by Ryan Schow
“Look at her,” I say.
We both look at Arabelle 2.0 and she looks incredibly gorgeous. Every bit the beauty the first version of her was.
“Now she is all that matters. She needs you. Be hers. Fall in love, have some kids, be in the PTA.”
“Fuck the PTA,” Arabelle 2.0 says, making me burst into laughter.
The tone lightens.
Just then their waitress arrives, looking concerned with her eyes glued to Holland who is looking very pinched tight at the moment.
“Sir, are you okay?” she asks.
“Diarrhea,” I tell her, “but he’ll be okay. He just took a pill. It’s supposed to turn water to mud and mud to clay. Can you see it? It’s working right now.”
She’s taken aback.
Arabelle 2.0 is stifling a laugh, but Holland’s having none of it.
“I mean, look at him. Those red, angry eyes, that set jaw…see how his hands are like fists? That’s the pill taking affect.”
“Sir, if you need to go to the restroom,” she says.
“If he moves,” I say, “he’ll poop his pants.”
Arabelle snorts, which startles the waitress and further enrages Holland.
“That’s why we must be vewy, vewy quiet,” I say, doing my best Elmer Fudd accent from the Bugs Bunny cartoons.
This puts Arabelle 2.0 over the edge. She falls into fits of laughter that actually sound dreamy coming from her mouth. Holland’s anger, however, is rising to a level eight rage. I’m keeping him contained even though he’s pressing against me with all his might. It’s a bad look on him. He really has that constipated air about him, like he’s actually having water turned to mud and then turned to bricks.
The waitress, not sure what to do, says, “Well if I can be of any help—”
“It’ll pass,” I say, “but thanks.”
She heads off and I start laughing with Arabelle. I slowly dial Holland back to a level two and let go of his invisible restraints.
He shifts in his seat, frowning, and he says, “That wasn’t funny.”
“It was totally funny,” Arabelle says.
“Yeah, hilarious.”
“Can’t you give me a moment’s peace?” he asks, wiping a bit of slobber from his face and spreading his linen napkin back over his knee.
“Give her what she wants is all I’m saying,” I tell him. “Be who you have not been thus far. Be a steady boyfriend, a husband, a father. She’s your boo, bro.”
He slowly nods his head, then he looks up at me, the question in his eyes.
“Really?” I ask. “You really want to say, ‘or what?’ God, you’re a dumbass sometimes.”
He looks at me, serious.
“Or I’ll kill you and wipe every trace of your shitty existence from this world and the next. That’s my ‘or what.’”
“I can live with that,” he finally says.
“Damn straight you can.”
Moving forward while holding him in place, I lean in and put an extra wet kiss on Holland’s right eye, which he closes quick. It’s so unexpected coming from me, Arabelle starts laughing again, this side of her so beautiful.
I let go and he’s wiping his eye, looking at me like he wants to be pissed, but unable to stop feeling this airiness he feels, almost like his struggle is over. The son of a biscuit actually cracks a smile!
I then lean in and kiss Arabelle on the cheek and she thanks me. I reach inside her, just to feel how she feels and she is madly in love with Holland, who is madly in love with her. Holland is not a good person, but maybe this new woman will bring out of him what he has denied himself for so long. But if it doesn’t catch, if he goes back to his old self, then maybe I’ll track him down and punch his ticket once and for all.
Strangely, I hope I don’t have to do this. A light bump off him tells me he’s really done being Josef, and that he likes being Enzo Holland best.
I head back to the bathroom, pick a stall, shut the door and open a portal. Seconds later I’m practically landing on my face on the floor back in the lab in Astor Academy. My arrival is so bad, I just sort of lay there laughing to myself. Finally I get up and brush myself off. Taking one last look around, I lock up, head out, then get into the Audi and make good time to the city.
Instead of going straight home, I head over to Netty’s house. I knock on the door and a second later Netty answers, looking at me, then looking back at Raven on the couch.
“Savannah,” I say, hugging her.
She hugs me back and says, “Yeah, so this is weird.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Raven says from the couch. To me, she says, “Nice touch, with the labs and the wet eyeball smooch.”
We both start laughing but then stop because we don’t want Netty left outside of our inside joke. “Sorry to just pop in, but I wanted to see you.”
“Me?” Netty asks.
Stepping inside, I say, “Yes you, ding-dong.” Then to Raven, I say, “Whaddup bitch.” She smiles, knuckle bumps me, then says, “Are we going back home to get the D again?”
“Something like that,” I say with humor in my voice. Then telepathically I say, Or perhaps the V.
She smiles with her eyes and shoves a burst of love into me.
“So we’re good,” she says, because she knows the agreement I struck up with August and with Chloe.
“Yeah, total agreement.”
For the next hour, we sit and talk about Netty, her mother, the baby, her father and Sensei.
“We’re going to help Sensei open the dojo again,” Raven says. “Netty’s using Chloe’s service to start advertising. We’ll be up and running again and hopefully Sensei can find a way to move on from this.”
