Page 59 of Kings of the Campus

Guilt twists in my stomach as his words hang in the air. I look at Devin and Jace, both tense and silent. This is on us. We have to come clean.

“It’s…complicated,” I start, my voice low. “We were messing around at first. Then things went wrong between us, but we realized that we care about her. More than we should, probably.”

Matteo’s eyes narrow. “Care about her how?”

I let out a sigh. “We want more, we were talking about that today. We were going to ask her to be with us but then her laptop got stolen and everything kind of blew up from there.”

Matteo’s expression shifts, surprise flickering across his face. He shakes his head slowly, trying to piece it all together. “So, you’ve got feelings for her?” he asks, clarifying my words.

“Yeah,” Jace mutters, stepping forward. “But she doesn’t know that yet. And now this…hell, we didn’t think it’d get this bad.”

Matteo’s face softens, but the tension stays. “Well, you’d better get your shit together then because I have more news for you. Tessa is pregnant. She told us when we came to get her, that’s why we took her to the hospital. She’s having a miscarriage from all the stress.”

The air escapes from my lungs. “She’s…what?”

“It’s probably yours,” he says, giving us a heated glare. “You need to step the fuck up and be there for her, so she doesn’t have to go through this alone.”

I glance at Devin and Jace and they look equally as stunned, the words still processing in our brains.

Tessa is pregnant? And it’s our kid? A mix of confusion and hurt bubbles up as I realize she never told us this herself.

“You better do the right thing here,” Matteo warns us. “I’m going back to the hospital. Valencia is there with her and I want to look after the both of them.”

He leaves without another word.

I run a hand through my hair, trying to gather my thoughts.

Devin speaks, his voice cracking. “Wereallyfucked up.”

“Yeah,” I agree, feeling dazed.

“We did some horrible shit to her. We could have put her life in danger with our stupid pranks.”

“I can’t believe she never told us,” Jace mutters, sinking down to the floor as he comes to terms with the information we’ve just learned. “I feel like a sack of shit. No wonder she was so angry with us. She probably hates us now.”

“We have to fix this mess,” I say, my voice low. “Like, immediately. We can’t let her think that we don’t give a damn that she’s been attacked again.”

Devin sighs. “It’s time we put our egos aside. We’ve spent enough time letting our pride get in the way of having a relationship with Tessa, but I’m done screwing everything up with her.”

“Me too,” Jace agrees.

Devin stands up, pacing by the window. “I just…this can’t be real,” he mutters, his voice tight. “Tessa’s pregnant? Withourbaby? How the hell did we not know?”

Jace leans against the wall, arms crossed, staring blankly at the floor. “We didn’t exactly give her a chance to tell us, did we?” His tone is bitter, regret cutting through his words.

I slump back onto the edge of the bed, head in my hands. “What do we do now?” My voice sounds small, lost. This is a mess, and we’re in the middle of it.

“We go to the hospital,” Devin says, stopping mid-pace, his eyes locking onto mine. “We need to be there for her.”

“What if she doesn’t want to see us?” I blurt out, the fear clawing at me. “She accused us of being part of this stalker thing, and she left pissed off. What if we just make things worse?”

Jace pushes off the wall, his voice hard. “Worse? Alec, she’s in the hospital. Probably scared out of her mind, thinking she was losing our kid. And you want to leave her alone?”

“I don’t want to leave her alone!” I snap back, standing up. “I just…what if sheblamesus? What if she doesn’t want us there? We’ve messed with her head enough. Maybe we should let her come to us.”

Devin shakes his head, his face twisted in frustration. “No. This isn’t about what’s comfortable forus. We’ve been selfish enough already. It’s time we do the right thing.”

“What if showing up isn’t the right thing?” I shoot back, pacing now, my heart racing. “We’ve been at each other’s throats for weeks. She probably doesn’t trust us. How are we supposed to help if she can’t even look at us?”

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