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I whip my head toward him, but Ezra’s looking at his cell phone as if the words he just spoke were a throwaway thought.

When Yenn and I are silent for too long, he looks up, his expression turning bewildered.

“What?” he asks. Then, his confusion turns to horror. “No.Shae?”

I shake my head and keep shaking it until Yenn stops my spiraling with both her hands on my cheeks.

“Shae,” she says, her voice serious, “When was your last period?”

When was my…. I try to count the weeks, feeling sick all over again when I realize it’s been more than a month and a half since my last cycle.

“I….”

Yenn doesn’t respond to my hesitation. Instead, she rushes out of the bathroom and returns two seconds later with four boxes of First Response tests cradled in her arms.

“You keep pregnancy tests in your room?” Ezra asks, but Yenn doesn’t bother answering him.

“First, Shae, take these. Then we’ll talk about figuring out the rest of your life,” Yenn says, looking at me as if really seeing me for the first time tonight.

But I already know whatever plans I thought I had are no longer valid.

32

STORM

When Riale and I drive to the meeting spot Axel sent us, I feel an overwhelming sense ofthis-is-why-Black-people-don’t-go-to-the-woods.

Not only does this motherfucker have us idling on the side of the highway in the middle of bumfuck between the Illinois and Wisconsin border, he has the audacity to be late.

There are a dozen other things I’d rather be doing, and all twelve of them involve Shae. And the longer I wait here in the darkness, the more urgent it is for me to go back to her and clarify that hell fucking yes, I’ll move with her.

I’ll follow her to the ends of the earth. Outside of my mom, Riale, and I guess Axel too, there’s nothing here for me in Chicago.

Shae is my future. I’m all in.

Now I just need to finish this business.

“Did he tell you what he found?” I ask Riale, who has been uncharacteristically quiet for the entire drive.

“No,” he grinds out. “But I have my suspicions.”

“Well, that’s not cryptic as fuck,” I mutter, turning to look out the window into the dark woods.

Riale just hums.

“Think you’ll ever tell me what’s going on with you?” I ask Riale, still not looking at him. I don’t expect him to answer, which is why I’m surprised when he does.

“Yes, and soon. I’m just trying to figure out how to keep you safe when you know.”

That has me looking directly at him.

“You think I can’t take care of myself?”

Riale is silent for a heartbeat, staring out into the black road ahead.

“It’s not that I don’t think you can take care of yourself, Storm, it’s that I’m not sure you can be smart while doing it.”

What the fuck is that supposed to mean?