Editor’s Note: This is creative writing, the people and actions in this story are fictional.

“I’m so sorry….” cried the girl who gave up her innocence, the girl who gave up everything for this boy. “I thought you said you were on the pill?!” He screamed. He was enraged. The more prominent emotion was fear. He couldn’t be a daddy, not yet. He was just getting out there. Just starting to live his life, yet he is dumb enough to “knock up” his current girlfriend. He loves her, yes. But he couldn’t give up the “greatest years of his life” to raise a kid. As she lay there at his feet balling her eyes out, begging for forgiveness a sudden realization struck him. Not only was he not ready to be a daddy…. She couldn’t be a mommy… She was so young! Only 16. He finally made up his mind… Kneeling down to her level they locked eyes. “We can do this, raise this baby. No matter what I’ll always be here for you. I’ll always love you, and our child.” She smiled and kissed him out of relief and joy. A month passed by. She was starting to show. Whenever he could he would see her and the new life that they made together, growing a little more within her, he would smile. It always made her so happy to see him smile. By month 4 you could really tell what was going on. She got picked on in school, being called names like “slut; tramp; wh***e.” The fact that her parents gave her no support made it all the more challenging. At least she always had him to look back on and give her strength to push forward. To smile.

One day she felt different. She finally looked in the mirror. No, she really looked this time, taking in all the details she had been missing about herself because of her beautiful baby belly. Her eyes had dark circles; she had lost muscle and became boney except for her belly, and the skin around her face was tight and pale. She knew something wasn’t right. Instead of telling someone like she felt deep down inside was the right thing to do,she pushed it aside and blamed the pregnancy.

He noticed these characteristics as well and it scared him. He noticed how the life from her looked like it was being drained week by week. It looked as though she was losing touch with herself. Her movements became almost mechanical from lack of energy. But she always managed to smile for him.

By month 8 she could barely gather the strength to get out of bed. She called him with fear and worry lacing her weak whisper with silent tears streaming down her face. “I can’t get up…. I can’t move… Something’s wrong….” Silence on her end. He was screaming her name. On his way there he called an ambulance to get her. As he arrived, she was being taken on the stretcher into the vehicle to go to the ER. The fear was evident in her eyes. “Please let me go with her… I’m her fiancé, I’m the baby’s father, just please let me ride there with her…” He sobbed. The paramedic nods silently and sympathetically giving him the “OK” to come along. He jump in and holds her hand with tears streaming down his face. “Did you say fiancé…?” she asked.

He smiles and pulls out a ring, placing it on her finger. She smiles but is too weak to keep her eyes open… He smiles and lets the the waterfall of despair overtake him.

A week later at the hospital she looks somewhat better. Doctors found that she wasn’t generating enough energy for her and the baby to survive, only enough for the child to survive. Another week passes and her water breaks at the hospital. He panics not knowing what to do. She smiles, pain obvious in her features, “Hold my hand and tell me to push. Make sure the baby is okay…”

Not taking time to truly process the words, he did as he was told and held her hand while she squeezed the life out of it. 3 hours and 14 minutes of labor and they have a beautiful baby. Healthy and with a pair of lungs loud enough for a whole army to use. But after his beautiful fiancé gave birth he notice how still she was…. He notices how her eyes were open and she was smiling directly at him and their baby… But she wasn’t moving… Or breathing. He finally heard the sound of the flat line, like in movies, and almost collapsed. The nurse took the baby away from him.

Doctors and nurses swarming around her like bees to honey, trying desperately to revive the new mother. To his horror, the attempts didn’t seem to be working. When they pronounced her dead at 9:03pm and laid the sheet over her face he went to her. Clutching her, screaming her name, pleading with The Lord above to wake up his angel. It didn’t work. Then he got angry. “YOU PROMISED WE WOULD BE IN THIS TOGETHER. I PROMISED YOU I WOULDN’T LEAVE, SO WHY DID YOU?! WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME ALONE WITH SUCH A HUGE CHALLENGE, SOMETHING I’M NOT READY FOR!? HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!! I LOVED YOU!!”

He hears a whisper barely audible to the human ear….”I still love you….” And with that he breaks down in tears. He decides to name his newborn baby “Angel,” the name he always called her mommy. And now her mommy is, by every definition of the word, an angel.