Chapter Three

Later that night, Sidney and I were in his basement playing some hockey. When he scored on me, I pretended to drop my gloves and get ready to fight him. He laughed and tackled me onto the couch.

“I love you,” he said, then pressed his lips harshly against my forehead, and made his way down to my lips. “You’re heavy,” I laughed. “Sorry to interrupt,” said his dad Troy, chuckling softly, “But it’s time to eat.” Sidney kissed me again, then stood up.

I followed him upstairs to eat, then Sidney walked me home. When I got there, my mom was waiting for me in the doorway. “Haley, we need to talk sweetie.” I cursed silently, but followed my mom into the kitchen. She sat down, and motioned for me to sit across from her.

I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge in case I needed to take a sip to avoid one of her questions. “Yeah?” I asked. “Honey, I want to talk to you about Sidney,” she said nervously. “What about him?” I asked. “Well, two things,” she bit her lip.

“I think I know what at least one of those things is, and it’ll be much more painful if you drag it out so let’s get this done with,” I huffed. “Oh, alright. First, I want to make sure that you two are taking precautions. Please tell me you are,” she said.

“We don’t even need precautions at this point,” I said. “All teenagers think that. But you never know,” she said uncomfortably. “No, really. We’re taking the biggest precaution there is…” I said, looking down.

“Honey, birth control is not 100% effective. You know that, right?” she asked. “Oh my God, Mom. You aren’t getting this. Sidney and I haven’t…done that yet. Believe me I think it’s going to be awhile before you have to worry,” I said, crossing my arms. “Oh, well…your father will be happy to hear that,” she said.

I slammed my head down on the table. “So that’s what you and Dad have conversations about?” I asked into the wood. “Well, it comes up occasionally. You are our daughter, you know,” she said. I shook my head.

"Alright, well that’s over. What else did you need to talk to me about?” I asked. “Here goes,” Mom said. “Honey…have you ever thought about maybe dating someone else for a change?” I quickly unscrewed the cap to my water bottle.

“No,” I said after taking a sip. “I just…don’t want you held down to him. I want you to experience other things before you just settle down. I think you’ll regret it if you don’t. There are so many other boys out there, why not give them a chance?” she asked. “Oh, I dunno maybe because they’re all disgusting PIGS,” I snapped.

“Mom, I love Sidney. More than I can even explain, and there’s no way I’m going to let that go. Maybe you don’t understand, but there’s something about him. And after loving someone for ten years, you can’t just “date around” with other people. Do you know how hard that would be, Mom? To just all of the sudden just…leave him, and start seeing some guy I don’t even care about. He’d hate me, and there’s no way I’d ever risk that. Sorry, but no. Are we done here?” I didn’t wait for her answer before I got up from the table.