Brooke was the name of the girl; she walks through the sliding doors. She feels as if all eyes are on her. Too ashamed to even think to herself what she is doing there, as if people can hear her thoughts. After withdrawing a $20 bill from the ATM she walks slowly with hesitation to the right isle, she walks down it pretending she is looking for something, but she already knows what she is looking for. When no one is looking she grabs a bright pink box, tucks it under her arm, and walks to the line to wait and pay. Waiting in line she hides the label of the box so no one can judge her as she stands there so vulnerable. So much on her mind as she stands in line, she starts to zone out. Faintly in the background, a voice,
“I can help the next person in line.” Everyone but Brooke hears the man. Her mind resurfaces as the lady behind her taps her on the shoulder,
“Miss, you can go ahead now,” she says. Opening her eyes, she apologizes with embarrassment, and walks to the counter. No eye contact being made, she says
“Just this.” “Bart,” the man’s name tag reads, he scans her bright pink box and gives her the total.
“That will be $11.24 please.” Anxious she hands him a crinkled up sweaty $20 bill, she didn’t realize she was holding it that tight,
“Here you go sir.” Grabbing her bag that now covers her bright pink box, she starts to walk away.”Miss your change!”
“Oh” she says quietly, and walks back and he hands her $8.76,
“Thanks,” she says shyly and walks away again.
Walking out of those sliding doors she starts to feel relief as she hops in her car, shuts the door, puts her seat belt on, and then just sits there. Breathing as if she had just been chased for miles, so scared and panicked, she throws her bag on the passenger seat and starts the car. The bright pink box slips out of the bag and onto the floor of the car and becomes visible. It reads, “First Response Pregnancy Test.”
Pulling out of the parking lot and beginning to drive home, she blasts the radio to let out some stress and to occupy her mind, just for the few minutes it takes her to get home. Coming to a stop in her driveway, she unbuckles, and turns off the car. Bending over to grab the test from the floor of the car, she puts it back in the bag, determined to keep it hidden. Opening her house door and heading straight to her bathroom, again the panic begins, as she opens the box, her hand began to shake. Reading the instructions, she began to do as it said. Barely able to un-wrap the test because her hands are sweaty and shaky, she unbuttons her pants, sits on the toilet, and begins to pee on the test stick. Placing the test down, she pulls up her pants, as she does this she gets a flash back of the night that she may have conceived; not a thought she wanted to have right now. She flushes the toilet and thinks to herself,
The task is done now all I can do is wait.
She washes her hands and waits the 3 minutes instructed. Those 3 minutes would have passed by quickly for a normal situation but to Brooke right now, they felt like 3 hours. Time was up, but Brooke was now too scared to look at the test. Waiting an extra 5 minutes until she looked, she finally picks up the test and reads it, she begins to cry. She checks the directions again to make sure she read the test right, and did everything correctly. Yup, no mistakes have been made that pink plus sign starring her right in her face makes it clear for her to see; she was indeed 16 and pregnant.
Sitting on her floor crying, so many things run through her mind,
What will I say? Is he going to leave me, why did this have to happen?
She knows she has to tell her boyfriend, to talk about what they are going to plan on doing; she’s frozen for a minute, then picks up the phone and dials. He picks up the phone a lot quicker than she had hoped he would.
“Hello?”
“Hey babe,” she replies in a nervous tone.
“What’s up, how are you? I haven’t heard from you all day.” With much seriousness in her voice she replies,
“We need to talk.”
“About what, what is it Brooke? Is everything okay?” He says not realizing this is not going to be one of their normal conversations.
“I’m, pr-pre-pre;” she stutters, “pregnant!”
A long pause from her boyfriend is given, and then he speaks.
“Okay, well are you sure, what are we going to do, your dad is going to hate me, my parents will flip, are we kee-“
“Babe!” Brooke cuts him off. “I have no answers yet I just found out 5 minutes ago, well make this decision together, but we need to meet up and talk before my dad gets home and hears us on the phone.”
She told her boyfriend to meet her at the park and then she hung up. A half hour or so later they meet at the park. When they saw each other they were in such utter shock, neither of them knowing what to say or do. At that moment they both began to break down and cry in each other’s arms. No words exchanged, yet they already knew the answers. They talked for awhile sitting on an old park bench. Brooke speaks first,
“Babe, as much as I wish I was not pregnant right now, I am, I’m going to have a child in my stomach it’s going to grow, and I will feel this precious human being inside of me.”
That statement already rules out abortion, right? I wonder what her ultimate decision will be though.
“And once I feel this child inside of me, there will be no way that I will be able to give it away.”
Her boyfriend speaks,
“Okay babe, then it is decided, we are keeping our child and we will do the best we can for it.”
Now they get up and they start to head home to Brooke’s house, where she has to tell her dad face to face. She decided she is just going to tell her mom through a txt when she is done talking to her father. Brook gets home and her dad is sitting on the couch in the living room watching the game. Her and her boyfriend sit down next to him, and asks if he has time to talk, that it was serious. Oh god, he thinks to himself, I hope it’s nothing too bad, she never comes to me like this at all she better not be pre-
“I’m pregnant dad.” She took the words right out of his thoughts.
“Come again?!” he asked in disbelief.
“Dad, I’m pregnant, I am so sorry, I never meant for this to happen. We have already talked about it though and we are going to keep our child.”
Her dad, still pretty much speechless, sits there thinking to himself,
I am so disappointed, but she is so sad, I am hurt but so is she, but s*** I don’t care!

