[ WP ] A 25 year old reacts to his girlfriend admitting that she is pregnant . A true , honest-to-god reaction .

I suppose I'd wanted a child for a while, it was n't an official or solid thing on my to do list but at some point in the future I wanted a son. A boy to do father/son stuff with, someone who could look up to me that I could teach the way of the world to; I would occasionally catch myself imagining a much older self taking his son by the hand into his first judo class or watching him do a flip off the diving board for the first time. I just was n't expecting it this early. 
 I know this is going to sound stupid but my first thought when Maria said, was `` what if our parents find out?!'' 
 At twenty five, after the amount of prodding we've had to provide the older generation with a younger one it was not them that I should have worried about. 
 
 `` Are you ok?'' She asked hesitantly, 
 
 I had been standing silently with my mouth slightly ajar, taken completely by surprise by her quiet admittance. 
 I blinked a few times, the time it took stretching into what seemed like hours, 
 
 `` I...'' 
 
 That was all it took to confirm her self doubt, her eyes filled with hurt and her nostrils flared slightly. The flush in her cheeks faded ever so slightly. I fought to think of something to say, but nothing came. 
 
 `` So what do we do?'' She said so quietly I was n't even sure she'd spoken. 
 
 We'd been together for a decade almost, it was a miracle that this was the first time this had ever happened. We'd had scares at first, usually due to our mutual paranoia over this kind of thing, a day late for her period would send Maria to the local supermarket for a pregnancy test, and any time we were n't sure meant a morning after pill, she was good like that. We must have gotten lazy. 
 
 `` What do we do?'' I repeated her question to her, suddenly all the questions came at once and I began babbling incessantly, `` What DO we do? Are you sure? Like certain, you did a test and everything? We're still too young, are n't we? How would be bring up a kid like this? Our flat is a tip, I do n't even know how to look after a baby.'' 
 
 Maria's eyebrows lifted slightly, a micro-reaction I had grown accustomed to when she was surprised. 
 
 `` What?'' I asked gently, suddenly concerned for my pregnant girlfriend, yeesh it was a strange thing to hear that kind of thing cross my mind, Maria's pregnant, do I panic yet? 
 
 `` You have n't mentioned..'' She paused and I realised it was because she did n't want to say the word her cheeks had faded even more and she chewed on her bottom lip nervously. I suppose who would want to mention the word that meant killing the little ball of cells growing inside of you that could become your own baby child while it was inside you? I've always known it would be the only way to stop a pregnancy but I had always just hoped it would never get to that, and yet here we were at 25 with Maria slowly welling up with tears at the concept. 
 
 `` I'm sorry.'' She whimpered as I pulled her into a still shocked embrace, `` I just ca n't. I could n't.'' I shushed her, `` But this could ruin our lives!'' She squeaked into my shoulder. 
 
 `` We'd find a way, I guess.'' I said finally, did I really say that? Did I really just verbally acknowledge the parasite now growing in Maria's body and say we'd find a way? 
 
 Was I crazy? 
 
 Maria laughed gently, tears were strewn across her face but she was smiling when she looked at me from my arms, 
 
 `` You guess?'' She laughed again, `` I come in here and drop perhaps the biggest bombshell possible and you still manage to be so laid back to just guess?'' 
 
 `` I also guess I know about four people who would be thrilled to hear this news from us.'' I said with a mock grimace, I was making jokes now? This was insane and yet, it was really happening. My daydream dad would exist, he'd just be a bit younger now perhaps. Maybe instead of watching I would be there with imaginary son of mine, teaching him to dive myself, taking the judo lessons with him. I thought about it and the usual sense of amusement and happiness was not entirely replaced by fear. Could we do this? Only one problem, ONE problem? Am I insane? Well apparently there was only one problem and that was that our parents were all highly religious and very old fashioned.
