When Nae and I stumble into the house a little after two it looks like an intervention. All four of my brothers, my Aunt Roselyn, all three of my grandparents, and my mom and dad were sitting and standing in the living room looking solemn and angry. Paris sees us first and jumps up, his brown eyes wide with guilt.
"I'm sorry Jae, it wasn't my fault." He exclaims. I look at him confused.
"Shut that up boy if you wanna stay down here," my mother snaps. She looks over at me and Renae with heavy disapproval. In fact, every person in the large room over twenty three was looking at us with varying degrees of disapproval and anger. Bri's expression was knowing, Jamir's was sad, and Jason's was shocked.
"What's going on?" Nae hesitantly asks. "What happened?" From the tone of her voice and Paris's words, I can kinda guess that she knows what happened. The million dollar question was how they all found out.
Her mother confirms my suspicions with her next question. "Do you have something you want to tell me, sweetie?" Unlike her twin brother, my Aunt Roe was gentle and sweet most of the time. She was the most understanding adult I've ever met and that was one of the reasons why she was my favorite aunt. She was also my only aunt but that was besides the point. If I was called my moms twin then Nae was her moms clone. Besides the fact that Naes lips were a little fuller, they were carbon copies of the other. Both of them were tall, slim but with banging curves, had soft brown eyes and pretty chocolate skin.
Nae's mouth falls open and her eyes widen. For a second I think she's going to deny it but after looking up at her mom and then glancing around the room she sighs deeply, her shoulders sinking. "I'm pregnant, but something tells me y'all already knew that."
Aunt Roe's shoulders sink in indication that she was secretly hoping that her only child wasn't about to become a mom at only eighteen. "I thought you and Shaun were being careful?"
A tear slips down my best friends face and I don't hesitate to run soothing circles on her back. "We were," she sobs. "But nothings one hundred percent. But I promise mom, we're gonna get married and I'm still gonna go to college and we're gonna be a family. I promise."
Aunt Roe rushes forward, wrapping her arms around her crying daughter. I step back so they can have their moment. "I know you do baby," she whispers but because I was close I could still hear. "And I promise that I'll be here every step of the way to help you get through it. I only wish that you'd have told me sooner. I hate that I had to find out I'm gonna be a grandma through that stupid social media."
So that how they know, I think. I only hope that nobody posted about me and Elijah. It was a fools dream though considering our following and the amount of nosy people in Wilmington. I really needed to get out this city.
Renae hugs her mom back. "I'm sorry. I just didn't know how to tell you."
"It's okays," Aunt Roe replies. " I know now and that all that matters." She kisses her daughters dark brown cheek before they separate. When my aunts dark eyes look at me my little hopes are crushed. Because looking into my aunts eyes I know that they all know what I did. She reaches over and gently rubs my cheek. "Oh Lynn," is all she says before pulling away and going back to her seat next to her and my dads mother, Vivian.
I was thankful that Nae didn't leave me because now all their eyes were on me. I gulp, my anger already rising past the melancholy and heartbreak that surrounded my break up with Elijah. It was easier to be mad then crying, especially when they were all looking at me like that. All judgmental and disappointed. What the fuck was wrong with them?
