My mind raced about not wanting to go downstairs. I wasn’t sure what was waiting for me. Last night my mom was so upset and Eric was kicked out of his house. I wasn’t sure which problem I should deal with first.
I headed downstairs and saw that Paul was sitting on the couch reading the morning paper.
“Morning, Emily, sleep well?” He said putting the paper down.
I nodded, “Is Mom up yet?”
He shook his head, “No, she went to bed late last night. I don’t want to wake her up yet.”
I nodded, “Ok, well I’m going to go outside for a second.”
I walked out the front door and grabbed my cell phone I quickly dialed Eric, “Hey Baby.”
“Em, I need to see you soon, I need to hit the road, my Dad found out that I stayed at Todd’s house last night and he’s pissed off.”
I sighed listening to him, “Ok, can you come over now and see me?”
“Yes, I’m about to turn the corner now, are you outside?”
“Yea, I’ll be waiting.” I said as I closed my phone and saw him pull into my driveway. I ran over to his car and slid into the passenger seat, his lips were quickly on mine. I lost myself in his kiss. I felt his anger, worry and love for me. Our lips parted as our tongues found each other, his fingers dug into my hair. I moaned softly, knowing I had to pull away.
I looked up into his eyes, “Hey you.”
He didn’t say anything to me, but I could see the worry in his eyes, “Hey.”
“So, what’s the plan?”
“I don’t know but I have to leave. Todd said that my dad is looking for me so I need to hit the road before he finds me. I need to let him to cool down before I lose my mind. Emily, this isn’t going to be pretty. This is why I didn’t have a girlfriend in high school until you came along but God, the minute I saw you, I know I had to take the chance and I will never look back.”
I smiled at him, “I feel the same way, Eric. You are my life, my love and I will fight for us until I stop breathing.”
He smiled at me, “Marry me.”
I just looked at him, my mouth opened. My heart stopped. He’s crazy, he’s not thinking right, how could he ask me that? “Eric.”
“I’m serious, Emily. You are my world. No one can stand between us. Marry me, we will be together forever.”
“Baby, you know that I want to spend the rest of our lives together, but we are freshman in college, you have a career in front of you and most importantly our parents would kill us.”
He just smiled at me, “Emily Stone, be my wife.”
I just stared at him I couldn’t answer him right away. I didn’t know what to say, this was a big deal. Was he serious?
“I know I don’t have a ring and I know you have no idea what to say, so I won’t force it. Just remember it and when you are ready, you just have to say yes.”
I nodded as I started to cry, his lips found mine again. I couldn’t let him go but I knew I had too, “You better hit the road, call me when you get there, I have to go deal with my own problems.”
He nodded as he kissed me again, “I love you, Gorgeous.”
“I love you too, Baby,” I smiled, “Forever.”
When I walked back into the house, my mom was up and making breakfast. I couldn’t help but think that I was just proposed to, I couldn’t stop smiling.
“Good Morning, Mom.”
She turned quickly and hugged me, “Emily, I love you, you know that, right?”
I smiled, “Of course, Mom. I’m sorry about yesterday. I wish that all happened differently.”
She nodded, “Me too. But we just have to deal with it now. First things first, we need to make sure you aren’t pregnant.”
“Mom, I’m sure I’m not. But, I will call the Dr and see if I can get in next week, ok?”
She nodded, “Ok. That’s fine. What about you and Eric?”
“What about us?” I asked sitting down at the breakfast table.
“Well, has he gone back to school? I saw that he was here, how are his parents?”
I sighed, “It’s pretty bad right now. His father is threatening to pull him off the team and kicked him out of the house.”
She nodded, “Yeah, I’m not surprised, is he ok?”
“He’s upset but figures things will calm down again, but he feels we may need to take a break so his father doesn’t blow a gasket.”
“I’m sorry, Em. I know he means a lot to you and this isn’t what you wanted.”
“Definitely not but I will talk to him later once things calm down.”
