You told yourself you wouldn’t come back here.

Not after the way things ended—with JJ yelling, you crying, both of you saying things that cut too deep. It was the kind of breakup that left things shattered, not just broken. But that was before you knew.

Now, your feet carried you across the familiar dirt path to Poguelandia, the sun dipping low as the sky bruised with color. You weren’t sure what you'd say. You just knew he had to hear it from you.

He was sitting on the porch steps, a cigarette dangling from his fingers, looking every bit the mess he swore he didn’t care to fix. When he looked up and saw you, he stilled completely.

“The hell are you doing here?” he asked, not cruel—just tired. Like seeing you reopened something he was trying hard to forget.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t serious,” you said, heart pounding.

He stood slowly, running a hand through his hair. “You got somethin’ to say, say it. Don’t just stand there lookin’ at me like that.”

You swallowed the lump in your throat, your voice barely steady. “I didn’t plan for this. I didn’t come here to fix us… but you should know. I’m pregnant, JJ.”

The silence that followed was thick, suffocating.

JJ blinked once. Then again. “No, you—you can’t just drop that on me like it’s nothin’.”

“I’m not asking anything from you. But you had a right to know.”

His hands flexed at his sides, breathing uneven. “You really think I’d walk away from that?”