by Linda Cooper
“Oh my god, Tanya, that’s crazy! But in a good way. He’s fun, a little bad, and likes the bands you like. I mean, how perfect can you get? And you already live with him,” she teased, making Tanya throw a pillow at her.
“So, what do you want to do today? There’s absolutely nothing on t.v.” Tanya turned it off and threw the control down onto the bed with a stink face. “I’m bored.”
“Well, we could go to the mall if you want. We don’t really have any money for anything, but we can people watch and stuff. It’s better than nothing. We could try on some stuff at Hot Topic and take pictures like a fashion show.”
“Yes!” Tanya jumped off her bed and went straight to the closet to find some clothes. It sounded like an excellent idea to her. She threw on a pair of black skinny jeans and a navy tank with skulls all over it before running a comb quickly through her hair.
The two girls walked out to find Tanya’s mother in the kitchen chopping something up on the cutting board. “Where are you guys off to?” her mother asked as they headed towards the door.
“The mall,” Tanya answered simply, ready to make a clean getaway.
“I still haven’t gotten the car fixed yet. How are you planning on getting there?” Tanya rolled her eyes and turned back around to look at her mother. There were days that her mother was so wrapped up in her own world that she forgot to be concerned and others when she was Tanya’s typical mother; the one she had before the divorce. That’s when she got concerned to the point of overprotectiveness.
“We thought we’d walk,” Quinn chimed in just as Danny walked into the kitchen to raid the fridge. He looked like he had just woken up, and Tanya tried not to check him out as his shirt rode up as he stretched.
“Nonsense,” her mother began. “It is way too cold out there. You’ll catch your death for sure. The mall’s at least two miles. Just wait until I get the chicken into the Crockpot and I’ll take you.” Tanya loved her mother, but she was 18 and really wanted to take herself to the mall. She kept meaning to call her father and ask him to buy her a car but kept forgetting.
“Take you where?” Danny gruffed out, clearly still half asleep.
“The mall. It’s no big deal. We’ll just find something else to do around here.” Tanya turned on her heel and went to head back to her room when he stood in her way and stopped her. He grinned down at her before talking over her head at her mother.
“No worries, Mom. I’ll take a shower and give them a ride. I’ve been needing to grab a couple pairs of jeans anyway.” He looked back down at Tanya and winked at her, mouthing the word shower before heading towards the bathroom. Did he seriously want her to get in the shower with him?
“Well, I guess that problem’s solved. We’ll go wait for him in my room,” Tanya called to her mother before shoving Quinn down the hall. “He wants me to get in the shower with him. What should I do?” she whispered to Quinn in a panic.
“Just go for it. Your mom’s preoccupied with cooking,” Quinn whispered back, walking into her room. Tanya craned her head back to make sure her mother couldn’t see before jumping into the bathroom and locking the door behind her. There was already steam filling the bathroom, and she could see Danny’s silhouette through the curtain. She quickly took her clothes off and stepped in, looking his body up and down.
His back was facing her, and she could see the definition of his muscles as he rinsed his hair out. As he turned around her eyes landed on his cock which looked large and appetizing even when it wasn’t hard. “My eyes are up here, love,” he chuckled, and she blushed as she looked up into his baby blues. She could look into those the rest of her life and never tire of it. “God, you’re so sexy, Tanya.” He let his hands wander all over her body, and she shivered.
As their bodies pressed together she could feel his shaft growing against her leg. She gave him a sly smile before crouching to her knees, causing the water to spray down over her head. She was about to wrap her mouth around his waiting cock when he yanked her up and held her to his chest. “Tanya,” he said. “I don’t want you to think that’s all I’m about. I love being with you like that, but I want it to be more. You don’t have to do that. I just want to see you and spend time with you.”
Tanya nodded into him, surprised at what he said. Even Tim hadn’t been such a gentleman and so serious. “I like the way that sounds,” she told him with a kiss.
