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Mel has no clue on how she got the courage to grab a pregnancy test on the way home. But now she found herself sitting on the edge of her bed, biting her nails while waiting the recommended 5 minutes for it. The white plastic currently rests on some toilet paper by her sink, as if it were the clear aligners she forgets to wash all the time, and not a ticking bomb about to change her entire life.
She had been feeling weird for the past month or so. At first she thought it was a cold, then a stomach virus. But after her time of the month didn’t come, she got really scared.
Sometimes it comes two days late or two days early. But five days late? Too much. Way too much. She instinctively bought a pregnancy test before riding the bus after school. Luckily it was Tuesday so she was home alone until 6 pm.
Her phone vibrates from the timer, her 5 minutes have passed. She feels like she might throw up already.
Despite her wobbly knees, Mel still finds herself dragging her feet to her in-suite bathroom that connects to Becca’s room too. The moment her feet covered in her favorite fuzzy socks step on the cold tiles, she makes eye contact with the test.
Fuck. Fuck, that’s two lines.
Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. It can’t be…
She picks it up and storms back into her room, standing near the window by her nightstand to try, maybe pray to something, that her bathroom had bad lighting and she just thought she saw a second line but no. That second red line was still there, not faint or gone at all, but bright and proudly staring back at her. Almost mocking her.
Mel hums upset just like when she’s overstimulated or deeply stressed thanks to a shitty school day. Her hands shaking violently, resisting the urge to throw and destroy the pregnancy test as if that would change the results. But she threw it inside the first drawer of her nightstand instead, to then shove it close so hard it made the small furniture wobble. Her hands tighten into fists to hit the back of her head.
How can this be? Why now? Why her? She feels so so stupid.
There’s a heavy, unbearable pressure on her chest barely letting her breath. Everything becomes too much, the feeling of everything around her is too much. Her fitted jacket feels torturous to have on even if it’s her favorite, every item of clothing feels like it’s choking her. She strips everything down messily, becoming more and more upset as some pieces don't come off by the first try.
She kneels by her bed and sticks her hand under it to grab one of her biggest comfort items. A very worn out hoodie that belonged to her boyfriend. No one is allowed to touch it but her and Langdon, just to make it smell like him (even if she secretly bought a bottle of his cologne for that and to spray on her bed on the lonely nights).
Once the hoodie is on she finally stops hitting her head and scratching her wrists and focuses on the warmth. She couldn’t have much peace since her phone loudly buzzed against her bed. Mel reaches to grab it, mainly to change it into ´Do not disturb´. But then she reads the notifications.
< my darling frank 3
“hey babyyyy <3<3”
“just came out of soccer practice”
“going 2 ur place neowww”
“miss u sm ml”
“im gonna kiss u (threat)”
“LOVE YOU MWAH”
She had completely forgotten Langdon was coming over. Even if he has been coming every single Tuesday and Thursday after practice ever since their first month of relationship. Fuck.
Langdon’s text had pulled Mel out of her meltdown to finally make her realize this wasn’t just a thing that turned out the way she did not want to. This wasn’t just another hell of a day where nothing went as planned.
This was much bigger than that. She had a literal living embryo growing inside of her that would become a full human being in a few months. She’s having a baby with Langdon. A baby, a kid. A son or daughter. Oh god.
Mel starts sobbing. She curls up on the ground to cry into her boyfriend’s past hoodie. God, how could she do this to him? He doesn’t deserve this. Langdon is the best player in the whole team, he has an athletic scholarship in the college of his dreams just a town over. He wants, and probably will, become a doctor.
He’s about to graduate and has such a bright future planned. Damn, his life is already perfect. He’s the sweet younger brother of three, one of the smartest seniors, good grades, captain of the school’s soccer team, always helping his siblings out to babysit their kids, washes cars around the neighborhood for whatever they can give him and he’s about to start working for his uncle this summer.
He’s a saint.
And Mel is about to ruin his life.
She has no idea how much time she had been sobbing on the floor, miserably blaming herself for ruining everyone’s life but especially his, when the main door knocks. After lazily washing her face and putting some sleeping shorts on, Mel opens the door to Langdon.
