After the Ex Games

Chapter 7

Brandon



“So what’s the plan?” I asked Greyson as we sat in my home office. “Your girlfriend is off looking for Nancy, and by the looks of it, she’ll find her.”

“Don’t you want her to find her?” Greyson looked at me seriously, and I sighed.

“Of course I want her to find her.” I grabbed a bottle of water off the desk and took a swig. “I want to know that she’s okay.”

“She’s a good kid,” Greyson continued. “She was shy, timid… Very different from Maria.”

“I see.” My heart froze as he spoke.

“I don’t think she knows everything.”

“Are you sure?”

“No.” He stood up and walked to the window. “I’m not sure of anything right now.”

“Katie told me that Meg told her that Nancy and David came to the club to get revenge on us for what happened to Maria. They blamed us for Maria’s death.”

“Yeah.” He turned to look at me and nodded. “They did.”

“So are we sure that it’s not them?” I jumped up. “Are we sure that that’s not their motivation?”

“It seems more personal than that.” He shook his head. “Don’t you think?”

“I don’t know how—”

“I don’t trust Patsy,” He said, cutting me off. “I don’t know what she may have done or said.”

“But she loves you. She wouldn’t harm you.”

“I don’t know. Ever since Meg came into my life, she’s been different.” He sighed. “I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s like some switch has been flipped.”

“She always was a bit of a funny one.”

“She always seemed loyal though.” He frowned. “She went crazy when she saw you the other day. I think she thinks you’re bad news.”

“Who can blame her?” I chuckled, though my insides were burning up.

“Yeah, I do wonder if she’s the one sending the letters though. I know she and David are hooking up, so maybe it’s them. David seems like the sort that would leave a bullet on the table as a threat.”

“I don’t understand why she would want to hurt one of us that badly.” I turned around then and walked back to my desk. That was a lie. I knew why she would want to hurt me. I sighed as I thought back to that night so many years ago.

Her in my bed. Her on top of me, f*cking me. Her screaming in pleasure as she came. Her turning on the light and seeing my face. I’d been so drunk that I hadn’t cared who I’d been f*cking at the time. I’d seen her face though. I’d seen the look of surprise and then resignation. She’d known as well, but she hadn’t cared.

It would have been fine if Greyson hadn’t dumped her a few days later. I don’t think she would have hated me so much. I was pretty sure she thought I was the reason he’d dumped her, but I’d never told him. I mean, there is never a good time to tell your best friend you f*cked his girl, even if the girl wasn’t that special to him.

“I don’t know either,” he sighed. “Maybe seeing me happy with Meg made her realize she’s never going to have me, and then we know why David hates us.”

“Patsy knows the truth though.” I stared at him then with real fear in my eyes. “What if she tells David?”

“I don’t know.” Greyson’s eyes looked bleak, and I could see my worry reflected in his gaze.

“We need to find Nancy. We need to make sure she’s okay.” I ran my hands through my hair and tried to calm my beating heart. “Sorry, you’re going to have to excuse me. I need to go and think.”

“No worries. Oh, and Brandon.” He walked over to me and grabbed ahold of my shoulders. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be okay.”

“You don’t know that, Greyson.” I shook my head. “This isn’t college anymore. We’re grown men. We f*cked 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.