to the library.”
“Well, tell them to use protection.”
“Oh, you’re awful.”
-
-Eight years later-
And on the back:
Yeah, I know you can’t go. But thanks.
–Sam.
Growing on Me -by Penny
Elaine stared in horror at the small instrument clenched between her white-knuckled fingers. Blue, she thought, it’s blue. Whirling around, she fumbled for the box. Maybe I read it wrong. Maybe blue is…negative… Blue was positive.
“Shit,” she whispered. “I’m pregnant.”
-------------
It had been a week since she took the test, three weeks since she’d become suspicious about her late period. Marcus still didn’t know. They were sitting together by the pond at night and Elaine pulled away at the end of a kiss.
“Marcus, I’ve got something to tell you.”
“Can’t it wait?”
“No, I-I think I’ve waited long enough.”
“Well, what is it?” He was still leaning in, trying for another kiss.
“Marcus, this is serious.” She took hold of his hands and pushed him back. “I’m pregnant.”
He stopped moving, even blinking. “What?”
“We’re having a baby.”
A moment of silence. Then, “Shit.”
-------------
As she puked into the toilet, Elaine cursed herself for ever being stupid enough to let herself sleep with Marcus. She cursed the entire relationship, cursed her family, cursed Hammel, cursed the world.
Mostly, though, she cursed the baby in her belly that had come to destroy her life.
-------------
It had been only two months since she had last spoken to her family, and she hadn’t left on very good terms. When she left, Deirdre had screamed and thrown a plate at the door. Still, it seemed important to let her family know about her situation, and she couldn’t do that well with a phone call. Since Marcus had a lot of homework to do and couldn’t drive, she took the bus back down to Jersey.
Once everyone was seated in the living room—Dad with a concerned look on his face, Deirdre scowling, and Anthony reading a book—she took a deep breath to begin.
“I’m…” She trailed off, staring into the flinty eyes of her sister. “I’m…”
“She’s been kicked out, I’ll bet,” Deirdre said. “And now she’s come crying home, begging for us to take her back in, after she was the one who left us.”
“No, that’s not—”
“Deirdre,” their father said with a warning tone.
“Just look at her, dad! Sniveling, worried. She probably went and flunked, since she fails at everything else.”
“Don’t say such things about your sister. She had to go to the new school, it wasn’t her choice, and I am sure she’s doing fine.”
“Come on, Dad. She couldn’t do anything right, not even being a sister. She barely even came home for Mom’s funeral. Face it, she’s a no good, big, fat—”
“I’m pregnant.”
Deirdre let loose a big breath of air. Anthony finally looked up from the book he was reading. Their father sat back and looked at his oldest child.
“Who?” he asked finally.
“Marcus Hawthorne, my boyfriend. We…weren’t being careful. Enough.”
“And he knows he’s the dad?”
“Yeah.”
“Why isn’t he here with you?”
“He’s really busy with schoolwork.”
Deirdre snorted, but didn’t say anything.
“What are you going to do now?” their father continued.
“We’re not sure yet, but I’ll probably—”
“Give it up for adoption, right?” Deirdre said with a sneer. “That’s Elaine for you, running away from her responsibilities. It’s probably for the best, though. No kid should have to be raised by you. Especially since you’ll have to take care of it alone.”
“What’s that supposed to—” Elaine started.
“I only have one question, really. What’d you have to promise Marcus to get him to sleep with—”
Before she could finish the sentence, Elaine stood up and punched her sister. “I’m keeping the baby,” she said quietly but firmly. She looked around the room, at the two other members of her family who were simply staring at her. She picked up her purse and left.
-------------
“How did the meeting with your family go?” Marcus asked.
“Terribly. As always. But it’s all right. Who needs them when I’ve got you?” She snuggled against his shoulder.
“They didn’t like you getting an abortion, or what?”
She pulled away. “Who said I was getting an abortion?”
“Well, I just figured…you know, get it out of the way and all that.”
“Marcus,” she said slowly, “I’m not having an abortion. I want to keep the baby. Raise it.”
