Kenneth's brow creased, barely perceptible. "You're not some eighteen-year-old girl. What's with the waterworks?"
"I told you, once she has the baby, I'll marry you."
The girl beside him tugged at Kenneth's sleeve and leaned forward to peer at me.
"Don't cry, okay?"
"I'm not trying to steal Kenneth from you. I just liked his genes and wanted to keep the baby without the man."
"Our generation isn't exactly desperate to get married."
Every word rolled off her tongue, light and easy, like it cost her nothing. Kenneth stood there listening, thoroughly amused.
I was the only one who couldn't stomach a single word of it.
"Alright, enough with the theatrics."
"Go home and clear out the bedroom. She needs to stay at the house for her pregnancy."
Kenneth offered me a few impatient words of comfort, then took Eleanor's hand and got in the car.
Kenneth and I grew up together. Childhood sweethearts, inseparable from the start.
He had no parents. He survived by tagging along with debt collectors on the street corners, scrounging for meals. A miserable existence.
I lost my mother young. My father was a gambler, a drunk, and a man who liked to use his fists. My life wasn't much better.