The dining room was quiet.

I sat across from my mother and Chris, looking down at my lap. I could see the disappointment clear on their face. Neither of them had really said anything, though. The room was full of tension, and I expected it to blow at any second. Like a ticking time bomb.

“Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

The question came from Chris, who was glaring at me the worst. I knew I'd done it then – I had finally given him the ammo to dislike me with a justified reason. I swallowed back the sarcastic answer I'd wanted to snap back at him. That would do me no good now.

“I didn't mean for this to happen.”

My voice was low and shaky, as calm as I could keep it. Chris narrowed his eyes at me, his voice raising.

“It doesn't matter that you didn't mean for this to happen, Charlotte. It did.”

“What are you going to do, Charlotte?” My mother asked, her voice dangerously calm.

“I don't know,” I answered.

“It's not okay to just not know,” She responded quickly. “You're seventeen years old. I knew I shouldn't have let you go on that Spring Break trip.”

I sighed heavily, putting my elbows on the table and my head in my hands.

“I'm just so scared.”

“You don't think I am too?” My mother asked, her voice rising a few octaves. “My teenage daughter is going to have a baby. Who's the father, Charlotte? That Marcus guy that's constantly hitting on you?”

I snorted with laughter, appalled that she thought that.

“You actually think I'd be stupid enough to sleep with him, Mom?”

“You sure were stupid enough to land yourself in this situation,” Chris answered for her.

I glared at him.

“I wasn't talking to you,” I hissed. “You're not my father, and you never will be.”

“Charlotte!” My mother warned, but I didn't care. I wanted to offend him. I could only imagine what he'd say when I was out of the room.

The room was quiet for a long moment, before Chis spoke. His voice was firm and cold.

“I think you need to get rid of it.”

I raised my eyebrows, shocked. I stood up, standing behind the chair and pushing it in. Gripping the wooden back harder than I needed to, I responded. My voice was bitter.

“Do you know how they do abortions, Chris?” I asked slowly, trying to keep my voice level. I was shaking with fury. “They suck the baby out, like a god damn vacuum. I have a child inside of me. A living child. Not some piece of dirt on the fucking floor.”

“Charlotte, that is enough!” My mother shouted. Chris stood up, knocking his chair back in the process.

“I demand an apology.”

“Go fuck yourself,” I spat.

With out another word, I grabbed my keys off of the counter and stormed out of the house. I was still shaking, I was so mad. I drove to Katie's house, but it was a blur. When I got there, I didn't bother knocking. We had long since passed using that formality.

Katie let me rant, too. She hardly said a word as I paced back and forth in her room, my voiced raised as I told her the story of what happened.

“You said that to him, Char? Damn.”

I stopped pacing, looking at her with raised eyebrows. I could tell that she was a little bit amused by how I'd spoken to Chris, and I couldn't blame her. I didn't normally cuss people out like that. But with me being as stressed as I had been recently, he had made my temper rise quickly.

“I wonder what's going to happen when you get home,” I said, shaking my head as I sunk into a near by chair.

“You'll probably be grounded until your kid graduates high school,” Katie said. She was trying to add humor to the situation, and I appreciated that. It definitely lightened the mood. She always had been pretty good at that.

After that, Katie and I stayed quiet for a long time. She always seemed to know what to say, how to act. I wondered what on earth I would do with out her.

“I love you.”

I said it after the moments of silence, a way of expression how grateful I was for her. She was a sister, blood or not. Right now, I was breaking apart at the seams, and it felt like she was the glue that was holding me together.

“I love you too, Charlotte.”

Another moment of silence passed, and I let out a humorless laugh.

“What the fuck am I going to do, Katie?”

“You'll figure it out. You always do.”

I sat up.

“A baby, though? I'm seventeen, how can I take care of another human being?”

“I have faith in you, Charlotte.”

As I drifted off a little while later, I couldn't help but wish I had as much faith in myself as Katie had in me. And when I woke up the next morning, I knew that the reaction when I came home was going to be bad. I could feel it. Katie even volunteered to go with me, but I told her not to. This was something that I needed to do alone, but I promised that I would call her when the confrontation was over.

When I pulled into the driveway, there were two cars parked there that belonged to my mother and Chris. And one I didn't recognize. I didn't know if it was my gut feeling or just paranoia, but something felt off. I opened the door, and everything was strangely quiet.

