“I don’t need to discuss it like a civilized person! This grown man was kissing my little girl—I’m about as far from civilized as I can get right now!” Mr. Pierce turned towards me and growled under his breath, “You should walk away before I decide that I don’t care if I get locked up tonight.”
“I’m not a little girl anymore!” Holly ran to the door and grabbed it.
“Bill, she’s right.” Mrs. Pierce walked up and put her hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Let him come in.”
Mr. Pierce relented, but he wasn’t happy. He took a step back from the door, pulled away from his wife, and went to the other side of the room to stew in his own anger as I stepped into the house. We were all in the same room. That seemed like a good start. It wasn’t ideal—it wasn’t how I wanted Holly’s parents to find out, and I doubt it was how she wanted to have to tell them, but the situation was already in front of us. The four of us stood there for a moment like we had no idea what to say. Holly was on my left with a look in her eyes that she desperately wanted to hug me, but she was scared to do it. Mrs. Pierce had a look on her face that resonated confusion, as if she was still trying to process it. Mr. Pierce just looked pissed—and if his look could have killed me dead, they would have been burying my body in the back yard instead of trying to figure out who was going to speak first.
“So, how long as this been going on?” Mrs. Pierce was the first one to speak.
“I just want to hear you say that you’re going to stay away from my daughter!” Mr. Pierce took a step forward.
“Dad, calm down.” Holly shot daggers at him with her eyes. “We met while you were on vacation…”
“Of course you did” Mr. Pierce’s scoffed. “We leave you home for one weekend because we decide you’re old enough to stay on your own and this happens.”
“I really care about your daughter—actually, I love her.” I took a step towards Holly. “She means everything to me…”
“Everything?” Mr. Pierce snorted angrily. “You’ve known her what—three months? You’ve spent a few days with her—if you laid a hand on her…”
“Bill…” Mrs. Pierce had failed so many times at keeping him calm that I wasn’t sure why she was still trying, but she did. “Do I need to remind you that we got married less than three months after we met?”
“Times were different then!” Mr. Pierce growled. “Holly is just a kid! My kid!”
That was the straw that broke the camel’s back—I guess. Mrs. Pierce stopped being calm and started shouting at her husband. Holly suddenly went from trying to reason with her father to trying to stop both of them from yelling. I tried to interject a few times, but just caught some of the backlash. Eventually, Mr. Pierce turned his wrath back towards me—and accused me of lying to him from the start when I asked to help load boxes in his car. I couldn’t deny it—I had already kissed his daughter at that point. Mrs. Pierce seemed to shift alliances as she pieced together the fact that I sat at the dinner table with them—after I had already become involved with their daughter—and never once mentioned it. It wasn’t long until we were having four separate conversations and trying to talk over each other.
“Stop—please can we just stop yelling!?” Holly took a step back and put her hands on her head.
She bowed out of the discussion, but her parents were still laying into me. I tried to plead my case. Mr. Pierce was convinced I was just taking advantage of a young girl who had no idea what she wanted—because she couldn’t even pick a major in college. Mrs. Pierce went back and forth between us verbally—one second she was telling her husband to calm down and the next, she was telling me that the relationship was going to be hard and we should take some time to think through what we were doing. I knew what I wanted—there was no doubt in my mind—I just didn’t seem to be able to convince the two people that were freaking out about it of my love for their daughter. All attempts to pull Mrs. Piece back to the side of the fence where neutrality existed was fading fast, and Mr. Pierce definitely wasn’t going to do anything but stand his ground.
“I’m pregnant!” Holly silenced every voice in the room immediately.
“What?” I looked at her, and my jaw just sort of fell open like it had come off the hinges.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Mr. Pierce threw his hands up—and then he stormed out of the room.
“Are you sure?
” Mrs. Pierce tilted her head slightly.
“As sure as four pregnancy tests and a trip to the OBGYN.” She put her hand on her stomach. “And morning sickness—and cravings—and I’m tired all of the time.”
“Oh my god…” I blinked in surprise and spoke, but my jaw barely moved.
“You had no idea?” Mrs. Pierce narrowed her eyes.
“No ma’am.” I shook my head back and forth.
“You didn’t tell him?” Mrs. Pierce tilted her head and turned her attention to Holly.
“I was about to—before dad blew a gasket…” Holly looked down and sighed.
“I think you two should probably talk now.” Mrs. Pierce looked at me—and then back to her daughter. “I’ll make sure your father doesn’t come back in here until you’re done.”
Mrs. Piece made a swift exit from the room. I heard a couple of shouts, but then there was silence. Whatever she said to him must have worked because he didn’t come storming back into the living room. I looked at Holly, and our eyes met. All I wanted to do was hug her. I immediately walked over, wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a tight embrace. My head was spinning, but for some reason, my analytical brain wasn’t giving me any answers. I kept begging it to let me live in the moment, and apparently it decided to abandon me in the one moment when it would have actually been really beneficial.
“I didn’t want to tell you on Skype.” Holly squeezed me tight. “I’ve been so scared…”
“Why were you scared?” I moved my hand to the back of her head and stroked her hair.