Chapter 30: Blackmail

Semper Academy was just as Principal Gellar had described. It was located in the middle of nowhere fifteen minutes outside the city. All their girls who went there were either pregnant or already mothers. Since I had started school at the beginning of November I had a massive amount of catching up to do.

 

Head counselor Doris Whitburn, whom I was introduced to on my first day, ran a tight ship.

 

"Yes you all have fallen from grace, but you will not fall behind in my school," she would often recite.

 

The day before my court trial was set to begin I had to go to her office during my lunch hour and explain why I'd be absent the following day.

 

"It's just the beginning of the trial and they will likely postpone it until after Christmas," I explained, but Ms. Whitburn did not smile.

 

"I was well aware of your situation before you started here and while the thought of possible publicity coming here to Semper Academy disgusts me to no end I decided to take a chance on you with much persuasion from a Mr. Tom Gellar. Do you crave male attention, Myra?" Ms. Whitburn asked.

 

"No," I answered.

 

I was completely blindsided by her question.

 

"In your, 'about me' section on MySpace you gush about the birth of your first male child. Do you believe that he will replace the bond you never had with your father?" Ms. Whitburn asked and now my face was burning.

 

"That's honestly none of your business," I said to her.

 

Just as I got up to leave she called out to me.

 

"While I understand that a trial is something out of your hands I suggest you see the school psychologist so you can learn some healthy coping skills. From what I've seen so far your life has been filled with nothing, but grief," Ms. Whitburn said and tears began to form on my lower eyelids, "you are excused from classes tomorrow, but be here bright and early the next day."

 

I walked out without uttering another word.

 

The classes here at the Academy changed every forty-five minutes. They gave us almost an hour and a half for lunch because most of the mothers here brought their babies to school.

 

There was a table that sat alone in the way back of the cafeteria. While the girls laughed, talked, and exchanged ultrasound photos I sulked.

 

"Myra, right?" I heard a girl ask me.

 

I looked up. She stood almost five foot seven and had thick brown hair. Her lips were even fuller than mine and her ebony skin wrapped around her body like the warmest quilt on a winters day.

 

"Yea," I said wiping my eyes.

 

"Are you ok?" she asked sitting down across from me.

 

"I'm fine. It's just the hormones," I answered her.

 

"You don't need to explain that to me. I've got number three on the way and let me tell you pregnancy turns me into a weeping willow," she said and I laughed.

 

I didn't understand why, but being next to her calmed me.

 

"I'm Sophia. We have English class together. So are you ready for Christmas?" she asked me.

 

"Not really," I started, "I just moved into a house with my boyfriend and it's our first Christmas together."

 

"How cute. So is he ready to be a father?" Sophia asked with a subtle look of curiosity on her face.

 

"I hope so," I said, placing my hands on my growing belly as my baby boy kicked with fury.

 

"Boy or girl?" Sophia asked.

 

"Boy," I said.

 

"Your first?" she asked again.

 

"Yes," I answered.

 

"The first time is the worst, but after this it'll be like pushing a grape out of a tube sock," Sophia said.

 

That was the craziest analogy that I'd ever heard. I did giggle a bit, but my excitement was cut short by the sound of the bell.

 

"See you around," I said as I grabbed my purse and book bag from the table.

 

Here at the Academy rolling backpacks were the norm, but I refused to give into my pregnancy. Besides I wouldn't need anything on wheels in a few months because I was giving my son up for adoption.

 

"Yea, see ya," Sophia called out.

 

That night back at home I stayed up waiting for Langston. When the clock hit ten PM and he had neither called or walked through the door I called his cell phone. Someone fumbled to pick it up, but then they quickly ended the call. I tried calling back and this time it went straight to voice mail.

 

Distraught and sleepy I went to bed. My trial began at eight o'clock in the morning and the more rest I got the better.

 

At around four A.M. I was startled out of my sleep by someone calling my name.

 

"Langston?" I asked with my eyes blurry from the sleep that gummed them together.

 

"Get up, get up, this important," Langston said.

 

I sat up and picked out the gunk from my lashes to see Langston on bended knee on my side of the bed.

 

"What in the world?" I asked thinking that my dreams were getting more vivid because of my pregnancy.

 

"This isn't the right time," Langston spoke, "but it's a long time coming. I know I haven't been the n***a that you need in your life."

 

"You're not?" I started, but he cut me off.

 

"Let me finish," he said, "I want us to be a family. You, me, and our son living happily ever after like in them story books."

 

Heat rushed quickly to my face.

 

"Langston, we haven't even been together for a six months," I said in a lame attempt to sink some reality into this situation.

 

"I don't care," Langston rebuffed, "I was at my mama's house last night and we had a heated talk about this. She doesn't want me to be with you, but I told her I was doing this with or without her blessing."

 

"Doing what?" I asked stupidly.

