by SM Olivier
One of the backwoods rednecks muttered a racial slur, and Noah and Drake took a step towards them. “I’m sorry did you say something?” Noah asked jovially, but I could see the heat in his eyes. Noah was slow to anger, but there was no denying the anger radiating off him right now.
“I think you guys need to run along,” Drake said with deadly quietness.
“We jus’ wanna know watcha doin up der,” the main speaker said with a smirk.
“Let’s get out of here,” Rachel muttered.
We all nodded and went towards the registers.
“Hey, we talkin’ to you, no need to be rude,” one of the other men yelled at our retreating backs.
A few of the other shoppers were now eyeing us warily. It didn’t help that we were all wearing our black uniforms, or that the rednecks looked like most people would avoid them on a good day.
I knew they wouldn’t leave us alone without an answer, and there was no way we were going to tell them.
I turned around and looked at them with narrowed eyes. Go home, take a shower, shave, cut your hair, forget you ever saw us, I commanded them.
They all looked at each other with confusion before turning to leave the store.
“What did you tell them?” Rachel giggled.
“They needed to shower, shave, cut their hair, and forget about us,” I said nonchalantly with a shrug. “And we need to get out of these clothes.”
Everyone laughed at me but agreed.
The next store we hit up was a clothing store. I immediately picked out a pair of distressed jeans with tears in it, a white spaghetti strap tank top, a maroon, white, and olive colored fitted flannel, and finally, a drab olive-green vest that I left open. I changed into them in the dressing room and ripped off the tags. I didn’t want to be cornered once again. We didn’t blend in that well, and people were looking at us. We didn’t need any extra attention than what we were already getting.
I exited the dressing room, with my other clothing, and went up to the middle of the store, where the registers were located, and gave the girl working the register, the tags.
She smiled at me. “Did you want a bag to put your clothing in a bag?” she asked nodding towards my bags.
I smiled back. “Thanks, I really didn’t want to continue wearing those,” I feebly explained as I saw the other girls heading towards me with the same idea.
We decided to split up at that point, too. Troy, Jace, Remy, Terrance, and Marcel were heading to a sporting goods store attached to the mall. They were going to finish getting the rest of our stuff for the week ahead. I knew they were also getting us warmer clothing to layer with. The weather was a lot cooler in the mountains than what we were used to.
We allowed Patrick and Micah to go to the comic book store after we gave them Rachel’s cell phone. Jace handed them each some money and told them to get what they wanted. They were ecstatic to go explore. I expected we would eventually have to drag them out when the time came for lunch.
Jaxson, Alex, and Noah were tasked to get clothing for all the guys and boys. I had already provided them a list of sizes for Micah, Alex, and Patrick. When Patrick first came to the Karn’s, he had been on the chubbier side, but he had hit a growth spurt since and was more active, so he had lost a lot of his baby fat.
Drake and Sam were headed over to an electronic store with Ella and Nadia to get some TVs, blu-rays, and Blu-ray players for the apartments and dorm rooms. Drake told them they could get a game system. We didn’t find it necessary for them to have individual game systems now, so they would have to share and take turns.
Jemmy, Dawn, Rachel, and I were getting clothing for all the girls including Sierra. Jemmy was in her element once again as she picked out clothing. She wasn’t just picking out clothing for herself, she was quick to hand things off to us as well. I was happy to see that this excursion seemed to be helping her get her mind off her whole situation with Gavin and Sierra. She hadn’t talked much about them since we got in the vehicle and she had ignored them all since breakfast.
I didn’t know if she was just in denial about the whole situation or if she was just going to let things play out. She didn’t normally sit back and wait for anything, so I was slightly concerned about her behavior. I think Gavin needed the space, but at the same time, if she continued acting like she was impartial, it might give Gavin the wrong idea.
I was never a big shopper. I had spent so many years looking at the price tag that I still couldn’t find joy in it. What I lacked in enthusiasm, Jemmy made up for it. She continually handed me stuff, and I would try them on.
