Page 22 of Forgotten Prejudice

Taking a deep breath, I ignored my flaccid dick and pulled my pants back up. It felt wet and uncomfortable, but mostly, the cum dripping down my legs filled me with regret. Regret for ever allowing my heart to fall for him.

After I fixed myself, I turned to find Kai walking around in circles, his fingers running through his messy hair.

“Kai.” I tried to reach for his shoulder.

“Don’t touch me!” he shouted, then punched me right in the face, sending me to the ground.

I landed on my arm, and it hurt like a bitch. But before I could dive deeper into the throbbing ache in my wrist or the blood coming out of my nose, Kai sat on top of me and yanked me by the collar of my hoodie.

“I was straight until you said those things to me.” Tears ran down his flushed face. “But you said them and put those sick thoughts in my head. Now, everything is fucked-up.” His voice turned tight with crying. “You ruined my fucking life,” he wept as he bent down and buried his head in the crook of my neck.

It was beyond me how, despite what he claimed, he still held on to me. He was being so hurtful, selfishly stealing more pieces of my aching soul at the same time he was hugging me. But loving him was stronger than my reason, so I wrapped my arms around his trembling body and hugged him close. Squeezing my eyes shut, I listened to him cry while taking a deep inhale of his scent. It was unfamiliar, reeking of booze and whatnot. The direct opposite of the summer I once associated him with.

We stayed in this position on the ground until he stopped crying and moved from above me. Now, sitting with his back against the car, he rubbed his face with his dirty palms.

After cleaning the blood from my nose with the sleeve of my hoodie, I moved to sit beside him. Usually, I enjoyed the silence because I wasn’t the type of person who needed to fill the void with words, but not this type of deadly stillness that made it hard to breathe.

“I know you’re probably confused right now,” I began saying, trying to think of the right words. “And I know that it’s hard on you because of your parents, but—”

“It’s not that,” he rasped, and even though he was trying to make me stop talking, I didn’t allow it.

I have to tell him it will be okay. While I had Mom and Aiden by my side, Kai had no support at home. He was probably freaking out, the same way I was only a few weeks ago. If not more. And because I was the one making him doubt everything he thought about himself, coming to me wasn’t an option.

“Kai, listen to me. Everything will be back to normal before you—”

“Zoe’s pregnant.”

My heart stopped, and it felt like I was just kicked in the chest by a professional soccer player. It was so shocking that, like an idiot, I asked him to repeat what he’d just said.

“She’s pregnant.” His voice cracked, and he buried his face in his hands as he began crying again. “My life is fucking over.”

All of a sudden, I realized his fear. And while I wished to make him feel better, I had no idea how. They were both still seventeen, in high school, with big plans for the future. Having a baby was definitely the worst thing that could happen to either of them at this point in life, and Kai knew it, hence why he was breaking down.

Pressing my lips together, I placed my hand on his shoulder. “Kai, it’s not the end of the world. There are things you can do—”

“There’s nothing I can do!” he snapped, pushed my hand away and got up. “Absolutely nothing I can do.” Rubbing his face, he shook his head. “I’m seventeen, going to have a baby with a girl I don’t even like, while all I can think about is my best friend’s dick.” After hissing those pitiful words, he pulled out a pack of smokes from his pocket and tried to light one. A few sparks lit up the night, but the cigarette didn’t catch the fire. “Fuck!” he shouted, tossing the lighter to the ground.

I stood, picked the lighter off the sand, and moved my fingers over the broken plastic. It was one of the cheap kinds, with an ugly picture of a pink cat on it. We’d bought it together when we were sixteen because the image made us laugh.

“Here.” I offered it to him.

Not taking it back from me, Kai’s eyes moved from my hand to my face before he broke our stare and began walking away.

“Hey, where are you going?” I asked nervously. It was getting late, and we were miles away from the city.

“Doesn’t fucking matter.”

“Kai!” I shouted after him, but that didn’t make him stop.

“Just piss off, Ash, and leave me the fuck alone.”

Ash

Back in my truck, I had no idea what to do. So many thoughts ran through my head like a storm, leaving me in an utter mess.

Zoe was pregnant.

Zoe was pregnant, meaning Kai would be a dad before we’d even graduate high school, and from the look of it, he was aiming to ruin his life long before that happened. And among all that mess, where was I? Was it really fair of him to blame me for that? Maybe it was. After all, if I had kept my secret, none of this would have ever happened.