“Hey, sweetheart! How was school today?” Frank asks with a wide smile, kicking his shoes off by the entrance, leaving his soccer bag near there as usual too. He looks confused on why Mel hasn’t talked yet, even if he has given her 5 seconds of grace, and frowns deeply from the clear distress on her face.
“Baby, baby, are you okay? What’s wrong?” He lowers his voice to a whisper, immediately dropping his backpack with no care and gently taking her wrists, rubbing his thumbs on her soft skin with pink scratches. His head tilts down and to a side, trying to find Mel’s teary eyes. “Did something happen, baby? Tell me”
Mel has to get all her strength for her to not just break down on his arms. “U-uhm, let’s go to my room, okay?” She sniffles, worrying her boyfriend sick.
Langdon sits on the edge of her bed as Mel paces around her room anxiously. He’s completely quiet, he had been since he asked her what’s wrong again and Mel ignored him.
The blonde sighs, finally standing in one spot but still swaying from side to side as her purple nail polish keeps getting scraped away by her teeth.
There's a sterile silence in Mel’s room, exclusively interrupted by the faintest bark from the dog across the street. This feels like a nightmare, it might just be one right now. A nightmare without end, without waking up and realizing everything will be fine. Nothing will be fine here.
Mel starts softly sniffling and hiccuping in tears trying to take a proper breath.
Frank, oh sweet Frank, gets up immediately opening his arms to give her a big comforting hug. But she pushes him away and forces him to sit back down. It wouldn’t be fair to get comforted when I’m about to ruin his future, she thinks.
“Mel, please talk to me. I can help. I promise I won’t tell anyone, I won’t freak out, I won’t leave you… I-I don’t know, just give me something to work with, please.” Langdon’s voice is shaky as he uses his experience with Mel’s anxiety to try to make her comfortable enough to talk. Since he has absolutely no clue what could have made her so upset now.
There’s a tense silence between them where only Mel’s soft sobs and sniffles were heard. “It’s breaking my heart seeing you like this.” He admits, his voice breaking just as evidence of his words.
Her words die in her mouth just as soon as she takes a breath to speak up. She hates to be putting her boyfriend in such distress but she genuinely can’t make any words out. The frustration of the situation just piles up with her heavy distress and makes everything harder.
So Mel decides to pick up the pregnancy test she hid in her nightstand drawer and give it to him. Langdon stares at it blankly and open-mouthed for a painfully eternal minute or two before mumbling “Is this yours?”
She nods with a whimper, wiping her runny nose with the sleeve of her hoodie.
“Holy shit. Are you kidding me, Mel?” He immediately gets up from a jump, still looking at the positive pregnancy test while his free hand runs through his messy hair.
“N-no… I’m pregnant, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry-”
Mel’s rushed mumbles get interrupted by Langdon’s louder exclaim. “What? This- I… I’m going to be a dad! Oh my god!” His big arms wrap around her tightly “That’s crazy. We’re gonna have a baby!!”
Her body relaxes in her boyfriend’s warm embrace, but her mind doesn’t. Although she feels more confused than upset right now.
Why is he not mad at her? Why isn’t he crying and blaming her for his perfect future getting ruined?
Mel slowly pulls away when hearing him laugh in disbelief, maybe he’s crying weirdly. But when she can have a proper look at him, there’s a big, adorable grin lighting up his face. “Are you seriously happy about this?”
“Hell yeah! Wait, you’re not? I’m sorry.” Langdon's goofy smile gets wiped off so fast and replaced with guilt and worry, his hands come up to give Mel’s arms deep comforting squeezes. “I-I should’ve asked. It’s okay, we can- we can get rid of it, yeah. We can go to see my-my aunt at the hospital she works at… and get a pill. I can literally call her right now.”
“I-… I don’t know.” Mel mumbles, a little overwhelmed by the quick thinking and such an easy solution. To think about ending the pregnancy feels sad. Even if she just found out.
“Okay, what do you want, baby?” He whispers, softly looking into her eyes
Mel frowns and looks down. She had exclusively thought about Langdon’s feelings and how the pregnancy would affect him and his future. But Frank’s reaction was the complete opposite of what she feared. He does want a baby. But what does she want?
She hadn’t considered it, she even thought about her mom and her sister’s thoughts about this but not hers. And okay, she had always dreamed of having kids, not at 17 of course, but they even innocently planned with Langdon about the family they could have in the future.