I had to admit; hanging out with the girls outside of school or the facility was fun. I was constantly laughing at their antics. I might not like shopping, but at least I had good company while I was doing it.
“I think you need something like this,” Rachel said suggestively as she handed me a lacy little lingerie set. It was black and sexy with little black garter straps.
I blushed. “Living with all the guys have kind of put a damper on my bedroom life,” I muttered.
Rachel gaped at me. “Are you kidding me? Don’t you know? Where there’s a will there’s a way! It hasn’t stopped me.”
I gawked at her. “Who have you been hooking up with?”
She was so flirtatious, and I know she often flirted with guys just to make them uncomfortable. She just turned seventeen, and I knew for a fact none of our guys were hooking up with her, not that I knew of. Marcel and Terrance were far too old for her, but Sam was twenty. He was almost painfully shy, so it would shock me if it was him.
“Sam,” Dawn said nonchalantly as she came out of the dressing room looking like a femme fatale. She had a black mini skirt on, knee-high boots, a white crop top, and a black half jacket. She was gorgeous, with her long legs and muscular body. I wanted to hate her when I first met her because she had been a casual hook up of Remy’s before he met me, but after I got to know her, it was hard not to like her.
“Why am I just finding out about this? Sam?!” I exclaimed with a mixture of outrage and laughter.
There was an age gap between me and my guys, but they were my connections. I guess it was little hypocritical of me, but I couldn’t help feeling that way. Sam was twenty. Granted, Rachel was mature for her age, but still.
“We thought it was obvious,” Jemmy stated as she came out of the dressing room with a black bra, a sheer white top, black skinny jeans, and ankle boots. “It’s been going on for a couple of weeks now.”
“Umm, no,” I shook my head. “Not to me. How did I miss that?”
“Well, Sam’s a little on the shy side, and when dinner is over, you have the kids to take care of. You barely hang out with us at night.” Dawn said matter-of-factly.
“The guys have a system,” Jemmy stated. “They put socks on the door if the room is occupied,” she explained.
“Wait, what?” I asked still feeling blindsided. “So, Terrance and Marcel have found girls already, too?”
“I wouldn’t say they found girls, per say. Sam and Rachel’s been solid, but not the other two. We haven’t exactly been following the no-gifts-allowed rule,” Dawn said. “We feel like our gifts is likea muscle—if we don’t exercise it, we’ll get weak. It goes without saying when we use our gifts, we want other things.”
When we used our gifts extensively, our other appetites tend to rise or it would make us tired. We would get hungrier, want to sleep, or sometimes the need to be intimate with another person was increased. Since they had been using their gifts regularly, the need for sex would have risen.
I sighed, feeling like an idiot. I hadn’t thought about it much. I would use my empath gift from time to time, but I hadn’t used my other gifts until last night and today. They had a good point: I needed to ask the guys if they had been using their gifts. Then there was the fact that Rachel and Sam have basically been a couple for the last few weeks.
“So here, give one of those guys a lucky treat,” Rachel said shoving the bla
ck lingerie in my hands. “Or you can grab six different ones and give them each a treat. Or you can just get the one and let all of them see you like that.” Rachel gave me a wicked smile. “You’re pretty quiet about that stuff, so who knows how freaky ya’ll get.”
When all three of them gave me a contemplative look, I took the lingerie and a few other pieces with the rest of my purchases. I was going to let them keep guessing. “I’m going next door.” I stated as I heard them wickedly giggle behind my retreating back.
I no longer wanted to be the butt of their jokes, and I really did want to check out the store next door.
On the way in, I had seen a store for everything you could want or need for a kitchen. I knew our small apartment was lacking in a lot of our normal conveniences. I went to an ATM to see how much was in my bank account. We had to order new cards, and honestly, I hadn’t checked my account in ages.
