As soon as Jake and Delilah were in the door, James was shouting, “Thank GOD! Jake, I need to talk to you.”
“Can it wait until I put my shit away, Jay? I just got home from doing three interviews in two cities. I’d like to put my suitcase away in my house before I start shoveling shit.”
“I hate to be insistent, but I need to talk NOW, Jake.”
Jake sighed and cursed passionately under his breath. “FUCK!” He looked at his younger brother. “Come on, James. I’ll get something to eat and you can talk.” He gave his wife a kiss and whispered in her ear. “Sorry about this.”
“Go take care of your little brother. I’m fine”, Delilah whispered back. “We can put this stuff away after you’re done and you’ve eaten.”
Jake took a deep breath and made his way for the kitchen. As he dug through the fridge for leftovers, he spoke. “Ok, James, you wanted this talk. What’s on your mind?”
“Bro, I kinda fucked up”, James said, the shame in his voice evident.
“What do you mean, you kinda fucked up, James? You either fucked up or you didn’t.”
“You remember Brittan, right?”
“That little girl you’ve been dating for a good portion of high school?”
“Yeah, her. Well, last month we were coming back from an indoor track meet and we fooled around in the back of the bus. I told her I wanted to wait until we got back here so that I could get a condom. I didn’t have one in my wallet at the time. She still insisted and when she wrapped her mouth around me I was done arguing. Well, yesterday at school, she told me she was late. I told her to get a test to be sure that she just wasn’t late because of stress. She called me later and told me that she’s pregnant.”
Jake had been warming up the makings of a burrito as his little brother spoke. He looked at James as he flipped the tortilla on their mother’s griddle pan and gave a low whistle. “Wow, James. You really DID fuck up.” He shook his head. “Dude, Jay. You know what you have to do, right?”
James hung his head. “I was hoping that you would do it for me.”
“Umm, NO, James. You’re the one that couldn’t stick by your guns and put yourself in this position. I’ll stand by you like a big brother should and I’ll help you wherever I can, but you’ve got to be the one to tell our parents. Speaking of, where are Mom and Dad?”
“Upstairs. Mom’s giving Dad his weekly massage for the first time in weeks.”
“Not a surprise in the least.” Jake put a dollop of sour cream on his burrito after adding some lettuce, tomatoes and cheese and folding it over. “When they come down, you need to tell them, James Matthew.”
“I’m scared, Jake. What if Mom and Dad freak out on me?”
“They won’t, James. Did they freak when Malachai and Mandy got pregnant with the twins?”
“Well, no, but the circumstances were different too. Mandy had just been rescued from a really bad situation. Brittan is nothing like that.”
“True, Brittan is from a stable family where everyone is successful, but the fact still remains that Mom and Dad more than likely won’t freak out. It’s not their style.”
“Are you sure, Jake?”
“Do I need to be a jack ass about this, James?”
“I’m just not sure that Mom and Dad won’t trip balls when I tell them that I got a girl pregnant before I graduated high school.”
“For the love of GOD, James Matthew Draiman; grow a set, be a man and tell our parents that you fucked up. Mom and Dad taught us to take responsibility for our actions and you’re sitting here whining to ME? Not flying, little brother. You’re going to tell them whether you like it or not. I’m not doing this for you.”
James sighed and looked at his older brother. “Thanks, Jake. I needed that.”
---------------
After both of their parents had come down the stairs and started on dinner James walked slowly into the kitchen with his head down. Jake and Delilah had just come back in from putting their things away after their trip. Jake was telling their parents about his trip to Chicago and how he officially had NO respect for the men on that show anymore. “They’re fucking sell outs”, he said. “They aren’t in it to help people anymore. They’re in it for the glory. They were all shitty about my being nominated for the Nobel Prize when they’d ‘made all kinds of strides in medicine’ and no one had offered THEM the Nobel Prize. And they kept calling it the Peace Prize. I’m not nominated for the Peace Prize, you fucking retards.”
Brie laughed at her son. “Jacob Micah Draiman, did you call them that on air?”
“No, Mom, you and Dad taught me better shit than that. I did, however, walk away from the interview because I had come to the point where I was tired of being insulted.”
“Good”, David said. “You don’t have to sit there and endure that kind of abuse. You earned what you have.”
“I hate to interject”, James said after taking a deep breath, “but, Mom, Dad, I need to tell you something.”
“Do you want Jake and Delilah to leave?” Brie asked.
“No, it’s fine that they’re here. But, Mom, you might want to sit down for this.”
Brie moved from behind the island where she had her cook top after Delilah had come to take over so that she could devote her attention to James. She took a seat next to David. “Ok, James. What’s going on?” David asked.
James sat down at the table and stared at his hands for a moment as he tried to find the courage to say what he needed to say. “Mom. Dad. I fucked up bad”, he said when he looked his parents in the eyes.
