For the next couple of weeks, nothing really happened. I just did my school work, which I had finally caught up with, went to therapy to bug Ms. Conners, and then returned to my dorm to sit around; maybe fool around with a couple of girls if they stopped by. It was a Thursday afternoon when things started to stir up, a new girl waltzing into school with a loose pony tail holding up her curly blonde hair.

“Get a load of that fine ass,” Tony purred, watching as she walked by in her tight pants and tang top; flats making a soft echo with each step her small and dainty feet took.

“I’ll catch up with you guys later, I’m going to go introduce myself,” I told my group of friends; not waiting for a reply and instead just walking in the direction the new girl had gone. It seemed I wasn’t the only one with this plan in mind since there were multiple people walking in the very same direction; a majority of them guys with an exception of some girls.

The new girl soon came to a stop, looking around the campus with a look of confusion evident on her face. Seizing my window of opportunity, I was quick to walk forward; placing a hansom smile on my lips. “Lost?” I asked casually, walking into the new girl’s view. She looked up at me with dazzling green eyes and a small, innocent smile playing out on her lips.

“Yeah, this campus is huge,” she said and I chuckled.

“Well then lucky for you I came along so I could help you out. I’m David Price,” I introduced myself, sticking out my hand which she shook with her much smaller one.

“Alice Joshton, pleasure to meet you David,” she replied, smiling up at me with brilliant white teeth.

“Alice, what a lovely name. Where is it you need to be? Say the word and I will take you there,” I offered, playing out my gentleman card so she would remember me for that and maybe repay me for the favor later.

“Oh well that’s very kind of you to offer, but James here already told me he’d show me around. He was the first person I met here and very kind,” Alice said and the smile fell from my face; being replaced with a look of pure disgust.

“James?” I asked, being sure that I heard this girl correctly.

“I don’t believe she stuttered David; now move out of the way so I can show her to her classes. God you can be such a hindrance sometimes.”

Speak of the devil, and he shall arrive. I thought grimly, watching as James walked toward and wrapped a casual arm around Alice’s shoulders.

“It was nice meeting you David. Maybe we’ll have some classes together,” she said nicely before walking away with James. For a long time, I was silent and just stood there; disbelief floating around in my mind.

“David, what happened with the new girl?” Tony asked, walking up behind me.

“James,” I all but growled before collecting myself and straightening up. “But I’ll win her over in the end, I always do.” And with that, I walked away.

oo-oo-oo-oo-oo

By the time I arrived at therapy, no longer driven by someone, I was pissed. All day, all fucking day, I had tried to win Alice over with charm, wit, random romantic nonsense, but nothing, absolutely nothing had worked. In the end, she was still walking away with James to go watch him practice football with the rest of the team while I was forced to leave and go ‘talk about my feelings’.

“David, how was your day?” Ms. Conners asked when I walked into her office, the door slamming after me as I threw my backpack down in front of my usual couch and then sat down on it; glaring at the wall in front of me. Walking over slightly awkwardly, the woman came to stand next to me. “Would you like to talk about it?” she finally spoke and I just continued to glare forward at the wall, fingers tapping against my knee in both a nervous habit and in a way to channel my anger instead of taking it out on the wall in front of me; imagining it to be James’ face.

“Well… when you do feel like talking, just speak up. You know I’m always here to help you with anything I can,” she offered before going back to her desk and sitting down. For what seemed like forever, I just sat in silence, still glaring at the wall and drumming my fingers; an action that was becoming more and more violent as the minutes ticked by.

“I think I may hate him,” I finally spoke up, words coming out so softly I almost couldn’t hear myself think, but Ms. Conners obviously heard the words since she was soon standing next to me once again.

“Who?” she asked before adding, “That is, if you don’t mind me asking.” For a couple more minutes, I was silent still before it all just became too much and I shot up from my seat; not missing the surprised gasp that left through the woman’s lips.

“James,” I grounded out, mouth clenched shut so tightly it was making my jaw ache.

“What has James done that’s made you hate him so much?” Ms. Conners asked and I shot her a look, expecting her to know just why I hated the asshole so much before remembering that she knew little of my past; just the general with no names included.

“First he took away Sh-.” I froze there, unable to say her name without choking up. “And now he’s smooth talking Alice,” I explained briefly.

“Is Alice someone of special meaning to you?” she asked and I rolled my eyes.

“’someone of special meaning’? Please, cut the therapist crap. She’s no one special, just a hot new girl that hasn’t been claimed by someone yet. James managed to get to her first which means he has a better chance of fucking her first,” I stated bluntly, sitting back down and stretching my arms across the back of my chair lazily. In front of me, Ms. Conners crossed her arms; the distaste very evident on her face as she looked down at me.

“You really shouldn’t talk about a girl like that; she’s not a piece of property out there to be claimed,” she told me.

“Then obviously you lied about your age because it’s been a while since you’ve been to high school. In high school, that’s all anyone is; a piece of property waiting to be claimed,” I reminded the woman.

“Really then? So what girl has claims on you?” Ms. Conners asked smugly and I smirked.

“No girl has claims on me because they don’t fuck me, I fuck them,” I stated and her eyes narrowed.

“So you hate this James guy because he got to a girl before you could? Well life doesn’t always work out the way you want it to David, that doesn’t mean you go around taking it out on anyone that stops you from getting what you want. Alice shouldn’t be treated that way.”

“He took Shelly away from me and then blamed me for her death!” I shouted, standing from my seat and glaring at my therapist. “It’s not just Alice, alright?!”

The look in Ms. Conners’ hazel eyes made my anger peak as disgust with myself started to over flow. “I don’t need your pity, don’t look at me that way,” I muttered, turning away from her and walking over to a window; looking down at the street below to see the people walking by without a care in the world.