***
They went to a mall outside of town, hoping that they could be together publicly and it wouldn’t matter. It was so nice to be able to hold Danny’s hand and kiss him in public without a worry in the world. Coming out of Hot Topic, Danny stopped her against the window and smiled before dipping down to kiss her. Tanya smiled back, thinking about how far they’d come in such a short time. Maybe there was a way they could figure out how to be together. They could wait until they were out of the house and ease their parents into the idea.
“Well, well, what do we have here?” Both of them looked around to see where the voice was coming from and froze when they realized it was Sarah carrying a bunch of shopping bags on her arms. She had her phone out and had obviously snapped a picture and was possibly taking video. Her mouth was open in a sneer, and Tanya looked at Danny to see that he was horrified.
When they didn’t say anything, Sarah approached and walked around them in a circle, letting her fingers trail all over Danny’s body. “I knew you didn’t dump me for no reason. Danny the football star is never single. You know, I almost didn’t recognize you with the freak draped all over you. You’re even starting to dress like her. Is she some demon witch who put a spell on you?”
“Don’t talk about her like that, Sarah. I broke up with you because you’re a bitch. And I love her.” Tanya watched Danny’s eyes burn with fire and hatred. She couldn’t believe he was sticking up for her finally.
“Ooooh, love, huh? She really must have done a number on you. Well, it looks like you’re willing to stand up for her to me. But what about the whole school. I can send the picture I took of you two sucking face to the whole student body right now. Heck, I could probably even send it to the faculty.”
“Why would we care about that?” Danny asked, challenging her. “Football season is over, and college is just on the horizon. I can handle a few months of childish idiots making fun of me. How about you, Tanya?” Tanya nodded but shot him a concerned look. He was bluffing for sure because if the faculty saw, if students saw; it could easily get back to their parents.
“Do you think I’m that dumb, Danny? That I didn’t make sure to know everything about my enemies. You see, I thought it was strange that this freak was bold enough to keep trying to ride in your car. So, I decided to get a little more information on her. I found out that her school records show the same home address as yours, and didn’t your dad just remarry? This is your sister you’re kissing and falling in love with supposedly. And I don’t think your father would be too keen to find out that you’re with her, nor her mother.”
Sarah’s evil grin gave Tanya chills. What were they going to do to make her stop? “What do you want, Sarah?” Danny asked through gritted teeth. Quinn came to Tanya’s side and held her hand.
“Well, I want my popular boyfriend back with his sexy sports car, what else?” Tanya was about ready to cry. She had no doubt that he would go back to her to save them from the trouble they would get into.
“Can we go talk in private, Sarah?” Danny asked, practically dragging her off towards the food court. Tanya looked after him longingly and then looked to Quinn who gave her arm a squeeze.
Chapter 11
Danny spent December being Sarah’s boyfriend. The agreement was that on New Year’s Eve, she would dump him by kissing another guy, and it would be over. It would have to be done so that her reputation wasn’t ruined. He hadn’t had much time for Tanya, no thanks to Sarah who was keeping him busy. She even insisted on coming to family dinners. All they got were a few stolen moments.
Finally, though, New Year’s
Eve had come, and Tanya was to meet him at the party after midnight. He’d save his kiss for her when the deal was officially over. It was that simple, really, and Tanya couldn’t wait to get back on track. She hoped to discuss college and the future with him. She’d already gotten early acceptance to her college of choice, and she was sure there were plenty of great schools for football in California.
She looked at herself in the mirror to make sure everything was perfect. He’d actually bought her an outfit to wear; a black sweater that exposed her navel with rhinestone one it, a plaid skirt, combat boots, and fishnets that matched the skirt. It was so her, and he’d made it clear that’s what he wanted. He didn’t want to hide who he was or who she was anymore other than around their parents.
She just hoped that she’d be feeling alright for the party. She’d spent the past few days dealing with some kind of stomach bug. She was pretty nauseous a lot of the time, and she had some abdominal pain. She hoped that she was over it, though the pain was still there. She had yet to throw up, though.
