After the Ex Games (The Ex Games #4)(13)
Author: J.S. Cooper

“You don’t know that, Greyson.” I shook my head. “This isn’t college anymore. We’re grown men. We f**ked up and now our deeds have come back to haunt us.”

“We can’t change the past.”

“I’m sorry that you haven’t been able to tell Meg the truth.” I took a deep breath. “I hate that you’re lying.” I stopped as soon as I heard the footsteps running down the hallway. “Shit.” I ran out of the room and to the bedroom. When I entered, Katie was sitting on the edge of the bed with a red and angry face.

“I’m going to tell Meg!” She burst out as soon as I entered the room.

“Tell Meg what? There’s nothing to tell,” I said slowly, unconvincingly.

“What is Greyson up to, Brandon? What is he hiding from us?” She jumped up and walked over to me with flashing eyes. “Tell me. I need to know. Meg is my best friend. I will not let her get hurt.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My heart beat fast and I tried to grab ahold of her hands. I flinched as she pulled away from me.

“I heard you, Brandon. I heard you telling him that you hate that he’s lying. If you hate it so much, why don’t you tell us the truth?”

“I can’t do that.” I shook my head. “Not yet.”

“I got a call this morning,” she continued, her voice rising. “A lady named Patsy called me. I had no idea who she was. She said she works at the club. She said that maybe Meg and I would be interested to know more about the relationships you and Greyson had at the club. She said that we don’t know the full truth. She said that there are other people involved. That there are lives at stake. I asked her what she meant. She said ‘Be careful, very careful, because someone’s going to get hurt.’ Then she hung up.” She looked up at me with wide eyes and sat on the bed. “I can’t take this, Brandon. What is going on? I don’t want this guy dating my best friend. He’s a douche.”

“Katie, you need to listen to me.” I took a deep breath. “Greyson used to date Patsy. They used to have sex. For him, it was sex. For her, I guess it was love or infatuation or obsession or whatever you want to call it. He ended it pretty quickly, but when Meg showed up, she started going crazy, doing weird things. She’s trying to hurt Greyson. I think that she knows she can’t go through Meg, so she’s trying to go through you so you can try and break up the relationship.”

“I don’t know.” Katie shook her head. “I think it’s more than that.”

“Katie, there’s something I need to tell you.” I sat down on the bed next to her. “There’s something that happened a long time ago and Greyson and I tried to cover it up. There’s no excuse for our behavior, but we were young and dumb and I don’t think we fully realized what we were doing.” I paused to see Katie’s reaction and took a deep breath. “I don’t want you to hate me.”

“I could never hate you, Brandon.” She took ahold of my hands. “I love you.”

“I just feel like there’s so much I haven’t told you and so much I wish I had told you and now it just all feels like it’s too late. I’ve done so many things to you. Loved you, hated you, treated you terribly… I just don’t want this to be the—”

“Just tell me, Brandon.” Her words were tight, and I closed my eyes.

I was silent for a second as I thought about the past, my life before Katie. My life before love. I’d been a different person, but how could I explain that? How could you explain the transformation from inhumane to humane?

“There was a baby…” I started and took a deep breath. “When we were at the club, a baby was born and—”

“I knew it!” Katie gasped, and my eyes popped open. “Greyson and Patsy had a baby.” She jumped up and ran to the door. “I’m sorry, Brandon, but I need to call Meg. I need her to come home now. She has to know.” She paused at the door. “I think it’s time that we all get everything out in the open. No more lies. If Greyson wants to be with Meg, he needs to tell her the truth.”

“Wait!” I jumped up and walked to her, my heart in my throat. “You don’t understand.”

“What I understand is that my best friend is dating a guy who’s ex had his baby and is now after revenge. I can’t say I blame her. Where’s the child by the way?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head, everything becoming a blur. Everything was going wrong. It was all being twisted. I didn’t know what was up and what was down. “Katie, we need to talk.” I grabbed her arm and she pulled away from me.

“I’m going to tell Meg to come home.” She shook her head. “Maybe we can all sit down and talk then?”

“Okay.” I nodded, my heart dropping.

She was right of course. Everything needed to come out in the open. It was time for the truth to come out. I was ready and I knew Greyson was ready. There was no hiding any more. All I could hope and pray for was that Katie and Meg would understand and forgive us.

I walked to the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water, and took a couple of swigs before rushing to the bathroom to splash some water on my face. I walked down the hallway to one of the guest bathrooms and sat on the side of the bath for a few seconds to compose myself.

It was the pink box that first alerted me to the fact that I wasn’t the only one who had used the bathroom recently. I jumped up and pulled it out of the trash, my heart stopping when I read ‘First Response’ on the packaging. It was a pregnancy test.

My heart stilled as I looked in the trash to see if the test was still there. I saw the white plastic and stood still for a moment, not knowing if I should check. I hesitated for about ten seconds and then reached in and grabbed the test. I pulled it out quickly and looked at the test.

There were two pink lines, and I froze before grabbing the box and reading it. I didn’t know what two lines meant. I read out loud as I looked at the package. “Two lines means pregnant and one line means not pregnant.” I stared at the test with my heart beating fast.

This changed everything. Katie was pregnant again. I pressed my face against the wall in both excitement and worry. Katie was pregnant. I wanted to jump for joy, but I knew that there was a high likelihood that I would miss this pregnancy as well if I told her the truth. It was in that moment that I felt the most alone I’d ever felt in my life. I didn’t know what to do. If I told Katie the truth, I might lose her, but if I didn’t tell her, I might lose her as well. I was in a lose-lose situation, and I had no idea how to get out of it without resorting to extremely desperate and dangerous methods.