Finding Another Like Me. - 21. Chapter 21

I could feel all the color drain from my face as I looked up from my phone. I just stared into Chris’ eyes as he watched me.

Then it hit me. I had to go. I spun around and looked around for my coat, which I had taken off earlier. I felt Chris grab my shoulder and I turned around to face him. He was holding my jacket out and nodding. I grabbed the jacket from him and mouthed the words, “thank you.”

“No problem,” he answered.

I started to run upstairs with my phone in my hand and heard Chris running up behind me pulling his jacket on. I turned to him in confusion.

He just proceeded to push me forward and out the door. We both hopped into his car and he whipped us out of his driveway. Chris started to drive towards the highway as I tried calling Conor again.

He wasn’t picking up. I called him again…he didn’t pick up. I text him and he didn’t answer. I then tried his house.

“Hello,” a gruff voice came from the other side of the phone.

“Hello Mr. B is Conor there?” I asked quickly.

“No Kyle, he’s not but we are walking out the door.” Then he hung up.

“Wow!” I just shouted at my phone. His dad was an ass, but that was just bad. “Where could he be?” I looked at Chris and I felt my eyes begin to water.

My phone started to vibrate again and I read the caller ID. Conor. I flipped it open.

“Hello! Conor where are you? I’m coming to get you,” I tried to sound calm.

There was no answer only heavy breathing on the other end.

“Conor! Where are you?”

Then I heard the sobs. He was crying.

“Conor!”

“The beach,” then the call was ended.

I turned to look at Chris, but he was already spinning the car around barreling towards the beach. We were about 15 minutes away.

I could feel my body shaking as I was worried about what was going on. I felt Chris grab one of my hands and squeezed it. My body relaxed a little. He calmed me down.

As we got to the beach, I scanned the parking lot for Conor’s car. I pointed it out to Chris. The car was still in motion as I popped out and hurtled towards his car. My body slammed the window as I looked in.

Conor wasn’t in there. I searched for anything in the car. I noticed four bottles of alcohol sitting on the floor.

‘Oh God, he was drinking.’ I thought to myself.

I headed to the railing, which overlooked the beach. I scanned the beach. I didn’t see anyone on it. I pushed myself over the wall and onto the beach. I started to walk towards the rocks on the beach. That’s the only place he could be, since the rest of the beach was pretty open.

As I neared the rocks, I noticed Conor crunched in a ball facing the ocean with a brown paper bag next to him. I ran toward him hitting my knees as I got next to him. I grabbed his arm.

He turned and looked at me with his eyes half closed with his mouth hanging open. The look he gave me was so out of it.

I just stared at him. It was like he didn’t recognize me. “Conor!”

He just stared at me again. I pulled my hand to his neck to check his pulse. He was still breathing but it was slow.

I was getting angry. “Conor!”

“What!” He slurred back.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

He just stared at me. Then finally he slurred, “She’s pregnant.”

I felt my mouth drop as I watched his eyes close and him fall back onto the sand. He had passed out. I looked at Chris who had the same look on his face as me.

I stared at him as he snuggled up in my bed. I just watched him. Chris and I had brought Conor back to my house so he could rest. I had woken him up long enough to help him take a quick shower and then put him into my bed. I slept on the floor. My parents had wondered why I was back from my Valentine’s Day date with an extra guy. I explained the situation and my mom was shocked. I still was in shock myself.

Finally I saw him begin to stir. He raised his body up and was blinking as he looked around. He put his hand to his head and said, “Owww!”

I smiled. I’m glad it hurt him this morning after what he put me through.

Finally when he had woken up enough, he stared right at me. Seeing me must have triggered something from his memory, because his eyes began to fill with tears.

“Is it true?” he sobbed.

“I don’t know,” I got up and pulled him into a hug. “I only know what you told me.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah. Dude what happened?”

Conor gulped and looked me in the eyes. “I don’t know dude. I went to her house to see her for Valentine’s Day and when she saw me she started crying. I went to hug her she backed away. I asked her what was wrong and she said we were over. I just stared at her blankly. It made no sense. I sat down kept asking her why she was doing this. She said it had to be. Until finally she just burst out, ‘I’m pregnant!’ and I just stared at her. Then I asked if she was serious and she nodded. Then she ran inside and locked the door. I tried to calmly talk to her but all she kept repeating was that we were over. Finally it hit me and I jumped in my car and started driving. I got a hold of some alcohol and just started drinking. Now I am here, with you. What happened?”

I stared him shocked he didn’t remember it. I spoke silently, “You called me and said your life was over. I really thought you were going to kill yourself.”

