Infamous Like Us (Like Us 10)

With our backs to the conference table, Thatcher growls out a frustrated noise. “I can’t say.”

“You can’t say?” I scoff.

“Are you a fucking parrot?” he growls. “Yeah, I can’t fucking say.”

“Jeeesus.” I hold up a hand, now confused and concerned.

He pinches his eyes and blows out a hot breath. “Just go talk to her,” he says, voice rising just as Akara slides into our two-man huddle.

Akara whispers hotly, “I thought you said Sulli is fine?” He fits on a baseball cap backwards, waiting for my brother to speak. It takes him a second.

Thatcher rubs his face roughly. “Cutthemeetingshort.” He slurs all of that together.

“What was that?” Akara asks, breathing harder in alarm.

“He said cut the meeting short,” I translate.

“It’s an emergency?” Akara asks tensely. “Thatcher.”

He’s not speaking. Just shaking his head. “Forget it—”

“No,” Akara and I say in unison.

The Yale boys are definitely staring. We all rotate a little more. Backs to them. Akara whispers, “Whatever strain there is between you and me”—he motions from his chest to Thatcher’s—“it shouldn’t get in the way of security. And it shouldn’t be at the cost of anyone we love, man. If this were about Jane, I wouldn’t be biting my tongue. Don’t tell me we’re that far gone, you and me.”

Thatcher cranes his neck backwards. Staring painfully at the ceiling. “I already said too much. I shouldn’t have said a thing.” He groans into his hand. “I need to unfuck this.”

“Unfuck it by telling us facts,” I urge.

“I can’t!”

“Yeah, you can!”

“She’s pregnant!” he screams.

It physically jerks me back.

Akara has a hand over his mouth.

“Fuck. Fuck.” Thatcher touches his forehead like he’s in deep shit.

I’m frozen cold. Barely processing.

Akara shifts his weight, then drops his hand. “You mean Jane—Jane’s the pregnant one.”

“I wasn’t supposed to say anything,” Thatcher says tightly, barely even looking at me or Akara. “Fucking Christ.” He stares pained at the door.

So it is Sulli?

Sulli is pregnant.

I’m wide-eyed.

“No, no.” Akara shakes his head with a slight laugh. “This doesn’t make sense, man. Why would she tell you before me or Banks?”

“I don’t fucking know, but I wish she didn’t.”

“Who’s pregnant?” Gabe asks from the conference table.

“Lovely,” Akara mutters under his breath. All of SFO heard Thatcher’s outburst. Can’t fault him. I pushed my brother there.

At least the Yale boys are shaking their head at Gabe to shut the fuck up. While they whisper to him, I exchange a severe look with Akara.

“We’re going now?” I question. “Because I can’t wait here knowing she could be…she’s…” Why can’t I say it? Why does it feel more unbelievable now than back when the condom ripped? Worse than anything is knowing she’s been alone with this knowledge. For how long?

Part of me is happy that she told my brother.

Maybe she needed to confide in him.

God, I hope he wasn’t a complete idiot and pushed her away or said something stupid.

“Yeah, you and I are leaving,” Akara confirms, which eases me. To my brother, he says fast, “Take over. We were about to discuss the Fire Alarm Scenario.” Where some shitbag pulls the fire alarm.

Like a bullet, I grab the to-go container and smoothie and bolt out of the conference room. Akara isn’t on my ass. He’s not leading the way.

He’s at my side.

All this time we’ve been going over different Worst-Case scenarios.

We didn’t think about this one.

Our girlfriend being pregnant.

Is it even a “worst case”? Am I that upset about it?

My emotions are hard to pick apart. Hard to pin down. What’s worse to me right now, I have no idea how Sulli is coping with this news. And I have no idea what Akara is thinking. Is he in denial like when he flirted with Sulli and said he didn’t? Has he been sling-shotted back into that ether, and will I have to pull him out?

9

AKARA KITSUWON

Sullivan Minnie Meadows. The competitive, ever-endearing Meadows girl who I spent the majority of my career protecting. The girl who wishes she were a mermaid. The girl who eats donuts like a cliché cop in a sitcom. The girl who’s hotter, inside and out, than every Disney princess combined (sorry not sorry, Ariel).

Sulli isn’t just a babe.

She’s my babe. Our babe, and now…she’s pregnant.

When that really sinks in, my first thought crashes into me:

I’m not going anywhere.

No inkling or microscope piece of me is willing to self-eject. I physically can’t give Sulli up. I physically can’t give Banks up. I know what it feels like to leave, and I’d never walk into that pain again. So to hang on or to let go isn’t even a question anymore.

I’m superglued to what I love. And I love them.

I just can’t let a dang thing happen to what we’ve built together. What we fought to keep solid. It has to stay intact. No matter what we face.

Even a baby.