The Hour of Dreams Read Free

said, looking at me. Fire still burned in her cheeks, but her eyes were glassing over now. She was clearly hurting and I didn’t want her to go.
    “Can you just tell me what happened?”
    She gave me one more glare and then slammed the back of her head into the headrest. With her eyes closed, she sat there for what seemed like minutes before speaking.
    “Fine. I broke up with him. He’s the biggest ass on the planet, and I cannot stand him right now. I really don’t want to have this conversation with you.”
    “Why? I’m your friend,” I said, bending down. “You can talk to me about anything. I can help you. What happened? Did he do something? Say something? What?” With her eyes still closed, Dawn's cheek muscles started to twitch. “You can tell me,” I whispered.
    In that moment, the first tear fell, allowing her face to relax. I watched one tear fall after another, though she didn't make a single sound. “Dawn, I hate to see you so upset. I’d like to help you.”
    Finally wiping away the wet trails, she opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling of her car. “He told me he's going to college. That his lacrosse scholarship is too important to give up. And that I would be holding him back.”
    “When did this happen?”
    “Right after I told him I'm pregnant.”
    The world around us fell silent as her words swirled around my head and traveled through my body and down to my knees. I found myself looking around and focusing on items around me. Crumbs and trash stuck between her seat, sunglasses on her floorboard. Not wanting to say the wrong thing, I replayed her words in my mind.
    Dawn and Jackson were such opposites, but he practically followed her around like a puppy. It didn’t make sense.
    “Wait. He said he didn’t want to be with you because of that?”
    She whipped her head around to face me now. “No, he said he still wanted to be with me.”
    “I don’t get it.”
    “Right after he suggested I get rid of it.”
    My eyes traveled inadvertently to her midsection. “He told you that?”
    “Yes, Sophie. He told me that.”
    “Well, maybe he didn’t mean it.”
    “He meant it.”
    My hand covered hers. I finally understood her emotional attack. “Dawn, that’s hard news for someone to hear. Maybe he’ll change his mind after he’s had time to think about it.”
    “He’s had time, Sophie. I told him last Friday and he sat on it all week. And that’s what he told me last night. You should’ve seen him. What a coward. I was so stupid.”
    “No, you weren’t. You loved him.”
    “Yeah, well a lot of good that does me now.” The anger was returning in her voice.
    I’d known my life was not perfect, but in that moment I realized that nobody’s was. Whatever the issue, worry was everywhere, in different forms, in different places. But one thing was the same—how it makes people feel.
    “I’m sorry, Dawn. I really am.”
    “Yeah, me too. Listen, I gotta go. I don’t want to be around my dad today.”
    “Does he know?”
    “Are you kidding me? Please. He would flip. I just want to get out of here. For good.”
    “Just wait. Please. Things will be fine. Give it time.”
    “Time? Are you serious? I don’t have time. I’m seven weeks along. If I’m going to do it, I need to do it now.”
    “Wait. Do what?”
    “Look, don’t make me say it.”
    “Dawn, you’re not getting rid of it…are you?”
    “What, Sophie, do you think I’m going to raise it here? With my dad? While Jackson’s off at college, moving on? No thanks.”
    My head was spinning again. I didn’t have a clue how to be a good friend in a situation like this, but everything she was saying felt all wrong.
    “Dawn, you just broke up with Jackson for asking you to do that. Why? If you wanted to anyway?”
    “I don’t
want
to, Sophie!” she growled. “But I can’t do this by myself.”
    “Well, what about adoption?”
    “And see the look in my parents’ eyes when they find out? It’ll just be reckless