Spencer's Face (Buckeye Hawks) (39 page)

“Hi Todd. Hi
Janel.” I said to them as we walked through the front door. Maybe I should have
knocked, but I still felt like it was my home, until I actually moved out.

“Hi.” They both
said uneasily to Taylor. “Sit down.”

Taylor and I sat
on the couch together. I held her close. I knew she was a little nervous about
this.

“So, how did your
first day back at school go?” Janel asked Taylor.

“Good, except
Coach Robbins asked not to glamorize teen pregnancy too much.” She answered.

I laughed. I
didn’t know that happened. She didn’t say a word.

“So, do you two
have any plans?” Todd asked.

“We’re looking
for a place to rent in Buckeye until we graduate. Then we’re going to move to
Phoenix and go to college.” I told them our plans. Everything we had worked out
so far.

“The baby is due
when?”

“They’re taking
her on June first, if I don’t go into labor before then. The doctor isn’t
expecting me to make it to term completely.” Taylor told her.

“A girl?” Janel
asked.

Taylor nodded, then
she looked at Janel with compassion. She reached out her hand and rubbed Janel’s
shoulder. “I’m sorry.” She said softly.

Janel was crying
quietly, tears running down her cheeks. I didn’t understand, but I didn’t want
to ask. Somehow it seemed really personal. Todd rubbed her face, wiping her
tears. Everyone was silent for a few minutes, afraid to speak.

“Were you
planning on using your money, Spencer?” Janel asked.

“What money?” Taylor
asked me directly.

“My parents’ life
insurance.” I told her. “And, I sold a song.”

“That’s so cool.”
Taylor exclaimed, then kissed me on the cheek. “Which one?”

“You haven’t
heard it yet.” I told her. I didn’t want to tell her that it was the song that
I’d written telling her off basically.

Janel laughed.

“How much did you
sell it for?” she asked.

“Twelve thousand,
plus royalties after he records it. It’s a new guy. He sounds really good
though. I think he’s going to go far. We went to Nashville to hear him sing it.
It was really cool.”

“I’m so proud of
you!” She said as she ran her fingers through my hair. I loved it when she
touched me. I missed her touch so much. I held her hand to my mouth and kissed
it. I couldn’t wait to make love to her again tonight.

A few weeks
later, we finally found a little house in Buckeye right next to school. It was
so close that we could walk to school. We did several times, since the doctor
told Taylor she needed to get more exercise. We walked home for lunch everyday
too. Taylor ate more often than she used to, but she couldn’t eat as much. She
had to carry snacks with her so she could munch between classes.

I felt so grown
up, being pregnant and living in our own rental house. Spencer mowed the yard
every Saturday. I kept the house clean. We paid our monthly bills on time, and
our rent. We walked to school everyday. We had the house decorated just like we
wanted. We had visitors over all the time. Even my two sisters that were in
high school came over sometimes for lunch with us. It seemed so perfect to us.
We loved living together and being together fulltime. Every waking moment was
spent together almost.

After school, Spencer
went to basketball practice, and I walked home alone. I busied myself getting
the baby’s room ready, and cleaning the house. It was so easy to clean. Spencer
never messed it up. It wasn’t at all like living at home. Cooking was a new
experience for me, because I only cooked for two now. I was used to frying an
entire chicken, with everything to go with it. Spencer ate two pieces and I ate
one. I wasted a lot of food at first.

My mother and
father still weren’t talking to me. We would accidentally run into them
occasionally, but they would turn and go the other way. That was awkward, but I
had to deal with it. Todd and Janel came to see us quite often, at least once a
week. They were very supportive and so proud of Spencer for stepping up to the
plate as Todd called it. I apologized to Spencer so many times for doing him so
wrong. I should have told him immediately instead of assuming he’d want out.

We decided to buy
the little house that we were renting. The guy let us have it for a lot less
than he could have sold it to someone else for. I don’t know why he was so nice
to us, but we were glad that he was. Janel and Todd helped us out with anything
we needed help with, like buying a hot water heater when it went out, and
finding an electrician when the lights in the bedroom wouldn’t come back on.

Spencer’s song
was doing well. He’d written several more and sent them in. No word on those
yet. We used his parent’s life insurance money for the big bills. And, my debit
card for anything under five hundred dollars. We were planning to put college
off for a year at least. Spencer was going to write songs, and teach music to
young kids. I was going to teach gymnastics and cheerleading to young girls
after I had the baby. That was the plan anyway. Spencer already had a few
students taking guitar lessons.

One day at
school, I forgot my History notebook in our locker. I asked Coach Snider if I
could run get it. He excused me from class for a few minutes. When I looked up
from the locker to see who was headed my way, I saw Jose. We were the only two
in the hallway. Everyone was in class. No one would even hear me scream. My
heart dropped to my stomach, as I got ready with my moves that my dad had
taught me for years.

“Stay right
there. Don’t come any closer!” I warned him.

He came closer, then
stopped about three feet away from me. “I just want to talk. Just for a minute.
I swear I won’t touch you.” he said. His face was full of remorse and regret,
and somehow I believed him.

