“The moon shone brightly across the bell of my trumpet, I missed being able to sit and the stands and play pep band music till my lungs gave out, being able to step off on my left foot without waddling. This isn’t another episode of 16 and pregnant, this is my life, my story, and my pregnancy.”

Everyone burst into applause as I situated my hands on my swollen abdomen, this was my family now, my parents both died in a car accident and it’s not like my baby’s father would cares. I love my baby and my baby has 200 aunts and uncles that do to.
But I suppose that I should start at the beginning, my name is Maya Rei Reid, I’m 17 years old. Othello, my older brother is the Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corp mellophone section leader. I’m the trumpet section leader of the Stone Hill High School Marching Band, at least I was until Aaron Charring star of the football team came into the picture, before he took my virginity and left me with a parting gift that I could never rid myself of. Aaron seemed like a nice person, but I had no idea how wrong I was.
It was the 1st football game of the season, and I was trailing behind the band as they moved into the stands. My mom and dad had gone to California on a road trip for their anniversary and they called to check in with me. I had just ended the call with my parents, so I wasn’t aware of Aaron towering behind me, he grasped me arms and pulled me into the locker room where he raped me. I screamed as loud as I could, but no one could hear me over the roar of the crowd, halftime came and he pushed me into the old unused shower room and walked back out onto the football field. I silently cried as I heard the football team file in from their victory. It was silent for a time before I saw the eyes of one of the only men I knew I could trust; Mr. Truesdale our band director walked through the locker room passing the trashcan where my bibbers, marching jacket, and ploom had been shoved before he finally fell upon me housed in one of the old shower cubicles, “Maya, are you okay?!”

I flinched away as he approached me, “R-R- Roman… Roman and ‘Thello.”

“Do you want Roman and Othello,” I nodded briefly before he laid his marching band windbreaker across my shoulders and left to find my brother and best friend. I met Roman in 6th grade when he asked to borrow my valve oil for my trumpet; we had been best friends ever since he told me that his middle name was Aristotle. Moments after I had completed my thought my brother came roaring into the locker room and made a beeline for me, “Maya are you okay, what happened?!”

I flinched at the sudden increase in my brother’s volume, “Shh, Maya its okay, I’m here but I couldn’t find Roman,” He pulled me into his arms, “Misha I need you to tell me what happened to you.”

My brother pulled the ponytail out of his hair and tied mine back, his brotherly instincts had kicked in and for the moment I felt relieved, “Big brother I wanna go home.”

I latched onto Othello’s jacket and sobbed uncontrollably, and then it all went black.

Where am I, am I in heaven?

Everything was white and I couldn’t figure out how to stop the constant beeping that filled my head, the clock that was above me said that it was August 26th, had I really been asleep for almost 2 weeks?

“Misha, are you in there,” a voice asked somewhat in distress.

I blinked the grogginess from my eyes in an attempt to clear my vision, “Where is Othello, I wanna see my brother.”

A cold hand rested against my cheek, “Maya, I’m right here.”

“Thello why are you crying,” Othello’s body was wracked with sobs as he held my hand, “Mom and dad were driving up to Rosemont, to get some of my things since I decided to stay here for a while with you, but, they’re never coming home they were hit by a drunk driver and they were killed on impact.”

My heart dropped to the floor, my mom and dad were dead and my brother was all I had left. I didn’t think that I had anymore tears to cry but I was wrong; I felt the salty drops cascade down my cheeks and soak my brother’s shirt. I listened to my brother’s hysterical sobs and I somehow managed to drift off to sleep.

When I woke up the following afternoon to the same constant beeping sound, my vision was much more clear. But what I could see most clearly was that Othello wasn’t there by my side, “OTHELLO! OTHELLO,” two nurses came in quickly followed by a teenager with sun bleached brown hair who wrapped his arms around me, “Maya! Maya! Calm down it’s me, its Roman. Your brother had to go to your house to pick up some of our things.”

The few tears that had begun to form at the corner of my eyes dripped onto Roman’s shirt as he cradled my head, “Um excuse me, Ms. Reid may I talk to you for a few minutes?”

I sat up and looked at the woman dressed in a white lab coat standing in the door of my hospital room, “Who are you?”

“I am Dr. Maria Ross; I’m the OB-GYN that saw you when you came in 2 weeks ago.”

“Um… ok, Airi do you wanna go out in the hallway and wait?”

Roman pushed the stray hair that had collected on my sweaty brow out of my face,” I’d like to stay, even if I’m here for nothing more than moral support.”

“Ok,” I looked up at Dr. Ross, “What’s the verdict doc?”

“Your scratches and bruises have healed on their own and you body shows the normal signs of a rape victim, but you may want to think about your future.”

I gripped Roman’s hand, “What do you mean think about my future?”

“Ms. Reid I’m not sure if this will be good or bad news to you, but you’re pregnant.”

I was speechless. I had my life planned out ahead of me for the next 30 years; I knew which college I would attend, what I would major in, when I would get married, and when I was going to have my children, and having a baby at 17 wasn’t in my plans,
“Dr. Ross can you excuse us for a few minutes?”

“Of course just page the nurse’s desk when you are ready for me to return,” she left as quietly as she came, leaving Roman and myself to wallow in our thoughts, “Maya are you okay?”

I swallowed in an attempt to drench my dry throat, “Yeah, just surprised.”

Roman handed me a glass of water and sat on the bed behind me wrapping me in his embrace, “So any ideas on what you’re going to do about this?”

I didn’t even hear him; I was too lost in my own thoughts to even possibly acknowledge the outside world. My tears had long since dried from my eyes and my heart was a black abyss. I had this, this thing growing inside of me and its father was nothing more than the devil’s spawn and its mother was a pile of shattered glass that even the most advanced jigsaw puzzle master couldn’t put me back together. I was scared to admit it, but my baby was going to be born into a broken home with a broken family.

“Maya. Maya. Misha. Earth to Maya Rei!”

I snapped out of my stupor, “Huh, oh sorry Airi I didn’t mean to zone.”

Roman ran his hands through my hair and proceeded to braid my hair into his one of a kind over the shoulder braid, “So what are you gonna do?”

“Close my eyes and hope it goes away.”

I felt Roman’s warm cheek lay against the shoulder opposite the one my braided hair now fell over, “You need to figure this out soon, you know as well as I do that the longer you hold off the harder it will be to let it go.”

I sighed, “I know that and I also know that I’m not terminating the pregnancy, it’s my baby and my choice and I’m not gonna let the fact that he or she was unwillingly conceived make me a murderer.”

I turned and curled into Roman’s lap, he and my brother were the only males, maybe even people that I would be comfortable around for a long time. I was scared, I was exhausted, and I was going to be a teenage mother. My mind was racing as every possible thought of what could or what would happen wracked my brain. I briefly remember a nurse in Hello Kitty scrubs coming in and putting something in my IV, and within minutes I had fallen into the best sleep I had had in two weeks.