“Mom?” I called out, my hand still on the door knob.

“We're in here, Charlotte.”

I heard her shaky voice from the living room, and I knew something was really, really off. I closed the door after me and kicked off my shoes. Who was we? Walking into the living room, I was caught off guard by seeing the last person I expected to see.

“Aunt Lauren!” I exclaimed, taken aback.

My Aunt Lauren was my mother's only sibling, and we always had been close. Closer even than my mother and I. Aunt Lauren just understood me better. I could tell her things I couldn't tell my mother, things my mother would freak out over.

“When did you get here?” I asked, sinking down on the sofa next to her.

Somehow, I knew that she was here because of me. She lived in a small town in Texas, far away from Los Angeles. She never was a big city person.

“This morning,” Aunt Lauren answered, wrapping me in a hug. “She called me last night.”

“Chris wants you to apologize.”

Those were the first words out of my mother's mouth. I wanted to get angry, but I didn't. I had bigger things to worry about than what my mother's husband thought of me. He was going to hate me either way.

“I won't get an abortion, and I won't apologize,” I said firmly. My voice was calm and respectful. I didn't want to fight.

“We think an abortion would be best.”

It felt as if I had been slapped. I could understand Chris thought that way, but she had pushed my mother to think that way, too? Before I responded, I took a deep breath and thought about what she said. We think. We. This was all Chris, and I knew it. But it hurt that she would let him try to push me to do this.

Aunt Lauren put her hand on my knee, and said quietly.

“But we also understand that this is your choice, Charlotte. Not ours,” She looked up at my mother, who averted her eyes to the floor. Aunt Lauren, always the voice of reason when my mother and I fought.

“We've come up with a solution,” My mother said, looking up at me.

“A solution?"

My eyes darted between the two of them, and I suddenly felt trapped. They had planned something that included me, with out me.

“What?” I asked, my anxiety rising.

“You're coming back to Texas with me.”

~~

I was stunned, to say the least.

My mother and aunt had dropped news on me was shocking. I felt betrayed that they'd planned this behind my back. My mother couldn't force me to get an abortion, but she sure could force me to go to Texas. I just turned seventeen, so I couldn't do much about it.

I sure did put up a good argument, but they weren't hearing any of it. It wasn't really a fight, because my mom and I both managed to stay pretty calm. If Chris had been here instead of Aunt Lauren, it would be a different story.

An hour and a half after I walked into the house, I retreated up to my room to call Katie.

“What happened?” She asked.

“Aunt Lauren is here,” I said. My eyes were full of tears. It wasn't the fact that I was going to have to live with her – I knew that wouldn't be bad. It would be easier than living with Chris, that's for sure. It was leaving all of my friends. Especially Katie.

“When did she get here?” Katie asked, surprised.

“That was my first question too. This morning. She's taking me back to Texas with her the day after tomorrow, Katie.”

My voice shook as I spoke.

“For good?” Katie asked.

“Yes.”

“What about your friends? School?”

“I'll have to make new friends, I guess. But no one could replace you,” I said, laughing a little bit.

“You promise?” She asked.

“Of course.”

Katie and I sat on the phone for a little while longer, both of us crying over the thought of leaving each other. There was a knock on my door, and I found Aunt Lauren was peeking her head in.

“I gotta go,” I said to Katie, waving Aunt Lauren inside. “I'll call you tomorrow.”

“Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

I hung up the phone and placed it on my bedside stand.

“Can we talk?”

“Sure,” I said quietly. She shut the door behind her, and we sat down on the bed together.

“We just want to do what's best for you, Charlotte.”

“No, you want to do what's best for me. I know my mom wants that deep down, but she's letting Chris override that.”

“I know, honey.”

“I hate him, Aunt Lauren. I really hate him.”

“Me too.”

I looked at her, raising my eyebrows.

“What?” She asked shrugging. “He's a prick. He's good at hiding it from your mother.”

I smiled, glad that someone agreed with me. I rested my head against my aunt's shoulder, looking out of my bedroom window as it started to rain. She put her arm around me.

“I'm scared,” I said, quiet enough I wasn't sure she heard me at first.

“I know, honey. And that's okay.”