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way he treated Lauren. It was hard to watch, and I didn't know how she took it all on, but somehow she did. The Sunday before she came back to school, I got shooed out of her house early by her mom, insisting Lauren needed her rest. I agreed and then quickly followed that up by moving my car down a couple blocks, trotting back on foot, and sneaking into her bedroom window.
     
    It was a move I'd done several times when we'd started dating. It was sneaky, and daring, and made for some amazing sex. It always fascinated me that sex became even more fun when you weren't supposed to be doing it. After we found out Lauren got pregnant, it was like we'd lost any passion we'd had together. It was filled instead with fear and regret. But after the hospital, it was like we were right back where we started. Couldn't keep our hands, or mouths, off each other for five damn minutes. And I'm not going to pretend I didn't like it. But sneaking up to her room, this brought back the final piece to us. 
     
    Without even saying a word, I slipped into her dark room and my mouth instantly found hers. It was light at first, the brush of a feather. Her tongue flicked into my mouth, tangling us together. My hands roamed up from her hip to her breasts. I felt her breath hitch in her chest and she kissed me harder, with more intent. I kissed her back with just as much need. I laid her down on her bed, as quiet as I could. My fingers twisted in her long hair while my other hand found the waist band of her shorts. I moved downward to where I found her already wanting me. Her breath quickened as I left no doubt as to how badly I wanted her.
     
    She pulled the zipper of my jeans and took hold of me. Her intensity started to grow and without another though she pulled me inside her. When we came together we stayed silent. Our bodies telling the stories that we needed to keep quiet. When I rolled away she was smiling this beautiful, restful smile. I would have stayed there all night watching her, but I knew that wouldn't fly in the morning. She looked like she was already asleep, so I quietly started to dress to slip back out of her room. I bent down to the bed to kiss her forehead, when she brushed my hand with hers. Her eyes opened, that clear blue that always hits me hard.
     
    "I missed you," she whispered.
     
    I smiled. I couldn't help but be in awe, that this beautiful amazing girl could be in love with me. That she actually missed me. I don't know if I've ever heard those words in my whole life.
     
    "I missed you too," I whispered back. I wish I had had something better so say. Something more profound. But I didn't have any words to explain how I felt about her. So I poured every emotion out and kissed her instead. When I pulled away from her at last, she had that smile again, and a tear rolling down her cheek.
     
     

EIGHT
     
    Slut, whore, skank. These were words I used to throw around as easily as a baseball. Making fun of girls behind their backs, the ones I deemed too pathetic to sleep with, even sometimes the ones I didn't. I never knew how much those words could hurt, until I saw them written on Lauren's locker the day she came back to school. 
     
    I picked her up for school that morning and could hear the argument all the way from the car in her driveway.
     
    "You are going to school. You are going to graduate," I heard her mother say.  I could tell this argument had been going on a while and I couldn't tell if I should just stay out of it or go knock on the door.  I took a few steps toward the door.
     
    "But I can get my equivalency degree online and it'll be just like graduating!"
     
    "That's not good enough!" her mother yelled back. "This was your mistake, but I will NOT let you mess up school too! You can't hide from this!" I'd never really heard her mother yell before, it was a little more terrifying than her dad.
     
    I took a few more steps forward but I didn't have to get very far before Lauren came slamming out of the