With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

 

Lovers & Friends

In the beginning, Tyrone and I tried to make our non-relationship work. After we found out about Babygirl, I mean. Truth is, Tyrone wasn’t ever really trying to be with only me, and he didn’t lie when he told me he didn’t want anything serious. So after we found out I was pregnant we both felt kind of stuck. His parents kept telling him it probably wasn’t his, that a fourteen-year-old who gets pregnant her freshman year probably had a few people she was letting scratch her itch. And I don’t know that I could ever forgive that Tyrone barely defended me to them, even though he knew I was a virgin before him. Even still, during my pregnancy and after Emma was born, we played at being together.

And Tyrone is a good dad, but he gets to run away when he’s done. During my pregnancy he never really could get why I was annoyed or got upset easily. Just told me to stop trippin’. And after Emma was born he kept wanting to fool around, apparently now because I had his kid it should be like that, but the two or three times we had sex I didn’t feel good about it, and although I already had a kid, I still felt like we had to sneak around to do it.

So, what do you do with a guy who’s eighteen and a better father than he is a boyfriend? I read a quote once that said, “The best thing a father can do for his child is love the mother.” But some days I think the best thing Tyrone could do for Babygirl is leave her mother the hell alone.