I'D LAID PEACEFULLY IN THE CROOK OF CORIOLANUS' ARMS as my face rested against his bare chest. We'd been lying on the hard floor with nothing but each other to keep warm. 

His fingertips gently grazed the side of my arm as he watched over me. "Are you sure about this?" 

I go to meet his eyes with wild confusion, my brows furrowed together and my lips set in a frown. "What?" 

He sighs, mimicking my frown and it's almost enough to distract me from how damn beautiful he looks in with the reflection of sunlight peering down against his skin. "We haven't really talked about it..." 

I divert my gaze. He's right. I dove right into this without even asking him what he wanted. 

"You should be preparing for university, Mare." He sounds saddened to say it, and I'm sure he's beating himself up inside over the possibility of me throwing away my future to be with him the way I'm warring with myself over the fact that I haven't told him about anything that's actually going on. "Why are you here?"

The question catches me off guard because I don't actually know. I'm a storm of emotions and chaos that can't be tamed or channeled. 

I came here impulsively and hastily--I didn't even tell Sejanus why I was here. Much less, my parents. 

There's no point in me going to University anymore. I wouldn't be able to survive it with a newborn on my hip and the--unknowing--father of my child over in the districts. 

My entire world has been turned on it's axis and the only thing that makes sense now is having Coriolanus here with me. 

"I'm pregnant." My voice is hardly above a whisper, and frankly, my words just sound like a sharp intake of breath. I'm silently hoping he hasn't heard me because I can't believe I've said the words aloud and I'm fucking terrified. 

His entire body tenses beneath me and I can feel him pull his head away from me. "Pregnant?" 

I sit up, away from him with my head tilted to the side. I don't want to--I can't--look at him right now. 

"That's why you're here then?" His voice is suddenly light and breathy. 

I'm sure he's just as anxious as I was when I first found out. A thousand and one thoughts coursing through his mind as utter panic sinks deep in. 

I nod. "I didn't want you to go on for 20 years without knowing your kid." 

He swallows, I see it with the bobbing of his Adam's Apple. 

It's silent again. It's so quiet you could hear a pin drop and it'd echo off the walls. 

This is it. I'm sure of it. Coriolanus is 18 with a future, he doesn't want to be tied down to me, a pregnant naïve girl. He doesn't want a child. He can opt out of this--all of this right now and I'm damn sure he might. 

Silence. 

Silence so deafening to my ears and so detrimental to one's wellbeing. 

I stand up and begin walking toward my black-matte suitcase in the corner of the room. I unzip it and scan through it for one of the red dresses I'd packed. Once grabbing it, I go to open the door. 

"Are you ready to have a baby?" He asks, causing every bone in my body to freeze. 

I let out a breathy laugh. "Well, I don't think any 17-year-old is ready to have a baby--" 

"Are you ready to have a baby?" He cuts me off, and the question is so morphed and contorted in to all sorts of questions in one. 

I turn around to look at him and he, too, is now sitting up. Eyes no longer frantic but more so concerned. 

"I don't have much of a choice." I swallow. I'm trying to navigate my way through life in the eyes of Mia--always so optimistic and pure no matter the situation. "I'm going to try my best, but, if you aren't ready, I understand." 

He doesn't say anything, but instead draws his eyes from mine with a deepened frown between his eyebrows. "That's why you've been getting sick, then?"

I nod. 

"And why you didn't drink at The Hob." 

I nod once more and pull my lips tight together before opening the door. "I'm going to get a shower." 

"Hey, um, Lucy Gray invited us to this private lake--if you wanted to go." 

I've already got one foot out the door when everything in me freezes. Lucy Gray? "When did you see Lucy Gray?"