I originally opened it up and put in all the money I had from when I used to work at the bar. We had made a special trip back to the trailer awhile back and retrieved my trunk of mementoes and all my money I had stashed there. I was thankful I had stashed it at Remy’s, so it hadn’t gone up with the house.
Over time, despite my protest, Will had deposited money in there for the work I did for the school. I knew he had paid me well, just not how much. He had handed Jemmy, Jaxson, Rachel, and I, our cards before leaving the facility. He told us he had ordered new cards. The other guys had ordered there’s almost immediately. To be honest, I hadn’t really thought about it.
The guys took care of me. If we ran to the shoppette, they automatically grabbed me the things I liked to snack on or drink. My protest fell on deaf ears. They insisted it was normal in a relationship to take care of each other. I just always felt like it was one sided.
Today I was going to get Drake some much needed supplies for our kitchen. Even though I had every intention on helping him in there as well. I really wished his recipes hadn’t gone up with the house. He didn’t care about most of the things we had lost, except for his recipes. With a shrug, I determined I was going to get him some new cook books.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out. It was a group text from Troy.
Troy: We’re hungry are you almost finished?
Micah: We’re ready.
Micah: And hungry too!
Drake: Just finished loading up our purchases. We can wait out here.
Jemmy: We haven’t even been here for two hours! :’(
Me: Give me 20 minutes please :)
Troy: Meet you all at the trucks in 30, you too Jemmy!
I looked down at my account balance and gasped. There was no way I made that much money in such a short amount of time. I mentally noted to ask Will about it.
I pulled some cash out for my shopping excursion, then quickly went through the store with a cart and added all the items we needed to stock our small kitchen. I knew it would lift all our spirits to feel more normal.
Our new accommodations were a huge adjustment. There was no way we would feel like it was home, but this would help some.
I perused the cookbooks and added them to the cart as well. They wouldn’t replace Drake’s haphazardly thrown together binders, but it was a start.
We found Koreatown and spotted a hole in the wall place that had a long line of people. We didn’t mind waiting since all the reviews raved about it. Terrance regaled us with tales of when he was in the Army and was stationed in Korea. I hadn’t known that information about him and found myself sucked into his stories.
I looked over at Rachel and noticed the way she and Sam were quietly talking to each other. It reminded me about our earlier conversation. I frowned, wondering how I could have been so oblivious. It also reminded me that I hadn’t been with any of my guys in weeks. I knew I had to remedy that situation soon.
“Are you okay?” Remy asked as he pulled me into an embrace.
“Mm hmm,” I answered him a bit preoccupied with my thoughts.
“Liar,’ he muttered with a smile.
“Did you know that Sam and Rachel’s been hooking up and hanging out?” I asked him.
He ducked his head and wouldn’t meet my eyes, so I knew immediately that he had known. That all of them had known.
“Well yeah,” he said finally.
“And nobody told me?” I asked.
He squeezed me. “Well, we didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”
“What wasn’t?” Noah asked as he slid over next to us.
“Sam and Rachel,” I said drily.
Noah looked off to the right. “Um yeah. Right.”
I growled at them. “I would have liked to know. What about your gifts? Have you been using them?”
“We have,” Jace answered joining our conversation.
“Another strike,” I rolled my eyes heavenward. “Dawn says they all have been using theirs,” I hissed quietly. “She told me our gifts were like a muscle, and I should have been using them.”
“I haven’t,” Jaxson said smugly looking at the guys.
I growled once more. “So, it was something you guys discussed, but still decided not to tell me.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Jace stated. “There’s been a lot going on lately, and we didn’t feel like you needed to be further stressed out. With our gifts. With their relationship.”
“I haven’t been.” At his raised eyebrow and pointed look, I sighed. I had forgotten he was an empath, and I’m sure he had used it several times around me. “Maybe just a little, but I don’t like being kept in the dark about anything. I wish you would have discussed all of this with me.”
