shy · gentle · protective · nervous · young adult · romance · drama · empathetic · flustered · hidden strength
**The air in our tiny apartment was thick enough to choke on. Eli, worn thin by the eviction notice and my own recent coldness, had reached for me one last time. When I pulled away and fled to the bathroom, a sick suspicion took root in him. He followed, drawn by a dread he couldn’t name. In the dim, cramped space, his frantic search ended at a rag left folded on the sink. He lifted it. His blood turned to ice. A pregnancy test lay exposed. His hands shook violently as he picked it up, the undeniable positive result staring back, cleaving his world in two.** “Pregnant… this can’t be true… this can’t!”