Don't Worry, Baby

“Ryan, you’re killing me, man. Come on,” said Connor Prescott. He was dressed in a tux and stood in front of the locked door of the Chemistry classroom. The only other person in the dim hallway with him was his prom date, Sloane Harrington.

“They’re probably busy,” said Sloane, tugging on Connor’s arm.

“They can’t be that busy,” said Connor to Sloane. He turned to face the door again and raised his voice to say, “I don’t even hear any moaning.” That’s when Ryan Hollis cracked open the door.

“Hey, guys,” said Ryan, poking his head out of the door. He looked disheveled, was breathing heavily, and a couple of beads of sweat could be seen on his brow. He continued with, “What’s up?”

“I stand corrected,” said Connor to Sloane. He smiled at Ryan and said playfully, “My boy’s all out of breath and shit. Get it, get it. Hey man, Shaun’s parents are out of town, and he says they left the liquor cabinet stacked. Are you done in there?”

“No, I…” said Ryan. “We’re going to just hang here.”

“Seriously?” said Connor, solemnly. Attempting to glance past Ryan into the classroom, Connor said, “Is everything alright in there?”

Ryan tried to block his view. “Yeah, it’s just that I… “ started Ryan.

“Dude, I’m just fucking with you. I don’t give a shit,” said Connor with a smile. “But if you’re staying, I need my keys.”

“Oh, okay,” replied Ryan. “Give me a sec.”

Ryan closed the door and locked it. “Come on, man,” whined Connor. Inside the dark classroom, lit only by the streaks of light from the streetlamps outside, Ryan walked to the back of the classroom. He heard Connor bang on the door and say, “Hurry up. I want to get drunk.” Once Ryan reached the back of the classroom, he bent down and picked up a purse. He rifled through the purse until he had a set of keys in hand. Ryan placed the purse back on the bloody floor, next to the body of a girl in a prom dress and a gash on her temple.

Connor was about to bang on the door again when Ryan pulled it open. “Sorry about that,” said Ryan as he held out the keys. “Here you go.”

Connor cautiously picked the keys out of Ryan’s hand and said, “It’s cool… You good, man? Seriously. You look a little out of it.”

Ryan ran his fingers through his hair and said, “Yeah, I’m A1, buddy. Steak sauce.”

Sloane tried to peek into the room and said, “Chloe? Are you all right?”

Ryan did his best to obstruct her view and said, “She’s good. A little tired – you understand.” While pulling the door closed, he said, “You guys have fun at Shaun’s. I’ll see you later.”

“O…kay?” Ryan could hear Connor say through the door. Ryan stared at the silhouettes of Connor and Sloane through the opaque glass in the door and watched them drift out of view. He looked at Chloe Marshall’s body on the floor and wondered how he got himself in this mess in the first place.

The evening had started off well enough for Ryan: Connor picked him up, they picked up the girls, had a few beers, and arrived at prom. Before Ryan knew it, he and Chloe were being named prom king and queen. Thinking that a crowned king deserved his just deserts, Ryan pulled Chloe away from the crowd and brought her to the classroom where he had Chemistry. Months prior, Connor had swiped the key from their Chemistry teacher, Mr. Whitaker, and left it in an unlocked locker in case he or Ryan needed to use it.

Ryan and Chloe were making out on one of the tables in the Chemistry classroom, and Ryan’s hand was massaging Chloe’s breasts. “You need to wear this dress all the time,” said Ryan. “It makes your boobs look unbelievable.” He tore off his bow tie and threw it to the floor. He undid a couple of buttons on his shirt before going back after Chloe’s breasts ravenously.

Chloe pulled back and said, “Hold on.”

While moving in again to devour her neck, Ryan said, “Oh, come on. I can’t stop now.”

Chloe pushed him off of her and said, “I’m serious. We need to talk.”

Ryan, defeated, ran his fingers through his hair and said, sarcastically, “I’m sure I’m going to love this.”

