My Best Mistake [#1][#WATTYS2016][COMPLETE]

four*

© 2014 Emma Norman. All Rights Reserved.

[chloe]

For the entire journey back to my house, I didn't say a word, not I was too consumed with my thoughts of being a parent and how I was going to tell my family when I got home. I didn't have a choice but to tell them now, because there was no way that I could hide this from them, not when the symptoms of pregnancy finally kicked in.

Though John had told me that I was lucky to have avoided all those symptoms thus far, especially considering how far into the pregnancy I actually was. I am almost certain that he was trying to make an awkward situation better than it was, but there was nothing which could have changed what happened before I walked out of that room.

"Are you going to be alright?" I knew that Jodie meant once I was inside those doors and I had told my family the truth, because I was alright within myself. I had accepted that I was pregnant and that I was going to have to deal with what happened next, but I didn't know whether I would be alright after confronting my parents about this.

"I don't know, Jods. I really don't know," I sighed. The worst thing which could have happened is that Jason has already told them that I was pregnant and my parents had already decided that they wanted nothing to do with me, that they wanted me out of their house because they weren't financially supporting my child as well as me.

"If you do want to talk, then you know where I am," Jodie smiled and, as soon as I was out of her car, she was gone and all I could do was stare at my house.

I knew that, the moment I walked through those doors, I was just going to have to tell them, and I was going to have to do it before it was too late and they found out from someone else that their daughter was going to be a mother herself at the sweet age of seventeen.

After what felt like forever just glaring at the house, watching each person doing their own thing through the windows, I decided that it was time to woman the hell up and get this over with before I changed my mind; something which I was prone to doing when there were things which needed doing but I really didn't want to do them.

I put on my best smile as I unlocked the front door and walked into the madness which was my family life. But even that was a struggle and I couldn't force myself to smile when I knew what was about to happen, and I feared what would come after I had told them the truth.

"Chloe. I am glad you're home," my mother grinned as she glided past me in her stunning dress and stupidly high heels with something in her hand, only to reappear moments later with nothing there. She pulled me into a forced hug and then looked at me with an even more forced smile. "John and Vivienne are coming round for dinner tonight. Make sure you look presentable."

"What time?" I questioned quietly, my hands clutching at the straps of my bag as I felt the sweat practically dripping from my palms.

"Your father told them to be here for around eight," I could smell something coming from the kitchen, which I assumed must have been dinner, but the smell was intoxicating as my mother's cooking usually was, instead it made me want to be sick and I needed to get to my bedroom before everything I had eaten today ended up all over my mother's favourite wooden floor.

"There's something I need to tell you," I could taste the vomit in my throat and, as much as I wanted to run from this, I knew that I needed to do it before I changed my mind and waited for my parents to work out for themselves that I was carrying a child.

"What is it?"

"I'm pr—"

"Ah, Chloe. I am assuming that your mother has told you about John and Viv coming round for dinner? I thought that it was about time we all had a catch up," my father emerged from his office in the corner of the room and, as much as I didn't want tonight to happen, it was also the moments like this which I lived for. John and Vivienne being around meant that my parents treated me as they did Jason, and it was the most attention I received from them during any one time, and I loved that they cared for me and doted on me—even if it was all for show and, at the end of the night, they pointed out every single thing I had done wrong during the meal.

"She did mention it to me," I made myself smile at both of my parents, but all I really wanted to do was cry and tell them how I needed their help more than anything right, even though they hated me and didn't want to see me as their daughter; I still wanted their help and still wanted them to be there for me.

"They are going to be bringing Matthew with them too. I know that you two hate each other, but do try to play nicely with him for this evening," I wasn't going to test how serious my father was being, not after what happened the last time Matthew and I got into an argument with each other, because that didn't end well for me.

My father sent me to my room in the presence of John but, once the Jenkinson family was gone, my father punished me by taking everything away from me. I had no phone, no laptop, and I wasn't even allowed to go to school without someone watching over me, because I was also banned from going round to Jodie's for a month.

"He didn't mention anything when I spoke to him earlier."

"You spoke to Matthew?" My mother's voice came out several octaves higher than usual, sounding more like a strained squeal than anything.

"Yes."

"And you didn't resort to name calling?" My father's question immediately followed my response.

"Yes." I didn't need to tell them that I was cursing him out in my head and thinking of every offensive term I possibly could to describe that worthless asshole.

"Then if you could be like that for the entire evening, that would be simply divine," my mother pat me on the back with a twisted smile on her face, and I knew that there was silent warning in her words, almost daring me to be anything other than pleasant towards Matthew.

"Jason is in the kitchen and could do with a hand. Would you mind doing that while your mother and I set the table?" My father asked, thought I knew that it wasn't a question and I didn't have a choice either, I was to help Jason in the kitchen and I wasn't to argue about it.

"Sure, but there is something which I really need to tell you," I wanted them, just for once, to stop and actually listen to what I had to say. I didn't want to discuss it over dinner, as my mother would tell me to do, and I didn't want to wait until after dinner, as my father would tell me to do. I wanted to tell them now and I wasn't going to let either of them stop me.

"Can't it wait? We have a—"

"I'm pregnant, mother."