She nodded, “When are you heading back to school?”
“I think tonight. Sam is going to be there, figured I need some time to get back into the swing of it.”
“Ok, just say good bye before you leave,” She said as she left the room.
BACK TO SCHOOL
I arrived back to school and Sam was already there, she ran over and hugged me, “I missed you, Em. What’s going on?”
I couldn’t help but laugh a little as I placed my bags on my bed, “Oh, it was a busy week.”
Sam grabbed her chair and sat down, “Well, tell me, I feel out of the loop since I was on vacation with my mom, I haven’t talked to you.”
I sat down on my bed and started to open up about the incident with Eric’s parents and the maybe pregnancy, ending with the story about my mom. Sam sat there and listened to the whole story before reacting in anyway.
“So, that was my week of hell, how was your vacation?” I laughed as I put my head into my hands.
Sam got up and sat down next to me and put her arm around me, “Em, listen to me. You will be just fine. Things seem worse than they are and you just need to clear your head. Let’s go down to The Union and grab some food.” Sam laughed, “You know, you could be eating for two now.”
I gasped as I hit her arm, “Not funny, Sam!”
As we walked through campus, I couldn’t help but think of Eric and the proposal. I didn’t mention it to Sam because I honestly didn’t know what to make of it yet. I felt my phone vibrate as I looked down and saw Eric texting me that he loved me. I smiled as I quickly typed him back.
“So, Emily, what are you going to do if you are pregnant? I mean, are you going to keep it?”
“I don’t know, I can’t think about it. I’m barely half way through my first year of college. My mom will kill me and Eric’s parents will kill him. It’s too much to think about.”
Sam tried to smile at me but I could tell she was worried about me, “Did you call the doctor yet?”
“Not yet, I don’t want to do it unless I’m late.”
“When are you late?”
I stopped in my tracks as I did the math, “A week, at most.”
Sam sighed, “Em. You really need to start thinking about this. At least have an idea in your head of how you will deal with this.”
I nodded as we continued through The Union. How could I let this happen? I couldn’t stop daydreaming until I heard Sam gasp.
“What?” I looked at her in surprised.
“Emily Stone! Your birthday is in two days! Why didn’t you remind me?”
“Oh. That. It’s ok, really. There is a lot going on, I forgot.”
“We are not forgetting your birthday, Em. You are turning twenty! What do you want to do?”
“Go to Syracuse?” I said half smiling, hoping she would be on board and of course, I should have known better, “Of course! Call him and tell him we are coming out on Saturday.”
I smiled as I dialed his number, he quickly picked up, “Hey, Gorgeous.”
“Hey Eric. So, in case you didn’t notice, my birthday is coming up.”
“I know I already have your gift.”
“You do? What is it?” I asked smiling.
“I’m not telling you, Gorgeous. Where’s the fun in that?”
I laughed, “Well, Sam’s gift to me is a trip to Syracuse on Saturday. Interested in seeing me?”
“YES!�
� He screamed into the phone as Sam grabbed the phone from me.
“Eric, make dinner plans somewhere nice. We will do a group date, I will call Rob and tell him too.”
“Sounds great, Sam. Rob was just talking about you. Honestly, I’m sick of hearing about you.” He laughed.
“He’s so sweet, I miss him. I saw him once over break and can’t wait to see him again.” She smiled, “See you Saturday.”
It was tough getting through the week, but classes were keeping me busy and keeping my mind off my pending problems. Every night I talked with Eric on the phone or computer until I fell asleep. He had informed his father that we had broken up and he was taking his football career serious now, which got his father off his back for at least the moment.
I made an appointment at the campus clinic for Friday afternoon so I could get everyone off my back, my mom has been calling me every day to make sure I don’t forget to go.
At the end of my computer class Friday afternoon, I headed over to the clinic, I saw Sam sitting on the bench waiting for me. “Sam, you didn’t have to come.”
“Of course I did. You are like my sister, I want to make sure everything is ok with you.”
