Make It Work

• Emilee O'Leary, Grade 12
• Short Story
• 2022

At fifteen you don’t think anything big or life-changing will happen.
That was me, I went to a party, it was the middle of March and I got knocked up by some random guy I’d never seen before. I was underage, and it was a month before I realized my period was late. Yes, my life was that chaotic that I didn’t even notice.
My family is quite traditional, I didn’t choose to be part of it, so what, all the women in my family go to church and drag their husbands and children along with them, my Dad honestly just plays on his phone, could have sworn I saw even Grandpa taking a nap once.
I was scared, as I stood in front of the hospital, making me light headed. I had searched online for abortions. Why couldn’t I enter?.
This wasn’t right, I knew it, deep down, sure my life has just begun, but I can’t get an abortion. I decided to wait until I was about five months along to announce to my family, by that time I would have turned 16, which is not an easy thing, keeping a secret from your family, no one even noticed or mentioned me gaining weight.
I got an Ultrasound and while my family were watching the quiz shows, during an ad break, I hit mute on the remote and announced that I was pregnant, with proof.
My parents didn’t support me, my Aunt’s, Uncles, Cousins and Siblings didn’t support me, not even my own grandparents. All saying I’d have a bigger future without this baby. I dropped out of school and I moved to New York, big move, I wasn’t expecting a movie moment, no, I knew New York was big enough for me. With enough opportunities to have it all. To be a mum and have a big future, to support my baby.
Now I didn’t have a whole lot of money, honestly I didn’t completely think this through. For the past two years that I had been working, I had been putting away half of my paycheck, my family would assume for University?. Wrong, I was just putting away money, I had just shy of $10,000. And so I started renting a one bedroom loft, with an enclosed bathroom. This is my life now and I am going to make my own path, with my baby.
I’m twenty-one, I work full-time as a chef at a restaurant. I own an apartment, three years after living in that loft apartment, it was put up for sale and I had good credit and now I am paying off a mortgage, yes, it is pretty small. I plan on expanding, like buying the loft above me. I named my baby boy, Lucian. He is five and a half. I never would have seen myself seeing having to choose between Lucian’s father or a local police detective fancy me.
Now I question, who do I want more?.