Chapter Text
iii. “And for the first time I had something to lose, and I guess we fell apart in the usual way.”
2003
Edie walks out of the drugstore bathroom with shaking hands.
Jakob is inspecting the chip selection, with no idea what she’s just learned.
“Jakob,” she says, tugging at his arm and trying to pull him away from the aisle. He grins at her, forgetting the chips, and lets her lead him out of the store.
“Babe, what’s going on?” He asks, a quirk in his brow, leaning against the front of the van.
She takes a deep breath. “I’m pregnant.”
His face goes from casually cool to absolutely shocked within a fraction of a second. “You’re-Are you sure?”
Edie nods, feeling a little smile tug at her lips. “I’m sure. I just took a test.”
“Oh… Wow… Um… Are you going to keep it?”
“Jakob, of course I am. Just think, we’re going to have a baby.”
When it first occurred to her that the strange symptoms she was getting could be pregnancy, she felt scared. But then she looked at the boy that she loved and the open road before them; thought of all the beautiful things they’d seen and all the places that they would see and all the magic and joy and light in the world and she thought that maybe, just maybe, bringing another person into that world would be worth it if she could show them all those wonders.
She hugs Jakob, and his arms come up around her and hold her just as strong as ever.
She doesn’t see the look in the half-poet’s eyes, the fear writ in his features.
He leaves her at a small town gas station a month later, Edie coming out of the store to find her suitcase on the sidewalk, a handwritten note sitting on top.
I’m sorry.