Lucy, Seventeen Years Old
“You shouldn’t be wearing that skirt,” Sam says, squeezing my hand as we walk to school.
“Well, I thought it was going to be warmer today, but now I’m wishing I hadn’t. Why? You don’t like it?” I ask, looking up at him with big innocent eyes. I can tell that he does.
He pulls me into the doorway of an old abandoned building and spins me around so that I’m pressed between its cold brick exterior and his warm body. He places his hands on the crumbling wall by my shoulders and leans into me. “I like it. But so do the wolves.” He takes my face in his hand and says softly, “You’re so beautiful, Lamb. You don’t even know it.” He trails his hand down my neck, tracing my collarbone with his thumb, and pushes my jacket off my shoulder, sending a shiver through me when the cold air touches my skin. “And so pure,” he says, kissing my neck below my ear. “You have no idea what they’d do to you.”
I press my finger to the middle of his broad chest and drag it down his sweatshirt, feeling his muscles flex beneath it. “That’s why I have you. You’ve always protected me. And I’ve never felt afraid,” I say honestly.
He pulls his eyebrows together and drops his head. “What if I wasn’t there?”
“You always are.” I give him a reassuring smile and bring my lips up to his.
“Yeah,” he says, dragging his lips to my ear. “I always will be.” He brings his mouth back to mine and kisses me firmly, pressing himself against me so that I feel every line of his strong body against mine. He drops his warm hands to my cold thighs and runs them up my legs, groaning against my mouth as he squeezes my bottom under my skirt.
He picks me up and I wrap my legs around him, savoring the heat coming off him. “We can’t,” I say, winding my fingers in his hair, unable to stop kissing him. “We have to go to class.” I try unsuccessfully to convince him, and myself. “Sam.” He ignores me and kisses me harder, and I kiss him right back. “Not here,” I finally say, giving in with a conflicted grin. We should really go to class, but he should really keep kissing me.
He gives me a salacious smile and puts me down. “Come on,” he says, pulling me around the side of the building.
“Where are we going?” I ask, eyeing the strewn newspapers and flattened boxes that line the alley to the back of the building.
“There.” He points to a ladder that leads to the roof. “Come on.”
“You want me to climb up that?” I ask, dismayed as he tugs on the bottom of the ladder, checking its stability.
“Yeah, it’s safe. You can go first. I’ll follow, in case you slip.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Wouldn’t have anything to do with the skirt, would it?”
He gives me a wicked grin. “Of course not.”
I wrap my hands around the cold wrought iron and step up onto one of the rusted rungs. It wobbles a little under my weight, but feels relatively sturdy. Sam follows me as I climb up the side of the building, groaning when the wind blows my skirt up.
“Knock it off,” I say, reaching for the last rung.
“Not possible.”
I pause and look down at him, pursing my lips over a smile I can’t hide.
“Don’t stop, you’re almost there.” He winks at me and gives my bottom a push over the top.
“Holy crap, it’s cold up here.” I rub my arms through my jacket.
Sam drops his book bag and pulls me into his arms, wrapping me in his sweatshirt. When the wind isn’t blowing, the sun is actually pretty warm. “Better?” he asks, rubbing my back.
“Yeah.” The sky is so clear, I can see all the way to downtown Atlanta, where the tall buildings stagger across a small section of the horizon. “It’s actually really beautiful up here. So quiet. Kind of makes you forget all the crap down there,” I say, looking out at the low brick buildings that make up Brighton Park.
“We’re going to get out of here one day, Luc.”
“Promise?”
“Yeah. I promise.”
I exhale a quiet breath. “How?”
“You’re going to get a scholarship after you graduate next year and you’re going to go to college.”
I rest my chin on his chest. “No, I’m not.”
“Lucy, yes you—”
“No,” I exclaim, “not without you.” It doesn’t matter if I get a scholarship. It won’t do me any good without Sam.
He nods softly and shrugs. “Joe thinks I have a real shot at boxing. Maybe that’s my ticket out. If it is, I’ll work night and day to be the greatest boxer this world’s ever seen.”
I smile wide. “Like Muhammad Ali?”
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
“And we’ll live in a big house?” I ask with wide eyes.
“The biggest.”
“And we’ll eat pancakes every morning?” I ask, remembering how Maxine never wanted to make them for us.
“With bacon.”
“And I’ll be able to paint whenever I want?”
“Whenever you want.”
“And we’ll have a family? A real family?” I gaze up at his beautiful eyes shimmering in the bright sun, imagining a little boy or girl with eyes just like his.
He reaches for my face and tucks my windblown hair behind my ear. “Yeah, we’ll have a family.”
I carefully wrap the hope up and give it to my heart for safekeeping. “I love you, Sam. Even if none of that ever happens, I’ll still love you. You’re my family.”
He holds my face in his hands and nods. “I love you too.”
* * *
“Sam…” I gaze up at his unusual eyes, wondering if our baby will have them too. “I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?” His voice is laced with unnecessary concern.
I swallow hard and force myself to confess the secret I’ve been holding in since yesterday. “I’m…pregnant.” I pull in a deep breath with no indication of when it might be released.
“You’re what?” he asks, unable to hide the shock in his voice.
“I’m pregnant.” I press my trembling lips together and nod. “We’re going to have a baby.” I stand frozen against the wall and wait for him to respond, but when he doesn’t, I begin to wonder if maybe it wasn’t the right time to tell him.
After a long silent second, he takes a step toward me and reaches for my face. He looks at me with watery eyes and then kisses me hard.
I laugh softly over the tears that spill onto my cheeks. “Does this mean you’re happy?”
He drops his forehead to mine and says huskily, “Yeah. I’m really happy.”
“I know it wasn’t supposed to happen this like this, Sam, but—”
“Yes it was…we just didn’t know it.”
I swallow down the emotion that’s flooding me and nod. “Yeah.”
He closes his eyes and shakes his head. “I’m sorry I was rough before. If I had known…”
I smile and reach for his handsome face. “I’m fine, Sam. My boobs are just a little sore, that’s all.” I laugh softly.