He stared at her for a moment, then slammed a fist down onto the bench. “Dammit Elaine, you know we can’t do that. We’re just kids, and I’ve got college…Why do you even want to keep it, anyway?”
He trailed off, staring at her. She merely continued to look at him. She couldn’t answer his question. All she knew was that this might be her chance to do something right. For once. And that meant she couldn’t get rid of the baby.
“Godammit, I hate it when you give me your stubborn face,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “All right. You’re keeping the baby.” He gave a small smile. “I’ll have to live with that.” He pulled her in for a hug so she couldn’t see how terrified he was.
-------------
“It’s all right,” she told herself. “He probably just forgot about the doctor’s appointment. He’s been really busy lately. That’s why I haven’t seen him. That must be it.”
She walked to the clinic to see the doctor. Everything was fine, the baby was healthy, and did she want to see the ultrasound?
With tears in her eyes Elaine listened to the tiny heartbeat and watched the baby squirming inside her.
“Would you like to know if it’s a girl or a boy?”
She nodded.
“It looks like you’ll be having a little girl on your hands soon. I’d stock up on pink.”
-------------
“So what do you think we should name her?” Elaine clutched the phone to her cheek, twirling the cord around one finger. “I was thinking something like Carol, or Margaret…Marcus? Are you still there?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. I’m here. Sorry, I just got distracted. What was the question?”
“What do we want to name the baby?”
“I don’t know, Elaine. Just pick something you like—I don’t care. Look, I gotta go. See you later.” The line went dead.
-------------
“Marcus, we need to talk.” Elaine rested her books on her belly, which had grown considerably by this point.
“Yeah, I know, baby, it’ll just be a little longer and we can—“
“It’s always ‘just a little longer,’ and I’m sick of it. The baby’s coming soon, Marcus. I’m trying to figure out my life here, and I need your help with this.”
He sighed and looked at her. “Elaine…I can’t do this anymore.”
“Do what? You haven’t been doing anything to help out this whole time!”
“I can’t have a baby. Not now. I can’t…I can’t be a dad. I’m sorry.”
She stared at him as she felt her eyes starting to sting. “You are dumping me?”
“That’s not what I mean, I-I—”
“Is there someone else? Or is it just that you can’t handle raising a baby?”
“There’s no one else, Elaine. I just need freedom. I can’t be tied down—”
“To me. Can’t bear to get attached to someone who really loves you, huh? Is that it?”
“No, that’s not it, I just…I…”
“You know what, Marcus? Forget it. Just go off and forget this whole thing ever happened. It’s what you want to do anyway, right? Well go, then. I’m sick of putting up with all your shit.” She waddled as quickly as she could toward her dorm room before the tears could start.
-------------
Elaine stared at herself in the mirror. Her giant belly, almost ready to pop, seemed to her like a badge of shame to carry around for past sins.
“My own scarlet letter,” she muttered before turning away from her reflection. “Why did I do this?” she asked herself. “How did I ever think that dealing with all these people calling me a slut, staring at me in the halls, laughing at me behind my back…how was that going to help anything?”
She sat down on the bed with a groan. “How is being a single teenage mother going to prove that I’m not a failure?”
Savagely, she wiped at her face with a sleeve, ordering the disobedient tears not to come.
“And what,” she said with a hysterical laugh, “made me ever think I could do all this on my own?” She flopped back onto the bed and laughed as water streamed down her cheeks, hands clasped over her belly.
Then the baby kicked, and Elaine remembered hearing a tiny heartbeat. Nobody else seemed to have faith in her, but the tiny miracle in there was trusting her with its life.
“I promise,” Elaine whispered into the air, “that I will always do my best to take care of you. I’ll be the best mom the world has ever seen.”
-------------
“Push!” the doctor called out. “Come on, send her out. Push!”
There was no one by Elaine’s bedside except the doctors and nurses, as well as the school nurse who had driven her to the hospital. She squeezed the hand of an almost-complete stranger, instead of squeezing the hand of a friend, lover, or husband.
She screamed in pain as she tried to do the impossible and shove a miracle into the world, and her scream was echoed by the cry of a tiny baby.
