Her Mistake

∆ FORTY NINE ∆

DANIEL'S POV

The pitter-patter of the rain reverberated in the empty gate house. The girl before me was finding new ways to upset me. She looked so different. She had added a bit of weight, I noticed her breast were fuller. She had dark circles and very dull eyes . She wasn't as attractive as she was few months ago. It was either cause' of the frown on her face or pregnancy was treating her bad.

I crossed my hands then reiterated, "what the hell are you doing here?"

She pointed her long, fat fingers at me and with an ugly scowl etched on her features. "Never in your miserable life pull me in such a manner." She glared then muttered, "idiot."

Rolling my eyes, I inquired once more, "what are you doing in my house?"

Her features softened. "We need to talk."

"What have we been doing?"

She took a step towards me, "we need to talk...about the pregnancy."

"Pregnancy?" I crossed my arms, my face morphing to a puzzled look. "What pregnancy?"

"Daniel!" She frowned, "you clearly know what I'm talking about."

Pregnancy. Her pregnancy. It was hers, I had nothing to do with it. You did! A small voice said and I shook my head to get rid of it. I didn't bargain for this, all I wanted was to have fun, enjoy myself and now she was telling me about pregnancy. I was just a child, barely an adult and she wanted me to be a father at seventeen? She was delusional!

"Ehn, yes, your pregnancy. Your baby." I told her with a shrug .

"It's our baby. I didn't get myself pregnant, did I?"

I shrugged again, "I dunno." I leaned on the wall of the gatehouse. "You could be virgin Mary pro max."

She cupped her face with her palms and gave an exasperated shout into into them. Faintly, I heard sobs coming from her but I stayed still.

Thunder came marching down with increasing tread, a mighty wind pushed the door of the gatehouse open and breeze forced it way into the empty room. I shivered making me remember I was shirtless. Tobi took her hands away from her face and  put them in the pocket of her green sweater.

Her face was wet, mucus dripped from her nose. The wind brought strands of her disheveled hair styled in two cornrows up. She looked funny, like she was electrocuted.

"Daniel." She sighed. "I know this is hard, it's just as hard for me. I'm the one with a baby inside of me. You don't get to throw up, you don't get mood swings, not even horrible cravings. All you just have to do is take responsibility for your actions. Man up! Be a man and tell your parents the truth, please. I can't do this alone." Now she had steady stream of liquid trickling down her face.

"You have no idea how much embarrassment I've suffered since this horrible news got out. Daniel, please, for the sake of the good times we shared together. Please, take responsibility for your child."

Be a man? I scoffed, I was still seventeen so I couldn't be a man. I couldn't let my life get ruined all because of few minutes of pleasure. I didn't even enjoy it!

My parents never spoke about it. It all ended at the principal's office that evening. Father was fuming but mum was calm, at least she wasn't showing signs of worry. The last I heard about it was mum telling dad she had it under control. And she did. I didn't get called out at the assembly three days ago with Tobi.

"Your parents and mine could work something out." She pleaded while sniffing.

I took a step towards her, "you want to ruin my future don't you? I have a lot of plans ahead, you think having a child is going to help me? Are you the witch my village people sent?" I arched an eyebrow while she stood stiff, tears welling in her eyes. "Can you just get out of my life? I don't want whatever shit is in your stupid belly!" I pointed four fingers at her stomach. "Leave me the fuck alone!"