Friday, August 5, 2011

Fragile


Prologue


Her short hot pink nails cracked under the pressure of her teeth as she sat kicking her feet like a metronome. They kept a perfect beat despite the sweat beads that trickled down her thin nose. She pulled what was left of her fingernail out of her mouth and folded both of her arms across her stomach, and gripped her elbows as tight as her long and thin fingers could handle without breaking.
          “Leigh, you’re pregnant.” The sixteen year old girl covered her bright blue eyes and let the tears fall.
Her only thought was, “Good thing my parents aren’t alive; they’d kill me.”
“You’re about seven weeks along. Congratulations, Leigh.” After a few moments of silence the doctor continued, “Are your foster parents here?”
Leigh swallowed a few times then looked up, “No.”
The young doctor looked puzzled, “Do they know you are here?”
            Leigh answered quickly this time, “Please don’t tell them! Please, I beg you.” The tears fell more quickly know and she clasped her hands together and squeezed tightly as she began to shake.
“I cannot unless you give me permission, it will be okay. You won’t be able to hide it long although. I’d advise you to tell them soon, I know it’s hard but you really should.” Leigh slowly shook her head, dried her tears as best she could and scheduled her next check-up. She could hide it as long as she needed to. The doctor couldn’t possibly understand, let alone her parents.

Chapter One

Leigh walked through a nicely painted white door making sure to announce her arrival, “Home!”
A sweet and quiet voice responded, “Did you have fun at the mall, honey?” Leigh nodded trying to be convincing. “Why didn’t you buy anything? I gave you money.”
“Yeah, mom, I know. I just didn’t see anything I liked. I will go back in a few weeks.”
Her mother smiled, “Okay, darling. I am going to go start supper, what are you craving?”
            Leigh’s eyes widened, then remembered her mother didn’t know she was pregnant and answered, “Whatever you make.” With a smile, her mother went to the kitchen and Leigh went to her room.
~

I don’t want the whole world, the sun and moon in all their light. I just want be the only girl you love all your life.
Leigh had taken a fancy to this song, mostly because that was her biggest wish in life to be loved somebody’s whole life. She knew it would never happen though. When she was just five, her own grandparents, her flesh and blood, didn’t even want her. Her parents died and they had been stuck with her. She had just been an innocent little girl back then. Leigh was a happy girl, despite her parent’s death. She would only cry at night when she would lie in bed. She didn’t even cry when her grandparents showed up at school and let her know that her mother was dead. Her dad was in the army and had been killed by a raid. His whole team had. Leigh’s mom couldn’t handle it and had killed herself that same week. The little five year old didn’t cry, she just became silent and didn’t say a single word for a month. Her grandparents got frustrated after just a week and gave her up for adoption, but nobody adopted her. She was placed in foster care. Every year since she was five, she was placed with different foster parents, until this year. She was sixteen and she had been here a year and a half. Leigh still missed her parents, but she sure didn’t cry. She had learned to trust nobody and surely not want anybody. Now she was pregnant and it was all her fault. Her foster parents definitely wouldn’t want her now. She would be passed on to the next family as soon as they knew. Leigh vowed to not even tell her boyfriend, she’d break up with him and never talk to him again. He couldn’t know he had a child. He wouldn’t want the baby. Her foster parents would call her a troubled child and she would never be allowed to keep the baby. Leigh didn’t necessarily want the baby, but she didn’t want it taken by force. She wanted it to be her choice, nobody else’s.
All she could so was pull out her calendar she kept in her purse and write seven weeks on today’s date. She also marked the date of her next appointment, which was at ten weeks. That day, she would ask her mom to go shopping. If she didn’t say yes, she’d throw a tantrum and go anyways. Leigh Summers always got her way; she had a baby to take of now, a secret baby. She would do whatever it took to make sure this baby made it and make sure the baby was wanted.  Leigh was the only one who could do that, the only would she could trust to do it. Right now though, Leigh was going to cry.





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