Mind Games (Mind, Body, & Soul #4)

Prologue

We’d barely pulled into Kairo’s parents’ driveway before the noise hit us. Music, laughter, and cheers all blended into one big welcome-home parade. It felt like the whole neighborhood had been waiting just for us.

“Finally!” somebody shouted as we got out of the car, and then came a wave of claps and camera flashes. You would’ve thought we were pulling up to our wedding, not our high school graduation party.

Thank God our parents were good friends and decided to host it together, because separating us that day would’ve been impossible.

We’d been glued at the hip since elementary school.

Same church, same schools, same circle of friends.

Somewhere between science fairs and football games, that friendship turned into something more.

By sophomore year, he was the smart, popular football player everyone loved, and I was co-captain of the cheer team, pretending not to be obsessed with him.

Everything about us felt easy, like the world made sense as long as we were together.

The house looked beautiful. Both of our moms had gone all out. Balloons, banners, food tables that stretched from the kitchen to the backyard. Mama G never did anything halfway, and my mom wasn’t a short stepper either. You could tell neither one of them spared a dime on that day.

The graduation ceremony was packed, and no one got all the pictures they wanted. So, every cousin, auntie, and family friend was grabbing us left and right—smiling, snapping photos, shouting our names.

At first, it was fun. But after about twenty minutes, I could feel my cheeks starting to cramp from smiling so much. The heat, the noise, it was all too much.

Kairo must’ve noticed, because he leaned in and whispered against my ear, “You good? Wanna sneak off for a second?”

I nodded quickly. “Yeah, I gotta pee anyway.”

“Go on up to my room. I’ll be there in a minute to change too.”

I kissed him on the cheek, my lip gloss leaving a faint shimmer on his skin, then slipped away through the crowd.

As I climbed the stairs, all I could think was how lucky we were. How good everything felt. How sure I was that nothing could ever change us.

His room door was cracked like it always was, that faint smell of his cologne lingering in the air. I grabbed my purse from the bed and rushed straight into his bathroom.

Earlier that day, while we were sitting through the graduation speeches, I’d felt a small cramp in my stomach and figured my period was finally coming.

It had been a few days late, but with finals and college cheer tryouts, my body was all over the place.

Still, I didn’t want to risk it. Especially not in my white dress.

I kicked the bathroom door closed, tossed my purse on the counter, and hurried to pull my clothes down. But when I looked… nothing.

I froze for a second, staring at myself in the mirror. It had never been this late before. Ever.

That’s when my heart started to race. I opened my purse again and pulled out the small pink box that had been sitting at the bottom of it all week.

My bestfriend, Coffee, had given it to me days ago, rolling her eyes and saying, “Girl, just take it. You’ve been stressing me out.

” I never did. I was sure my period would show up like it always did.

But it hadn’t.

My hands trembled as I unwrapped the test and sat down. It only took a few seconds. I set the stick face down on the counter, pulled my clothes back up, and turned on the faucet to wash my hands. My heart was pounding so loud I could barely hear the water running.

I didn’t even look at it.

I took a deep breath, opened the door, and stepped back into Kairo’s room.

The moment I did, the door on the other side swung open. Kairo walked in, still grinning from all the attention downstairs, his graduation cap hanging from his fingers.

He looked so proud and so sure of everything.

He smiled as soon as he saw me, that wide, boyish grin that always made me forget whatever I was worried about. He walked over and wrapped his arms around me.

“I still can’t believe we’re really done,” he said, laughing into my hair. “I can’t wait to go off to college together. This next chapter’s gonna be crazy.”

He pulled back just enough to look at me, that excitement in his eyes making my stomach twist even more. “Oh, and guess what? I think I convinced your dad to let us get an apartment off campus. We just gotta make sure we have two bedrooms.”

I laughed a little, shaking my head. “Yeah right.”

He grinned wider. “He said it himself! I mean, I didn’t promise him we’d use both rooms.”