“That’s awesome,” I say mostly to Netty because I already knew this. Unfortunately she doesn’t know that whatever Raven thinks and knows, I think and know. And Elizabeth thinks and knows. But we can’t be friends with Netty like this—on a telepathic level. She’s not like us. We have to be extra good to her. She knows we will be, because she’s got not just one best friend now, but three.
“It might not look like it,” Raven is saying to Netty about Sensei, “but he’s a deeply emotional person.”
“He hides it well,” Netty says.
“I see it, too,” I say.
“You heard from Lizzy?” I ask.
“God she hates it when you call her that,” Raven says, smiling.
“I know,” I say. “I totally love it.”
“She’s in love,” Raven says. “Like head over heels in love.”
“I can feel it.”
“Me, too,” she says. “It feels good.”
And just like that, the cat’s out of the bag about us.
“You guys can feel each other’s feelings?” Netty says.
Raven and I look at each other. Then Raven says, “If we want to, yes.”
“When are you going to contribute to the love pot?” I ask Raven, changing subjects. “Because it looks like me and Lizzy are the only two getting the D here.”
“As soon as things get sorted out here,” she says.
Netty’s face goes white. “If you can feel each other’s feelings, then when you and your boyfriends…”
Raven and I share a knowing grin.
“Yeah, we feel that, too, if we want.”
“So let me understand,” she says. “When one of you has sex, it’s like all of you are having sex.” We each nod, our grins getting huge. “So you’re one girl who gets to have sex with three hot guys?”
“Only two guys until Raven here gets back in the game,” I grumble playfully.
“Speaking of boyfriends,” Raven says, “Netty’s got some good news.”
She smiles wide now and says, “I’m getting the D now too, bitches…”
My heart opens up so wide hearing this. Giddy, I listen to her tell us all about Charles and their blooming love affair.
I’m beyond happy for Netty, for the life she’s about to have.
Loo
king at Raven, in my mind, I say, “Charles is the one,” and she’s like, “I’m so happy for her, for them both.”
“We’re thrilled for you, Netty,” I say and then it’s like one big group hug before I head back home. It’s too late to go to Chloe’s so I’ll return to the homestead and tell August we’re a two plus one if he wants. He’ll want to see Chloe’s picture, and he’ll say yes and then our little love triangle will be complete.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Six months later...
August, Chloe and I get ready for the non-triplets’ graduation then get our picture taken by my parents, who have come to accept that the three of us are a thing. They are proud, strange as it seems. We send the picture to August’s father who has also come to accept us for who we are. Before we go, though, August says, “I need to talk to you a second.”
To Chloe I say, “You want to drive?”
She gives me a sly grin and says, “Are you guys going to do it without me?”
“No,” August says.
She takes the keys, heads out to the Audi and gets it going.
When we get into the room, August closes the bedroom door and says, “I want to do it, right now before I change my mind.”
I start to undress and tell him, “We only have a few minutes.”
“Not that,” he says. “I want the shot.”
My breath hitches in my throat and I feel a shine come over my eyes. “Are you serious?” I hear myself say as he’s nodding his head.
This isn’t a decision he’s come lightly to. We talked about it for awhile, but since then we haven’t broached the subject. Now it’s here.
He’s saying yes!
I start to button up my shirt again, then head to my nightstand drawer open it up and take out the Fountain of Youth serum.
“You sure?” I ask.
“I love you too much to not spend eternity with you, as sappy as that sounds.”
“It’s sounds totally sappy,” I say, wiping my eyes. “It sounds so sappy you’re going to ruin my makeup.”
I give him the shot and it may as well have been a marriage proposal. We can’t exactly do papers because we’re not into state sanctioned anything if we’re going to be immortal together. Still, I’m thinking of getting us rings.
“Will we ever tell Chloe?” he asks.
“Yes,” I tell him, seeing far into the future, which has become pretty easy for me. Almost second nature. “But in about twenty years.”
He runs a hand over his freshly buzzed head then says, “That’s a long ass time to keep a secret.”
“If you want us to keep her around, she’ll have to be so deeply in love with us she won’t leave even when it scares her, which it will.”
“Are you really okay with all of us being together?” he asks.
“We’re literally going to have centuries together, August. When you can have everything, it’s important to partake. And if you ever want it to be just you and I, all you need to do is say so. You’re my man, my one and only, the love of my life.”
“I feel the same way,” he says, a bit of a shine making his eyes sparkle. “We should go, before she gets suspicious.”
“Did the shot hurt?”
“Mostly yes,” he says. “But at least I’m feeling a bit weird now.”
When we get to the car, Chloe says, “You two ready?
“Let’s get this bitch on the road,” August says, climbing in back. In the game of Who’s Driving Miss Daisy, August doesn’t mind taking one for the team. He’s Miss Daisy in the back seat and we’re two hot chicks in the front seats of a very fast, very sexy car.
Every man’s dream…
When we arrive, we pull in to Astor Academy’s parking lot, park next to Raven’s Audi TTRS and Elizabeth’s RS5 (this one a matte grey with gunmetal grey rims and electric blue brake calipers).
“Oh my God,” I say, running my hands along the RS5’s paint. “I feel totally wet right now.”
“Me, too,” August says, joking. “Let’s go before we’re late.”
