Pregnant with my two best friends

Chapter 10

Janice Roberts, Emma’s mom, is beyond outrage. When she hears about the news, her first instinct is to attack her ex-husband. How dare he! Keeping the news this big from her. The nerve that man had! Then she spots Parker, she then starts attacking him instead. Her husband rushes to hold her, keeping both of them at bay.

“You’re going to have an abortion,” her mom barks order at Emma after she gets her composure back. Barely. “I can take you. It’ll be easy and fast. We won’t talk about it after that. Ever! You both won’t see each other again. Ever! You will go to Princeton, and you,” she points her finger at Parker with disdain. “You do whatever you want. Harvard, I can only assume. Leave my daughter alone.”

“With all due respect, Mrs. Roberts,” Parker starts slowly, carefully. “This is not your decision to make, though. This is Emma’s. And I’m not leaving her, I plan to support her every step of the way.”

“The abortion is Emma’s decision,” Mrs. Roberts shouts indignantly. “I know what’s best for my daughter. And you, stupid boy, you’re not it.”

“Perhaps, that’s true, ma’am,” Parkers answers. “Perhaps I’m not what’s best for your daughter. But I love her, I will do anything for her.”

Mrs. Roberts laughs hysterically. “You,” she’s still shouting. “What do you know about love anyway, huh? You’re a Mortimer, aren’t you? You’re nothing but a liar. A Mortimer is not to be trusted. They’re weak, and spineless, and weak.”

Now everybody looks at her funny. Her outburst towards Parker’s last name is uncalled for and above and beyond confusing.

“You said weak twice,” Parker points out calmly.

Mrs. Roberts laughs again. “Well, that’s because you are.”

“Why do you hate me so much, Mrs. Roberts,” Parker asks, willing himself to be calm. “What did I ever do to you? To Emma?”

“You’re a Mortimer, that’s why,” Mrs. Roberts answers with a clear disgust on her face, and her voice. “Spineless, weak, snakes, that’s who you are. The Mortimers. Worthless snakes!”

“Mom, enough!” Emma shouts at her mother. She hasn’t ever done that. Not to her mother. Ever. “Enough, mom. Parker is my boyfriend, and he’s a good boy. He’s not spineless and weak. And I won’t have you talk like that about him.”

Mrs. Roberts squints her eyes at Emma. “You’re kidding me, right?! Your boyfriend?! That stupid boy! Absolutely not! I won’t allow it! Have the abortion, go to Princeton, and find yourself a nice and proper man there. Leave this, this snake alone!”

“Mom!” Emma is still shouting. “I told you, stop talking like that about my boyfriend! I won’t have it!”

“Emma!” Mrs. Roberts shouts as well, becoming hysterical again. “You break up with that snake or you can stop calling me your mother!”

Emma’s jaw drops. She couldn’t believe her ears. Did her mom just give her an ultimatum? And such a diabolical one at that. How could she? How could her mom do that to her?

Parker holds Emma’s shoulders tight. “Breath, Em,” he says gently. “Take a deep breath. We should probably just go now.”

“Honey,” Mr. Roberts rushes to his wife. “Please calm down. You don’t mean what you just said. This is Emma we’re talking about, here.”

“Yes, Janice,” her dad says fast, trying to persuade her mom as well. “You can’t mean that. Be careful with your choice of words, please.”

Janice Roberts, however, can no longer be persuaded. “No,” she says with her ever insufferable ways. “What’s it gonna be, Emma? Him, or me? Your own mother.”

Emma’s face is wet with tears now, her heart is so broken beyond measure. Slowly, she shakes her head. “I’m sorry that you feel that way, mom. I love you. I always love you. But I’m not breaking up with Parker. He’s good to me.”

Parker stares at Emma. He loves her even more now. If that could even be possible considering he’s already loved her tons.

Mrs. Roberts stares at Emma for a long time. Emma’s answer was a complete shock, she didn’t see it coming. Slowly, though, she regains her composure back. “Very well, then,” she says before shakily turning around towards the door. “Have a nice life, Emma. Don’t come crawling back to me when that snake betrays you. Because I know he will, just give him time. Give him time.” With that, she runs back to her car. Her husband quickly chases her.

***

Parker sits quietly with Emma in the park not too far from her dad’s house. They’ve been there for nearly two hours after the drama with her mom. Emma was incredibly shocked and broken-hearted she’s been crying on his shoulder the whole time. Parker lets her, when the crying subsides, he gives her juice and Hershey’s kisses. Emma laughs, Parker is such a nice guy. He always knows what to do, he always knows her.

“Better?” Parker asks.

Emma nods and smiles. “Yes, better.”

“Can you handle one more news?” Parker asks carefully. “This one is not necessarily bad, but you must know. I don’t wanna keep secrets from you.”

Emma starts to get apprehensive again. “What is it, Park?”

Parker laughs a little, making light of the situation. “Like I said, this one is not bad. It’s actually kind of necessary.”

“Just tell me, then,” Emma urges.

“Okay, Chris and I have talked,” Parker says, then starts to alter the reality of the conversation. He doesn’t want to give Chris a bad name, doesn’t want to tell Emma that Chris has bailed out on her. Emma loves the boy. “We’ve decided that for your sake, you can’t be seen being pregnant with two possible men as the father of your baby. That would be too outrageous. You being pregnant at eighteen, is already outrageous. So, I asked Chris to step down, he didn’t want it, at first. But I asked him to think about you, with two men claiming to be the father of the baby, can you imagine what people say? Alpequa is a such a small and stuffy town, Em. And the people here, they can be really mean and judgmental. You know that, right?”

