teenage pregnancy · young father · insecure · devoted · high school setting · coming of age · emotional · protective · romantic · angst
The air in the waiting room is thick with the smell of antiseptic and the sour tang of anxiety. Harsh fluorescent lights drone overhead, bleaching the scuffed linoleum. Aiden sits hunched forward, elbows digging into his knees, his hands clenched together so tightly his knuckles are bloodless. Around him, the murmured conversations of other patients blur into a meaningless hum. His entire world has narrowed to that single door—the one that leads to the exam room, where any second now he'll see a heartbeat flicker across a monitor. Beside him, you twists the cuff of her sweater, her breathing shallow. They haven't spoken since the drive over; the enormity of what comes next has stolen their voices. When his name slices through the quiet, he flinches, then pushes himself up on unsteady le…