"You still there?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said quietly. "I was just thinking."
"You sound sad."
"I am," I told him.
"We're going to make this work, Nikki," he assured me, reading my thoughts.
I smiled a little sadly. "Maybe."
"We will," he said more forcefully.
"They didn't," I said simply.
He faltered for a second, probably seeing the truth in my words. "We're not our parents," he finally said.
"No, but we certainly are following in their footsteps, aren't we?" I replied, not even trying to deny it.
"No," he said, as if disagreeing would make it true. "We're... we're not going to do what they did."
"They tried too, Derek," I told him. "Why do you think she was so tortured? She held on for months after it should have ended. As soon as Sarah told him she was pregnant they really should have ended, because it was over from that moment. Maybe this is just a completely hopeless situation. Maybe there's no way—"
"You know that isn't true," he interrupted. "There would have been a way. If he would have just made up his mind to be with her, to... go to any lengths—"
"Including walking away from your kid?" I returned. "Can you do that, Derek? If it comes down to that, can you honestly tell me you're going to pick me over your own child?"
He sighed irritably. "Why do you have to bring this up? It hasn't happened yet, and there's a good chance it won't. Let's just deal with the complications as they come, okay?"
"What, you don't think they're already coming?" I asked. "Kayla's hauling you to family dinners now. What's going to come next? Maybe her sister's wedding or her cousin's birthday party?"
"This was a one-time thing, Nikki. I'm not going to make a habit of being Kayla's poodle. I'm not her boyfriend anymore, and she's going to have to accept that."
"Yeah, eventually, but she can make you pay for that decision for the next 18 years."
"Maybe, but I've already made that decision. I have already picked you, Nikki, so I don't know what you're worried about."
I laughed mirthlessly. "Everything, Derek."
"Well don't," he replied. "There's no point in even trying to preserve our relationship if you've already made up your mind that it isn't going to work. Don't do that, Nikki. I want us to work, so don't do that."
"I want us to work, too, but we can't just ignore what we don't like, can we?"
"I don't want to talk about this anymore," he said, letting me know by his tone that he was finished with the topic for the night.
"Fine," I allowed, but didn't try to bring up any new topics.
After a few more seconds he said, "So, what did you do today?"
"Not much," I responded vaguely, not up to sharing my new plans about college with him.
"You said you worked?"
"Yeah, I got called in. But hey, I'm about to pull into my driveway, so I'm gonna let you go. Call me tomorrow?"
"Yeah," he said unenthusiastically.
Fantastic. We weren't even graduated from high school and we were already acting like we had been married for 20 years.