Katie In Denver (In Denver Series Book 3) (2 page)

BOOK: Katie In Denver (In Denver Series Book 3)
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Things have been strained between us for the last few weeks. He started drinking and partying with his friends every weekend. I thought it would pass once the senior celebration activities ended but he graduated two weekends ago and he is still spending his time hanging out with his friends at the lake drinking, I tried to tell him it was becoming excessive, but he just keeps saying he can handle it. I thought I saw him take a pill last time we were out, and when I asked him what it was, he told me it was aspirin. But, it wasn’t out of a container it was from a baggie in his pocket. When I asked him to explain he took me home; that was three days ago I haven’t heard from him since. When I knock on the door, Liam answers it. He looks a little confused to see me.

“Hey, Katie. What’s up?” he asks, stepping aside so I could come in. “How did you get here?” 

“Percy gave me a ride. I haven’t heard from Michael in days. He isn’t answering my phone calls,” I say. Trying to mask the hurt on my face, I still see the pity in Liam’s eyes.

“He’s in his room.” He won’t look me in the face. I walk up the giant staircase and head towards Michael’s room. He’s standing next to his bed packing clothes into a suitcase. It’s eleven o’clock in the morning, and I see four beer cans on his nightstand.

“Hey, Michael, you aren’t answering my calls,” I say from the open doorway. 

“Yeah, well, I’ve been busy.”

He doesn’t even turn around to acknowledge me he just keeps loading his clothes into bags, looking around his room for things he might be forgetting.

I sit on his bed. “Are you going out of town?” I feel my heart rate speeding up as I wait for him to answer.

He lets out an annoyed breath. “A spot at Dartmouth opened up for me, so I’m going.”

Staring at Michael with a look of disbelief on my face, I mutter, “I don't understand, Michael. You said you were only going to be applying at DU, but now you’re telling me you’re going to school in New Hampshire?” 

“Katie, this is the chance of a lifetime for me. I’ve been accepted into Dartmouth! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get into an Ivy League School?

I’m leaving in three days, so I can get settled before the school year starts I was going to call you and let you know.” 

“You were going to call me? From New Hampshire? So what happens to us, Michael? Do the two years we've been together mean nothing to you?” I say in a whisper. I’m scared to ask the question I already know the answer to.

“Katie, I'm eighteen. I love you but…”

“Don't even finish that sentence, Michael, I’m serious! I didn't come here to talk school, Michael, I came here to tell you I'm late.” 

“Late for what?” he asks, still folding clothes into his suitcase.

“Michael, my period never came. I think I'm pregnant.” He stops and turns to me. 

Michael sits on his bed next to me, whispering, “We were careful every time, Katherine, how could this happen?” 

It doesn’t escape my notice that in the two years we have been together I have never heard him call me Katherine before. I feel dejected.

“I think we should tell our parents, I can call my parents have them come here, and we can all figure out what to do.”

“Are you crazy? My parents would kill me!” He says, “No, we have to handle this ourselves. I have money. You can get rid of it; that would be best for everyone. I can still go to Dartmouth and you can finish high school, and no one will have to know.”

“You want me to kill our baby?” I can’t even look at him. Right this very moment, I want to bash his face in. “You want us to kill our baby, and you get to go off to college like nothing happened, is that what you’re telling me, Michael Kerrigan?” I’m not even crying anymore because I’m crushed by the words I just heard.

“I’m telling you I’m not ready to be a father, and I’m not giving up my life because you got pregnant.” 

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that. I’m going to rewind the last ten minutes of this conversation so we can start again,” I say in a resentful tone. I stand up and head for the door but stop to say more thing to this stranger before I leave.

“I’m pregnant. I’m going to tell our parents so they can help us, but I’m not killing my baby!”

I turn and see Liam, Michael’s older brother, standing at the doorway looking at both Michael and me.

“You know mom and dad are going to make you guys get married,” his brother says. 

He should know: his wife Rose got pregnant with their son when she and Liam were nineteen, and they got married at the courthouse.