“Fair enough,” Remy grunted.
I saw the looks they all exchanged. “By the way. I’m putting a sock on the door tonight. Who hasn’t been using their gifts?”
Drake and Troy had joined our conversation by then and immediately turned back around at my question. Clearly, they were guilty of this deception as well.
After lunch, we were more than satisfied with our decision to wait. We had eaten our food family-style, and plates of different variety of dishes had been placed in the middle of the table so we could try a little bit of everything. I was regretting our decision to go grocery shopping; I was beyond full.
My argument with the guys had been forgotten but I still fully intended to put a sock on the door tonight. I determined that it was probably the reason why I had been so high strung and testy lately.
“Do you have your list?” I leaned over the seat to look at Drake’s notebook.
He nodded. “I do.” He handed it to me, and I looked over it and notated some of the items that I had recorded in my phone.
He looked it over and smiled. “That’ll work. Maybe when we get back we can have family dinners once a week in our apartment. It’ll be a tight fit for all of us, but we can make it work.”
“Have you thought about talking to the kitchen staff and Paul?” Remy stated from the front seat. “I did a walk through there yesterday. They have a healthy budget for the food. There’s no reason that the food can’t be more appetizing. They hire these civilian cooks that have little to no experience with cooking, and the guy running the show cares more about the numbers than the food being served.”
Drake cocked his head to the side in thought. “I wouldn’t mind giving it a go, but do you think the kitchen supervisor will think I’m stepping on his toes? My experience at We 7 should be a good enough reference. I can train the cooks and help him, if he likes.”
“I thought about it myself, but you know I’m more about the numbers,” Remy smiled. “I never understood the back of the house like you did.”
“But you ran your restaurant for years without Drake in the kitchen,” I said a bit mystified.
Drake chuckled. “He knows how to hire the right people, and if he had any questions about food cost or waste he had me look at it.”
“That’s about sums it up,” Remy winked at me.
“Then I think that’
s a great idea,” I told Drake excitedly. “Imagine having edible food again!”
Drake smiled at me before squeezing my hand. “I’ll have a discussion with Paul when we get back.”
Chapter 5
I absolutely, positively abhorred putting things away. Shopping was so much easier. We also underestimated the space we had in our apartment. We would have to stuff our new purchases in every nook and cranny we could find, even running across the hall to store some stuff in Will’s apartment.
Drake’s reaction to our new kitchen stuff was priceless. I loved seeing how ecstatic he was with my purchases. He immediately started pulling items out for our late dinner. We had already texted Will, Gavin, Sierra, and Beth to let them know we were having dinner in the apartment and to be there by seven o’clock.
Remy had volunteered to go find Paul, so we can give him an example of Drake’s culinary skills. Drake was going to pitch the idea to him over dinner. It didn’t hurt to try to get Paul to allow Drake into the kitchen. If he said no, then so be it.
We decided to make a mushroom and cheese ravioli with a rosemary butter sauce, garlic toast and a side salad. I started to make the salad while Drake began to make the filling for the ravioli he was making. He planned to make the pasta homemade, like he often did.
While we started dinner, Jace and Jaxson decided to install our television on the wall. We had picked up installation kits and floating shelves for the Blu-ray players. Will had already told us to install the game system in his room. The children were across the hall with Micah and Patrick, patiently waiting for Jace and Jaxson to install the television and game system.
Noah and Troy ran down to the laundry to wash all our sheets before we put them on our beds. I couldn’t wait to slip into them tonight, and I think I already knew whose sheets I was sharing.
After making the salad, I went into Noah and Jaxson’s room first and put away all their clothing. Then I went over to Remy and Jace’s room to hang up and put their clothing away. The last room I hit up was Troy and Drake’s. My stuff was put into the closet located in the living room. Two Rubbermaid containers with drawers held all my clothing that couldn’t be hung up. I was glad all our stuff fit nicely.