A house with a beautiful garden and huge library. Dogs, cats, two kids. That exact order. Never expected to start backwards.
Even if she had a meltdown and cried like she hadn’t in a long long time, Mel actually didn’t consider getting rid of it. Even if she thought about how mad everyone would be at her and how she was ruining everything for the love of his life, an abortion never crossed her mind.
And it makes her feel a deep sense of discomfort and sadness in her chest when she tries to think about it. That’s literally her and Frank’s baby. They made that.
Mel stays quiet thinking about it, pursing her lips and pouting. Langdon just stares, patiently waiting for her, reaching to tug a blonde strand behind her ear. Then, her raspy and shaky voice breaks the silence “I don’t wanna get- sniff get rid of it, I think…”
“Oh Mel, that’s fine. I swear I’m gonna be the best dad ever.” Langdon sighs heavily in relief and hugs her again, this time Mel does hug him back, hiding her face on his chest.
“I’m sorry you had to go through finding out alone. But I’m never gonna leave your side from now on, okay? I’ll be here for every step” He mumbles against her hair, pressing some kisses on the crown of her head after she nods with a muffled hum.
They pull away after a while, but he immediately cups her chubby cheeks with his hands and presses short kisses on her lips until she laughs and pulls away with a proper smile.
“The prettiest smile” He giggles back, his hands lowering to her small belly, still the same size as ever but somehow it feels heavier now. Not for the weight but the meaning. The new knowledge of what’s inside.
Frank rubs the back of his fingers against the side of her stomach. Looking down at it as if he could notice a difference, then looks up at her to ask “Can I?”
“Uhm sure” Mel thought he would just touch her belly and try to feel something but no.
Langdon fully kneels down in front of her, resting his hands on each side of her belly and brushing his nose against the center of it.
“Hey you buddy. It’s your dad hehe.” His blue eyes look up to find his lover’s “You gave your mom a big scare, you had my sweetheart crying over there” He jokes softly, chuckling against Mel’s hoodie. Mel giggles and combs her fingers through his hair, gently scratching the back of his head and pulling him closer. And he of course obliges, his knees dragging across Mel’s bedroom floor to get even closer, pressed against her lower half.
“But, it’s okay. We love you. I love you so so much. You know… I always wanted to be a dad, but I never thought I could. I don't know why. But you, little surprise baby, you just made me the happiest man in the whole world” He buries his face on Mel’s stomach, pressing quiet kisses there.
“You’re the physical representation of how much I love Mel. So thank you. Thank you for surprising us. Thank you for making me a dad.”
Mel’s eyes get watery again from her boyfriend’s sweet muffles. How gently and honestly talks to her belly. How he’s already pouring his heart out to a baby, who’s probably not even two months in development. Langdon notices her crying again and gets up to hug her again, rubbing slow circles on her back.
He starts with a soft, more serious voice. “I’ll do anything and everything to help you, sweetheart. But if you don’t want this anymore at any point, we can look for a solution. There’s a lot of ways to terminate the pregnancy or we can give it up after-“
“No! No, no. I want this. I want to have our baby. Have them, keep them and be a family. That’s our baby” Mel says between tears, sniffling like a little kid and trying to look at him through tears.
“Yes, they are. Our beautiful baby.” Langdon’s hands slide inside Mel’s oversized hoodie to have a proper grip of her waist as he backs down. Once the back of his knees hit Mel’s bed, he sits down on the edge of it and hugs his girlfriend’s bare torso.
He rests his dimpled chin against her chest to look up at her. “They’re gonna be one cute baby that’s for sure. With your pretty face and my handsomeness?” Frank teases, letting out a whistle which gained him a gentle pinch on the cheek. “They’re gonna be a heartbreaker, I know it.”
”Yeah, I guess they will be pretty cute. I really hope they have your eyes” She giggles shyly
”No, no, no, no! Your eyes, pleaseee” Frank whines and quickly scoops her on his lap.
They eventually move to cuddle in bed. Langdon still whispers words of comfort and sweet nothings into her hair. Holding her and keeping her warm under the covers.
That really made every little crumble of anxiety disappear from Mel’s body. Finally relaxing on her boyfriend’s chest, listening to his heartbeat and imagining how their baby’s heart would sound.