Emma looks at Parker for a long time. “So, you sacrifice yourself?” she asks in a whisper. “Oh, Park. Why?”

“I don’t see it that way, Em,” Parker answers fast. “I love you and Chris does too. Don’t forget, Chris wants to do the same, but I won’t let him. Besides, he’s not even eighteen and this is actually a big deal. He can’t come to his parents and stand by his decision, he’s technically not yet an adult. His parents can still make the decision for him. I’m eighteen. When we did it, when we made love, we’re both already eighteen. I can make the decision for myself without my parents’ consent. The fact that Chris had not, during that time, and even now after we know about your pregnancy, can become a problem.”

Emma looks at Parker again, for a long time. Parker, he’s always the one who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders while Chris is the one who gets away with anything. Not that Emma can fault him. Parker is right. Chris, after all, is not even eighteen. “You also don’t have to do this, though,” she says softly, turning away. She feels sad and embarrassed, she’s become a burden to him.

Parker scoffs. “Of course, I do,” he says. “I want to do it. Happy to, actually.”

“How are you going to do this, though, Park?”

“By being with you every step of the way,” Parker replies. “By supporting every decision you make.”

Now Emma laughs in frustration. “How can you be with me every step of the way? You’ll be in Harvard and me, I’ll be in Princeton. What if, what if I don’t want to abort the baby, or give it up for adoption? How are you going to support me, then?”

“I’m not going to Harvard,” Parker answers simply. “I’m coming with you to Princeton. You’ve got a scholarship there, so you must see it through. You probably have to take a semester off for the baby delivery, but you will continue with Princeton. I’ll make sure to it.”

His answer shocks Emma. “Oh my God, Park!” she shrieks. “I don’t want you to do that. I don’t want you to quit Harvard, it’s been your dream to go there. What are you gonna do in Princeton? I don’t think they accept late admission. This is way too late for that.”

Now Parker smiles. “First of all, it’s not my dream really to go to Harvard. My dad is a Harvard graduate, Harvard is basically just another footstep of his that I must follow. Second of all, my dream has always been to be wherever you are. If that means Princeton, then Princeton it is. And surprise, surprise, I’ve already been accepted to Princeton as well, not on scholarship, though. So, all I have to do now is just paid the tuition asap before they reject me, and we’ll be on our way.”

Emma is too stunned to speak. For a moment, they’re just looking at each other. “You, Princeton? How come you’ve never told me this?” she asks in a soft voice.

Parker shrugs. “Nothing to tell, really. I didn’t want to upset anybody, my parents, mostly, and Chris, by applying to Princeton. In all honesty, if you weren’t pregnant, I would still go to Harvard with Chris. Perhaps, in a year, I would arrange for you to transfer so we could finally be together. But hey, now we have a new plan. But this, this is doable, Em. Even if, you decide to keep the baby, we both can still do this, together.”

Emma smiles at him, her smile is full of love, and adoration, and appreciation. “I wanna keep the baby, Park.”

Parker smiles back, and nods. “Then we keep the baby, Em.”

***

Parker’s mom is much of the same as her mom. Now that Chris has bailed out, there’s no reason anymore to inform his parents about all this. It helps that all this time all the three of them have put their relationships on the DL. And that Chris’s last girlfriend, that people are aware of, was Kate.

Parker’s parents have come home early from their summer holiday after Parker asked them to. They asked what the emergency was, but Parker refused to tell them until they’re back to Alpequa. So, here he is, alone with his parents, inside his dad’s study, listening to his mom screaming, and threatening, and throwing everything in sight, and crying, and feigning heart attack, and lastly, begging. Begging for Parker to persuade Emma to have an abortion, then leave her.

Parker is having none of that, though. Calmly, he tells his mom that the decision will belong to Emma, and Emma alone. He also tells her that he will not leave Emma no matter what. His words anger his mom even more.

“What about Harvard, you moron?!” His mom shouts. “Are you going to forget about school now?!”

“I can still go to school, mom,” Parker answers his mom slowly, carefully. “Nothing will change with that plan. We both can still go to school and raise the baby together, assuming we keep it. Or even if we don’t, even if Emma has the abortion, I wanna be with her. I think she will need me, my support.”

His mom raises her hands up in the air, exasperated. “How, Park?! How?! You’ve both got scholarships from two different schools.”

Parker doesn’t immediately answer, slowly he looks up at his dad. His dad senses that. Somehow, he remembers. Parker once told him that in addition to Harvard, he’d also applied to and been accepted to Princeton.

“I can go to Princeton with Emma,” Parker says softly. “I was accepted there too, but not on a scholarship.”

“I suppose that’s fine,” his dad slowly joins the conversation. He needs to tread carefully now if he doesn’t want to be at the receiving end of his wife’s wrath. “We shouldn’t care about the scholarship much; God knows we have the money. Princeton is a good school too, one of the Ivy Leagues, may I remind you.”

His mom’s eyes narrow to a slit as she stares at his dad. “But you’re a Harvard graduate, not Princeton,” she says tersely.

“So?” Parker’s dad asks nonchalantly. “Parker can lead his own life; he doesn’t have to follow every step I made. God knows not everything I do is commendable.”

“What does that mean?” his mom asks in a low, threatening tone.

***