*

Jolie closed the door behind her Dad and turned to Austin.

"I'm so happy for you Austin," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him into a hug.

"I'm happy too Jolie. You're Dad's really an amazing guy isn't he?" he asked, looking down into her eyes.

Jolie smiled and said, "Now you see why I've always looked up to him and wanted to be like him since I was a kid? If I can be half the lawyer he is one day, I'll be amazing."

Austin smiled and gave her a kiss. "I have no doubt that you're going to be an amazing lawyer Jolie."

Austin let go of her and held out his hand and she slipped her hand into his and he started leading her up the stairs. On their way up to his room he said, "Now we need to finish our talk about what Chaz and Mandy said earlier."

They walked into his room and he shut the door behind him and then sat down on his bed. Jolie sat next to him and he picked up her hand and held it in his and looked into her eyes. His blue eyes made her melt and he was so handsome that looking at him made her stomach flutter.

"Please tell me what you're thinking Jolie. Why did you cry if you didn't believe what they said?"

Jolie looked down at their hands and her eyes started to water. "When Mandy said that you couldn't keep your hands off her and you two went at it like wild animals it made me wonder why you weren't the same way with me. You actually turned me down when I tried to sleep with you and that made me think, maybe she's right. Maybe you're not as attracted to me as you are to her."

Austin shook his head. "No. I'm way more attracted to you than I've ever been to anybody and I've actually had to take cold showers just to settle myself down after being around you. I want you so bad sometimes that it physically hurts but I'm not trying to rush things with you and mess it up. You're too important to me. With Mandy that's all we had was the physical side but the emotions and love weren't there. She made me miserable," he said, looking down at their hands.

He lifted his head and looked into her eyes and said, "You're not like that Jolie. You're special. You're so smart and beautiful and easy to talk to. When I'm with you I laugh and I'm happy. When we're not together I miss you and I can't get you off my mind." He smiled and said softly, "I'm in love."

Hearing that made Jolie's eyes tear up because she felt the same way about him.

A tear ran down her cheek and she said, "I'm in love with you too."

"We may be young Jolie but the love I feel for you is real and strong and I want to make sure that when we sleep together it's the right time and that you're ready, because the last thing I want to do is hurt you and mess up what we have Jolie."

Jolie's heart was pounding so hard from hearing him say those words and she said, "Austin, before we take that next step I just want to make sure that we have a future together beyond high school. I don't want to give myself to you and then we graduate and go our separate ways and never see each other again. We've never talked about it and I don't even know if you want a future with me beyond high school," she said quietly looking down at her hand that he was holding.

"Jolie the last thing I want to do is lose you. I want you in my life as long as you'll have me, after high school, college, beyond that even. If I could write out the perfect future for us we would both go to Harvard and we'd get an apartment off campus together so we get to be together as much as possible when we're not in classes. Even though we'll be busy we could make the time to still see each other every night and go out on a date every weekend. When you graduate and get a law degree you said you want to go work for your Dad's firm in New York City. I did some research and found a hospital close to your Dad's firm that's ranked #12 in the country for pediatric cancer treatment. It's close enough we could even eat lunch together. After that I could see us getting married and buying a nice house in the suburbs right outside of the city and starting a family."

Jolie smiled at him and a tear ran down her cheek. "Wow. You've put a lot of thought into this. That actually sounds perfect."

"Yeah I've been thinking a lot about the future lately, especially after you told me you were going to Harvard. I can't help it. I guess I'm a planner."

Jolie smiled and leaned forward and gave him a kiss. "I love that about you Austin. Especially when your making plans with me."

Austin cupped his hands around the sides of her face and pressed his lips to hers and she felt goosebumps go up her arms and a tingle run up her spine. He pulled back and looked into her eyes and said, "I love you Jolie and I want to spend my life with you. I want to marry you one day and when I picture my future, you're the one I see there with me. I couldn't picture it with anyone else but you."

Those were the things that Jolie had been waiting to hear from him before she was willing to give her heart and body to him completely.

"Austin? I'm ready. I don't need any more time. What if we make a plan to have sex for the first time on the night of the Homecoming Dance this Saturday? That gives us 3 days. I can make sure my birth control is all taken care of before then. What do you think?" she asked shyly, looking down at her hands.

"Jolie are you sure you're ready?" Austin asked. "I don't want you to feel any pressure to rush into this."

"I'm positive Austin," she said, looking up into his blue eyes.

He smiled. "Ok then. Saturday it is."

She kissed his lips and then sighed, "I better go. I'll see you tomorrow Austin. I love you."

"Love you too," he said and she made her way out the door and back over to her house.

Now it was time for the hard part. She had to have a talk with her Mom about taking her to the doctor to get a birth control shot. She had done a lot of research and the shot seemed like the best way to go. It would last for 3 months and she wouldn't have to worry about forgetting to take a pill. Getting pregnant was definitely not an option right now.

When she walked in the door her Mom was sitting at the kitchen counter on a bar stool with her head in her hands crying and her Dad was no where around.

"Mom? What happened?" Jolie asked.

Her Mom lifted her head and her eyes were red and watery and she had mascara streaks under them.

"Your Dad ....." she cried and started sobbing again uncontrollably.

Jolie sat on the bar stool next to her and wrapped her Mom into a hug and held her while she sobbed on her shoulder.

Finally Jolie asked, "What did Dad do?"

Her Mom sat up and wiped the tears from under her eyes and struggled to catch her breath.

"He brought divorce papers with him for me to sign. His girlfriend's pregnant and they're getting married," she sobbed, laying her head down on the table.

Jolie's heart sank and she felt so heartbroken for her Mom. She couldn't even imagine how that would feel to know your husband is having a baby with the woman he was cheating on you with for a year, getting married to her and starting a family with her in your old house.

"I'm so sorry Mom," Jolie told her, rubbing her back and her own tears started to fall. She was heartbroken too by everything that had happened with her family and she wished things could've been different for them. She would have a relationship with her Dad but she didn't think she could ever accept his girlfriend after what she had done, knowingly sleeping with a married man and stealing him away from his wife.

The baby though would be her sister or brother and it wasn't the baby's fault that it's Mom was a homewrecker so she would try to have some sort of relationship with them. She had always been an only child so the thought of her Dad having another child besides her after all these years hurt a little bit because she already had to fight so hard for his attention. She was just glad that he had helped with Austin's case and she would forever be grateful to him for that, even if he was a flawed Dad that made a lot of mistakes.

She decided right now would definitely not be the best time to ask her about getting birth control. She figured it would be safer to ask her at breakfast in the morning. Her Mom was always in a good mood in the mornings.