I smiled at her, “Thank you.”
We walked in and sat in the waiting room, I watched the other people come and go, head colds, broken bones but I seemed to be the only person there that had a worried look on their face.
“Emily Stone?” the nurse asked as she came into the waiting room. I left my stuff with Sam as she wished me good luck and the nurse took me into the back room.
I did all the testing that the doctor wanted to put me through and sat at the small table in the room and waited for him to return. I looked around the room and read the posters, amazing how many diseases are in the world. I laughed trying to keep my mind off of the fact that I’m waiting to find out if I’m pregnant. What would I do? If I am pregnant, I couldn’t tell Eric, could I? He would give up football, he would lose his relationship with his father and he would insist on the marriage.
I shook my head, no, I’m not pregnant, and I’m not thinking that way, not yet. I need to calm down and wait for the doctor. As I sat there and waited, the door finally cracked open and Dr. Fisher walked in.
“Ok, Emily, tests are back.” He said as he sat down and pulled out the paperwork, my stomach tightened, I felt like I wanted to throw up, this was the moment.
He scanned through the folder and looked up at me, “You’re pregnant.”
My heart stopped. My world collapsed in on me. He was lying to me, I couldn’t be pregnant, not the one time I wasn’t protected, this couldn’t happen. Then the world faded black.
When I woke up, I was still in the doctor’s office. I blinked a few times and felt someone squeeze my hand. I looked over to my left and saw Sam smiling at me, “What happened, Sam?”
“You passed out. You’ve been out for about ten minutes. The nurse is coming in right now to check on you.”
As the nurse ran her tests and I just laid there. I can’t believe I passed out. I was just told that I’m pregnant and that my life was now over. I looked over at Sam, who continued to smile, “Do you know?”
Sam smiled, “Not in so many words, but you passed out, Em. I can put the pieces together. It will be ok, we will go back to the room and figure out what to do next.”
I nodded as I closed my eyes again. The nurse said that everything seemed ok, she gave me some literature on pregnancy and told me to set up an appointment with my OB-GYN as soon as I could. I nodded as I grabbed the paperwork and headed back to our dorm room.
As soon as we walked in, the tears started to flow. I couldn’t stop crying for the next hour and Sam just let me. She held me and kept telling me that things would be ok and she would help with whatever I needed.
I finally fell asleep around one in the morning after talking through all the issues in my head. I was leaving in the morning to see Eric for my birthday dinner and somehow I needed to figure out how to tell him.
LIFE DECISIONS
Sam parked the car at Syracuse University and we headed to Eric’s dorm room. She still wanted to do the fancy dinner so I bought along my gown from the prom with my overnight clothes. My heart raced as we got closer to the building. I felt Sam stop and look at me.
“Are you going to be alright? You haven’t spoken in the past hour, Em?”
I nodded, “I just don’t know what to say to him. I’m about to change his life. He thinks we are about to have this great night and he has no idea that I’m pregnant. How do you tell someone that?”
I heard her sigh, “You just have to tell him the truth. Tell him that you don’t expect him to drop out of college, tell him that you want his life to continue, that you are willing to sacrifice everything for him.”
I closed my eyes as the tears started again, “Sam, I didn’t want this to happen. A year ago, we were in high school, we were worried about what college to pick, I was nervous about my first date with Eric, we were being kids. I’m still a kid!”
Sam hugged me tight as she wiped my tears away, “Come on, he’s waiting to see you. You will figure it out as we go through the night. Let’s celebrate your birthday.”
I smiled as we headed inside, we barely knocked on his door as the door flew open and Eric grabbed me. Feeling his lips on mine never gets old, the kiss deepened as I heard Sam cough behind me.
I smiled as I broke the kiss and looked at Eric, “Hey Handsome.”
“Hey Gorgeous. Hey Sam.”
“What’s up, Eric?” Sam asked coming inside and dumping all the bags on his bed, “I’m just saying hi, I want to see Rob so I’m going to run down to his dorm and leave you two love birds alone for awhile.” She kissed Eric on the cheek and left.