“It’s a boy!” called the doctor.
“Ultrasound,” Elaine heaved, “said…girl…”
“It’s hard to be precise on those devices all the time. Do you have a name picked out?”
She’d been planning on naming the baby Amanda, so now she struggled to come up with another name, one that would work better for a boy. As she thought, a nurse handed the newly cleaned and wrapped baby into her arms.
“He’s perfectly healthy,” the nurse said. “And I think he wants his mama.”
Elaine looked into the eyes of her beautiful baby boy. “Morgan,” she said. “His name is Morgan.”
“I’ll write up the certificate then,” the nurse said.
While the rest of the medical staff was running around cleaning up and getting everything finalized, Elaine had a few seconds with her son. She looked at him for a few moments before she came to a realization.
“I really love him,” she said quietly. And she didn’t know when it had happened, when the change from hate to love had developed, but she truly did love this one person, her son, more than anyone else in the universe.
Cobalt sat at his desk, hunched over his notebook, jotting down an outline for his next paper in American Legal History, spidery handwriting spreading across the page. He pushed up his glasses, squinting nearsightedly at the page. He probably needed new glasses, he mused absently. Could he afford new glasses? The answer was probably not. Not until he got a new job. Apparently, employers look down on their employees getting into fights after hours. Even though this time it was absolutely not Cobalt’s fault. He couldn’t help it if he didn’t appreciate immature comments on his height and lack of sexual prowess. Sometimes words weren’t enough.
Moving on.
The twenty-year-old sighed, rubbing his cramping neck absently. He’d been at this for a few hours, and was contemplating getting dinner. He didn’t understand his roommate’s complaints about the cafeteria food. Food was food was food, as far as Cobalt was concerned.
Speaking of, where was his roommate? Cobalt had had the room they shared to himself the entire day. It was nice, but a little worrying. He actually liked Sam well enough. He’d feel badly if something happened to him.
As if on cue, Sam stumbled in, brushing the snow from his blonde hair. He grinned amiably at Cobalt, who nodded curtly back before turning back to his work. Sam, undeterred as he always was in the face of Cobalt’s brusqueness, flopped on his bed with a loud, dramatic sigh. When Cobalt didn’t respond, Sam sighed again, louder. Cobalt closed his eyes, counted to ten, and then turned around, raising his eyebrow and staring over his glasses. Sam gave his roommate a wry grin, rubbing his square jaw.
“Cobalt?” He asked, his blue eyes finding Cobalt’s own, “Have you ever been in love?”
The question was so apropos of absolutely nothing, Cobalt was taken aback. “Wh-what?” He stared at Sam, utterly dumbfounded, “No. Why?”
Sam sighed, running a hand through his short-shorn hair. “Because I think I’m in love. Her name is Rose.”
Uh. Okay. Well. Cobalt stared at his larger roommate, at a loss for what to say. “Oh.” He settled on, finally, “Well, that’s a little ridiculous.”
Sam blinked, looking up at the shadow manipulator, “Why’s it ridiculous?”
“Well, I dunno.” Cobalt shrugged, “Aren’t you supposed to like… just know if you’re in love? I mean, if you’re really in love, then there’s no thinking about it, right?”
Sam stared at Cobalt, brow furrowed. “You think?”
“Well, I don’t know.” Cobalt snapped, exasperated, “I just told you, I’ve never been in love.”
“Well, what about her?” Sam gestured to the picture of Elaine and Morgan that Cobalt had put up on his side of the wall. “You write and call her a lot. Aren’t you in love with her?”
“No.” Cobalt sighed, growing tired with this conversation already, “I love her, but I’m not in love with her. There’s a difference.”
Sam sighed, rolling over on his back and burrowing his face into the crook of his elbow. “Man, you are confusing,” He whined.
“Well, I don’t know what else to tell you.” Cobalt grumped, turning back to his work, “If you like her so much, then balls up and do something about it. If you don’t wanna, then obviously you don’t really like her all that much. Okay?”
Sam grumbled. “Fine.”
“Good.” A pause. “Heheh. Hey, you know it’s funny, because your name is Sam and hers is Rose, it’s like--”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shut up.”
