Chapter Four: Don't Snitch

My father knew early. He knew when I was in high school, I think. Made things tense between us, because I didn’t respect how he handled it.

There was a different standard for me. When I was a senior in high school, my parents found a receipt for a home pregnancy test I’d bought. Courtney and I were together by then, and we’d had a scare.

Instead of confronting me directly, or having a civilized talk with me about it – hell, my parents never even gave me the birds and the bees speech – my father and his wife made a scene.

They bypassed me directly, went to Courtney’s house. And my Dad put his finger in the face of her father. He started shaming her in front of the whole family.

He started saying: “Your daughter’s corrupting our son, and she’s lying to you. She’s a liar.”

And they told Courtney and me: “If you have kids and have a dependent, you’re both out on the fucking street.”

Whatever. Courtney turned out not to be pregnant anyway. Also, we broke up shortly after, for the first of about …