When I fell pregnant at seventeen, I didn’t just lose my youth; I lost my shadow. I learned to shrink, to hide my growing belly behind cafeteria trays while the girls I once called friends shopped for prom dresses. I swapped pep rallies for WIC forms and sonogram rooms where the volume was always turned down low. Evan, the varsity starter with the “golden boy” smile, had promised he’d be there every step of the way. But by the next morning, he was a ghost. His mother slammed the door in my face, he blocked my number, and he vanished...
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