He just stared at me. “I thought about it dude. Honestly, I did. I can’t be a father.” He started crying harder and I pulled him into a deeper hug.

“Yes, you can Conor. You can do anything.”

He pulled away and looked at me dead in the face. “I don’t think I can.”

“Conor yes you can.”

“I’m scared.”

“I know you are Conor, but you are an amazing person and will be a great dad. And I know for a fact you love Shannon. Everything will work out. I promise. I’ll be right here for you. Everyone will be; we just got to take it one hurtle at a time.”

“Thank you,” he hugged me harder and started to draw away.

As he pulled away, I knew I needed to lighten the moment so, “Does this mean I’m Uncle Kyle now?”

Through his tears, he managed to laugh. “I guess so. Well, if she keeps it.”

“What? You don’t know if she’s keeping it?” I was shocked.

“Nope. We kind of never got to that part. She stormed off first, plus she ended it between us.”

“Oh wow. You need to talk to her…like now. It doesn’t matter if you guys are together or not; right now you still need to talk to her.”

“I can’t Kyle. Not right now.”

“You need to.”

“I know but…please dude, will you talk to her first? Calm her down. I’ll then talk to her.”

“Ehh…” I looked at his face. It was full of tears and I knew why he was asking me. He was asking me, because he knew I was the only person Shannon would talk to. “Okay I will.”

The rest of the day was taken up by just sitting in my bed talking with Conor. I helped him get to a stable place. We weighed out all of his options and what he needed to say to Shannon. I texted Shannon and set up a time to meet for coffee in mid afternoon. I left Conor at my house and arranged for Chris to pick him up and bring him when I got the situation under control.

I sat in the coffee shop waiting for Shannon to show up. I had my back to the door while at sat at our normal table. I felt arms come around my neck as I was embraced in a hug.

I looked up and saw Shannon smiling above me, “Hi honey!”

“Hi,” she smiled at me weakly.

She sat down across from and I could see how tired she looked. I passed her the cup of coffee I had gotten her.

She took one look at the cup and pushed it back towards me. I looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

She looked back at me and then spoke, “Oh come on you know. I know you know. That’s why you called me here.”

I once again gave her a puzzling look.

“That I’m pregnant!” She hissed at me getting angry.

I changed my facial expression back to relaxed, “Yeah I do. I just needed to hear you say it.”

“Yeah well it’s true. I’m glad I could clear that up for you,” she started to tear up.

I grabbed her hands from across the table, “It will be okay. I promise we’ll figure this out.”

“How?”

“By taking it one step at a time. The first step being having a conversation with Conor…calmly.”

She cried. “I know.”

“Then what happened yesterday?”

“I don’t know. I just couldn’t handle it. Like honestly this seems stupid, but I felt like if I pushed him away the problem would go away…”

“It won’t though.”

“I know. I know. I just felt that way.” She looked down at the ground.

“Shannon this isn’t the end of the world. We’ll figure it out. You have options. Plenty of options.”

She wiped her eyes and looked at me square in the eyes. “I’m keeping it.”

My mouth dropped with the confidence she said it with. “Really?”

She nodded her head.

“Well then WE are keeping it.” I heard come from behind me. There was a strong emphasis on the word ‘we.’ I watched Shannon look up as I turned and saw Conor standing there. “It’s our baby Shannon and I’m with you on whatever you decide, but you still got to let me in on things.”

I looked back at Shannon and she began to tear up. Conor walked over to her and wrapped her body, which seemed so fragile in his arms.

I heard Shannon mumble an ‘I know’ from under Conor’s embrace and watched him give her a kiss on the head. I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked up to see Chris. He motioned with his head towards the door. I stood up and followed him out, leaving them to talk.


As I stepped outside, I saw Chris sitting on the stone wall opposite the shops entrance. I walked over and stood in front of him between his legs. He looked up at me and then said, “I want kids.”

I looked at him puzzled, “Oh? Now?”

He chuckled. “No not now just someday, but more importantly… I want kids with you.”

I smiled. “I want kids with you too someday. Not now though.”

“…after I marry you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I want to marry you and someday have kids. Take this as a promise Kyle. I will marry you someday no matter laws or religions…because I love you.”

“I love you to Christopher.” I leaned in and kissed him on the lips wrapping my arms around his neck.

Chris broke the kiss and smiled, “One thing I can say right now though is: I know you will be there for them and that means I will be there for them, but man I’m so glad I’m not them.”

I nodded and gave him another kiss.

What he said was true. What was going to come was going to be very difficult, but I had a feeling not just for them but all of us.