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My Happy Ending
Chapter 7

Nick felt his face drain of all colour. Pregnant? How could that be possible? He tried as hard as he could to push those thoughts out of his mind and to concentrate on what the doctor was saying.

“Your conception date was around December 25th, 2009. This will make you due around the 17th of September. I’ll give you the cards of a couple of good doctors in the city here…”

Christmas. Of course. How could they have been so careless? Nick cringed as he recalled their second holiday together.

It was Christmas Day. Well, very early morning on December 26th, to be exact. They were spending the night at Ashleigh’s mother’s house, as well as the following week. Now Nick was sleeping in the guest room in the basement, and Ashleigh was in her old bedroom. She had been living with her mom for the past few weeks after she’d sold her house in preparation for the move.

Ashleigh tip toed down to the basement where Nick was staying. She felt it was rather strange that her mom would put them in separate rooms, especially since they were going to be living together within the month. However, Ashleigh had obliged for the past three days that Nick had been there. Now, she was starting to get a little apprehensive. She giggled to herself, feeling like a teenager all over again.

She cracked open the door, and peered inside. Smiling to herself, she stepped into the room and slid into the bed beside her sleeping boyfriend.

“Nicky…” She purred, kissing his neck. Nick stirred a little, but didn’t wake up.

Ashleigh wasn’t quite ready to give up yet. Gently, she leaned over and kissed his lips. That got him moving.

“Huh…?” Nick murmured, beginning to wake up. What was Ashleigh doing in his bed?

Ashleigh grinned and put a finger to her mouth. “Shhh…” She whispered, kissing him again.

“Ash…” Nick whispered in between kisses. “Your mom is right upstairs.”

“I know.” She replied. “That’s why we have to be quiet.” She said, taking his hand and placing it up her nightie.

Nick couldn’t help but smile as he touched her. Their kisses grew deeper and Ashleigh wrapped her arms around Nick, tugging at his boxers. Eventually, she managed to slip them off of him.

Giving him a sneaky grin, she pulled him on top of her. Lightly nibbling on his ear, she wrapped her legs around his. Nick buried his head into the pillow as he slipped inside her, terrified of making any sort of sound.

They moved slowly against each other, safe under the confinement of the comforter. Ashleigh tightened herself around him, making Nick moan.

“Quiet, Nicky.” Ashleigh reminded him, silencing him with her lips.

The ride home was silent, with Nick trying as hard as he could to concentrate on driving and Ashleigh staring absentmindedly out the window. She hadn’t seemed shocked when the doctor had told them. Perhaps she’d already known. Maybe that’s why she’d been on edge for the last couple of days. Nick seethed at the thought, if that were the case, how could she keep something like that from him?

“You knew about this, didn’t you?” Nick said in a eerily calm way, not taking his eyes off the road in front of him.

Ashleigh sighed. “I had an idea.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Nick said, almost sadly. Had he really caused that much of a rift in their relationship that she felt she needed to keep things from him? Especially something of this much importance?

“I didn’t want to worry you.” She replied. While that much was true, she had also worried that Nick knowing about the possibility of her being pregnant would cause him to be even more upset with her. Though now, that didn’t exactly matter. He was clearly not overjoyed.

“I’m not worried. We’ll just get you an abortion.” Nick said simply, and Ashleigh snapped her head around to stare at him. How dare he suggest something like that on his own! It wasn’t his right to make that decision.

“And who says you get to decide that?” She spat, feeling herself getting angrier by the second. So much for their relationship getting back on track.

Nick shook his head. She was being ridiculous. The two of them couldn’t raise a child, they could barely take care of themselves. The state that their relationship was in was no place for a baby. “You don’t want to get married, I don’t want to have a kid.”

Ashleigh stared at him in shock for a moment. Had he seriously just used his loss in their last argument to try and win this one? Never mind what important subjects were on the table, Nick was acting ridiculously immature. “No.” She said flatly.

The rest of the drive home was quiet. Neither Nick nor Ashleigh bothered to try and talk, knowing it would only result in an argument. Ashleigh sighed, how were she and Nick going to be able to make it through this? She’d thought that they’d finally reached an agreement on the whole marriage issue, but now with Nick bringing it up again she wondered how much of that had been true. Maybe he didn’t agree and only said he did to appease her, hoping she would change her mind.

