Angie cannot stop crying and I feel like
I’ve been handed
wet Jell-O that keeps slipping
through my fingers

I don’t know what surprises me more
that she is pregnant
or what she had to do to become pregnant
because I never
not in a million years
would have ever guessed
that Angie
of all people
would do
that

the story comes in fits and spurts
Who is not the question
she and Jesse have been together
since before I knew either one of them
they would have been married
except for them being
only seventeen and eighteen
they were like
the youth group poster couple
the ones you knew would
be together forever
because it just seemed right
the ones who had said
they would wait to have their first kiss
on their wedding night

and here Angie was
seventeen
pregnant
and I don’t know
how to help
her pick up
the crumbling
pieces of her world

when I find out that I am the first one she has told
I am flattered and confused
why would she choose me?

would she have chosen me if she knew my past?

I listen as she tells me
that nothing happened between them
until this summer
and the first time
was an accident
that they felt guilty about
but the second time
happened
because they had already
made a trail in the snow
and the third time
was the last time
because they were
scared by how easy it had
become

but it was already too late by then
because the baby was already inside
and now Angie was here
telling me
even before Jesse

she continues to cry
I wonder
if Angie’s baby will be born
at the same time
as the half-baby.