Crank Chapters 281-290 Summary

Chapter 281: I Thought About Calling Leigh

Kristina thinks for a minute that Leigh might be a good option, but then decides she'd probably tell Mom. She calls Robyn instead, using the old "I've got this friend" routine.
Robyn tells Kristina that without support from the father or telling her parents, abortion is the only option. Then she tells her why—and it's not a nice story.
Robyn had a friend who got pregnant and initially chose adoption, but she bonded a little too much with her baby when it was born and changed her mind.
She quickly realized that being a parent is hard and that she wasn't really ready. The baby wouldn't stop crying, so she got high and shut her up… for good.

Snow begins to fall. Kristina uses it as an occasion to meditate on how drugs have taken her to places she never knew were real, but she, like the snowflakes, must fall down.

Snow day! Normally this is a time for celebration, but not when you're pregnant and addicted to drugs.
Kristina's problem gets more intense when she reads in the paper about a drug bust involving La Eme and Roberto. She also reads an article in a magazine about the effects of meth and how it's next to impossible to quit for good.
To top it all off, there's a footnote about how meth use affects pregnancy, including the defects and behavioral problems babies of addicts can have.

The articles leave Kristina even more overwhelmed about her decision. She can't marry Chase and ruin his dream of college, nor is she certain she can be a good parent or be strong enough to give the baby away.
She decides she needs to be brave—and only one thing can give her the courage she needs: She does crank and decides to have an abortion.

To have the abortion, Kristina needs a ride home and five hundred dollars. The first part is easy—apparently Robyn is now aware that there is no "friend" and that Kristina herself is facing this issue.
The second part is more complicated. Kristina's bank account is empty and Chase refuses to support her decision to have an abortion. So she goes to the only remaining logical place—Brendan, for a good, solid dose of blackmail.
Brendan denies that he's the father and says he's broke until Kristina threatens to tell his parents, girlfriend, probation officer, Santa Claus, and just about every other person involved in deciding whether he's a good boy or a bad boy. Then he decides to cooperate.
Kristina meets Brendan for the exchange of money and gets her chance for payback for what Brendan did to her: When he asks if the baby is really his, she takes a deft verbal swing at his manhood.

On that note, Kristina considers just how big her own metaphorical, er, man parts are and whether she can really go through with this.

The night before the abortion, Kristina can't sleep. She stares out the window at the snow and stars and wishes she could just make it so the last several months never happened.

Inside Planned Parenthood, Kristina waits for her appointment, feeling shame and fear. She watches girls come and go from their own appointments, perhaps with the same regrets Kristina has about decisions made.
Then something kind of creepy happens: She feels the baby move. Okay, maybe not really—she'll find out later that six weeks is too early to feel a baby move—but still Kristina takes it as a sign that she is under no circumstances to have the abortion.
She changes her mind, choosing to have the baby and raise it herself.

At last Kristina comes clean to her mom about everything—the drugs, the summer with dad, the pregnancy. Mom cries, but thanks Kristina for choosing to give her baby life.
Scott and Mom decide that Kristina will finish school and she and the baby will continue to live in their house. Furthermore, Chase agrees to work multiple jobs while in school to help support the baby that isn't his.
Over the next few months, the baby grows, and Kristina can feel her love for the child begin to snuff out her love for crank. She falls off the wagon a couple of times, but promises us that it was only one or two times and asks us not to tell.

Knowing that we're probably not interested in every TMI detail of her pregnancy, Kristina agrees to compromise and offer top ten lists that relate the highlights (and lowlights) of her baby's development.