Ingrid stood on the balcony of Ethan's house and watched the kids dressed in hooded jackets in the street play soccer on the snowy Saturday. They yelled in happiness at each other seeming to have moved past the fact that an evil incident happened here, two weeks ago. Life moves on, and so do people. Some women nearby stood to gossip when they saw the cleaning company entering the premises. The women were probably talking of all the ill that they could come up with. Ingrid thought. In a beehive of some manner, the workers were working like swarms of buzzing bumblebees to return the home to its former glory. She was dressed in tight jeans and stylized black shoes. She had on a dark blue stretch shirt on top. The girl pushed back her dark brown hair in a stylistic fashion. She found herself looking down at her tummy and her hands slid there. She smiled a bit, feeling at peace with the fact that she was to become a mother. Many girls in her situation had come before her and some had become successful in being young moms. She knew that she could do this. A red hatchback car slowly drove past the compound on the road and it caught Ingrid's attention.
"Ayden!" She shouted.
The car immediately stopped letting out a screeching sound. Ingrid quickly darted out of the balcony back into the room missing some detergents on her path. She walked downstairs constantly fixing herself in the tiny spaces between the workers dressed in orange overalls. She quickly raced out with her heart beating loudly to the surprise. Ingrid found him standing outside the car, dressed in a white hoodie and the contrasting black hair framed that beautiful face with the ever-present dark rims around his eyes.
"Hi..." she called out to him.
"Hey..." he answered seeming all cool and grown-ish. He pocketed his arms in his black jeans.
"So you're driving in the day now, huh? The police might catch you driving your mom's car." She kicked the snow off the ground.
"The police are kinda feeling cold today. They're probably locked up in their rooms somewhere sharing their heat. They are cold I guess."
"I'm cold..." she shrugged at him biting her lip.
"The cold outside is not a place for a beautiful girl like you." He told her chuckling a bit.
"Then make your girl warm," Ingrid told him as she wrapped her arms around his waist and looked down at him. His sight was breathtaking. She wanted to kiss him right there and then. He turned his head away as her lips approached his.
"What are you doing here anyway?" He asked her in a soft sudden voice.
"Oh, I'm just supervising some work here that my dad told me to undertake really, nothing much fun. Care to go inside?" She asked him. Ayden nodded after a deep thought. They walked around the ground floor, through the kitchen and the washrooms as she fixed up some loose ends in the work that had been done by the cleaners.
"So, about school..." Ingrid muttered to him as they climbed the stairs that led to the upper floor of the house. They had to squeeze themselves through the men and women present.
"Yeah, school is boring and all. And I can't just sit comfortably in a class knowing that there's a girl out there with a baby in her belly. My baby."
"I won't lie... it's scary but trust me, I'm up for the job. Being a mom... at sixteen! Damn!"
"Ingrid, why do you still have it?" Ayden asked as they stopped in front of the house's main bedroom door and stood side to side as they rested their backs on the door's frame.
"Ayden it's a baby. In here, growing in here right now! What could be happier than this?" She squealed happily throwing her arms in the air.
"Me and you, together forever. And a baby of our own fruit by our side at the right time..." Ayden squealed back sarcastically.
"I already told you that if you're not up for this then you are free to walk away."
"I did..."
"But you kept calling me back and texting a few days later apologizing."
"That's because I was hoping that I could change your mind into doing the right thing. Because this," Ayden pointed at her tummy. "...this is not it."
"Come on, babe. Why are you afraid? Huh? Besides, I've already gotten on the good side of my parents. They will not be mad at me as much when they finally know the truth."
"Wait," Ayden unfolded his arms, "they still don't know?"
"Yeah... I'm too scared to face and tell them all by myself." She mumbled and tucked her tongue behind her mouth.
"How long has it been?" Ayden asked her as he pinched his nose and licked his pink lips thoroughly afterward.
"A month and one week maybe... well over three, four weeks." She answered as she caressed her stomach.
"Damn, Ingrid you're so serious about this?" He raised a brow.
Ingrid walked away from the door and into the room in a calm way as Ayden watched her. She got on the bed and saw to it that she sat down. She looked at him silently before she spoke. "I told you I'm not a murderer. This was a mistake. My mistake. The baby is nothing but innocent. And if I'll live my whole life making sure I pay for it, then so be it. But this is not a crime... this is a piece of me... a blessing. There's no need to be fined for a blessing right?"
Ayden closed the door and walked towards her, his arms bouncing off against his laps. He scoured at the lovely girl before her. She was all curvy and attractive. Her long dark brown wavy hair dropped in front of her chest in a lovely manner. Her sexy and attractive eyes made sure that he was always looking at them.
"That bed... it has a lot of memories. Good and bad ones for both your brother and Elena. Ingrid, do you think he did it?"
"Should I really answer that?"
"Only if you want to, really. I'm not forcing you to do anything you don't want to."
"Um, the judge said what he said... and Ethan said what he said. And I'll stand with my brother." She said looking at him approaching her. "You know, I had planned that Ethan would be the one to help me with this... confessing to my parents and all. Now everything is messed up so bad." She threw herself backward on the mattress so that she was facing the ceiling. Ayden did the same too when he got to the bed.
Ayden pushed away loose hair hanging in front of his face with a gust of air from his mouth. His hair and Ingrid's mingled somewhere in between in a beautiful mess. "I'm sorry. For what you're going through. I can only presume that everything is just too much for you to handle..."
"You have no idea," Ingrid mumbled in a sad voice. "And now that school is here, it just adds to more and more complication to my situation. By the way, I've been thinking about going to school as a border for the remaining part of this academic year."
Ayden's brows knitted in confusion. "Why?" He asked. "You've always been a day scholar in school and we got the chance to see each other whenever we could. If you do this then... it means that I wouldn't get the opportunity to see you."
"Oh, so now you worry about me?" She told him, still staring at the ceiling above.