-
Three days, and Cobalt was beginning to think that he had escaped any more unpleasant love talk. Sam had apparently dropped the subject, and the two returned to their infrequent, but much more comfortable conversations. Cobalt never asked what became of him and Rose, and Sam never gave any information. All was well.
Then one evening, Cobalt came back from a class to see Sam standing in the middle of the room with what appeared to be the entire contents of his closet strewn about the floor. Cobalt sighed; having a roommate was so much work.
“Sam?” Cobalt’s voice was quiet and seething, “Why did your closet just vomit all over the floor?”
Sam looked up at him, blue eyes uncharacteristically panicked, “I can’t decide what to wear!”
“Wear where?” Cobalt asked, at a loss.
“What?”
“…What?”
“What—wh—wear what where?”
Cobalt stared at him, exasperated and a bit confused, “Where. Are. You. Going?”
“Oh!” Sam flushed, rubbing the back of his head, “Sorry. I’m going on a date with Rose.” He let out a panicked laugh.
“And are you planning on wearing twenty shirts?” Cobalt eyed the mess on the floor. Shirts everywhere.
“No,” Sam glared at the shorter man, “I just don’t know what to wear.”
“Wow, really?” Cobalt gave Sam his best judging look, “What are you, a girl? Haven’t you ever been on a date before?”
“Yeah. It’s just…” He shrugged helplessly, “I dunno! I’m just suddenly super nervous, I don’t know.”
Cobalt was starting to feel bad for Sam. This whole business seemed an awful lot of trouble and he figured that while he figured Sam deserved it, for worrying so damn much about some stupid shirts, it would be kind of in bad form to just let his roommate get an ulcer while he was in the room.
“Well…” Cobalt waded through the sea of shirts, “It is February, so I think you can eliminate all of the short sleeved shirts, right?” Sam looked at him like the shadow manipulator was saving his life. Cobalt rolled his eyes and picked up another shirt. He squinted at it, “I… this might not be too clean. I dunno. There are some stains on it. D’you think she’ll care?”
“I dunno.” Sam ran a hand through his hair, “But let’s put it in the reject pile anyways.”
“So we have eliminated shirts that are too cold or not clean.” Cobalt deadpanned, “Brilliant.”
Twenty minutes later, the two roommates had narrowed it down to three shirts. “Well.” Cobalt clapped his hands together, “There you are, you’re welcome, you can take it from here, right?” When Sam gave him a pleading look, Cobalt groaned loudly, “What the hell are you asking me for anyways? I don’t dress nice. Who the hell cares anyways? I am pretty damn sure she’s already seen you around when you’re not dressed up. If she’s gonna judge you for dressing wrong, then she’s stupid. Can I please go get changed myself? I wanna go jogging.”
Sam sighed, “Okaaay. I just wanna let her know that I’m interested in this too, you know?” He looked up at Cobalt, his blue eyes pleading, “What easier way to say that than dressing nice?”
“Okay, look. Sam.” Cobalt leaned forward and put a hand on his roommate’s shoulder, “I’m only gonna say this once. For your own good. You. Are such. A girl. Just put on a damn shirt, or don’t put one on at all, I don’t care. Now excuse me, I need to wade around in the sea of discarded shirts for my running shoes.”
“Some roommate you are.”
-
“Hey, Cobalt?”
Cobalt glanced up from his book, peering at his roommate over the wire frames of his glasses. “Yeah? What’s up?”
Sam shifted from one foot to another, “Um. Rose is coming up to the room before we go eat. Is that cool with you?”
Cobalt blinked, “Sure. Uh. D-d’you want me to… like, leave or something?”
“No!” Sam blushed, “No, no. I was just… letting you know.”
Cobalt raised an eyebrow, “Don’t worry, I’ll be on my best behavior. No embarrassing stories.”
“I was more hoping you’d keep your sarcasm and blunt honesty to yourself for an hour.” Sam muttered, staring at his shoes. Cobalt snorted.
“Yeah, yeah, that too.” Thinking the conversation over, Cobalt turned back to his book.