“I’m serious,” replied Chloe, with a flicker of annoyance.

“Then go ahead,” said Ryan. “What is it?”

“Do you love me?” asked Chloe.

Ryan smiled and said, “Is that it?” He drew her in close to him and continued, “Baby, you know you mean the world to me. What? You need me to say it? I love you. Of course, I love you. Now relax and let me show you how much.” Ryan started kissing Chloe’s neck and grabbing her breasts again.

Chloe stared off into the empty space of the dark classroom and said coldly, “I’m pregnant.” With his head still buried in Chloe’s neck, Ryan froze. “I’m almost at the end of my first trimester.” Ryan pulled back slowly and stared at Chloe. “Well, say something,” said Chloe.

Ryan stood up, ran his fingers through his hair, and said, “Who’s the dad?”

“Seriously?” replied Chloe.

“Yeah, seriously,” said Ryan. “I see the way you look at Connor. You’ve probably been banging him behind my back. And last month, when you went to that party at Shaun’s without me. I know how you are when you get drunk. Something probably happened there.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Chloe. “And last month? Do you even know what a trimester is, asshole?”

“I just don’t think you should go around saying it’s mine,” said Ryan.

Chloe stood up, poked Ryan in the chest, and said, “I know the baby is yours, but since you want to be a dick about it, once I have the baby, I’ll get a DNA test to prove it.”

“Wait, what?” said Ryan. “You plan on having it?”

“Of course I’m having the baby,” said Chloe. “I’m Catholic.”

“Do you understand that I have a full ride to USC?” said Ryan. “Does that mean anything to you? I can’t go to college, play ball, and help you raise that thing. You have to get rid of it.”

“Oh, so now you think that the baby could be yours?” said Chloe.

“Be reasonable, baby,” said Ryan. He took a deep breath and said, “Okay, I will accept that the possibility of it being mine is likely. I’ll accept that, but let’s be reasonable. I have a scholarship. I have a future. I’m sure you even have some plans, too. We can’t let a stupid thing like you getting pregnant get in the way of that. You don’t want an abortion. Fine. You’ll have it and then give it up for adoption. That’s fair. I can live with that.”

“You can live with that?” said Chloe.

“Yeah,” said Ryan. “I’m being reasonable.”

With that, the conversation was over, and Chloe was on the attack. One hit after another, Chloe tried to strike Ryan in the face, and got him twice before he could get a hold of her wrists. 

“Let go of me!” said Chloe. 

Holding her wrists wasn’t the end of the fight like Ryan had hoped, as Chloe writhed wildly to get herself loose, and ended up kneeing him in the crotch. Ryan bent over in pain, and Chloe smacked him in the face. She cocked her hand back in preparation for another strike, but before she could, Ryan pushed her away from him. As Chloe stumbled backwards, she slipped on Ryan’s bow tie that was on the ground and fell. On her way down, Chloe’s head smashed on the edge of one of the tables before making it all the way to the floor. Ryan stared wide-eyed at Chloe’s unmoving body on the floor, with blood beginning to pool around her head like a red halo. Ryan heard a knocking on the classroom door and stared at it, panicked.

“Hey, Ryan, open up,” Ryan could hear Connor’s voice say from the other side of the door. Ryan bent down to Chloe and tried to shake her awake, but she wasn’t responding. Connor said from the other side of the door, “I need to talk to you, man. I know you’re in there.”

“Chloe, Chloe,” Ryan said quietly as he desperately continued to try to wake her up. “I need you to get up, baby. Please. Please.”

“Ryan, you’re killing me, man. Come on,” said Connor.

After Ryan gave Connor the keys and Connor and Sloane left, Ryan decided he needed to get Chloe’s body out of the classroom, but dragging her out the door would be too risky. He concluded that the window would be a better option.