“If you hurt me
or my baby, I swear to God I will kill you.” I warned him. I wanted to make it
completely clear to him. I put my finger on speed dial button to Spencer just
in case.

“Taylor, I wanted
to apologize. If you’ll let me.” he said.

“Apologize? For
almost raping me?” I said to him. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Are you crazy?”

“I am really sorry.
I wasn’t going to rape you. I just wanted to hurt you. To teach Spencer and Zane
a lesson.”

“What?” I asked
him in disbelief.

“Fred was going
to get us some harder liquor. He was on the phone with me taking our orders
when it happened. He said someone was in his lane. I was on the phone with him
the entire time.”

“Jose, I was
right behind them when it happened. Your brother swerved into our lane. The
accident was his fault, not Zane’s.” I told him. I probably shouldn’t be
talking to a crazy guy, but I did want to set the record straight.

“They’re alive,
and my brother is dead. It was all my fault for sending him after the liquor.”

“I’m sorry.” I
apologized to him. I wasn’t sure if I should be compassionate or not, given
what he’d done to me, but I did feel compassion for him. I felt sorry for him.
“It still wasn’t your fault. He should have been watching where he was going,
and he shouldn’t have been on the phone without pulling over. He could have
handed it to his girlfriend and let her take care of it. He shouldn’t have been
drunk either. It wasn’t your fault.”

“I’ve felt extremely
guilty. After the thing with you, my mom insisted that I get counseling. I’ve
been going. It’s been helping. Anyway, I wanted to apologize and tell you that
I didn’t mean to hurt you. And, I wasn’t going to rape you. I wanted you, but
I’d never want you against your will.”

“Thanks Jose.” I
told him. “That makes me feel better.”

“And, good luck
with your baby and with Spencer. I mean that.” he said in Spanish for some
reason.

I looked up to
see Spencer running down the hall toward us. “Jose. I warned you to stay away
from her.” He said in pure anger as he got closer.

I stepped in
front of Jose, between the two of them. “He was apologizing. Let’s bury the
hatchet and go our separate ways. We don’t have to be friends, but I don’t want
to be enemies any longer.”

“I’m willing if
you two are.” Jose said in Spanish.

“Speak English so
I can understand you.” Spencer said, perturbed.

“He said he’d
like that.” I loosely translated for Spencer.

Jose held out his
hand to shake Spencer’s. Spencer shook his hand. He held out his hand to shake
mine. I hugged him instead.

“I am really
sorry about your brother.” I told him. “Good luck in Iowa.”

“You heard about
that already?”

“Olga.” I told
him. His sister told me, bragging about his full ride scholarship to Iowa. We
were still friends.

“Yes, good luck, Jose.”
Spencer said to him. “And, I’m really sorry about your brother too. I didn’t
make it to the funeral.”

“Thanks.” He said
to Spencer. “So, you two are headed to ASU?”

“I screwed up my
cheerleading scholarship with getting pregnant, but I still have a regular
scholarship that will pay for tuition. And, Spencer does too. We’re not sure
yet. We’re thinking about sitting out a year, raising our daughter.”

“You’re going to
be a great mother.” Jose told me. “You’re a great big sister.”

“Thanks.” I told
him. When we parted ways, I felt closer to him than I’d ever felt to him
before. It was a funny feeling. Maybe it was because he was more honest with me
than he had ever been before.

“You okay?” Spencer
asked me.

“I’m good. What
are you doing out of class?” I kissed him as I closed the locker.

“You called me. I
thought something was wrong.”

I laughed. I must
have been more scared than I thought at first.

Spencer and I
married almost a week later. All of our friends were there, along with his aunt
and uncle. My parents and my sisters were missing. My aunt Bridget came, along
with all of her boys. Zane and Sandy were with us. It was a nice wedding, but
certainly not extravagant by anyone’s standards. We had it at the park late in
the day. We were both really happy with how it turned out.

When graduation
finally arrived, I was waddling instead of walking. The baby was due in another
three weeks, but she was going to be taken in another two weeks by cesarean.
The doctor wanted to deliver her just a little early, but not too early.
Graduation was really exciting. We’d all worked so hard to get there. I
graduated eighth in the class. I lost some ranking while going to my other
school. Spencer graduated right above me at number seven.

As I was walking
up the stairs to get my diploma, right after Spencer, I felt a strange pain in
my stomach. I struggled to walk the remaining steps to get that diploma from
the principal, Coach Robbins. I was determined to finish high school. When I
reached Spencer on the other side, I told him that I was in pain. He got
excited and we stepped out of line to leave the auditorium.

Coach Robbins
yelled to us over the microphone. “Wait a minute you two. You can’t leave until
the ceremony is over.”

“She’s in labor.
We’ve got to go.” Spencer yelled to him.

“Well, then by
all means…go!” Coach Robbins yelled out to us waving his arms.

The entire graduating
class yelled out good wishes to us as Spencer picked me up and carried me to
the Hummer.

Todd and Janel
followed us to the emergency room.