Cayden's POV

    "Hey, Cayden. Can I talk to you?"

    I looked up from my group of friends to see a random girl looking down at me. Her big, blue eyes looking right into mine. I swear, I could feel her staring straight into my soul. She was nervous. I could tell by the way she kept biting her bottom lip. But, honestly, nervousness is something I'm accustomed to girls being around me. I'm not trying to be cocky. It's the truth.

    "Umm, sure."  I removed my arm from around Stephanie's shoulder. She immediately tightened her grasp on my thigh causing me to look at her. She slowly brought her hand higher up my leg until her hand grazed my dick from the outside of my shorts. Leaning forward, she brought her lips to mine while sliding her hand up and down, causing Cayden Jr. to wake up. She was trying to mark her territory. A territory that wasn't hers to mark. But I was too preoccupied to remind her of that.

    "I don't mean to be rude," the girl said meekly. "But it's kind of important."

    "Can't you see that he's out with his friends? Just in case you didn't know, his side ho hours are from 10 to 3 at night," Steph snapped at the girl. If it wasn't clear to me earlier how threatened Stephanie was of this girl, it sure was now.

    The girl smirked at Stephanie before opening her mouth to throw some kind of retort back at her but my best friend beat her to the punch.  "Really, Steph? So you knew what his side ho hours were this whole time and yet you still forced us to be with you a good 8 hours early," Theo said causing the whole table to laugh, me included.

    The girl turned her head a little, blocking her face from my view but by the way her shoulders were subtly moving up and down, I assumed she was laughing at Theo's remark too.

    "Fuck you, Theodore," Stephanie shouted at him. Everyone knew how much he hated to be called that. It was pretty much the equivalent to him calling her my side ho. For some reason, she thinks there's more to us than there actually is, even though I constantly remind her that we're nothing more than just bed buddies.  I'll admit, we do hook up a lot but that doesn't necessarily mean we're in a relationship.

    "It really is important," the girl pleaded with me. I nodded my head and began to stand.  I mean, how could I not. She was hot as hell and for some reason, her not backing off no matter how deep Stephanie dug her claws into me, was making her even hotter.

    As we walked away, I heard Stephanie's not too kind words being thrown at me. "Really Cayden, you stupid piece of shit. Do me a favor and lose my number." Of course she was causing a scene right now by throwing a temper tantrum because things weren't going her way. That's what happens when your rich mommy and daddy hand delivers you the world. Too bad for her, though, I also happen to have a rich mommy and daddy whose greatest pleasure in life is handing me the world. No joke. My parents are the best.

    I continued walking away while shaking my head at her empty threat. I can guarantee the next time I call her, she'll answer quicker than a cheetah can run. She won't want to risk me moving on to the next girl in my contact list, and believe me, there's a lot.

    We walked to an empty two person table in the farthest corner of the food court. I pulled out a chair for her to sit down and took the other one. "Thanks," she said. "Sorry, I didn't mean to cause drama between you and your girlfriend."

    "Don't worry about it. She's not my girlfriend. We're not even friends."

    "Oh...well then. I guess I'm sorry I interrupted your lunch with your friends and your not friend, who is clearly very possessive of you."  I smirked at her.  She hit Stephanie right on the nose. "It's just that, I have something..."

    "Important to tell me," I finished for her.

    "Yeah. So...umm. Shit, this is harder than I thought this would be. Okay, I'm just gonna jump out and say it."

    "Say what," I asked. This conversation was confusing me by the second. For starters, I have no clue who this girl is. Second, I have no idea what she has to say to me that is so important.

    She looked down at her folded hands as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. I sat there quietly, giving her time to put together whatever it was she had to tell me. After a few moments of silence, she finally spoke. "I'm pregnant," she said.

    "Oh...umm...congratulations?" It came out as a question. I literally had no idea what she expected to hear from me and more importantly why it was necessary for me to know. I mean, I can't be her baby's father. I'm sure I'd know if I hooked up with her or not. She is one of the hottest girls I've ever seen. I would hope, I'd remember our hook up.

    "You don't remember me do you," she questioned me. "That's just fucking great. Not only do I end up getting pregnant during a drunkin' hook up at 16 but the boy who got me pregnant doesn't even remember doing it."

    "Wait," I said confused. "Umm," I paused, totally not knowing her name.

    "Valerie. My name's Valerie."

    "Valerie. So you're saying that I got you pregnant. When the hell was this?"

    "The end of the summer party that was thrown in Carver. Remember, you and your friends, including every single boy on that table, felt the need to drive over an hour away from here just to crash it but ended up realizing that Carver parties are so much better than whatever the hell you guys throw over here."

    Oh shit. I remember now. Theo's cousin said he was going to hit up a party in his hometown by the lake and that we should make the trip over. Apparently, these lake parties are legendary since it's so far from the edge of the city that the police usually doesn't bother as long as the noise isn't too loud. And the kids usually end up camping out instead of driving home so they're aren't any drunk driving incidents.