“I’m not marrying your brother,” I say. I look to Michael, “How could I marry a stranger? The Michael I have been in love with for the last two years is replaced by this drunk drug addict.” I see the look of shock on Liam’s face, but I don’t care that I just put Michael’s business out there “I will tell my parents and your parents if I have to that I’m keeping my baby, and Michael here can go on his merry way to New Hampshire and never come back as far as I’m concerned!”. I push my way past Liam and out to my cousin who drove me here to talk to Michael.

Once I’m inside my cousin’s car, she starts grilling me. “What happened?" Persephone asks when she sees the look on my face.

“Please, Percy, just drive. Please don’t ask me anything right now, just drive.” I just need to hold it together until I make it off this property. Percy drives us to Sloan’s Lake, and we just sit there. 

“He told me to get rid of it so he could still go to college. He called me Katherine, Percy.” I sit there in disbelief. How have I not seen the changes in Michael? Was I so blinded by love?

My cousin just hugs me. “Katherine,” she says, not sure how to word her next statement, so she treads carefully. “You’re sixteen; you have your whole life ahead of you. If you have a baby now, your whole life will be over, you have always wanted to be a teacher, but how are you going to do that if you don’t go to college? I’m not saying it’s impossible but look at all the girls on the reservation that got pregnant young. You always said you wanted more for your life.” 

“I know, but I don’t think I can do it, Percy. I don’t think I can kill my baby.”

“It’s not really a baby yet,” she says. 

“But
I
know it is, and I don’t think I can go through with having an abortion.”

“No matter what you decide, Katherine, you know I’m always going to stand by your side. But, I’m telling you this… if you tell your parents, they are going to flip out.”

We sit at the lake for a little while longer. When I get home my dad tells me Michael has called several times and sounds upset, he wants to know if we got into a fight, but I tell him everything is fine and that I have decided it's best if Michael and I go our separate ways since he is leaving for college early. My dad doesn’t say anything.

I wait until the morning to return Michael’s call.

“I need the money for the abortion, Michael, and I’m going to need a ride to and from the clinic. I made an appointment for tomorrow,” I say into the phone.

“Well, I can give you the money, but I can’t drive you. It could get back to my parents that I was seen outside the clinic.”

“What if it gets back to my parents, Michael? Don’t you think they will be equally upset?”

“Okay, I will drop you off and then pick you up but I can’t wait with you.”

I close my eyes because at this exact moment I realize I wasn’t ready for the consequences of sex which meant I wasn’t ready to have sex to begin with.

Looking at the website, it says that I have to inform a parent, but I’m not really sure who I can tell. I walk to Percy’s house where her mother Maggie is cooking dinner,

“Maggie,” I say. She is startled and drops her spoon, 

“Hey, Katherine, what brings you around?” she asks with a jovial smile.

“Aunt Maggie, I’m in trouble, and I can’t go to my parents.” I see the look on her face like she knows the next words that are going to come out of my mouth. “I’m pregnant, and I need a parent or guardian to know I’m having an abortion, but I can’t tell my parents. They will be so disappointed.” I start to cry, and my aunt moves me over to the table.

“Are you sure you want to have an abortion? Is that asshole boyfriend forcing you to?” She is angry, and I see the vein in her forehead starting to pop out.

“I don’t know, Aunt Maggie. I don’t know anything. I’m scared, and I’m dealing with this alone.” I'm crying so hard now I'm having trouble catching my breath “He told me he will give me the money to get rid of it, but that he won’t go with me. He said he would drop me off and pick me up.”  Maggie sits in the chair next to me. “He is leaving for college tomorrow, and he didn’t even tell me. He said he was going to call me once he got there. Michael has changed so much in the last couple of months. He started hanging with the wrong crowd and was drinking, and I think he was doing drugs.” I wipe my nose with the sleeve of my shirt.

“Call him and tell him to bring the money in an envelope to the Denver Diner in one hour and that I will be meeting him. Tell him you don’t need a ride, that you have it worked out.” 

So, I do. I call Michael and let him know to meet my Aunt Maggie and how much the abortion costs plus the medication I will need after. I wait at my Aunt Maggie’s house while she drives to meet him, and she comes back with two envelopes. One with double what the abortion cost and one is a letter from Michael. I take the letter and tear it into a hundred pieces. Everything Michael Kerrigan had to say to me he said in his room yesterday.

