Mina nibbled her Saltine and squeezed her eyes shut. She wanted to sink through the floor and disappear. She just wanted it all to go away...and not just the baby.
At the moment she was sitting in a place she never imagined she'd be in her life. The waiting room was so bright, the florescent lights, white walls, and beige plastic chairs came together in a way so harsh it was blinding. The whole environment was so accusatory. She felt like she was under a bare bulb in a dark interrogation room. "I'm guilty!" she wanted to scream. "Yes. I had sex and now I have to get an abortion. I'm so, so sorry!"
"Open your eyes," her mother hissed from the chair beside her. "Look where you've landed yourself!"
Mina looked at her mother and quickly away. Diana sat in that horrible chair in that horrible white room looking as refined as ever. She surveyed the room with her chin tipped up as if she was Cleopatra. Her medium brown skin was even and smooth, she didn't even need pantyhose over her crossed legs. Her shoulders weren't hunched like Mina's. Even the stiff bun she'd pulled her black hair into looked pissed. She sat there ram-rod straight, her two piece black business suit didn't dare wrinkle as she bounced her red Chinese Laundry heel. Only her mother could wear hooker-red shoes with a black outfit and not look like a total slut...even in an abortion clinic.
Mina glanced at the girls around her, obviously just as freaked out as she was. A waif of a white girl with deep red hair and ivory skin sat almost directly across from her. She must have been around fifteen and was flanked by her own angry-looking mother, caught her eye and smiled. The smile was sad, but somehow reassuring. Mina smiled back, hoping hers was equally comforting.
The door opened and Mina snapped her head around to see who had broken the eerie silence. Bryan walked in and scowled when Mina stood. Diana stood too and pushed her daughter back into her seat with a firm hand on the shoulder. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Bryan seemed to balk at her question. He decided to ignore her instead addressing Mina. "What are you doing?"
"She's getting this problem fixed!" Diane snapped.
"Mina, you're going to kill my kid?" Bryan's voice was strained.
Diane scoffed. "You get my daughter pregnant and expect her to give up on her life so she can give birth to your child? You must be crazy!"
"Look," Bryan almost yelled. "I'm not talking to you! Mina is eighteen and an adult. She can think for herself."
Mina watched her mother take a step back. She was quite sure no one had spoken to her mother, the ball-breaking, money-making, no-shit-taking attorney, like that in a hell of a long time.
"Don't do this," Bryan said falling to his knees in front of her chair. He grabbed Mina's hands from her lap and pressed them to his lips.
Mina's heart felt like it was breaking for him. She'd never seen Bryan so upset. He'd practically yelled at her mother and she'd never seen him raise his voice to anyone besides his brother Logan.
"Don't kill this baby before we have a chance to talk about this. We can work it out."
Mina tore her stare away from him and focused on her mother's deep scowl, and then back at Bryan's bowed head.
"Don't you dare," Diana seethed through clenched teeth.
"Bryan," Mina said around the lump in her throat. "I can't raise a kid and go to college."
Bryan turned his eyes upward and Mina saw tears there. "Just come home with me...right now." He stood quickly, pulling her against his chest so swiftly, she lost some of her breath. He kissed her. It was deep and searching as if his tongue was trying to coax her into listening to his unspoken reasoning. His large hands held her waist and she moaned in spite of herself and the waiting room full of onlookers. Mina was panting by the time they parted.
"Mina!" her mother snapped when she turned for the door. "Do NOT do this!"
She felt like she was drowning, suffocating...she couldn't breathe. She felt her mother's fierce gaze bore into her back and all the girls around her stared with mouths open. Her heart pounded so fast it seemed that it was going to leap from her chest. The only thing keeping her afloat was the vice grip Bryan had on her hand. His touch kept her knees from buckling as she disobeyed her mother for possibly the first time ever. She let him lead her from that stark white prison and straight to his car.
They rode to Bryan's house in silence. There were no words after what had just happened. He knew she was anxious about the fact that she'd just stood up to Diana. As long as they'd been dating, he'd never witnessed Mina challenge her mother. No matter what Diana demanded, her answer was always, "Yes, ma'am." Publicly embarrassing her mother, then leaving her in the dust was a big fucking deal.
Mina was scared. She knew her mother couldn't technically do anything to her...like Bryan had said, she was an adult. However, without her mother on board, the whole baby thing would be a million times harder. She could very well end up right back in that waiting room after she and Bryan "talked" about it.
She followed Bryan into his house and Linda came running to the kitchen door, gathering Mina into an overpowering hug. "I'm sorry, honey. I just had to tell him."
"I know," Mina whispered. Mina's mother had insisted on calling Linda that day to tell her about the appointment. Diana had thought she was merely informing Bryan's mother of how things were going to go when she called that morning but Mina knew that Linda was not going to stand by and let her future grandchild be killed. As soon as she hung up the phone, she'd light a fire under Bryan. No matter that they hadn't had a decent conversation in the week since they'd taken that pregnancy test. Linda would make sure that her son did the right thing by Mina. She hadn't expected him to beg or cry the way he had, but it had been a nice bonus.
Bryan waited for his mother to let go of Mina before taking her hand again and leading her into the living room. Mina loved the common area of the Dillinger house. They were filled with the personalities of everyone in the family. Don, a martial artist, had long Samuri swords crossed over the fire place, dozens of geisha statues and jade dragons about, and a set of matching Buddha statues on each side of the television. Linda, in spite of her foul mouth, was the picture of feminity with her silk flower arrangements, doilies, and porcelain figurines...not geishas but a massive collection of Royal Daulton women in full skirts holding fans or parisols and such. On every wall and table were countless pictures of their family. Everyone was in that room, Dan's four kids from his first marriage, Bryan, and Logan were all there. Plus there offspring and a half dozen gray-haired people Mina couldn't keep straight. The furniture was soft and lived in to the point that she almost fell asleep if she stayed on the couch for more than thirty minutes.
Bryan went straight for the wooden box on the table behind the couch. It was the mail-drop box. With so many people going in and out of the house and receiving mail there no matter how long ago they moved out, that was the safest way to make sure everyone got their mail. After pulling out a blank white envelope he tore it open and handed her the paper inside without even glancing at it.
"Why did you do this?" she asked so quietly she barely heard herself. She was staring at the results of multiple STD tests Bryan had done.
"I just thought..."
Mina frowned. "You thought since I was already pregnant, we can just fuck all day like Logan and Sandie? You assumed that I would keep this baby and give you nine months of ass without the need for birth control?" Her voice was a frightening whisper.
"No...well...yes. I didn't think you were going to get an abortion. So I wanted you to know that you're safe."
Mina sighed. "Why would you even think that? We haven't spoken in over a week. Not since we found out..." "I know. I know. I fucked up. I should have called you or come by but I wasn't ignoring the situation or anything. I've been working on stuff...stuff for us."
Mina frowned. "What kind of stuff?"
"I got appointments to look at apartments just off campus so we can move in together. That's if you go to Adams here in town, but if you decide to go to an out of state school, I'll move there with you. Mom will shit a brick, but it's really not up to her." Bryan's words came out rushed as if he'd been rehearsing them. "This is a big fucking deal and I know that. I'm finishing school. I've actually gone to class every day and been on time."
Mina's eyebrows shot up.
