Chapter Text
Two down, one to go.
Piper eyed the bed with a pit in her swelling stomach. She always thought she’d be throwing away doll clothes at sixteen. Not obtaining more. She didn’t handle isolation well, but she couldn’t stomach the thought of anyone seeing her like this.
Mom and Dad were angry when they found out. There were only so many question she could avoid regarding Dad’s whodunnit mystery he’d created for himself. He wasn’t even close.
Mom reprimanded her heavily, breaking her down worse than she already was. She talked about kicking her out— “if you want to act like an adult, you can get treated like one.”
Piper countered, “Then I can make an adult decision and have it removed.”
Mom had never hit her before. Dad had never screamed so loud. Piper had never been frozen to the spot. She wished Henry were there.
Mom gave her a choice—a demand, phrased like a choice—stay at home, birth the little parasite, and live happily with a little bit of help so she could find a job, dropping her influencer shenanigans (that made bank), or spend an eternity in hell for the murder of an innocent life. She thought she didn’t believe in that stuff. It was clear some part of her still did.
Dad asked all kinds of questions about the father. Who was it? Was it someone he knew? What did he look like? Was he still in school? Was he some delinquent drop out? How old was he? Did she think she could get a day in court and child support? When did it happen?
She considered telling dad it was some guy she met in her two months at FSU, before she got homesick and bailed. But he’d do the math and realize it wasn’t likely she’d meet another Swellviewian there. It was a city you never quite escaped. Henry was the lucky one.
Nobody entertained the idea that she couldn’t talk about it, or that maybe she hadn’t had a choice. She risked sleeping on the streets. She risked more of mom’s unhelpful conversations about adult decisions, ruining her body, and sticking her presence in places it didn’t belong.
She risked being told she’d asked for it, that just because a group of friends had an older friend that was “cool” and “like one of the kids”, didn’t mean she had to hang out with him too, especially when they were drunk and prone to leaving her alone when she lost her temper.
She risked all of his words turning sour, every calming hug that pulled her out of her perceived fight, every praise for her maturity, every time he noticed a new haircut, every aggressive text when she was around another boy that displayed a possessiveness deemed romantic because he loved her. He chose her when no one else had.
She risked her perception of everything he’d done for her and everything he was as a person, every time she dwelled on that night that came in bits and pieces.
She wished she’d forgotten that piece. She wished the pain radiating through her body and soul hadn’t been so prominent in that moment, that she could forget what utter betrayal felt like. She tried not to dwell on the fact that he dropped off the planet when she told him the news.
Piper curled up at the foot of her bed. One trimester to go. If mom wasn’t standing in the room at the exact moment the baby came, Piper would tell them to take it away and not bring it back. Tell mom it was stillborn. Pray that it was.
There was one outfit that caught her eye among the rest. She tried not to think too hard about it, but if she was being forced to see this through, the first step was the take home outfit, an olive colored onesie and little brown pants that would fit a teddy bear.
It was nature. It was the seed that had been planted sprouting into a tiny tree. It was an escape as much as it was a reminder that she could grow something beautiful, extracted from the ashes of her social life. It was a peace offering to the life inside of her. It was a promise. If she was going to do this, she was going to do it right.