Parents.

They were the best and worst things about every teen’s life. Although Nick never believed he would think it, he now wished he had listened to every word of wisdom they had given him over the years. At the time seemed like they didn’t know what they were talking about, had never been through the trials and tribulations that go along with being someone like him. Now, of course, they couldn’t sympathise with him or understand his situation because he was now a statistic, a mere number among the masses separating him from the pack, from the “norm”.

“Are you listening?” his mother’s voice rang in his ear.

“No,” Nick admitted, looking up at her.

“Maybe you should. If you had listened you wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.”

He breathed deeply, “I’ll work it out. Don’t worry.”

“You had better make some decisions, and fast,” she warned him then set off in the other direction to finish making her mid day meal.

He had some decisions to make; decisions that decidedly had to be made fast. The day before his only decisions were what video games to bring for trade in and whether or not it was a smart idea to try and skateboard off the roof. Today though, things had changed; he had gotten the most alarming news of his seventeen year old life and now he had to be a grown up, now he had to make decisions because his fifteen year old girlfriend was going to be having his baby in six months and it was up to him to be responsible and act like an adult.

“If they want an adult decision, they’ll get one,” he said aloud to no one but the cat then headed up to his room to make a plan.

***~***

It was the middle of the night as he crept along the sidewalk, trying to keep to the shadows as he made his way towards his destination.

It had taken some serious contemplation but he had come to the adult conclusion that he had to convince his girlfriend to get rid of their love child. He wasn’t ready to be a grown up, let alone a father so he made his way over to her parent’s house hoping that by coming over so late at night it would keep her from involving her mother in the conversations and ultimate decision making.

Once he reached the house he quickly scaled the lattice on the side of the house (this access point had been his entry way into the house for months) and slid quietly in the window to see that his girl was sound asleep.

“Lenna,” he whispered, careful not to wake the parents.

With a shake of her shoulder and a few repetitions of her name she slowly opened her eyes giving the young man a look of confusion as she discovered him sitting on the edge of her bed.

“Nick? What on earth are you doing here?” she asked sleepily, lifting both fists to rub the sleep from her eyes.

“I decided we can’t keep the baby,” he deadpanned, getting right to the point.

“What?” she asked again, not quite getting what he wanted, “We can’t just get rid of it.”

“Sure we can,” he assured her, “People do it all the time.”

“I won’t,” she stubbornly refused, now sitting up in the bed glaring at him, “I want to have your baby, I’ve always wanted to have a baby and then a little kid and watch them grow up and it’s a bonus that they’ll have your genes.”

Nick gasped and stared at her incredulously, “What on earth are you talking about? Are you insane? We’re not even legal yet and you’ve had time to think about having babies? It needs to go.”

“I’m not getting rid of it,” Lenna once again adamantly refused.

Panic was now starting to rise in Nick’s body; he needed her to see where he was coming from, and see that she was insane in her way of thinking. He was set to protest again but she interrupted him with a string of accusations and obscenities calling him a baby killer, and telling him to leave her room.

“Shut up, you’ll wake up your parents!” Nick snapped, and when she continued he clamped a hand down over her mouth to quiet her, “Quiet! Now, listen to me, we don’t have a choice here. I want to graduate high school and go to college not have to work in a fast food restaurant forever because of you.”

He continued to dictate to her, his hand firmly secured across the lower portion of her face. He didn’t recognize her struggling as a plea for air, but as a plea to bitch at him more. He didn’t realize that her body was starving for air; he just assumed she was angry and clawing at his hand. It wasn’t until her body went limp and she was no longer listening that he realized something wasn’t right.

“Lenna?” he asked meekly, gasping when he saw the blue tinge to her lips after pulling his hand away. His first instinct was to go for help but the devil on his shoulder instead sent him back out the window, down the street and to his house without another thought because his problem was now fixed. He knew the police would come eventually, his fingerprints were all over the window, and maybe even her cheeks but he would simply tell them that he was a desperate man.

“Officer,” he practised in front of the mirror the next day, “Is murder not justified when someone is pushed to the brink? How could it be wrong to want to save my own life? Murder isn’t always wrong, don’t you agree?”

He smiled at his own reflection and waited to use his newly developed defences. He’d taken his parents advice, and made grown up decisions for himself, and his future.