“…So do you think I need to pick up the room or something? I mean, it is the first time she’s ever been up here.”
Cobalt shrugged, not looking , “Do whatever you want, man. But I’m not helping.”
“Dude, you’ve read that book like a billion times.”
“Well, I like it. Look, if you want, push all the mess to my side and blame it on me. I don’t care. But I am not moving from my spot.”
“You suck--” Sam’s indignation was interrupted by a knock at the door. Unceremoniously, Sam kicked all his dirty clothes on Cobalt’s side of the room, taking care to pick up a pair of dirty jeans and toss them on Cobalt’s head. Cobalt sputtered, but before he could say anything, Sam had bounded to the door and threw it open.
Cobalt sat up in surprise, “Rosie?”
Rose, as it turned out, was also Rosie, Cobalt’s partner in Beginning Ballroom Dance. Which Cobalt probably would have figured out if he’d decided to care about this whole affair. That ice promptly broken, Rose and Sam went out for another date, and before Sam closed the door, he gave Cobalt a jaunty salute, which Cobalt rolled his eyes at.
Sam was insane.
-
“…And I dunno, for some reason, Morgan’s taken it into his head that he wants a puppy. So that’s his latest craze. Oh, and he got your birthday present. He really liked it.”
Cobalt grinned, “I’m glad. Is he in? Can I talk to him?”
“Ah, sorry, Coby. You just missed him. I’ll let him know you say hi, though.”
“Thanks.” Cobalt dug around in his pocket for the keys, “So how are you? You seeing anyone or anything?”
“…What?” There was laughter on the other line, “Well, that was random. No, no I’m not. Why? Are you?”
Cobalt snorted, “Please. Of course I’m not.”
“Aww, Sarah not work out?”
“Nope.” Cobalt unlocked the outer door of the dorm, stepping into the warmth, “But I guess the reason I ask is ‘cause my roommate Sam’s like… totally smitten with this one girl. Won’t shut up about her.”
“Awww.”
“Yeah, well. It’s annoying to me. Keeps telling me that he hopes I find a girl someday so that I can feel how wonderful it is or something like that.” Cobalt rolled his eyes, “It seems like an awful lot of work.”
“…Yeah. Love is a lot of work.”
Cobalt paused, before saying, “Not all the time. I love you. You’re not a lot of work.”
Elaine laughed, “Good to know. So what are you planning on doing this weekend?”
“Well,” Cobalt stopped in front of his door, unlocking it and pulling on the handle, “My class let out early, so I’m going to—AUGH.” Abruptly, Cobalt slammed the door shut again, squinting against the unwelcome image he’d just been treated.
“Cobalt? What just happened?”
Cobalt stood there a moment, his eyes squeezed shut, before he raised the phone to his ear again. “…I think next time, I should call Sam before I come home early.”
“…You totally walked in on them doing it, didn’t you?”
“Yeeeah.”
Elaine burst into loud laughter, crackling and tinny over the cell phone line. Cobalt rolled his eyes, a grin growing over his own face. “Yeah, yeah, I’m sure this is real funny. I’m going to the library.”
“Well, tell them to use protection.”
“Oh, you’re awful.”
-
-Eight years later-
We are happy to announce the happy union between Samuel Christopher Hill and Rose Katherine Walters on February 26 of this year. Invitation to follow.
And on the back:
Yeah, I know you can’t go. But thanks.
–Sam.
*****
Growing on Me -by Penny
Elaine stared in horror at the small instrument clenched between her white-knuckled fingers. Blue, she thought, it’s blue. Whirling around, she fumbled for the box. Maybe I read it wrong. Maybe blue is…negative… Blue was positive.
“Shit,” she whispered. “I’m pregnant.”
-------------
It had been a week since she took the test, three weeks since she’d become suspicious about her late period. Marcus still didn’t know. They were sitting together by the pond at night and Elaine pulled away at the end of a kiss.
“Marcus, I’ve got something to tell you.”
“Can’t it wait?”
“No, I-I think I’ve waited long enough.”
“Well, what is it?” He was still leaning in, trying for another kiss.