My daughter is pregnant at 16 and I’m going to kill her little immature, irresponsible, son-of-a-b**** of a boyfriend.

He finally speaks out loud,

“I cannot believe this! Are you kidding me? I’m going to hurt you!” He pointed to
Brook’s boyfriend. “And when I’m finished, I never want to see you around her again!”

Brooke is crying hysterically,

“But dad!”

“No! I don’t want to hear it!” He cuts her off. “Take your things and get out before I kill your boyfriend, and don’t come back!”

She’s speechless now, she runs to her room, grabs as much as she can as quickly as she can, and they leave.

Time has gone by now, she’s calmed down a little bit, and she knows that she needs to tell her mother. No matter how upset Brooke already is right now, she has to do it all over again now with her mom. Brooke sends her a txt,


“mom, I have already talk to dad, and even though we don’t talk much I thought you


should know right away, I’m pregnant, and dad has kicked me out” *send*

Not too worried about her moms’ reaction, because her dads’ was worse enough, she starts to talk to her boyfriend about how they will tell his parents. They know that they are going to be upset, and just like Brooke’s dad, they may neglect them of any support of help. They go over to his house, sit his mother and father down and explain to his parents what has happened. They make it short and sweet, just explaining how she is pregnant, they’re keeping the baby, and how she is now kicked out of her house and has nowhere to go. His mother is the most upset; his dad just sits there not speaking up yet. His mom begins to speak, blaming it all on her son,

“How could you get Brooke pregnant? You have ruined both of your lives all because you felt you were and adult and mature enough to have sex. Are you adult enough to support Brooke and the baby with money? To stay with her every night so you can help with the baby? Have you even thought about any of this?” She finishes waiting for an answer.

“Mom, I am 17, I can get a job, and I will. And Brooke needs somewhere to stay, and if she stayed with us she would get all they help that she needed from me.”

His mom, without any exchange of words looks over at her husband, and they come to an agreement that it would be best for all of them if
Brooke stayed with them.

“Son,” she says, “you get a job, you buy the diapers, the formula, all the clothes, including anything else that you won’t get at a baby shower. And with the help of Brooke, yes, she can stay here, but, we will take it day by day, understood?”

“Yes ma’am.” They say in unison.

His dad speaks now,

“As long as you two are coming up with the money and aren’t relying only on us, then hell, I am here for you guys, as well as my home will be.”

“We will be here for you,” his mom says, “it isn’t going to be a walk in the park, free ride. Brooke, you will have chores, and for as long as you can, you will help out with everything around the house.”

A sense of relief comes over Brooke and her boyfriend, and Brooke says,

“Yes ma’am, understood. Thank you!”

“Don’t thank me yet Brooke, we have to see how this is going to work out first. Who knows, it might end up being a disaster.”

“I know.” She says.

Suddenly the relief is not there as much anymore, and at that same moment Brooke gets a txt from her mom, it reads,


“Wow, okay, well I guess you will deal with it, right?”

When she reads that txt she doesn’t bother to reply. It doesn’t matter to her; it just shows her that her mother doesn’t care, just like her father. With all of that aside, her day has been one heck of a roller coaster, and her and her boyfriend would just like to call it a night. They go upstairs and she unpacks her things. Both of them, so confused as to why this happened and why it turned out the way it did. Though they didn’t get the happy ending they were hoping for, they will take what they have one day at a time and see how life unravels for them in the end.