“This does not sound like the Linc you’re always telling me about.” He studies the phone. I’m guessing he’s reading the text again. He clicks on it.
“Don’t text him.” I try to grab the phone back from him. He steps back out of my reach.
“I’m not.” My phone vibrates in Brian’s hand, causing his whole face to turn angry.
“What? Is it from him? Did he say something else?”
“Cherry.” His voice is soft. It’s clear he doesn’t want to tell me.
“What?” I ask again, causing him to turn the phone around. He clicks into Linc’s name and pulls up his location. “Is that–” I trail off not finishing my words. I shake my head no. There is no way that Linc would go to a strip club. That is so unlike him. But so was the text he sent. A deep sadness threatens to overtake me with the realization that maybe I don’t know what he’s like anymore. A knot forms in my stomach at that thought.
I turn, running toward my bathroom. I barely make it in before I’m throwing up the pizza Brian brought over to my place when he got off work tonight. We hang out most nights. I am still the only one that knows Brian’s secret. I’d bet his parents know too but are waiting for him to tell them. But I don’t push him. He’ll do it when he’s ready.
“Cherry.” Brian grabs a rag for me. I take it from his hand, wiping my mouth.
“He’s trying to break up with me, isn’t he? He wants me to break it off so he doesn’t have to.” It was all in the way he worded the text. I love you but if you want to move on… More tears slip down my face. “They were supposed to be my family.” Brian sits down on the floor with me, pulling me in for a hug.
What hurts is I know Nick and Benjy are with him. Are they not telling him he’s crazy? How do I move on from him? From them? They’re all I’ve ever known. They were the ones who loved me when no one else did. Turns out that love isn’t convenient for them anymore.
“Cherry, girl. You’re killing me here.” I sniffle, looking up at Brian. My whole world feels like it’s falling apart. If he thinks I’m cheating on him, will he then think our baby isn’t his? It hurts that he would think any of these things. How the hell am I going to tell him about the baby now?
“Am I hard to love? Did I do something wrong? I don’t understand.” My tears break free. I thought I’d been doing the right thing helping the boys follow their dreams. Getting myself and my life in order so that if things don’t work out with the music thing that we’d still have a future.
“Cherry, you are not hard to love. I can promise you that.”
“I’m having his baby.”
“You’re having your baby and I’m going to be here with you. I’m going to be a killer uncle.” I smile at that. He will be. And even though my entire world seems like it’s falling apart, I take comfort in knowing that I have someone here by my side.
“I don’t understand.”
“People change. We’ve all heard how fame and money can go to people’s heads.” I want to refuse to believe that this is happening. Could they have changed so much in such a short time? My heart refuses to believe that it’s true. Linc and I have been together for so long that this can’t be the way it ends.
“Give me my phone.” I reach out my hand. Brian looks as though he doesn’t want to but eventually hands my phone to me. “I’m going to call him. That’s the only way this is going to get resolved. I want to hear him say it.”
“I’ll be right here if you need me.” I hug him before I pick up the phone and press the button to call Linc. Nerves threaten to make me sick again, but I know that I need to do this. It rings a bunch of times before his voicemail picks up. I drop the phone from my ear.
“Guess it’s loud in strip clubs.” I can’t keep the anger out of my voice. I’ve gone from sad to mad. My emotions are all over the place. I drop my phone down on the counter to wash my hands. Brian stands there watching me.
“Movie?” he asks. “We can log into my Netflix.”
“Yeah.” I leave my phone on the counter. If he wants to talk to me he’ll figure it out. For tonight I am done. I don’t think I can take much more.
Chapter Twenty-One
Linc
“I’ve been holding her back,” I explain to the stripper as I shove a handful of popcorn into my mouth.