There || Lizzie and Robby
“Tell me, it will be OK.”
She was 17. Seven-fucking-teen. What a fucking joke. She swore it would never be her. She never wanted to end up another statistic but fuck, the best intentions, right? She didn’t want to be a teenage mother, not that there was anything inherently wrong with being a teenager or a mother, but she didn’t want that to be it. She didn’t want it to define her for the rest of her life. She would forever be branded as someone reckless and made bad decisions.
The kinder ones will talk about how she overcame great circumstances to become a better person as if having a child was this horrible burden she had to overcome instead of a mistake that she made, a mistake she wished her absolute hardest she could accept as a blessing. The crueler ones will use her as a cautionary tale, “Don’t end up like that girl… she threw her life away,” and every future stumble, blunder and/or failure would be linked right back to this moment, the beginning of the end.
This was so incredibly fucked up. She didn’t ask for this. She did everything she could to prevent this from happening. One day she would love to be a mother but right now, she was still trying to figure herself out, much less raise someone else. It was better to end it now. It was better to end it while it was still an it and not a someone.
He was 20. Too old to be a child but too young to be an adult. How fucking useless to be stuck between adolescence and adulthood. It was the difference between knowing something is wrong and having the ability to fix it. He couldn’t fix anything, not himself, not his mum and the very least he could do is make sure he doesn’t ruin someone else. He won’t be why she loses everything.
People’s reactions would range from “How could you let her do that to what’s yours!?” to “Of course you would let her, trying to escape your responsibilities, aren’t you?” But no one knew. Not through him anyway. Because unlike her, he would never have to carry the unavoidable societal stigma. No one would know his part without him telling it. He would not be outwardly marked for people to see. He would never be affected in the same way as she was and because of that, he could accept it. He was he and she was she and what mattered is what she wanted, and anything else, including himself, was beside the point.
He always wanted to be a father, have someone to care for, be proud of, love, everything his own father didn’t do for him but this wasn’t the time. This wasn’t his opportunity. Instead he was going to be there for her and keep all her opportunities on the table.
It was almost funny how backwards things were but considering the circumstances, nothing felt worthy of a laugh. Prior to the pregnancy, they barely knew each other. Hell, he didn’t know her last name and she hadn’t seen what he looked like in the daylight but now? Now, they listened to each other, they understood each other, they were simply and completely there for each other. He wasn’t entirely sure how she felt, but for once, he knew how he felt and he knew in his heart of hearts that he couldn’t imagine a future without her.
When she told him, he could almost feel the fear in her voice, it shook with the reality of her words, “I am pregnant.” He could tell she was waiting for him to react but after the initial shock, all he could think about was how he would make this as easy as he could for her. How he would be anything she needed at this time. How he would be anything she needed anytime.
So oh yeah. It was definitely funny. Funny how it took something to shake his very existence to realize that being a father was one thing, but to always be there for someone is another and for now and for always, he just wanted to be there for her in a way that he would never have to hear her voice quiver ever again.
“It will be OK. You will be OK. Everything will be OK.”
Robby took her hand, raising it up to his lips so he could kiss across her knuckles. The nurse came into the room, calling Lizzie in and she looked at Robby pleadingly. He smiled at her then. Not with any happiness or joy, but with the hope of comfort and trust and he repeated what he said before, “It will be OK. You will be OK. Everything will be OK.”