"No! You said that you never wanted a kid! We both said it! When did you change your mind? And why now of all the damn times to do it?" Rick screamed at Lisa. He rarely ever raised his voice, even at football games. She was pinned against the wall with nowhere else to go. She cringed as he growled in her face, his breath hot and full of rage.
"I don't know, okay?" she
shouted. "I just felt like it wouldn't be right to get an
abortion! I felt it kick, alright?" Rick would not back up. Lisa
waited for the blow. Rick had never raised her hand in anger at her.
She had never believed that he was even capable of thinking a violent
thought letting alone acting out in it. She no longer believed this
to be true. "Just back off, okay, Rick? Just back off."
"No" Rick hissed. "I
can't believe you would do this to me!"
"I didn't get pregnant on my own,
you know? Alright?" Lisa said. She tried to move away. Get some
space between her and Rick. He slammed his fist into the wall next to
her face, putting a hole it.
"I know you didn't!" Rick
shouted in her face. He was so close that his nose was touching her
forehead. "Is it mine?" he asked. Lisa's eyes grew wide
filling with tears. "Don't you dare cry!" Rick pounded his
fist into the wall. Plaster raining down into Lisa's hair. "You
don't get to cry! Weren't you on the pill?"
"Maybe" she said. "I
don't know." She wiped the plaster from her hair and tried to
hug Rick. He shoved her arms away and pinned them to the wall.
"You have to take care of this"
he said. "I don't even care how. Just…do it." Rick let
out a heavy sigh, blowing Lisa's hair back. "I'm going out"
he said as he walked out of the living room.
Lisa slid down the wall until she was cradling her
knees. She looked at the phone and reached for it from across the
room. The handle of the phone shifted slightly. She pulled her hand
back and bit into her knuckles hard enough to draw blood. She slowly
rocked back and forth. She did not want a child but also did not want
to destroy it. She knew what would happen if she gave birth. But
still she could not force herself to do what she knew had to be done.
Lisa stood and wiped her bloody knuckles on her shirt.