 

"Myra Huntington, will you marry me?" Langston asked as he revealed a small box in his left palm with a diamond ring on the inside.

 

This had to be the surrealist experience I'd ever had in my fourteen years of life. Here was the man who not even two months ago was facing a long prison sentence for raping me. How I didn't pass out was beyond me and even when I closed my eyes and opened them Langston was still kneeling.

 

"This is all too soon," I told him.

 

"Fine," Langston snapped, "I go pouring my heart out for you and this is what I get. A big f**k you!"

 

"I'm not saying that at all. It's just I'm not ready to be a wife or a mother," I said baring my soul for the man I'd grown to care for in such a short span of time.

 

"What you mean you're not ready to be a mother?" Langston asked, getting up and going to his side of the closet.

 

"I've come to realize that motherhood isn't the right for me at the moment," I said hoping that he'd understand.

 

"So what are you going to do?" Langston asked with his anger increasing.

 

"Adoption," I answered him in a calm yet firm voice.

 

Langston laughed so loudly I thought he was going insane.

 

"I won't allow it," Langston said with his brown eyes beginning to resemble ember flames.

 

"You can't stop me," I said.

 

"The hell I can't. Until you can prove that I'm not the father I have every right refuse your silly adoption idea," Langston said in a voice that I truly didn't recognize.

 

"That's not true," I said feeling as if I was grasping at straws.

 

"If I'm not the father then you'll likely lose this baby, our baby, to the state and your a*s would be sent to juvenile hall for a long time. Who would want some out of control psycho b***h to care for a newborn on her own?" Langston asked me with his words sinking into my soul.

 

"Don't talk to me like that!" I screamed at Langston who only roared on at my brave front.

 

"I'll do whatever I like. If I walk out that door you can kiss your freedom goodbye," Langston said moving about the room like he was in some Broadway production.

 

What Langston said was the truth. If I appeared to at least have a stable home then I was more likely to be found not guilty and be cleared of all charges. On the other hand if I went into that courtroom pregnant and single the outcome would be grim for me.

 

"You're a monster!" I said, my heart racing as I spoke.

 

"No I'm not. You're just an idiot who wants everything to go her way. Wake up, honey, this is the real world calling you," Langston said this time with his feet permanently planted at the foot of our bed.

 

"This is blackmail," I told him and his face lit up.

 

"I'm trying to save your life and you're resisting. Just like you did in that night back in your bathroom," he said.

 

I looked away from him with a tear rolling down my face.

 

"Don't," I started breathlessly.

 

"Now, if I was a monster I'd be having that body every night like I've been wanting to, but I'm too much of a gentleman for that," Langston, now crawling toward me, spoke in a sultry voice.

 

"I'll scream," I told him as his hands reached my feet and held them there when I tried to squirm away.

 

"Scream," Langston calmly said, "then when the police get here they'll arrest me and you'll have a domestic abuse report on file. If you can't even pick your men properly what judge will let a baby be left solely under your care?"

 

"What if I say yes to your proposal?" I asked with Langston just inches away from my face.

 

"Then we go to sleep, wake up in a couple hours, and then head out to the court house so you can take care of this mess you created," Langston said.

 

"Fine then, yes, I'll marry you," I answered.

 

"Good girl," Langston said, hopping up from the bed and running to the closet.

 

He plucked the ring from where he'd placed it not even five minutes ago. Once at my side of the bed he opened the box again and took the ring out. With extra gentleness he slip it on my ring finger and then looked up at me.

 

"Happy now?" I asked.

 

"More than you'll ever know, Mrs. Miles," Langston said.

 

He got up from where he was and went into the bathroom that was connected to our room.

 

With Langston out of the room I looked down at the ring which now weighed a good twenty pounds. Sniffling and shaking from my order I turned off the lamp next to my bed. I laid down and closed my eyes. I didn't open them when Langston came to lie down next to me and I pretended to sleep as he tenderly kissed my lips.

 

"Please, stop," I grunted.

 

"Alright, my sweet, but soon it will be our turn to dance," Langston said into my face.

 

He turned over and before long he was snoring.

Reviews

[trish420]

Ahhhhh omigosh! Now I'm even more confused about langston.... first he was a total and complete a*s and I hated him, but then Myra started leaning back towards him and he helped witht he video debackle and all and I was kind of on the fence, oh well maybe he is a good guy that just made a mistake but now I;m even more confused!! I love that he's not all good OR bad, like real people, def got me thinking about it LOL. But anyways, NOW he's all bad because he came home in the middle of the night, what's up with that? but wait, he's proposing, awwwww well thats good right? But bringing up that "one night", WTH??? but it SOUNDS like he is trying to do what's best for baby and that's what matters right? Ahhhh I can't wait to see which way this goes!!

[Tina Kline]

wow! marriage!