Back in the summer of 2001, I worked at an amusement park in rural central PA. I had a lot of friends there; a lot of interesting people. Lots of good parties happened on our off time, and lots of unmentionable things happened. For frame of personal reference, I had been out of college for about 6 months. I left when my brother relapsed with leukemia, mainly because help was needed caring for his son.
Anyway, one of my best friends at the park was this girl named Lilah*. We actually knew each other from high school, but we didn't bond until we became coworkers. We partied a lot together and did all sorts of depraved nonsense together. One particular Saturday, on a lunch break by the carousel, after a couple of days of her being noticeably weird, I asked her, "Hey, what's been up with you the past couple of days? You've been kind of down."
She responded, "I'm pregnant."
This is a very difficult revelation to respond to. Now, I knew she fooled around a lot, but I also knew she'd had steady boyfriends and such in the past. Maybe she sort of wanted to get pregnant or something. I knew that wasn't likely, but I had to factor this in when I responded. I didn't want to say, "That sucks ass," if this was something she wanted. I didn't know her beliefs. All sorts of responses cooked up in my head over one of the most awkward 10 seconds of my life. My erudite response was:
"Oh, wow."
Totally Keanu.
Well, the waterworks start and she goes on about how if I didn't 'understand' nobody would (I was a little insulted at this comment -- my confusion was more than prudent). Amidst a flurry of things I haven't bothered to remember, she mentions going to dinner with her parents later that week. She didn't live or get along with her folks -- the dinner was arranged so she could 'take care' of her pregnancy. She didn't say anything else. The lunch break ended with me still confused as to what the hell was going on.
Well, a week later, she had talked her parents, whom she was estranged from, into paying for her abortion. She asked me to go with her, but I made some lame excuse (this was before I was a spaz and people would ask me things like this). I didn't want word to get back to my folks that their gay, drug addict son was hanging around abortion clinics.
She got it done. It wasn't mentioned for a while after that.
About a year later, we were again at the same job. She ended up getting knocked up again. She kept it this time and ended up marrying. Of course, she didn't marry the guy that impregnated her. A couple months after this I wrote and performed a song called 'I had a Friend that Got an Abortion.' Word got back to her and she was all sorts of offended. Haven't talked to her since. Go figure.
*Name has been changed to protect the innocent/slutty
Anyway, one of my best friends at the park was this girl named Lilah*. We actually knew each other from high school, but we didn't bond until we became coworkers. We partied a lot together and did all sorts of depraved nonsense together. One particular Saturday, on a lunch break by the carousel, after a couple of days of her being noticeably weird, I asked her, "Hey, what's been up with you the past couple of days? You've been kind of down."
She responded, "I'm pregnant."
This is a very difficult revelation to respond to. Now, I knew she fooled around a lot, but I also knew she'd had steady boyfriends and such in the past. Maybe she sort of wanted to get pregnant or something. I knew that wasn't likely, but I had to factor this in when I responded. I didn't want to say, "That sucks ass," if this was something she wanted. I didn't know her beliefs. All sorts of responses cooked up in my head over one of the most awkward 10 seconds of my life. My erudite response was:
"Oh, wow."
Totally Keanu.
Well, the waterworks start and she goes on about how if I didn't 'understand' nobody would (I was a little insulted at this comment -- my confusion was more than prudent). Amidst a flurry of things I haven't bothered to remember, she mentions going to dinner with her parents later that week. She didn't live or get along with her folks -- the dinner was arranged so she could 'take care' of her pregnancy. She didn't say anything else. The lunch break ended with me still confused as to what the hell was going on.
Well, a week later, she had talked her parents, whom she was estranged from, into paying for her abortion. She asked me to go with her, but I made some lame excuse (this was before I was a spaz and people would ask me things like this). I didn't want word to get back to my folks that their gay, drug addict son was hanging around abortion clinics.
She got it done. It wasn't mentioned for a while after that.
About a year later, we were again at the same job. She ended up getting knocked up again. She kept it this time and ended up marrying. Of course, she didn't marry the guy that impregnated her. A couple months after this I wrote and performed a song called 'I had a Friend that Got an Abortion.' Word got back to her and she was all sorts of offended. Haven't talked to her since. Go figure.
*Name has been changed to protect the innocent/slutty
