Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0)(57)

“How so?”

“Earlier, I had to tell Coach that I’m pregnant. Less than an hour later, I was called to the front office. One of the sisters and the chaplain waited for me.”

“What they want?”

Lisa watch her feet swing. “They wanted to discuss my salvation. Told me that I committed a sin by having premarital sex and by breaking my purity pledge. They said I must seek forgiveness, and if I have an abortion, I’ll get eternal damnation.”

What the hell? There’s a whole lot I don’t know when it comes to God, but that sound like some bull. “You believe that?”

“I believe God is way more merciful than they are,” Lisa says. “I told them I don’t plan on having an abortion. They want me to put the baby up for adoption. Gave me info on a Catholic agency they’ve worked with in the past.”

First off, why they in her business like that? Second, why the hell does a school work with an adoption agency? “Is that what you wanna do?”

“No. I wanna keep my baby. I told them the same thing. They went into this spiel, saying I must marry you so my baby isn’t born out of wedlock.”

“We can hit the courthouse. Ain’t nothing but a thang.”

Her face drop. “What?”

“I’m playing, Lisa, dang.” But something else has been on my mind. “We can’t at least be boyfriend and girlfriend though?”

Yeah, I wanna get back with her. I wanted that since we broke up.

“Mav, I told you this baby doesn’t mean we’re a couple.”

“I ain’t saying that’s the reason we should get back together either, but why can’t we?”

She push a strand of hair behind her ear. “I don’t wanna be with a gangbanger, Mav.”

“You used to hang with me and the homies. I don’t see why it’s a big deal now.”

“That right there is the problem,” she says softly. “You don’t see a problem.”

“Lisa—”

There’s a knock on the door and this heavy-set Black lady with freckles come in. “Well, hello! I’m Dr. Byrd. How are you two today?”

Wait a minute. Black receptionist, Black nurse, Black doctor. Everybody who work here is Black. I didn’t know that was . . . “possible” not the right word. I’ll just say I didn’t know.

Dr. Byrd confirm that Lisa is pregnant. She ask Lisa if she continuing with the pregnancy. Once Lisa tell her she is, Dr. Byrd get into her medical history and her family’s medical history. She wanna know mine, too. I tell her that Ma got asthma and that Pops’s baby sister had sickle cell. She died when she was fourteen. I also tell her Seven allergic to cats. We found out when Aunt ’Nita kept him and he sneezed every time her cat, Bubbles, got near him.

Dr. Byrd don’t flinch at the fact that I already got a baby. She don’t talk down to us or turn her nose up ’cause we’re seventeen. She real sweet and understanding. She do what she call a pelvic exam, and damn, I didn’t know ob-gyns do so much. She get in there, if you know what I mean. Lisa talk to her ’bout school and stuff, as if this woman not all up in her . . . yeah.

After the exam, Dr. Byrd allow us to ask questions. Lisa came with a list. For real, she pull a notebook from her backpack. She ask everything from, “Do I need to change my diet?” to “Can I have sex while I’m pregnant?”

That one get my full attention. I’m surprised she asked, that’s all. I’m real surprised when Dr. Byrd say yeah.

“Won’t the baby see it?” I ask. “You know, the . . .” I wiggle my eyebrows.

Dr. Byrd chuckle. She know what I’m getting at. “The baby won’t see anything. You have any other questions, young man? You’ve been so quiet, I almost forgot you were here.”

“I’m good. This Lisa’s appointment.”

Dr. Byrd spin her chair toward me. “You’re here, you obviously want to be involved. What would you like to know?”

“Umm . . .” I don’t wanna sound dumb. “When we gon’ know what we having? When you gon’ do the video thing?”

“The ultrasound,” Dr. Byrd says. “We won’t be able to determine the sex of the baby this early in the pregnancy. However, we are doing an ultrasound today.”

“We are?” Lisa ask.

“Mmm-hmm. It can help me figure out your due date. We may hear a heartbeat.”

She set up some machine and help Lisa get situated on the examining table. This ain’t like the ultrasounds on TV where they put gel on Lisa’s stomach. Dr. Byrd puts some kinda wand up Lisa’s . . . yeah. This ob-gyn stuff is wild.

“What if you see something’s wrong?” Lisa asks.

“We’ll focus on that if we get to that,” Dr. Byrd says. “Relax for now.”

I go to Lisa’s side and take her hand. She actually let me hold it.

The ultrasound screen resemble a TV that lost a signal. Everything black and white and fuzzy. There’s a part in the middle that look like a black hole, and in that there’s a small white . . . blob?

“And there’s our baby,” Dr. Byrd says.

I squint. “That li’l blob thing?”

Lisa backhand my chest. “It’s not a blob! It’s a little peanut.”