“Marcus, this is serious.” She took hold of his hands and pushed him back. “I’m pregnant.”
He stopped moving, even blinking. “What?”
“We’re having a baby.”
A moment of silence. Then, “Shit.”
-------------
As she puked into the toilet, Elaine cursed herself for ever being stupid enough to let herself sleep with Marcus. She cursed the entire relationship, cursed her family, cursed Hammel, cursed the world.
Mostly, though, she cursed the baby in her belly that had come to destroy her life.
-------------
It had been only two months since she had last spoken to her family, and she hadn’t left on very good terms. When she left, Deirdre had screamed and thrown a plate at the door. Still, it seemed important to let her family know about her situation, and she couldn’t do that well with a phone call. Since Marcus had a lot of homework to do and couldn’t drive, she took the bus back down to Jersey.
Once everyone was seated in the living room—Dad with a concerned look on his face, Deirdre scowling, and Anthony reading a book—she took a deep breath to begin.
“I’m…” She trailed off, staring into the flinty eyes of her sister. “I’m…”
“She’s been kicked out, I’ll bet,” Deirdre said. “And now she’s come crying home, begging for us to take her back in, after she was the one who left us.”
“No, that’s not—”
“Deirdre,” their father said with a warning tone.
“Just look at her, dad! Sniveling, worried. She probably went and flunked, since she fails at everything else.”
“Don’t say such things about your sister. She had to go to the new school, it wasn’t her choice, and I am sure she’s doing fine.”
“Come on, Dad. She couldn’t do anything right, not even being a sister. She barely even came home for Mom’s funeral. Face it, she’s a no good, big, fat—”
“I’m pregnant.”
Deirdre let loose a big breath of air. Anthony finally looked up from the book he was reading. Their father sat back and looked at his oldest child.
“Who?” he asked finally.
“Marcus Hawthorne, my boyfriend. We…weren’t being careful. Enough.”
“And he knows he’s the dad?”
“Yeah.”
“Why isn’t he here with you?”
“He’s really busy with schoolwork.”
Deirdre snorted, but didn’t say anything.
“What are you going to do now?” their father continued.
“We’re not sure yet, but I’ll probably—”
“Give it up for adoption, right?” Deirdre said with a sneer. “That’s Elaine for you, running away from her responsibilities. It’s probably for the best, though. No kid should have to be raised by you. Especially since you’ll have to take care of it alone.”
“What’s that supposed to—” Elaine started.
“I only have one question, really. What’d you have to promise Marcus to get him to sleep with—”
Before she could finish the sentence, Elaine stood up and punched her sister. “I’m keeping the baby,” she said quietly but firmly. She looked around the room, at the two other members of her family who were simply staring at her. She picked up her purse and left.
-------------
“How did the meeting with your family go?” Marcus asked.
“Terribly. As always. But it’s all right. Who needs them when I’ve got you?” She snuggled against his shoulder.
“They didn’t like you getting an abortion, or what?”
She pulled away. “Who said I was getting an abortion?”
“Well, I just figured…you know, get it out of the way and all that.”
“Marcus,” she said slowly, “I’m not having an abortion. I want to keep the baby. Raise it.”
He stared at her for a moment, then slammed a fist down onto the bench. “Dammit Elaine, you know we can’t do that. We’re just kids, and I’ve got college…Why do you even want to keep it, anyway?”
He trailed off, staring at her. She merely continued to look at him. She couldn’t answer his question. All she knew was that this might be her chance to do something right. For once. And that meant she couldn’t get rid of the baby.
“Godammit, I hate it when you give me your stubborn face,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “All right. You’re keeping the baby.” He gave a small smile. “I’ll have to live with that.” He pulled her in for a hug so she couldn’t see how terrified he was.
-------------
“It’s all right,” she told herself. “He probably just forgot about the doctor’s appointment. He’s been really busy lately. That’s why I haven’t seen him. That must be it.”
She walked to the clinic to see the doctor. Everything was fine, the baby was healthy, and did she want to see the ultrasound?
With tears in her eyes Elaine listened to the tiny heartbeat and watched the baby squirming inside her.
