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He was a senior in high school, and she was a junior. They had met in
algebra class at the beginning of the school year. He was a math whiz; she
wanted to be an English teacher. They helped each other with their homework. He
helped her solve “x + 4y = 8,” and she helped him write 250-word essays.
They loved going to the beach on weekends. When it was cold and windy, they
dressed warmly and walked for miles. When it was hot, they wore their swimsuits
and spent hours in the water and on the sand. They talked about everything under
the sun. She had fallen in love with him. He wasn’t in love with her, but he
sometimes told her that he was. He really enjoyed her company, but he figured
that when he started college, he would find new girlfriends. There were plenty
of fish in the sea.
One day at the beach, however, she told him she was pregnant. “Are you
sure?” he asked, after a moment of silence. She was. “Well, what are you going
to do?” he asked. She said she was hoping that they would get married. “You
can’t be serious,” he said. “We’re both way too young to get married. We haven’t
even graduated high school yet.”
Besides, he said, without jobs they couldn’t begin to afford a baby. He had
a friend who knew someone who could solve this problem—for a fee. Don't worry,
he said, he’d pay the fee.
“I think we ought to keep our baby,” she said. He told her not to worry
about it—they would start a family after college. |
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