“Do you want to talk about Shelly?” she asked and I spun on my heel, anger for myself being challenged towards however said her name.

“Don’t you dare speak her name? Do you hear me?!” I yelled, stepping forward threateningly and pointing an accusing finger towards the woman. Ms. Conners’ eyes were lit with fear, backing away from me before being trapped between a wall and myself.

“David, control your self. The lack of control is what led to you jumping off the roof in the first place,” she warned me and I punched the wall just left of her head.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I growled, walking away from her before I did something really stupid and actually ended up hurting her.

“Figuring out that your girlfriend was pregnant after loosing Shelly seemed to be the last straw for you. You felt like everything was happening out of your hands and that you had no control over anything; not even your own life anymore. So, grasping the last bit of what you thought to be control over something, you decided to jump off the roof in hopes that it would take your life so that you can at least say that you died by your own decision; not by some freak accident like a car accident,” Ms. Conners told me, reading it to me like it was clear as day light. In truth, she had gotten pretty much everything perfectly and just the thought of that made my chest ache.

Feeling weak, I looked up at her through broken eyes. “What was I supposed to do?” I finally spoke barely above a whisper. Watching as her own gaze softened, I bent down and picked up my things before walking towards the door.

“David,” Ms. Conners said softly, hand outstretched like some attempt to reach me.

“Please, can I just be alone right now?” I pleaded, looking over my shoulder slightly to see her nod. With that, I left.

oo-oo-oo-oo-oo

“You’re kidding me, right?” I asked, fists clenched at my sides with my jaw closed so tightly it ached.

“I’m afraid not Mr. Price, it is a requirement to make sure the child will come into a good life with a suitable family environment,” my doctor told me and right away my gaze fell to the open window not but a few feet away. If I were to run at it, I’d be able to get through and maybe the three story fall would kill me and get me out of this idiotic life I’ve been forced to live.

“David, stop,” the man said strictly and I pulled my attention away from the window and back over to him with narrowed eyes.

“Fine, she can come, but don’t get mad at me if I don’t talk or if she leaves in tears,” I said stiffly before rising from my seat and leaving his office, marching out of the hospital and back towards the car waiting to take me back to school. I had been pulled out for a surprised doctor’s appointment; to my horror finding out that Ciara was to come to therapy with me for the remainder of this week (which was three long days with that whore) to work on our family issues.

The only good news that came from all of this was that I’d get an hour to myself today before Ciara came over. She has her little ‘group’ meeting to talk about teen pregnancy and stay protected and all of that useless shit that no one cares about because everyone is too stupid to use a fucking condom when they fuck.

“You need to calm down David, take deep breaths,” Ms. Conners told me as I sat in her office later that day; breathing hard with my fists once again clenched together.

“How can you expect me to calm down when I have to spend the next hour and a half with that whore who is going to do nothing but bring up how horrible of a person I am?” I snapped, shooting the woman a look before going back to glaring at the wall in front of me.

“You shouldn’t call Ciara a whore, let alone any woman,” she scowled at me and I just rolled my eyes. “As for what she’ll say about you, she is allowed to express her thoughts, but if it gets too rough I’ll be sure to stop her. These next days together are supposed to help with your cooperation with one another so that your child can have a mother and a father who aren’t always fighting,” she then told me and, because I was tired to biting my tongue around this woman, I shot up from my seat and started yelling.

“Mother and father who aren’t always fighting?! You expect that to come from a whore and someone who tried to fucking kill themselves when they found out that the whore was pregnant! Oh yeah, that’ll go over real well when the kid asks how it’s parents reacted when they found out they were pregnant.

“The mother was in tears and the daddy tried to kill himself! What a fucking fantastic birthday story!”

Ms. Conners only stared at me silently with a pained expression before there was a knock on the door. “Please David, lets try and work together today. It’s not good for the baby if the mother is stressed,” she told me and I scoffed.

“Of course, we wouldn’t want to upset the baby or it’s whore of a mother,” I spat before sitting back down and started tapping my foot so much that my whole leg shook with the action.

“You must be Ciara,” I heard Ms. Conners say behind me after opening the door. There was the sound of muffled heels on the carpet before Ciara was standing before me, a soft smile on her lips that made me wrinkle my nose in disgust.

“Hi David,” she said softly and this time my eyebrows furrowed together because she actually seemed happy to see me. Looking over at Ms. Conners who looked pleased with Ciara’s greeting, I nodded in reply.

“Ciara,” I said stiffly, gesturing for her to sit in a chair across the table from me.

“To say I’m pleased with the way you two are acting would be an understatement,” Ms. Conners cut in, smiling fondly and I actually felt kinda good about myself for doing something right in a long while.

“So I’m going to ask some questions to see how everything is between you two. Some of them may be a little awkward to answer, but it’s to find out if the baby will be allowed to stay with you two; even if in joint custody,” she then continued and I nodded as did Ciara.

We both already knew that if we couldn’t prove ourselves to be good enough parents, the baby would be taken away and either put in the care of another family or left with our parents until we could be suitable parents. To be honest, when I first heard about this I was kinda hoping we wouldn’t be deemed suitable, but now I realize that this kid is just as much mine as it is Ciara’s and if anything I didn’t want to leave it not knowing who I was or with my parents. Fuck, I’d rather be forced to live with my parents than have my kid live with the monsters.

“Alright, lets begin.”

oo-oo-oo-oo-oo

So I know it wasn’t that long of a chapter and didn’t have all too much in it, but I wanted to get this update posted. I also cut it off here so that the next chapter can be about the three days of therapy David has to share with Ciara. I know everything seems okay between them now, but trust me, it’ll pick up.

HUGE thanks to BonitaChickia who is my only reviewer at the moment. You keep me updating and remind me why I love this story so much, thank you.

Please review.

Kattie