    I got pretty fucked up that night. The only thing I remember was going there, drinking a lot, and talking to some chick, who was Valerie I'm assuming. Next thing I knew, I woke up the next morning sleeping in the bed of my truck. And if I remember correctly, Cayden Jr. was also tucked nicely away in my briefs that morning.

    "So, yes Cayden. I'm saying you got me pregnant. Look, I know you didn't do it on purpose. I don't really remember much about that night either. And before you insult me by asking if I'm sure you're the father, yes, I'm sure.  I was really busy this summer having to work, so I didn't go out much, or at all really.  You're the last person I had sex with and the last time I had sex before you was months before that party. But if you don't believe me, I'm more than happy to give you a paternity test when she's born, or take a lie detector test, or fuck, go on that Jerry Springer Show. I don't know. Whatever will ease your conscience." I couldn't help but to laugh.

    "Okay. So, what are you going to do? Are you gonna keep it? Does your parents know? Fuck, I gotta let my parents know.  They're gonna be so pissed. I wouldn't be surprised if they disowned me. Shit."

    "Umm..." She looked down at her hands again which caused me to look at them, too.  Water drops started to appear on her hands. I looked up to see where they were coming from and saw that she was crying. Standing up, I pulled her into my chest and hugged her as hard as I could, giving her the comfort that she needed.

    "It's okay," I whispered to her while rubbing her back. "Everything's gonna be okay."

    "The thing is," she cried into my chest. "I'm not keeping her." Her? I smiled. I'm having a daughter. How is it that one minute I'm in complete shock that I'm going to be a father then the next minute, when I find out that the kid already has a gender, I all of a sudden fall in love? Is that normal? Wait? Did she just say she's not keeping my kid?

    Valerie cried even harder into my chest. "I'm going to give her up for adoption. My family and I can barely keep a roof over our head and food on the table. We can't afford to keep her." I could feel her tears soaking through my shirt as she continued to silently cry. Clearly she's in love with this little girl, too. She just wants what's best for her.

    "My family has money. My parents are gonna be fucking pissed but they're not going to let their granddaughter and her mother struggle," I reassured her.

    "I don't want the only form of income for her coming from just you and your family. If I'm in her life, I want to be able to support her, too."

    I gently removed her from my body so she could see how pissed I was at what she just said. "Is now really the time for you to act proud?"

    "That's not what I'm trying to do. What I'm saying is, I want her to have the best life possible. I don't want her to question if I love her or not because I spend more time at a job than I do with her. I don't want her to think that my family cares about her any less than yours does because you guys can provide for her things that we can't. Say I'm acting proud all you want, but we both know those things are very real things that could happen. I don't ever want my daughter to question my love for her. At least giving her up to a family that deserves her will show her that I wanted what was best for her and loved her so much, even if it meant not being apart of her life."

    "So why'd you tell me then, huh?" The anger in my tone was as clear as a sunny day. How could she get me all excited to welcome this little bundle of joy into this world and then just snatch my happiness away from me by giving her away? "Why'd you look me up and drive all the way over here just to tell me about a daughter that you never intended on me meeting? So you can have a clear conscience?"

    "You know what? Fuck you. I came here because I thought you had a right to know. Because maybe you wanted a say in what happens to this kid. Maybe you wanted to help me make a decision on who our daughter is going to spend the rest of her life with."

    "No, fuck that. You already got an appointment with an adoption agency?" She nodded without looking at me. "Cancel it."

    "What?"

    "You heard me."

    "But I can't afford..."

    I put my hand up to stop her from finishing her sentence. "I'm keeping her."

    "You? But you didn't even talk to your parents about this. You don't even know how they're going to react."

    "They'll be mad as fuck at first. Then they'll get over it."

    "How do you know that for sure?"

    "Because I do."

    She stood there silently staring at the table we were just sitting at until she whispered, "Does it make me a horrible person if I chose not to be in her life?" It was so soft I almost that I made it up in my head.

    "No," I said immediately. "There's no doubt in my mind that you love our little girl just as much as I do, probably even more. And if things were different, I know you wouldn't want anything more than to be her mom." I placed two fingers under her chin forcing her face up so she could look at me. "But I promise you, I'll take care of her. She'll get everything she wants and needs. She'll get the best education, she'll go to college, she'll get a good job that she loves. Anything she asks for, I'll do whatever it takes to give it to her.  She's gonna have the best life. The life that you want for her. And I'll tell her every time she asks about you, how you had to selflessly give her up because of how much you loved her." She nodded her head while I wiped away the wet streaks off her face.

    Five months later, one week before the ending of my junior year of high school, I was the proud owner of a 22 inch long, Cayleigh Joy Jourdan. Weighing in at 7 pounds and 3 ounces of pure perfection. I was going to be the best fucking dad in the world to my little princess. I just had to get the hang of this no swearing around the kid thing, first.