“What did you do, James?”
“You guys know Brittan, right?”
“The girl that’s been your girlfriend for the last three years?” Brie asked.
“Yeah. Well, on the last out of town track meet on the way home, she and I fooled around at the back of the bus. I didn’t have a rubber on me, and though I tried to insist, I couldn’t keep saying no once she went down. She told me yesterday at school that she was late and thought she might be pregnant. I told her to get a test to be sure. I know that stress can cause irregularity because I spend far too much time listening to Mom talk to her younger clients and I know that Brittan’s been under a LOT of stress at home recently. She called me later and told me that it’s confirmed. She’s pregnant.”
David and Brie sat in shocked silence for several minutes. “Wow”, Brie finally said when she could remember how her mouth worked.
“You can say that again, love”, David said in shock. “That came out of left field. I was NOT expecting that.”
“What are we going to do about this, David?”
“Well, he is an adult now. He’s almost eighteen. He needs to take responsibility for what he’s done.” David looked at his son. “Do you love her, James?”
“Yes, Dad. I love her.”
“Well, then you won’t have any objection to stepping up and taking care of that child, would you?”
“Absolutely not.”
“We’ll help you out like we did Malachai, but the bulk of this will be on your shoulders, James Matthew. Do I make myself clear?”
James nodded. “Yes sir. I do have a question. Do you think this will ruin my chances of getting into a good law school when I’m ready to do that?”
“I doubt it. Most law schools look at grades and LSAT scores.”
James nodded. “Ok. I’m glad we had this talk. Thanks, Mom and Dad.”
“No problem, James. Just to warn you, son, being a father is a big responsibility. Are you ready?”
James shook his head. “No, not really. I guess I have nine months to get used to the idea, huh?” And with that he stood and walked away.
---------------
A few days passed. The shock of James’s news hasn’t fully sank in yet. He’d told the family about what had happened and his brothers and sisters were there offering him their support. Malachai and Mandy even offered him their old cribs and baby clothes. They’d been trying to have another baby, but there was no way in hell they were going to. The scar tissue from her Aunt and Uncle’s abuse was still haunting them.
But, something wasn’t right. Jake could feel it. He tried to talk to James about the feeling he had but James wouldn’t slow down enough to listen. He was too excited about becoming a father himself. He was bouncing around from one place to another.
Jake had had enough of holding in what he was thinking, so he finally broke down and told his wife. “Baby, something’s not right. I can feel it, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“What do you mean?”
“James is so busy being excited about becoming a Daddy that he’s neglecting to remember that Brittan needs him to be there for her and to protect her. She’s going to need him and he’s not going to be there.”
“What have you been seeing?” The only reason she asked was because it was the next logical questions.
“It’s all really quick. I can’t get a clear picture of anything in particular. I do HEAR gun shots, though.”
“Have you talked to James about it?”
“He won’t sit still long enough to let me talk to him.”
“What about getting to James through Jeremiah?”
“Won’t work. James will be pissed that I didn’t come to him with it.”
“Have you considered talking to Mom and Dad about it?”
“No. I can’t run to them with everything, Delilah.”
She nodded. “I understand.” She sighed. “Well, baby, the only thing I can tell you is that maybe James needs to go through whatever this is so that he can learn something. I don’t know what else to say.”
He pulled her against him and held her close. “Thank you, baby. I just needed someone to talk to about this because the person that needs to hear it won’t listen.”
“I understand, honey and you know I’m always here if you need to talk, no matter what it may be about.”
---------------
Everyone had finally gotten over the shock of James’s news that he was going to have a baby. And, they’d received word that Colton’s parents were finally in town and excited to meet with the Draiman family. Maddie stayed at home and helped get everything ready for the arrival of their guests that night; the man and woman she’d be calling her mother and father in law as soon as her father gave the go ahead for them to get married.
“Daddy”, she asked as she helped get dinner made that evening, “what are you going to do when I get married?”
David laughed. “What do you mean?”
“Are you going to cry at my wedding?”
“I don’t know, Madison. We’ll have to wait for that day to arrive before I can say for sure.”
“Are you going to walk me down the aisle?”
“Who else is going to?”
“I do have two older brothers.”
“No. I’m your father and that’s my privilege; not Jacob or Malachai’s. I’ll be damned if I allow either of them to walk you down the aisle.” He smiled at his princess, then looked to his wife and spoke in Yiddish. Brie laughed and retorted back using the same tongue.
Maddie looked at her parents in confusion. “What are you two saying?”
“Not something you need to worry about, Madison”, Brie said. “Just a private joke between your father and me.”
“I want in on the joke”, Jake said with a smile.
“No, it’s about you and your siblings”, David laughed.
“Damn. Just… DAMN.”
“You’ll get over it just like I will, Jake”, Maddie laughed. “Something tells me that we have no choice.”
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