Page 51 of Love Story
John was a premed student, of course, so when Elizabeth told him her symptoms, he didn’t need a pregnancy test to know what was wrong. Elizabeth was expecting. They confirmed it with a blood test, which John performed clandestinely at the University of Michigan laboratory.
“I’m not pregnant.” She had insisted as much from the moment he suggested it. “It’s probably allergies. Milk, maybe.”
The day John read the test results was one he would never forget. He found Elizabeth outside her next class and brought her to a picnic table on a quiet part of campus. They held hands across the splintered wood. What he was about to say would change their lives forever.
“Elizabeth, I’m sorry.” If only he could turn back the clock. If he could change things so he never would have taken her back to his house that first night. He closed his eyes for a brief moment and then looked straight at her. “You’re pregnant.”
“No.” She was in shock. She had to be. No other way to explain how her eyes grew wide and her face a chalky sort of pale. Elizabeth stood, her body clearly trembling. “I’m not, John. I can’t be.” She looked over her right shoulder and then her left. As if she were terrified someone might have heard him. Including herself. Then her eyes found his again. “I can’t be. No.”
“Elizabeth.” He stood and moved around the table. “We can do this. We’ll find a way.”
But as he came closer, she moved a few steps back. She shook her head, tears flooding her eyes. “No, John. It won’t be okay. This will never be okay.”
A rough few days followed. Elizabeth refused to see him or talk to him. He’d wait for her near her classroom, but she’d turn the other direction on her way out. Then on the fourth day, he was sitting at a table on the lawn of the medical building when she came up behind him.
She sat down and turned to him. “I’m sorry.” Again she seemed to be shaking.
They were in deep trouble, but the joy he felt that day was something he would carry with him forever. She had come back to him. His heart beat hard against his chest. “Why in the world are you sorry?”
Elizabeth could’ve answered a dozen ways but she didn’t. Instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on to him. Only then did her tears come in earnest. She began to cry and that led to a series of sobs.
The autumn sun shone down on their shoulders, and a breeze played in the red and yellow leaves nearby. Finally Elizabeth gained enough control to speak. “I couldn’t believe it was true.” She shook her head. “I felt like my world was falling apart.”
Her face was gripped with fear. He slid his fingers between hers. And in that moment he was home. No matter what came next, they would be together. “Elizabeth. I thought I’d lost you.”
“No.”
“And I’m the one who’s sorry.” He ran his thumb lightly along her cheekbone. “You’re just a freshman. I should’ve never taken you home, Elizabeth.”
Her cheeks grew red, but she didn’t look away. “I wanted to be with you. We’re both to blame.”
She was right, but John was the guy and he was older. He couldn’t let her feel this was her fault. “It’s me, Elizabeth. I knew better.” He could hear the other med students heading into the building. The break was over, but John wasn’t leaving. He blinked a few times. “Where do we go from here?”
“I need to tell my parents.”
“No.” This time he was sure what they had to do next. He would never let her face them alone. “Weneed to tell them.”
Which is exactly what they did. That night Elizabeth was home working on an essay for English 101 when John knocked on the door. Her father answered it. From where John stood he could see Elizabeth at the kitchen table, her books spread out. She turned toward him just as her father’s face twisted into a scowl.
“Can I help you?” His brow lowered down around the bridge of his nose.
For a second, John met Elizabeth’s eyes. She looked more certain than scared. She stood and took slow, silent steps in his direction. John looked at the man and cleared his throat. “Yes, sir. My name’s John Baxter.” He dug his hands deep into his jeans. “I’d like to talk to you and your wife. About your daughter, Elizabeth.”
“My daughter?” He shook his head. “We’re not interested. She’s not interested.” He stepped back to shut the door. “Besides, she’s too young to date.”
Elizabeth had reached the place where she was almost standing next to her father. “Daddy... he needs to talk to you.” She put her hand on his arm, but he jerked away. They’d come too far for either of them to turn back now.
“Sir, if you’d let me in.” John waited. He didn’t want to have the conversation on the porch.
“Please, Daddy.” Elizabeth sounded stronger than John had ever heard her before. “We need to talk to you and Mama. Both of us.”
Her father’s scowl worsened. “I have no interest in speaking to this boy, whatever he has to say.” He hesitated. “Leave this house now, you hear me? Leave or I’ll—”
Elizabeth’s mother had come up behind her husband. She must’ve caught the gist of the conversation, because she put her hand on his shoulder. “Let’s hear the young man out.”
The woman didn’t look any happier than Elizabeth’s father. But at least she was willing to listen to what John had to say. What they both had to say. An awkward few minutes later they were seated in the family living room. John and Elizabeth together on one sofa. Her parents beside each other on the other.
Another person could’ve sat between them for the space John was careful to leave. He started the conversation. “I realize you don’t know me. But I’ve been dating your daughter for the past several weeks.”
