Page 36 of Zombie's Howl-O-Ween
“How was the drive?” I asked his mom, Amelia. “The weather has been mild since that monster storm on Halloween.”
Mild? Yeah, right. We’d been dumped on. Thirteen inches of packed snow covered everything. The temps hadn’t gotten above twenty-two degrees.
My mind launched me back to the Halloween Bash. That had been the best night of my life, and now, I was the most miserable of my life.
“It was good. The roads were clear. Are you sure he’s going to be here?” Amelia fidgeted with the hem on her knitted sweater, covered in a fall leaves pattern. “He could’ve changed his mind and doesn’t want to see us. This sort of thing has happened before.”
I felt sick. “Brandon was looking forward to seeing you.” A small lie. He wasn’t necessarily excited, but he agreed the time had come to mend broken fences with his parents.
“Then why isn’t he here?” Amelia asked.
“We had a fight,” I blurted, not able to keep the truth locked away in my mouth. “He’s not here because of me.”
“What happened, dear?” my mom asked. “Brandon is a good man.”
“I know he is. It’s all my fault and I can’t talk about it. I’ll go make a couple of calls and see if I can find him.” I rushed out of the living room and went to my bedroom.
Tears rolled down my cheeks. I just needed a minute to myself. If Brandon didn’t come back, I worried I would fall apart.
How could I raise a baby on my own? Yes, women did it all the time. I could do it and I had my parents. They’d support me like always. But that wasn’t how it was supposed to be.
Clearly, I was unravelling. Was it because of pregnancy hormones? Typically, I didn’t overreact. I was solid. Sensible. I saw the glass half full when many saw it half empty.
I inhaled a deep breath, then slowly let it out.
Brandon was coming back. He knew what it felt like to be abandoned by his parents. I was confident he wouldn’t do that to his own baby. He wanted a child.
He was coming back.
Of course, I had no idea where I stood with him. The girl he’d known for years and only made his move a month ago.
We hadn’t even been together for a full month, and we’d already moved in together and were having a baby. We could have taken it a bit slower, but hindsight was always twenty-twenty.
And honestly, I didn’t think I would change anything, except for including him from the beginning when I suspected I was pregnant.
How could I be so stupid?
I should’ve known better than to keep something as huge as a baby from him, no matter if my intentions had been pure.
A knock on the door startled. “Trixie, are you okay?” It was his mom, Amelia.
“Um, yeah.” I stood from the bed and looked at my horrid appearance in the mirrored closet door. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
I dialed Brandon’s number, and it went straight to voicemail. It was a crushing blow.
Well, I couldn’t hide in my bedroom all day. I went to the door and opened it.
“Can we talk?” Amelia asked. “Privately.”
“Sure.” I stepped back and let her in.
“You seem like a sweet and patient woman. Brandon needs someone like that.”
“Well, he has me.” Even if he pushed me away and broke my heart, we would have a child that connected us for life. I would do everything in my power to win him back.
My mind was already made up. I wouldn’t give up on him.
“I’m glad to hear it. His dad and I weren’t very good parents to Brandon. We should have tried harder. He just frustrated us. After he was out of high school, he wouldn’t do anything. He kind of bummed around and mooched off us. Burned food on the stove. Just a lot of stuff like that.”