Once they arrived home, Ashleigh headed for the bedroom. She wanted nothing more than to fall asleep and forget about this whole ordeal. Nick once again sat himself down in the den. This entire situation was so backwards. How could Ashleigh be so against marrying him, yet be perfectly fine with having his child?

He half-heartedly flipped through the channels, not knowing what to think. He began to wonder if he should call someone and ask for advice. Though, he knew the only answer he would get from anyone would be to keep the baby. So that was out.

It bothered him a great deal that things had been so sour between he and Ashleigh lately. Nick wanted nothing more than to fix things, but he wasn’t sure how he would even begin to go about doing so. Especially when they both had such strong opinions about such important issues.

Ashleigh smiled as she lay her head on Nick’s shoulder. The two of them looked at each other, giggling as though they were little children who’d done something that mommy wouldn’t approve of.

“I feel like such a teenager.” Nick whispered, hugging her tightly.

“I know.” Ashleigh giggled. “But it was fun, wasn’t it?”

Ashleigh lay motionless in the bed as she recalled the memory of that night. Had that really only been six weeks ago? Everything had seemed so perfect then, and now they were barely speaking. She wanted so much to blame Nick for causing all this trouble in the first place by proposing to her, but she knew she couldn’t do that. It wasn’t him proposing to her that had caused their fight, it was her rejecting him. It wasn’t Nick who had sneaked down to the guest room on Christmas, it had been her.

Ashleigh didn’t know what she could do. She didn’t particularly want to go through with an abortion. Though, it would hardly be fair to their child to be born under such circumstances. She and Nick were already feeling the pressure of their relationship, and having a child would only add to that. Maybe they weren’t as strong as she’d originally thought. Maybe it had only been easy for them because they hadn’t been faced with any major life decisions yet.

One thing was for sure, Ashleigh completely stood by her decision not to marry him. She was beginning to learn that Nick was very set in his ways and wouldn’t accept “No.” as an answer. Did she really want to be married to someone like that? No, she didn’t. That was part of the reason why she and her previous fiancée hadn’t worked out. He had never been willing to compromise.

However, compromise wasn’t exactly an option in this case. They either had the baby, or they didn’t. They either got married, or they didn’t. There wasn’t exactly a middle ground. Was it fair of her to judge Nick for being so set in his beliefs when she was doing the exact same thing?

She contemplated calling Joey, but she knew the only advice she would get from her friend would be to keep the baby and to ditch Nick. She thought about calling her mother, but she figured she would get the same kind of response. She didn’t want her mom to dislike Nick at all, and she thought that maybe calling her might make that happen.

Knowing she would probably regret her decision, she picked up the phone and dialled the number to her mother’s house.

“Mom…” Ashleigh whimpered, once she answered.

“Ashleigh! How are you, how’s Florida?” She asked, happy to hear from her daughter.

“Florida is awful.” Ashleigh said, her voice shaking. The tears in her eyes threatened to spill over at any moment. “Nick asked me to marry him and I said no and he got really upset and then we found out that I’m pregnant and he wants to have an abortion and I don’t and I don’t know what to do…” She sobbed.

Her mom was silent for a moment. “Why don’t you want to marry him?”

“Because it’s too soon!” Ashleigh defended herself.

Her mom sighed. “But if you two are going to have a child together, don’t you think it’s the right thing to do?”

Ashleigh rolled her eyes. She should have known her mom would be completely old fashioned about this. “No. He doesn’t want to have the baby anyway! We aren’t even talking.”

“I’m sorry honey.” Her mom sympathized. “Why don’t you come home for a couple of days? Maybe you and Nick need some time apart to clear your heads?”

Ashleigh bit her lip. Leaving Florida scared her, thinking that if she left that would be it. She wouldn’t be coming back. She didn’t want to do that, she wanted to try as hard as she could before giving up. However, maybe her mom was right. Maybe a break would be good for them. It wasn’t as though she would be moving out, she would just be going home for a vacation to visit her mother and best friend. “Maybe.” Ashleigh muttered into the phone.

“Think about it, okay?” Her mom said. “You could stay here, or you could stay at Joey’s. I’m sure she’d be happy to see you.”

Ashleigh laughed a little. If she stayed with Joey she’d hear nothing but Nick trashing for the entire time she was there. “I will. Thanks, mom.”