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“I threw up.”
Standing behind her, Matt pulled her hair back. “I see that.”
Squeezing her eyes closed, Katie wished she could just disappear, crawl away like the wounded animal that she was. She needed to get away from here.
“Let’s get you inside.”
“No,” she sobbed, shaking her head. “Please, I just need a minute. Go back to the game.”
“Katie.” Matt turned her around. “Talk to me. What’s wrong?”
Everything.
She felt her lip tremble, her chin wobble. She inhaled a stuttering breath. “They’re charging him…” Her eyelids closed. “…and he broke up with me.” Hot tears stung her cheeks in the cold evening air.
“Fuck.” Matt’s hands clasped her shoulders. “Katie, now listen to me. Brendan loves you. He’s just…”
“I’m pregnant.”
Katie just blurted it out. Two little words. Three syllables. She’d kept them to herself for weeks, trying to figure out a way to tell Brendan. Today was supposed to be the day she finally did, but it didn’t turn out that way.
“And he broke up with you?” Matt looked angry. “That motherfucker.”
“He doesn’t know, Matt.” She rested a hand on his chest. “I never got the chance to tell him.”
The muscles in his face relaxed and he took her hand. “C’mon. I’m taking you back. Brendan needs to know—”
“No.” She shook her head, tears spilling down her face. “Not now. Not like this.”
“Katie.” Matt pulled her against him and hugged her. “Please go talk to him.”
“Promise me you won’t say anything to him. It needs to come from me. Okay?”
He hesitated. His mouth opened like he was going to say something, but changed his mind. Then, in a quiet voice, he simply said, “Okay.”
Katie sat on her bed hugging her knees, and unseeing, watched the sky change color through the window. It gradually lightened from the darkest black to a bleak gray. She was thankful that it wasn’t fucking blue.
She hadn’t slept, didn’t even bother to try, even though she was physically drained. Emotionally exhausted. Empty. Broken. Luckily, Kelly wasn’t home when she got here last night. Katie heard her come in around two, and presuming, thankfully, that she was still at Brendan’s, went right to her room. She wasn’t ready to talk to anyone.
The door to the loft opened, and then closed. Katie heard her aunt’s footfalls recede down the stairs and left her bed. She padded into the bathroom and got in the shower. That’s when her tears began to silently fall. Then they tumbled, cascading down her cheeks with the warm water. She covered her face with her hands and cried, choking on her own saliva. Gasping for air between sobs.
Her hands slid down her body to her belly. She rubbed over the skin. Her baby was in there. Brendan’s baby. What the fuck was she going to do now?
The only thing she could think of.
That afternoon, wiping at her swollen eyes yet again, Katie bumped into Cameron as she left the registrar’s office, pulling the door closed behind her. He’d been right. They’d hardly seen each other since the end of last semester. She’d seen him on occasion in the student union, or they’d pass one another on the quad and wave, but that was it. Cameron took one look at her and glanced at the door she just came out of.
His hand shot out to grab hers. “What the fuck did you do?”
Keeping her gaze on the toes of her boots, she answered him, “I withdrew.”
“You what?”
“You heard me.” She still wouldn’t look at him. “I quit school.”
“Fuck, Katie.” He gently raised her chin. “Why?”
She bit her lip so she wouldn’t cry, and shrugged. “I’m going home.”