Eric grabbed me and pulled me to bed. His lips quickly found mine again, “I love you, Emily.”
“I love you too, Eric, so tell me where we are going tonight?”
He smiled, “There is a nice restaurant downtown that I made reservations for and thought the four of us would enjoy it.”
“Sounds great,” I bit my lip as I cuddled next to him, still couldn’t think of the right words to even bring up the subject to him, “So, how are things with your dad?”
“They are ok, he called last night and said he was coming next weekend to visit with my sister.” He smiled but I could see the whole situation upset him, “I hate lying to him, but I’m not losing you.”
I frowned, “Eric, maybe we need to discuss this more.” He quickly cut me off, “No, we aren’t discussing this, Emily. I already proposed to you, I’m not living my life without you again. We will just figure this whole thing out.”
I quickly calmed him down by kissing him softly, “It’s ok.” I stood up and walked around the room, looking at his text books and seeing what he was studying. I felt his eyes on me the whole time, “Emily, do you want to tell me something?”
I stopped and turned around slowly, “How do you know that?” He smiled at me and laughed, “We have known each other for over a year now and I think I can tell you have something on your mind.”
I kept quiet, this wasn’t the time. I didn’t know what to say to change the subject either, “I’m fine.”
Eric got up and wrapped his arms around me, I felt his breathe on my neck as he stood behind me, “Please tell me.”
I softly sighed, my lips opened as the door burst open and in walked Sam and Rob. Thank God.
“Hey Emily!” Rob said giving me a quick hug.
“Hey Rob, what’s going on?”
“I wanted to say hi before we started to get ready for tonight, happy birthday, by the way!”
“Thanks. It should be a fun night.”
He quickly grabbed Sam and kissed her, “I’m going to head and get in my suit, I’m sure you ladies need to get dressed.”
Sam grabbed our bags and headed to the ladies room. I smiled as I turned to Eric, “We will chat later, don’t worry. I better go with her.” He leane
d over and kissed me lightly.
I found Sam in front of the mirror doing her makeup, “So, did you tell him?”
I chuckled, “No, I was about to when you guys came into the room.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“It’s ok, I really didn’t want to tell him yet, so not a problem,” I smiled as I grabbed my make up from her.
As we did our make-up and got our dresses on, we chatted about the evening and if and when I would tell Eric about the pregnancy. As we finished up, I looked in the mirror and had a flashback to prom night. The same red dress clung to my body just like it did last June. I smiled but quickly it faded as my mind started to think about how my body was going to change. My hands ran down my body and over my stomach. I let out a soft sigh, “Things are going to change, Sam.”
Sam stopped checking herself out in the mirror and looked at me, “Emily, please, not tonight. Let’s enjoy ourselves. You look hot! Eric is going to lose his mind. Just have a fun birthday and we can get through the rest later, ok?”
I nodded, “I know. Are you ready?”
“Yes, I am, do I look hot?” She asked looking gorgeous in her long gown showing off her long legs with slits in each sides.
“Of course you do, come on, the guys are waiting.”
As we walked into the room, the guys were waiting for us to return, Eric smiled and winked at me as I could see the flashback to prom in his eyes, “I love that dress,” He smiled as his arms went around me and whispered in the ear, “I promise I won’t mess up the evening this time.” I smirked as I thought, no but I probably will.
Eric showed us the sights of Syracuse as we drove to the restaurant. When we arrived the boys opened doors for us and ordered for us and treated the evening like we were royalty. We laughed and ate. Eric, Sam & I filled Rob in about high school and all the events that led to our relationship. As we finished up dinner, out of the corner of my eye, I saw candles. The waiters started singing as the cake approached the table. I smiled and it was time for my wish.
Sam looked at me like she knew what my wish was already, Eric and Rob cheered me on as I closed my eyes and wished for God to present the right time to tell Eric that his life was changing forever.
First Love Page 13
