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tece26

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1. Keri walked up to her house drained physically and emotionally. She wanted to crawl in bed and take a nap. She wanted to just rest her head. Keri had met with Amber and was shocked with her friends’ response.
2. “You have to get rid of it!” Amber has said as a matter of fact. “I don’t care if it’s abortion or if it’s by adoption, but Kie, The point of starting fresh was to get rid of the crap in your life. Mikes baby is a part of him. If you keep it you’re keeping Mike.”
3. “Amber.” Keri said when she finally found her voice. “Mike doesn’t have to know about this. And to be honest, I’m shocked! You never seemed to be the type to give up on a person so quickly.”
4. “Technically, it’s not a person yet.” Amber reasoned, “And Mike is hopeless.”
5. “Don’t go there Amber!” Keri shouted close to tears. Damn hormones, she thought. After a few deep breaths she continued. “It is a person, it’s a baby. And even though it is half Mike, it’s half me too. This baby didn’t have a choice who its parents are.”
6. “Then give it up for adoption.”
7. Keri shook her head and climbed the stairs to her room. Amber was not a bad person, she was just shocked. Keri didn’t know what to do any more now than she did before meeting her friend. But she had been looking online about adoption. There were several nice families that would give her baby a good loving home.
8. Then Keri started to feel… she didn’t know how to describe it. It was her baby. Hers. And the way a baby was raised had to play a lot on how the person it grew up as turned out to be, right. If she did a decent job there was a chance it wouldn’t be crazy like Mike ha…
9. Her thoughts stopped short as she opened her bedroom door. “Speak of the devil.” She muttered covering her mouth and looking at the mess. Mike had been here alright, and her room was destroyed. Chocolates melted on the carpet and flowers, along with all her medical papers where in the center of the chaos. Everything she owned was knocked over, broken or thrown in heaps around the room. To say Mike was upset about finding out she was pregnant was an understatement.
10. Forgetting her nap, Keri backed out of the room slowly and closed the door behind her. SHIT she thought. So much for that secret, it didn’t last long.
11. She couldn’t deal with this now, she didn’t really know how too. As she headed out of the house she took the now familiar path to the park. Hopefully Jake would be there. Surely he would have ideas on how to handle this. He did live with Bobby and Shawn.
12. Walking fast and with her head down, her feet took her out of habit to the same spot she had met with Jake that first night. The same spot they had met at for the last three weeks. It was still early for Jake, but she didn’t want to be home, and after Amber’s reaction, she didn’t want to go anywhere else.
13. Keri sat on her swing, and waited.

1. Jake woke still lying on his floor, cold and stiff. He struggled to sit up and let out a cry of pain. His breathing was coming in short painful gasps and he felt he had no control over his body. He needed to get up and get out. He needed help, but his mother was gone, and by now his father would have passed out, not that he would help him anyway. He was alone in this house no matter how many people were here.
2. It took him ten minutes to get to a somewhat standing position, and another five before the room stopped spinning. This was by far the worst beating he had taken from his brothers. He looked around, his room had been completely ransacked. It was no longer safe here. He was going to have to leave now with whatever money he…
3. He stopped and stared at his closet. His money, was it still there? The boxes at the top had been pulled down and he could see the board had been moved a little.
4. Jake stumbled over to the closet and, grinding his teeth against the pain, reached up to move the panel aside. He reached in and felt around, finally brushing his fingers over the wooden box. Pulling it down he looked inside. It was still there, all $3100. It wasn’t a lot and he was short the $300 his brothers took, but $3100 would have to be enough. He didn’t have any more time.
5. It was late, 12:30. He looked out his window. His brothers were still out spending his money; he only hoped Keri was still at the park. As quick as he dared move, he went down the stairs, stumbling at the bottom. He cried out and heard his father screaming back.
6. “Jake!” His dad screamed again, but he opened the door and ran out into the street, leaving his family for the last time.
7. It took him twice as long to get to the park as it would have normally. The sharp stabbing pain in his chest grew with every breath, but the effort it took to move at all had him begging for deeper breaths. Jake felt as if he were about to suffocate.
8. “Oh my word!” Keri screamed when she saw Jake stumble into view. “Jake, what happened?” She reached out to catch him as he fell forward, but he cried out in pain at the slightest touch so she pulled back.
9. Jake tried catching his breath and fell onto a bench next to the path. He had no more energy, and it took all he had to answer Keri. “I... my brothers, I can’t go back. I need to leave tonight, now.”
10. “Jake, you have to go to the hospital. Your breathing sounds horrible; you can’t even take one good deep breath. Your lips r blue!”
11. Jake was shaking his head, "Wait, Keri, I have been thinking.” He dug in his bag and dug out his grandpas box and handed it to her. “I think we can help each other. Open it.” He laid back on the bench and made a conscious effort to slow his breathing.
12. Keri slid the lid back and gasped. “Jake! That’s… That’s a lot of money! Where did it come from? Why are you showing me?”
13. He was moaning softly. “I worked hard every spare minute I could find work. Saved everything. I told you I was getting out. There’s about $3100 there maybe a little more.”
14. You could have left awhile ago.” Keri said looking over her shoulder, judging the distance to her house. She needed to get him to a hospital.
15. “No I wanted enough to get a place and live on for awhile while I got my GED, found work…” He groaned and tried a new position. “Its not safe at my place anymore, I’m lucky they didn’t find this.”
16. “Jake what happened?”
17. “This was because the found $300. I think they would have killed me if they knew I had more they never knew about.”
18. “Jake can you come…”
19. He cut her off. “I need you to take it.”
20. “I can keep it safe for you, we could get you an account…”
21. “No they would know if I had an account and was always going to the bank.” He couldn’t catch his breath. It hurt so badly!
22. “I’m taking you to the hospital now!” Keri said. She would not be told no.
23. “Wait!” Jake pleaded.”Listen to me first. Go to New York, keep your scholarship, and take me with you. We can use my money; I’ll help you with the baby during the day and get a job at night. Until we are both on our feet, we both get what we want.”
24. Keri stood biting her lip. “It might work,” she admitted, “but please Jake, you’re scaring me. Go to the hospital and I’ll think about it.”
25. “Bargaining with me now?” Jake tried joking.
26. “My house isn’t too far, my car is there.” But when she tried to help Jake onto his legs he fell forward into Keri’s arms. She couldn’t hold him and dropped him back onto the bench.
27. “Wait here; I’ll go get my car. Don’t move!”
28. He tried to laugh, “No worries there.”