Maybe Poe was right. Maybe I don’t have to tell anyone anything, not until it’s too late.
“Callie, what’s wrong?” Conrad asks, sitting up in his chair, a thick frown between his brows.
Ledger goes alert too. “Hey, Calls, what’s up? What —”
Sniffling, I wipe off my tears. “N-nothing. I just… I just miss you guys so much. And I don’t get to see you a lot so… yeah, I’m just being silly.”
Ledger relaxes. “Oh well, Con’s got some big news on that very front.”
I sniffle again. “What?”
Ledger gestures at Con and I look at him. Con puts down his fork and straightens up. “They offered me a job. At St. Mary’s.”
“What?”
“As their new soccer coach.”
“Soccer coach?”
Con nods. “I know they have a temporary coach now, Arrow Carlisle. But they want someone permanent because he’s leaving to play for his team and they approached me.”
I know he’s leaving.
It was part of that big scandal with Salem but I… They approached my brother?
“I said yes,” he continues. “I thought it was…” He looks slightly uncomfortable right now. “The past two years haven’t been great and I thought it would be a good move for the future. Me being there. We could see each other. More. Before you go to college next year.”
He said yes.
My brother said yes. Because of me. Because he thought it would be good for us after the awful, awkward two years that we’ve had.
I don’t know what’s worse.
The fact that he’s ready to end the awkwardness and look to the future or the fact that he’s going to take a job at the school that’s going to expel me the second I reveal my secret to them. The school where my secret will spread like wildfire. Where they’ll call me names. Where they’ll gossip about me, tell each other stories about how much of a slut I am.
HowstupidI am for getting pregnant in high school.
And mybrotheris going to be there.
In the midst of it all.
He’ll have to face humiliation on a daily basis.
Because ofme.
I can’t let him.
I can’t.
“I’m pregnant.”
It comes out garbled.
Even I don’t understand it. But I know they did. I know that because everything just… stops.
Everything suspends and freezes.
The clinking of silverware and the dishes. The rustle of feet on the floor. The shifting of their bodies in the chairs.