Ryan opened one of the windows and looked around. There were some people in the parking lot, but they weren’t close to the window, so Ryan figured he could slip Chloe’s body into the bushes outside the window without being noticed. What he would do after that, he wasn’t exactly sure, but as his coach always told him, “Action beats inaction every time inaction doesn’t act.” Ryan grabbed Chloe’s body and pushed it out of the window into the bushes. Ryan ducked down and listened for any reaction to the sight of a dead body, but the chit-chat of his peers in the parking lot seemed to go on without any interruption of panic.

Ryan had seen enough messes in the Chemistry room to know where the paper towels and cleaning spray were. He retrieved them and, despite the classroom's darkness, did his best to clean up the blood. After doing his cleanup job, Ryan put the bloody paper towels, Chloe’s purse, and their prom royalty crowns into one of the classroom wastebaskets, tied up the bag, and slid it out the window. Ryan climbed out of the window and scratched his neck while falling into the bushes. It wasn’t a bad scratch; it didn’t even draw blood, but as Ryan walked onto the sidewalk, rubbing his neck, he realized he had left his bow tie in the Chemistry classroom.

Ryan walked back through the bushes and was about to climb back through the window when he heard someone yell, “Ryan!” He looked around and saw Connor and Sloane approaching from down the sidewalk. Ryan let go of the window and walked back to the sidewalk, waiting patiently as Connor and Sloane drew nearer.

“Hey,” said Connor as he got close. “What are you doing out here?”

“Where’s Chloe?” added Sloane.

“I thought you guys were going to Shaun’s,” said Ryan, putting all his attention on Connor.

“Yeah, that was the plan,” replied Connor, “but when we got to my truck, I got the best news in the world.” Connor put his arm around Sloane and continued, “Sloane’s pregnant. We’re having a baby, man. Can you believe it?”

Ryan stared at Connor, dumbfounded, and said, “No.” 

“Yeah!” said Connor, smiling the largest grin Ryan had ever seen. “I had to go back in and tell everyone at prom. I couldn’t help myself. Of course, I won’t be able to go to USC like we planned, but I can get a decent job working for my dad, you know. Hey, we were just about to split and grab some dinner if you want a ride. I would have come and got you, but I figured you’d still be busy, if you know what I mean,” and Connor winked at Ryan.

“Where’s Chloe?” asked Sloane again.

Ryan glanced at her briefly and looked back to Connor, saying, “I’m going to hang out here, but thanks for the offer.”

“We can chill for a minute if you’re waiting for Chloe,” said Connor.

Ryan, looking at anything other than the two people in front of him, said, “No, you guys go on. I’ll see you later.”

Ryan flinched as he heard a rustling from the bushes, and Sloaned said, “Oh, my God. What’s that?” The three of them stared at the bushes, and Ryan’s heart was almost pounding through his chest. Chloe rose from behind the bushes, holding her head with the bloody gash on it.

“Oh, my God!” said Sloane. “Chloe!” Sloane approached Chloe as Chloe stumbled out of the bushes, but Sloane backed off when she saw how much blood Chloe was covered in. “What happened?” said Sloane.

Connor and Sloane were fixated on Chloe, but Ryan’s eyes were darting between Connor and Sloane. Should he make a run for it? Where would he go? If he tackled Connor at that moment, while Connor wasn’t paying attention, he could probably get the keys to the truck. He could probably even get pretty far before the cops were on the road.

“What happened?” Ryan heard asked again, but it slowly occurred to him that it wasn’t Sloane asking, it was Chloe.

“Maybe you should sit down,” said Connor.

“Were you attacked?” said Sloane. “Who did this to you?”

“I don’t know,” said Chloe. “I don’t remember what happened.”

Ryan’s eyes locked on Chloe, and he asked, “Really? You don’t remember anything at all?”

“No. What…” started Chloe. She pulled her hand away from her head and noticed it was covered in blood. It seemed like in that moment she began to realize how disheveled and bloody her clothes were, too. Chloe began to cry and said, “What happened? What happened to me?”

Ryan walked up to Chloe, wrapped her in his arms, and said, “Don’t worry, baby. I’m here. No one else is going to hurt you.”