It's What You Do to Me

It's What You Do to Me (15)

I had never been able to keep anything from my mother.

I just couldn’t. Ever since I was a kid, I just told her pretty much absolutely everything. That was why we were so close to each other. Well, we were close before I moved to New York. But now, after all the distance that was put between us, it put distance in our relationship.

When I had started getting notes, I told her almost immediately, after they really started to scare me. Back then, I just knew that I wouldn’t be able to hide it from her. But now, as I sat in River’s room thousands of miles away from her, I wished that I could keep a secret from her.

Because I knew she wasn’t going to be happy about this.

She was probably going to be horrified.

Sure, she was excited when I told her River and I were planning on getting married, but that was when we were going to wait until after college, when we were really adults. But now, we had to do it right after we graduated from high school. Not college, high school!

It was scary, but exciting. And I honestly couldn’t wait to marry River.

I was her daughter, and the little baby at that. It wasn’t like I had a younger brother or sister or anything… She almost started crying when she had to send me off to Bentwood, far away from her. I knew she wasn’t going to be happy that I was going to get married at eighteen…

Hell, I wouldn’t have been happy about it either. Just imagining my unborn daughter marrying right when she turned eighteen made me sick to my stomach.

Was that how my mother felt right then?

I sure hoped not…

“You’re kidding, right?”

I was kind of expecting this to come from my mother’s mouth. I knew that she wasn’t going to believe me at first, but after she would see that I wasn’t just joking around with her. And why would I in the first place? That would be really cruel of me…

“No,” I murmured, staring down at my feet, almost ashamed. I really didn’t want to be the one that had to tell her this… Why couldn’t I just tell my dad, or Nick what was going on? Definitely not Jake… He’d take it worse than my mom would.

I knew that she would be upset, maybe even disappointed, but this was what River’s dad wanted. Even though River’s father hadn’t done anything good for River or me so far…

“There’s no way you’re seriously going to marry him right after graduation,” my mother told me, as if it was up to her. Right then I guess it was up to her, since I was seventeen, but I’d be eighteen in February, four months before we got married.

“We are, Mom,” I sighed, shaking my head as I crossed my legs. “River’s dad wants us to get married after graduation, so we are.”

“You’re supposed to wait until you go to college and have a job! Delilah, this is completely irresponsible!” she proclaimed, and I could just tell that Nick and Jake were probably in the house, watching as she pretty much exploded. “You can’t do this!”

“Mom,” was all I could think of to say. “I’m sorry, but we are. You can’t stop me. I’ll be eighteen when the time comes, a legal adult. I want to spend the rest of my life with River, and if you don’t like that then too bad and I’m sorry. I’m going to hang up before I get upset. Goodbye, Mom.”

Before my mother could say anything else to me, I hit the end call button and slammed my phone against River’s dresser.

Even though that phone call was short, it was still enough to get both my mother and me angry or upset. And when we were across the country from each other, that definitely wasn’t a good thing…