Hi fellas! My name is Louis, and I have something to
tell you. Ok. My girlfriend got pregnant. There is nothing unusual about that, right? But the thing is that I'm 16 years old. So… Hurray? I don't remember when I met Jasmine, because
I was just a baby! Her parents were our neighbors, so, as my
mother used to say - Jasmine and I have known each other since we were in diapers. We grew up side-by-side. When we were kids we literally did everything
together. So until 16, we were the best of friends. But then I ruined it. Not on purpose! I was just growing up and becoming a man,
you know… Yeah, so I told Jasmine that I wanted to be
more than just friends with her. And of course, she said those standard words
- that she didn't want to ruin our friendship and all that kind of stuff that girls usually
say. So I got trapped in the friend zone. Or more precisely, we created this friend
zone 16 years ago. It`s Ok, I could've handled that. I would have suffered a little and my feelings
would have gone away, but then I found out that she had started dating a guy from school. Mike. Freaking Mike, from drama class. He looks more like a peacock than a man. And she would rather date him, than me? C’mon, everyone knows that Mike has dated
half the girls at school! How did Jasmine even agree to go on a date
with him? I was so mad. I tried to tell her that he was just gonna
use her, but she wouldn`t listen. And after a few months passed, it happened. I saw her near the school crying. You don't have to be a detective to figure
out what happened. So I went up to her and hugged her without
saying a word. I took her home and she told me everything. As I expected, Mike had broken up with her. To be honest, I had to bite my lip to not
say "I told you so." And thank god I didn`t say that. She seemed so grateful for my compassion that
when we said goodbye, she looked directly in my eyes… and kissed me. Oh, boy… I had dreamt about this moment, and now it
was happening! That's how we started dating. Oh, these were the happiest moments of my
life. We spent our days and nights together, and
I didn't want to leave her even for a second! For three weeks I just glowed with happiness,
until one morning someone knocked on my door. Jasmine and her parents were standing in the
doorway. They came into the house, and shocked us with
some news: "Jasmine was pregnant!" Wow, I just froze. I sat in a daze, and I couldn't even hear
everything that our parents were saying at that moment. All I could do was to look Jasmine in the
eyes and see her empathy. She could barely hold back her tears. But at some point she stood up and interrupted
everyone: she said "I'm going to keep the baby." Our parents were silent for a second. Then I got up and said: "I'm old enough to
take responsibility, and I promise to do everything I can to take care of Jasmine and the baby." Of course, these words meant nothing to them. In their eyes, I was just a 16-year-old boy
who did something bad. After that, we had a lot of conversations
and discussions, but the decision was final - I would become a father. I understood that most of all we needed money,
so I started looking for work. Unfortunately, people at my age can only earn
money by delivering pizza or working at a fast food restaurant. But I needed a job. So I worked as a courier until the evenings,
and then worked the fryer at McDonald's. Yes, it was very hard, but in my head there
was always one thought that pushed me forward - soon I`ll have a child. And it gave me the strength to work 24/7. Jasmine was also having a hard time. She was pregnant at 16, so everyone around
her was judging her. Even her parents. They never fully accepted that we were having
a baby, and mostly just blamed her for the mistake. On the other hand, my parents supported us
and even told me that Jasmine and I could live with them and turn one of the rooms into
a nursery. This support was more than necessary, and
I was very grateful to my mom and dad. Things were improving. I had gotten accustomed to hard work, and
I started to make some time to spend with Jasmine. But she was so upset all the time. Something was worrying her more than her parents
and she didn't want to talk about it. I figured out a way I could cheer her up. I was able to dedicate a few hours a week
to set up the nursery. I painted the walls, put down soft carpet,
put together a crib, and bought a lot of toys. I even painted different animals on the walls. Yeah, I know they're drawn badly, OK? But I put my heart into it. So the room looked pretty good. I really wanted to surprise Jasmine. So I took the day off and we spent the whole
day together. We went for a walk, watched a movie, and had
a romantic dinner. Finally, she cheered up a little, and got
distracted from whatever was making her sad. And now it was time for the main surprise. We went to my house, I closed her eyes with
my hands, and led her into the baby`s room. When we went in, I said, "Our baby will grow
up here," and I opened her eyes. She looked at the room for a minute and then
began to cry. At first I thought it was tears of happiness,
but no. She started apologizing to me. I was so confused. I didn't know what was going on. And then she finally confessed - I wasn't
the baby's father. She said that Mike dumped her because she
told him that she was pregnant, and then we almost immediately started dating. She thought she could hide it, but her conscience
was eating her up. At that moment, my world fell apart. All my hard work, all those fights with my
parents were Mike`s fault. I felt used. She's carrying his baby, and I'm working like
crazy to provide its future. For about a week, I was completely out of
my mind. I was just lying in bed, thinking about our
relationship and the baby. I was thinking about what to do next. Some of my thoughts were really dark. I was still depressed, but something unexpected
happened. In the middle of the night someone knocked
loudly on our door. It was Jasmine's parents. They looked terrified and shouted that Jasmine
was in labor. She needed to be rushed to the hospital. We got in the car and dad drove us to the
hospital. We drove as fast as possible, breaking all
the possible rules. At the hospital, Jasmine was put in a bed
and taken away from us. The problem is that she was only in her eighth
month of pregnancy, so her life and the life of the child was in danger. A few hours later, I was pacing the halls,
trying to get all the awful thoughts out of my head. I just kept telling myself that she'll be
fine, the baby will be fine, everything will be fine. About three hours later, the doctor came to
us and asked who the father of this baby was. Without a shadow of a doubt, I said that I
was the father. Then the doctor sighed and said, "The baby
is fine, he is absolutely healthy. Mom's fine, too, but she needs to get some
rest now." So the doctor told us to go home, go to sleep,
and come back in the morning. But I couldn't sleep and kept thinking, "Thank
God the baby's okay." In the morning, when Jasmine woke up, they
let me into her room. I walked up to her, hugged her tight, and
said, "It's okay. We're going to be fine." A few hours later the nurse brought us the
baby. At that moment I just burst into tears of
happiness. He was so small and so… pink. I couldn't believe my eyes. It's like all the happiness in the world had
been put into one little baby. I guess that's the parental instinct, because
I felt like I would do anything to keep this baby safe. It didn't matter who his biological father
was. This was our child and our family. I became a father and I'm proud of it. Thank you for listening to my story. By the way, did you notice that this Teddy
bear appeared several times? Can you count how many? Write the answer in the comments.