The walk through campus is pure nostalgia, but then we get inside and there are three seats saved for us. Raven is sitting beside Netty who is talking with Elizabeth who is sitting next to Sebastian who is now seeing the three of us together for the first time and trying to take it all in.
I head over, give Sebastian a hug and say, “I’m so glad you’re with her.”
“With you.”
“Yes.”
“It’s so weird,” he says.
“That day on the beach, when you first approached me, did you ever in your wildest dreams think it would be like this?”
“I’m still trying to understand it,” he says, so happy.
“Don’t worry. If you stick with us, you’ll have plenty of time to work it out.”
Elizabeth turns and hugs me and says, “You look good, woman.”
“So do you, baby doll.”
“Thanks for letting me have him,” she says, intertwining her fingers with Sebastian’s as she takes his hand.
“I’ve got August, so it’s not exactly like I’m slumming.”
I introduce August to everyone, including Netty. She doesn’t know he’s Brayden, nor will she ever, but now she’s like, “Good God, if this group gets any prettier…”
We all sort of laugh at the silliness of it all. Just then a young girl in a flower blue dress with a paper itinerary for the graduation ceremony squashed in her little hand stops and says, “Hey are you guys like, triplets?”
“Actually, no,” I say, looking at my other selves.
“But you guys look exactly alike?” she says, her little features pinched together.
“We’re more like…non-triplets,” Raven says, and we all smile, knowing the significance of this statement.
“Well I think you’re the most beautiful girls I’ve ever seen.”
“I think you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen,” Raven says, touching her nose.
When the ceremony starts, I look at everything we’ve become, what we’ve accomplished and this moment makes me so proud I can’t help but start crying. On one side of me, August takes my hand; on the other side, Chloe takes my other hand. I lay my head on her shoulder and tell her I’m so happy she’s in our life.
Chloe thinks we’re triplets. I don’t know if I’ll ever tell her we’re all just me. The three of us have so much love for each other. We’re our own brilliant light. All of us. Like God told us that day in Jerusalem, we are so much bigger than we thought.
For the first time in my life, I have hope for the future. It can take so many different paths, but these are all paths leading toward the light.
As we watch Tempest, Cicely and Georgia take their high school degrees on the stage, we all smile, cheer, clap and whistle. Julie then crosses the stage looking very pregnant, and her little group claps for her. I look back, see Emery, Constance and her parents. Their looks are restrained. Julie’s parents are embarrassed that she’s going to be pregnant in her high school graduation photos. They think she’s a slut, when that’s not the case at all. More than that, they’re pissed off that she won’t tell them who the father is, even though he’s sitting right next to them.
I feel bad for her for the first time in, well…forever.
The original non-triplets wave to us as they cross the stage, and though they’re still getting used to having three of me, I keep telling them more is better, right? I excuse myself as the ceremony draws to a close, and head to the bathroom. As I’m coming out, I see Julie hobbling to the bathroom and something in me springs to life.
“Julie?” I ask, stopping her. She smiles, stops and looks at me. I fill her mind with the notion that even though she’s seen me before, I’m a good, kind person.
“Yes?” she says, the pain of being overdue and on her feet obvious.
“I know you have to go to the bathroom, but when you’re done, I want to talk to you.”
“But I don’t know you,” she s
ays.
“Actually, you do.”
She makes a face, but then she does her thing, washes her hands and comes out where I’m waiting for her.
“I’m Savannah Swann, by the way. We’ve never formally met.” I reach out and she shakes my hand with a little laugh. “What?”
“It’s just funny. I knew a Savannah once.”
“That is funny,” I say, getting the significance she isn’t getting. “I wanted to talk to you about Emery. And Constance.”
Her upbeat expression becomes very serious, like she’s got one foot out the door on this conversation if things start to go South.
“I’m with a boy named August,” I tell her, then: “and a girl named Chloe.”
“You’re all together?” she asks, astounded. I nod my head. “How…how does that work? I mean, with your parents and all?”
“They’re good now.”
“How do you know about Constance and Emery?” she asks. I can feel the gears shifting in her head.
“I went to school here,” I confess. “We know each other.”
“I don’t think so.”
“See, I know that’s Emery’s baby you’re carrying,” I say, watching the instant reaction, but grateful she’s not leaving, “and I know he wants you to keep it as your own. I also know Constance wants you to keep it, and that she’s alright with the four of you becoming this happy little family, complicated as it will be.”
“Did…did she tell you that?”
I turn my head to the side, pop my neck, then smile and say, “You’ve changed. I didn’t think that was possible, especially after how we met. But I can see you starting to peek out of that once cold exterior and it’s really nice.”
“Who are you?”
“When I first got here, I was an ugly duckling, so scared of all these beautiful people. Bridget, Victoria and Georgia took me under their wing and kept me from totally losing it.”
“Holy shit,” she says, “Savannah? You’re Savannah Van Duyn?”
I smile and it’s like she’s seeing an old friend rather than an old enemy. She looks at me, mesmerized, taken aback, and then I do what neither of us did before everything spiraled out of control. I step forward and give her a hug. Slowly she hugs me back.