Lymber craft's Arc

Chapter 8 of 70

The printout from the appointment sat on the kitchen counter for two days before Paul knocked at the door. Lymber had been waiting on the couch since noon. Her mother let him in without a word and pointed him toward the living room. Polly then went upstairs and shut a door hard enough that both of them heard it. Paul sat on the far end of the couch. He kept his jacket on. He said he had told his parents that morning and they had yelled and then stopped yelling. He said his best friend had not answered a text in a week. He said the rest of them had gone quiet too. Lymber told him about the due date on the chart and the story they had signed onto and the people in town who could count. She said she was scared. Paul did not answer for a long time. Then he leaned forward and put his hand flat on her stomach and said he was sorry it took him so long. He said it to her stomach, not to her. He did not walk it back. They talked through the afternoon. Lymber said she could not do the nights alone and the mornings alone and the school hallway alone. Paul said he would leave his school and finish online. He said he would move into the house. He said he would take the room across from hers and work at whatever job would hire him. Lymber walked upstairs and told her mother. Polly stood in her bedroom with her arms crossed and listened. She said a boy in the house would be one more thing the town would count. Then she said yes. She said he could take the guest room and pay what he could and be at every appointment. She said if he stopped showing up, he was out. Paul went home that night to pack. Lymber sat on her bed with the printout in her lap and the strip still on the nightstand where she had left it. For the first time in a week her chest felt loose. Then her phone lit up on the blanket. A classmate had posted a screenshot of her medical due date beside a photo of her at the dance. The caption asked people to do the math. The post already had two hundred shares.