Pregnant By My Brother's Best Friend

MARYANN

It was Thursday night. I stood up from the dining chair shortly after dinner to retire to my room.

My older brother, Mike Matthew, a tall, dark-skinned guy, sat on the black couch, wearing a yellow top that revealed his muscular arms and paired with black shorts. He asked me, “Maryann, my friends will be coming over here tomorrow for my birthday party. Are you sure that you won’t have any issues with them? Will you permit me to bring my friends over? I don’t want them to corrupt you. You’re still my baby sister, but tomorrow will be the late birthday party I will be celebrating here since I want to purchase a new house.”

“I’m eighteen years old!” I screamed, hating that he was protective of me. “I’m no longer a baby. Your friends can come over. I feel bored staying at home, and I haven’t celebrated your previous birthday with you in a while. You go to clubs,” I pleaded, knowing that Mike chose to celebrate his other birthday parties at the club after he turned eighteen.

Mike frowned and said, “I don’t want my friends to tease you. I might not be able to keep an eye on them. With you around, I don’t want them to do anything silly to you. They’re full of hot-blooded men, so I don’t want any story that touches you.”

“I will be fine. I can protect myself,” I replied, moving away from the dining room to meet him.

Our parents had retired for the night to their bedroom. Dad, Mavin Matthew, worked as a banker, and Mom, Ella Matthew, was a television broadcaster. They couldn’t even take a break from work to celebrate Mike’s birthday since he was turning twenty-one. They were also going to work the next day.

I had missed my brother’s previous birthday, and I wanted him to celebrate it at home.

Mike paused while pressing his phone and replied, “Fine. I will invite them over. The party will start in the evening at six o’clock. Mom and Dad will be around so that they will be at ease.”

I frowned at the thought of my parents restricting me from getting closer to Mike’s friends.

“How about Sunny Easton? Will he come over? I haven’t seen him in a while,” I asked Mike. He frowned when he heard me mention his best friend.

“Sunny will be here. You need to keep away from him. He is a bad boy and not the guy you knew before,” Mike said, his voice thick with warning. He crossed his legs on the black couch.

“Ann,” Mike called my nickname when I lowered my gaze and avoided his striking blue eyes, which were like mine. “Did you hear my warning?”

“Got it. I will keep away from Sunny as long as he doesn’t bring his bully of a sister. We don’t get along anyway,” I replied, and Mike laughed.

“Haha. I will tell Sunny not to bring Jessica around. But you know that she likes me, so she will come. Though I don’t like her.” Mike frowned because I had told him how Jessica Easton bullied me in high school. I had finished recently and was just waiting to gain admission into the university.

Jessica was Sunny’s younger sister. She was tall and fair-skinned, with lengthy brown hair. She was slender and didn’t resemble Sunny. She resembled their mother. Sunny had two siblings: Jessica and an older sister, Linda.

Linda was twenty-eight, married, and lived in the United States. She came to visit them once in a while, such as during Christmas and New Year’s. I had met her once when I was younger. She came to the high school to celebrate Jessica’s fourteenth birthday since their parents were as busy as mine.

Sunny was twenty-four, and Jessica was nineteen.

Sighing, I peered at my brother’s face and assured him. “I will keep away from your friends. They cannot tease me while you’re here.”

Mike glanced at me from my feet to my face. His gaze crawled over my body to weigh my words. I had a thick figure—not fat and not slim. Jessica teased me and called me fat because of my chubby cheeks. I also had fuller breasts and a fuller backside than she did.

“What’s wrong?” I asked Mike. I was wearing only a short white nightdress. When my brother looked at me like that, it made me vulnerable and aware of my body’s growth.

“Nothing,” Mike muttered and looked back at his phone. He didn’t want to say it, but I saw his gaze darken after he looked at my body.

*Did he think I was ugly?* I wanted to ask him, but the words died in my throat because I knew that wasn’t true.

Mike finally agreed. “All right. I already invited them. Until tomorrow. The chef will be here to make everything ready.”

“All right. Good night, brother!” I squealed with excitement, knowing that we were going to have a big party.

I quickly rushed upstairs and invited my only best friend, Ruth Clement, to come over the next day so I wouldn’t feel lonely. After all, we had vacated high school after the graduation ceremony.

* * *

The following Friday morning, I woke up in my room and rushed into my bathroom to prepare for Mike’s birthday. I grabbed my toothbrush, put some paste on it, and swiftly brushed my teeth.

I could hear the sound of a car arriving at my parents’ home. It was already 7:30 a.m.

“Maryann!” Mom called my name as my bedroom door flew open.

“Yes, Mom!” I rushed out of the bathroom to meet her, my hand still clutching my toothbrush against my lips. I knew what the day was all about.

Mom was wearing a black suit and white undershirt. Her face was made up with makeup, and she had pulled her long blonde hair into a ponytail. She was a forty-five-year-old woman. Her expression turned stern as she hurried to meet me. She was tall and slender like a model.

“Ann, I just heard from Mike that he’s throwing a birthday party here. I want you to stay in your room and not join them until I return,” Mom said, her tone serious, as she quickly buckled her wristwatch over her left wrist and looked at my face.

“Why, Mom? I’m an adult! I can take care of myself!” I protested, not liking the idea.

“Maryann!” Mom called my full name whenever she became serious. Her brows furrowed as she finished buckling her watch and took a step closer to me.

“You’re an adult, I agree. But those guys are a bad influence. Your brother is a man, so I don’t care if he sleeps around the whole neighborhood. But you are my only daughter. What will people say when they learn that you’re no longer a virgin or that you’re now wild like your brother, who is even in a polyamorous relationship?”

I pouted my pink lips, knowing that my mother was right.

Mike had two girlfriends: Nelly Brown and Zara Johnson.

They were both aware that they were dating my brother, but he didn’t bring them home. He kept his affairs away. Still, we got to see his online posts and saw them whenever he went to play ball.

Those girls only got to meet Mike outside. But he had shown me their photos and said it wasn’t yet time for me to meet them.

“But, Mom, I’m an adult. I’m not going to have a boyfriend. I just want to join the party. It’s my brother’s birthday,” I complained, my arms wrapped around my chest in disagreement.

My bedroom door flew open, and Dad entered, wearing a black suit and red undershirt paired with polished black shoes. He and Mom left for work at the same time.