It’s the morning we arrive at the clinic, and there are protesters outside trying to hand me pamphlets and yelling at me that this doesn’t have to be my choice. They are holding awful signs and have shirts on with pictures of dead babies! My Aunt Maggie pushes through the throng of people, and we finally make it the reception area. She tell the receptionist that she is my mother and because of the resemblance they don’t question it. I fill out the forms, and my aunt sits next to me holding my hand while I wait for my name to be called. 

Walking into the first room through the double doors the nurse brought me through, she takes my vitals and has me take a pregnancy test. They sit me in a little office, and I wait for the lady to come with my paperwork. It’s much colder back here than out front, and I can’t seem to stop my teeth from chattering while she asks me a whole bunch of questions. When she finishes the paperwork, I ask about payment, and she explains that the paperwork I filled out qualifies me for a free procedure.  I walk back into the procedure area and see chairs lined up against the wall. Some of the occupants look off in the distance, lost in their own grief; some girls look unaffected lying back listening to music or reading books or magazines; others are crying. I’m not sure if the tears are from physical pain or emotional.

“Please come this way,” the nurse says. “We need to do an ultrasound to determine how far along you are. If you’re under nine weeks, you can choose to take the abortion pill but if you’re over nine weeks, then you need to have an in-clinic surgical procedure.” I can feel the panic starting to set in. The nurse takes my hand. “Listen, you haven’t made any decision yet. You can walk out of here right now if that’s what you want.” I nod but don’t respond. I just sit on the examining table in silence. The nurse instructs me to pull my shirt up, and she squirts some kind of gel on my stomach; it’s really cold. Slowly, she moves the wand around.

“You look to be about sixteen weeks so if you wanted to proceed today it would have to be a surgical abortion. I can explain the procedure, we have a coach that can come in and hold your hand while you have the procedure,” she says with a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. I look at the small dot on the screen and then she turns a dial, and I hear it: I hear my baby’s heartbeat, and everything becomes so clear to me.

She goes to turn it off when she sees the tears running down my face, but I grab her hand. “Please, I just want to hear it a little longer.” I reach my hand out and touch the screen. She is clicking buttons, and I see pictures coming out the side of the machine. I don't even ask for them, I just snatch the pictures from the machine and grip them for dear life. I want to remember this moment; I want to remember the moment I stopped living for me, and I started living for my child. I look at the nurse and start getting off the exam table. 

“I’m not doing it, can I please go?” 

She smiles. “Yes, let me get you cleaned up and you can go. You have a few more weeks if you change your mind,” she adds.

“No, I know I want my baby even if no one else does. Thank you for being so nice,” I say before running to the waiting room. 

I see my aunt Maggie, and when she sees me, she cries, “Oh, sweetie, I’m so happy you didn’t go through with it. It’s going to be hard, but you have me to help, and I will go with you to tell my brother and your mom.”

We walk out, and the protesters are still outside.

One of the protesters, a young girl, yells, “Why did you change your mind?” 

“It wasn’t because you were protesting,” I yell back. “You’re making it harder for those girls and women in there. They come here scared and alone. They are about to make a really hard choice and people yelling at them and calling them baby killers isn't the way to get them to see your point. What you’re doing to other women is a real bitch thing to do!” She is shocked at my outburst, but my Aunt Maggie just pulls me to her car.

I wait for my parents to get home; Aunt Maggie and I are sitting at the table when they arrive. Quickly, I tell them everything: how Michael and I have been having sex for the last six months, how I found out I was pregnant, everything that happened and what was said between Michael and me. My father is upset his sister chose to take me instead of telling him, but my mother tells him Maggie did the right thing. My father is furious and wants to call Shamus Kerrigan right now and tell him about his son, but I remind them that the Kerrigan's own Denver.

“I’m telling Michael I had the abortion,” I say to my parents and Maggie. ”He doesn’t have to know about the baby. The people here gossip among themselves but never put our business out off the reservation”. I look my parents in the face. “I know you’re going to tell me I’m wrong, but I don’t want the Kerrigans coming in with all their money and power trying to take this baby away. Please understand.” My dad gets up and dials Michael’s number that has been on our refrigerator for the last two years

BOOK: Katie In Denver (In Denver Series Book 3)
12.07Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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