“Can you do my makeup?” Quinn asked, walking into the bathroom. She had just dyed her hair a dark purple and had left it down and curled it. She had on a black pinstripe dress with chains across the back. Tanya’s jaw practically dropped to the floor.
“Sure, Quinn. You look amazing.” Tanya began pulling out her makeup kit, choosing the right eye shadows and eyeliner to make Quinn look perfect. “You think you’ll meet someone tonight?”
“I don’t know, Tanya. I mean, I don’t think I want to meet someone.”
“Oh, why not? I remember how you were all over that friend of Danny’s. What ever happened to him?” Quinn shifted uncomfortably in her seat at the mention of that. Tanya knew Quinn had embarrass herself a little by drinking too much and passing out, but she thought her friend was over it.
“Tanya, there’s something I should tell you. I should’ve told you that next day, but you were so happy with Danny that I couldn’t. I don’t know if Danny was involved or not, but I do know I didn’t have enough to drink for me to have passed out. I think one of them put something in my drink, maybe after you guys ran off. I don’t know. But I remember feeling really sleep and then trying to fight that guy off me. He was like all over me, and then they all were. Then, I remember them getting mad and taking me to Danny’s car. That’s all I know until I woke up here. I don’t think anything happened; I think I pissed them off enough to make it stop. But it just makes me a little afraid to put myself out there again, you know?”
Tanya stared at her friend in shock. Was she saying what Tanya thought she was saying? And Danny had let those guys be alone with Quinn? This was awful. “That’s terrible, Quinn. I feel so terrible for leaving you with them, and I can’t believe Danny would let us around those guys. Even if nothing happened it could have. I’m not waiting for this deal to be done. We need to leave now and go talk to Danny about this. It’s unacceptable.”
“No, Tanya, I don’t want you to ruin anything.”
“Quinn,” Tanya cut her off. “You’re my best friend, and I’m not letting anyone mess with you and get away with it. Danny and I are both almost just as responsible as those other assholes. Let’s go.”
The girls ran out to her mother’s car which was finally fixed and took off for where they knew the party would be taking place. It was at someone house just off the community college campus. Tanya was going to confront Danny about everything. She needed answers about why his friends did this, why he trusted them, and if he really did have feelings for Sarah. She suddenly doubted everything he’d ever said to her.
On the way there, her abdominal pain was getting worse, but she pushed through it. When she got inside the house she spotted Danny near a group of jocks near a keg and went towards him. She could see the shock in his eyes. But then she paused and looked down, feeling the trickle of something down her leg. Dark red blood was rushing from somewhere, and as she looked back up, the world spun before going black. The last thing she saw were Danny’s baby blues looking at her.
***
Noises and voices swirled in and out of Tanya’s mind. She heard the beeping of machines and the mixture of concerned voices and those of doctors and nurses. She was half awake and half asleep as she tried to focus and pull out just one thing. That’s when she heard her mother’s voice. Her eyes felt glued shut, so she just listened to the broken conversation her mother was having with a man with a friendly voice.
“Pregnant; how could she be pregnant? Her boyfriend is in Portland.” Her mother’s voice sounded confused and teary. Tanya tried to make sense of what was being said. Could she be pregnant? She played the last couple of months in her head like a movie and remembered every moment with Danny. They had never gotten their New Year’s kiss. Could she really be pregnant with his baby?
“Mrs. Sellers, she’s 18 years old. I’m sure there are plenty of things she doesn’t tell you. But the point here is that she was pregnant.”
“What do you mean was?” Funny, Tanya was wondering the same thing.
“Well, the blood loss was actually because her fallopian tube burst. She had an ectopic pregnancy. We had to go in and repair the damage and remove the fetus. She wasn’t that far along, just far enough to cause a problem. She may not have even known herself. But she may need support when she wakes up.”
