The Pride – page 15
“You punk. You play too much.” Xavari tried not to register the disappoint on her face that she felt in her heart. She always got excited when Emmanuel came by. She was pretty sure she wasn’t going to see him tonight, though. He usually called to let her know when he was going to be stopping by.
“Little girl, what are you going to do,” Regina asked again. She was drying her hands on a dish towel.
“What do you think I’m going to do, Gina? It’s not like I have any choices,” Xavari snapped.
“Yes, you have choices. You just don’t want to admit you have choices.” Regina sat across the kitchen table from her sister.
“I’m not having an abortion, so I don’t have any other choice, Gina.” Xavari wouldn’t look at Regina. She put her elbow on the table and rested her cheek on her fist.
“Xavari. You are 19 years old, and you’re about to have another baby with a man you say doesn’t want to marry you and what’s worse is you don’t want to marry him. I can’t believe you didn’t learn from my mistakes. You know how disappointed Daddy was when I got pregnant the first time. I thought the man was going to have a stroke the second and third time I got pregnant. You watched me give up high school, friends, parties, the prom, graduation, the senior class tri…”
“I know, I know, but it’s different for me. I graduated from high school. I’m in college,” Xavari said with an attitude.
“For now. What are you going to do when you’re too sick or too tired to go to class?” Regina gazed steadily at the top of Xavari’s head, because Xavari refused to look at her.
“I won’t be too sick or too tired. I’m going to finish college. I have to finish college. If I don’t, I won’t be able to get a decent job or…”
“Xavari, listen at yourself. You don’t know what’s going to happen during this pregnancy. Remember what you went through when you were carrying Xavier? Your body hasn’t recovered from that pregnancy, and now you’re pregnant again. You’re going to have two kids in diapers at the same time and…”
“JUST LIKE YOU DID!” Xavari yelled at Regina and shot up to her feet. Regina got up, too.
“YES, XAVARI, JUST LIKE I DID, AND YOU THINK YOU’D HAVE LEARN NOT TO BE JUST LIKE ME!” Regina’s fists were balled at her sides and she was breathing heavily. Xavari was in the same stance on the other side of the table.