I swatted at him playfully, and for a second, it felt normal again like always. But then his smile softened, and he searched my face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly. “I know you said you were cramping earlier. Did you start? I’ve got some extra clothes if you need them.”

My heart thudded. “No, no,” I said quickly. “I didn’t start. I’m just… really late.”

He laughed a little, that careless kind of laugh. “Okay. It’s probably nothing. We’ve had a stressful few weeks, that’s all.”

But I didn’t laugh with him. I just looked at him, my fingers twisting the hem of my dress.

“I took a test,” I said softly. “It’s in your bathroom. On the counter.”

Kairo glanced toward the bathroom, then back at me. “It’s ready?”

“Yeah,” I whispered. “It should be.”

He hesitated, like he was waiting for me to move first. “You wanna look?”

I shook my head quickly. “No. But you can.”

He nodded and walked toward the bathroom, and I followed behind him, my heartbeat so loud I could feel it in my ears. He picked the test up off the counter and turned it over, squinting.

“I don’t know what this means,” he said, frowning at it. Then he took the little plastic top off. “Why is this part yellow and wet?”

I gasped, snatching it from his hand. “You make me so sick!”

He laughed that same goofy laugh that always made me melt, even when I didn’t want to. He was trying to lighten the mood, but my hands were trembling too hard to find it funny.

“Two lines mean positive,” I said, my voice barely holding steady. “One line means negative.”

“Okay,” he said slowly, still smiling. “Well, it’s positive that you aren’t pregnant.”

My stomach dropped. I looked down at the stick, and the two pink lines stared up at me clear as day.

“The positive means that I am pregnant,” I whispered.

For a second, everything went still. The laughter fell out of his face, replaced by this blank, stunned look like his mind couldn’t catch up to what his eyes were seeing.

Then he just… moved. Wrapped his arms around me tight and kissed the top of my head.

“Hey,” he murmured against my hair. “Don’t cry. We’ll be fine. I’ll figure everything out.”

But even as he said it, I could feel his heart racing against my chest. My mind started spinning so fast that I could barely breathe.

“No, no, this can’t happen,” I whispered, shaking my head. “I can’t let this happen. I can’t do this. This changes everything. This changes all my plans. This changes our plans.”

“Khloe,” Kairo said softly, but I couldn’t stop.

“I was supposed to cheer in college, we were supposed to go off together, everything was supposed to be perfect—”

“Khloe!” he said louder, voice cutting through my panic.

I froze. He’d never raised his voice at me before. Not once.

He closed his eyes, exhaling hard. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. But you need to calm down, okay? We’ll figure it out. Nothing’s gonna change.”

My eyes filled with tears. “Everything’s already changed.”

He shook his head. “Maybe you can’t cheer on the college level right now, but that’s just for now. You can try out again next year. We can still go off, still do everything we planned. We’ll just… have to move different.”

I wiped my face, my voice cracking. “My parents are gonna be so disappointed.”

“Maybe they will,” he said quietly. “And maybe they won’t. But it’s not about them anymore.”

I looked down at the test in my hand, my tears blurring the lines. “How are we supposed to manage financially, Kairo? It’s one thing to depend on our parents for us, but a baby? That’s not their responsibility. That’s ours.”

He stepped closer, cupping my face in his hands.

“It’s my responsibility,” he said. “I’ll do everything I have to do to make sure you and this baby have a life that’s equal to the one we had growing up, if not better.

I’ll work hard, Khloe. With every bone in my body, I’ll make sure you both have everything you want and need.

We got this, Khloe. Don’t freak out now.

Today is supposed to be a celebration. Our first big milestone.

And after this, there’ll be plenty more. ”

My chest ached as I looked at him. He looked so sure, so steady, like he could carry the whole world if he had to.

“You promise?” I whispered.

He leaned in, pressed his forehead against mine, and kissed me softly.

“I promise my life.”