“Would you like to know if it’s a girl or a boy?”
She nodded.
“It looks like you’ll be having a little girl on your hands soon. I’d stock up on pink.”
-------------
“So what do you think we should name her?” Elaine clutched the phone to her cheek, twirling the cord around one finger. “I was thinking something like Carol, or Margaret…Marcus? Are you still there?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. I’m here. Sorry, I just got distracted. What was the question?”
“What do we want to name the baby?”
“I don’t know, Elaine. Just pick something you like—I don’t care. Look, I gotta go. See you later.” The line went dead.
-------------
“Marcus, we need to talk.” Elaine rested her books on her belly, which had grown considerably by this point.
“Yeah, I know, baby, it’ll just be a little longer and we can—“
“It’s always ‘just a little longer,’ and I’m sick of it. The baby’s coming soon, Marcus. I’m trying to figure out my life here, and I need your help with this.”
He sighed and looked at her. “Elaine…I can’t do this anymore.”
“Do what? You haven’t been doing anything to help out this whole time!”
“I can’t have a baby. Not now. I can’t…I can’t be a dad. I’m sorry.”
She stared at him as she felt her eyes starting to sting. “You are dumping me?”
“That’s not what I mean, I-I—”
“Is there someone else? Or is it just that you can’t handle raising a baby?”
“There’s no one else, Elaine. I just need freedom. I can’t be tied down—”
“To me. Can’t bear to get attached to someone who really loves you, huh? Is that it?”
“No, that’s not it, I just…I…”
“You know what, Marcus? Forget it. Just go off and forget this whole thing ever happened. It’s what you want to do anyway, right? Well go, then. I’m sick of putting up with all your shit.” She waddled as quickly as she could toward her dorm room before the tears could start.
-------------
Elaine stared at herself in the mirror. Her giant belly, almost ready to pop, seemed to her like a badge of shame to carry around for past sins.
“My own scarlet letter,” she muttered before turning away from her reflection. “Why did I do this?” she asked herself. “How did I ever think that dealing with all these people calling me a slut, staring at me in the halls, laughing at me behind my back…how was that going to help anything?”
She sat down on the bed with a groan. “How is being a single teenage mother going to prove that I’m not a failure?”
Savagely, she wiped at her face with a sleeve, ordering the disobedient tears not to come.
“And what,” she said with a hysterical laugh, “made me ever think I could do all this on my own?” She flopped back onto the bed and laughed as water streamed down her cheeks, hands clasped over her belly.
Then the baby kicked, and Elaine remembered hearing a tiny heartbeat. Nobody else seemed to have faith in her, but the tiny miracle in there was trusting her with its life.
“I promise,” Elaine whispered into the air, “that I will always do my best to take care of you. I’ll be the best mom the world has ever seen.”
-------------
“Push!” the doctor called out. “Come on, send her out. Push!”
There was no one by Elaine’s bedside except the doctors and nurses, as well as the school nurse who had driven her to the hospital. She squeezed the hand of an almost-complete stranger, instead of squeezing the hand of a friend, lover, or husband.
She screamed in pain as she tried to do the impossible and shove a miracle into the world, and her scream was echoed by the cry of a tiny baby.
“It’s a boy!” called the doctor.
“Ultrasound,” Elaine heaved, “said…girl…”
“It’s hard to be precise on those devices all the time. Do you have a name picked out?”
She’d been planning on naming the baby Amanda, so now she struggled to come up with another name, one that would work better for a boy. As she thought, a nurse handed the newly cleaned and wrapped baby into her arms.
“He’s perfectly healthy,” the nurse said. “And I think he wants his mama.”
Elaine looked into the eyes of her beautiful baby boy. “Morgan,” she said. “His name is Morgan.”
“I’ll write up the certificate then,” the nurse said.
While the rest of the medical staff was running around cleaning up and getting everything finalized, Elaine had a few seconds with her son. She looked at him for a few moments before she came to a realization.
“I really love him,” she said quietly. And she didn’t know when it had happened, when the change from hate to love had developed, but she truly did love this one person, her son, more than anyone else in the universe.