Tanya heard her mother make a whimpering sound and tried once again to open her eyes and got them to open a slit. Her eyelids felt very heavy. “Mom?” she croaked out, and her mother looked up and ran over to her, grabbing her hand. “What happened?”
“Oh, Tanya, we have a lot to talk about.” The doctor left the room, and Tanya forced her eyes open to see that both her stepfather and Danny were also in the room. She met eyes with Danny and saw the tracks of tears down his cheek before he looked down and left the room.
Chapter 12
Tanya splashed her face with some cold water and looked at herself in the mirror. She still hadn’t been released from the hospital yet. They wanted to watch her for a couple days and make sure there were no major complications. This gave her mother the chance to bring in a counselor to talk to all of them. The whole family was supposed to do it together, but Danny had already refused to. She hadn’t seen much of him and hadn’t been alone at all to discuss the fact that their baby, one they didn’t know they were having, was gone.
It was weird, trying to grieve for something that was gone before you knew it even existed. And knowing that that thing was a life, one that had almost ended her own, was even harder. She knew better than to beg to see Danny to talk to him about it. The whole counselor thing was a rouse to get out of her who the baby belonged to and nothing else. She could tell by the way her mother looked at her and probed constantly. It was like her mother suddenly thought she was some kind of promiscuous teenager who needed to be deprogrammed.
She sighed as a knock came on the door. It was probably her mother checking up on her. Tanya walked out the door to find Danny there instead. She peeked around the corner to make sure that no one else was listening. There were some nurses going by, but that was it. Her mother must have still been in the hospital room waiting on the counselor.
“I’m so sorry, Tanya. I had no idea this could happen. I can’t believe we almost lost you.” He looked down at her with worry and sympathy and almost hugged her but then seemed to think better of it. “Can you ever forgive me for putting you through this? I never should have dragged you into my world like that.”
Tanya paused and looked up at him like she was seeing him for the first time. “Do you regret what we did? Because I don’t. I don’t just go around saying that I love someone. I loved you. Heck, I still love you. This was just as much my doing as yours. The only regret I have is not knowing so I could take care of myself.”
She felt angry suddenly, and she didn’t know why. “I’m sorry, Tanya. I don’t know what else to say or how to handle this. I never meant for you to get pregnant.”
“No, but it happen
ed. And now he or she is gone, Danny. Are you gone too?” She stared him down; daring him to tell her he loved her, to tell her anything. But he just helped her into her room and walked away. What was she supposed to make of that?
She sat down on her hospital bed but refused to lie down. She’d been lying down too long already. She didn’t want to feel like an invalid anymore. There was a woman sitting in a chair across from her, and her mother was to her right on a couch along with her stepfather. “Let’s get this intervention over with. I don’t want to be here,” Tanya barked out, looking between the three people who were about to ask her a million questions she didn’t know how to answer. It was the counselor that spoke.
“Tanya, you are 18, so, your parents cannot force you to be here. But they strongly feel that you need to talk to someone, and from what I’ve heard, I agree.”
Tanya scoffed. “Only one of them is my parent.” She didn’t know what had gotten into her. She had never actually said anything like that before. While she had never gotten close to Danny’s father, she had never particularly disliked him. She looked at the two of them sitting there, and they looked upset. She could tell she had hurt them with her statement. And she decided that she needed to try and go through the session just for them.
“I’m sorry, I’m just upset. I’ll go ahead and stick around and see how it goes.” Tanya nodded to the counselor.
“Alright, well, my name is Dr. Annette Barber. I think that your mother has some concerns about how you are handling the current situation and how you got yourself into that situation. Would you like to start this off, ma’am?” The counselor nodded to her mother to start talking. As she did, Tanya couldn’t meet her eyes.
“Darling, I had no idea you and Tim were over and that you were seeing someone else. I should have been more involved in your life, and I’m afraid the move may have changed you or make you act out. I need to know if you were being safe or not. You could have gotten more than pregnant from this behavior. Who is it that talked you into doing this?”