by Unknown
“Gym,” Alec said and then nodded toward me, “Great session this afternoon by the way.”
I blushed, knowing that I’d been much more energetic and enthusiastic today than I’d been all week.
“Thanks,” I said with a small shrug, pulling a face at Briar when she wiggled her eyebrows at me.
“Hey Evie!” Jamie called out as he and Mason approached the table, “You left your phone in the gym.”
“I did?” I asked in surprise, checking my pockets and finding them empty, “Thanks.”
I took it from him and glanced up at him in question, “How did you know it was mine?”
Jamie’s grin became a cheeky leer as he grabbed the phone back and started scrolling down the screen, “Because there’s a nice picture of you and Briar on the display and there were two missed calls from that Logan guy and three from your mum.”
Stone stiffened beside me, but I barely noticed as Jamie kept talking. “Shit, woman, for a shy little thing you have a fuckload of male names in your phone.”
“Jamie,” Briar said suddenly, shaking her head at him rapidly. He ignored her though, his eyes fixed to my screen as he began to read the ‘all male’ contacts out.
“Alec, Charlie, Cooper, Donny, Evan, Grant, Harvey, Jake, Jamie, Logan, Luke, Mason, Mike, Paul, Vic and Zane!” he announced with a laugh. My phone began to ring again and Jamie’s grin grew.
“It’s Logan again!”
I snatched the phone and answered it hurriedly, quickly walking away. I heard Briar swear at Jamie, before I turned my complete attention over to my brother.
“Hey,” I said quickly, “Sorry, I left my phone in the gym.”
“Hey,” he greeted me softly, the usual enthusiasm absent from his voice, “Can I come and see you tomorrow?”
I froze on the bottom step of the stair case and squeezed my eyes shut. Shit. I’d been so caught up in my problems with Stone, that I’d forgotten what the date was.
“Yeah,” I whispered, my voice wobbling as I leant against the brick wall for support. Now I knew why my mum had been trying to call.
“Thanks,” he said on a sigh, “How about we read and write the emails together?”
“Okay.”
I didn’t have any other words.
“See you tomorrow Evie,” he said quickly, before hanging up abruptly.
Chicken, I thought to myself. He’d known I was about to cry. Logan didn’t do tears very well – not many of my brothers did.
I trudged heavily up the stairs and snuggled into bed. Silent tears slid down my face as I waited for Stone to join me. I needed him more than ever right now. I needed to be held. I needed to forget. Tomorrow was a day for remembering. Tonight was supposed to have been happy.
But Stone didn’t come to my room that night. Neither did Candy. So I lay there alone in the dark and cried myself to sleep.
Thirty-Five
I woke alone.
I curled myself into a tight little ball and wondered if Stone was being a possessive idiot again. I considered hunting him down and asking why he hadn’t come to my room, then actually explaining about my family…but I just didn’t have the strength to deal with his crap today.
I gently turned off my alarm when it buzzed, but I made no move to leave the bed. Despite today being the second last day of classes, there was no way I was going to sit through any of them. Nor was I going to study. I glared at the stack of photos peeking out from beneath my bed. I wasn’t in the mood to look at pictures of Stone either.
A stray tear slipped down my cheek and I swiped it away roughly, placing my iPod ear phones in my ears and cranking up the volume on my Disturbed playlist. I lay on my back and pulled the sheet over my head, my phone wedged beneath my butt so I could feel if someone tried to call. I winced as I remembered I’d forgotten to call my mum back…but there was no way I felt like talking to her just yet so I closed my eyes and tried to zone out.
Candy flounced in half an hour later and pulled the phones from my ears with a frown. “Hey sleepy-head! Don’t you have an early class today?”
“Yes,” I said softly, gently taking back the earphones and turning the volume up even further.
Her eyes widened in alarm and I sighed. Go Away – I mouthed to her with a small smile and she hesitantly returned it.
Breakfast? She mouthed back.
I shook my head and she frowned. I narrowed my eyes at her and she held up her hands as she backed off.
She gave me a small wave and another worried look as she left the room, but I knew she’d try again later.
***
Surprisingly, it was Briar that knocked on my door at lunch. She hesitated in the doorway as her eyes ran over me. I was still in bed.
“You missed your morning classes,” she said carefully.
“I know,” I muttered.
“You aren’t studying,” she stated in the exact same tone.
“No,” I agreed.
“Is everything alright?” she asked softly, moving to perch uneasily at the bottom of my bed.
“No,” I answered honestly.
She drew a deep breath and started talking rapidly, “Evie, I’m sorry about this whole brother business. Donny and I should never have carried on like that. We shouldn’t have stirred Stone up. It was just those first few weeks, when he wasn’t making a move, and we kept expecting him to tell us off once you two started, but he never did, and you and he never talked about your family when we assumed you just would, and he’s just annoyed because he feels you’ve rejected him as an official boyfriend and that you’re carrying on with all these others, and - ”
I held up a hand to silence her. “I’m not upset about Stone,” I told her, which was mostly the truth.
“Oh.” Her mouth snapped closed and a puzzled look formed on her face, “Um, well, you should probably talk to him. Soon.”
I nodded slowly and she fidgeted a little more.
“Well, um, if you’re sure you don’t wanna talk, I’ll just go and find Alec then,” she said uncertainly, as if expecting me to burst into tears and hug her at any moment.
“Okay,” was all I said, before pulling the sheet back over my head.
“Er, bye.” The door closed softly behind her and I breathed a sigh of relief as I picked up a book and read beneath the covers.
***
Later, when the sound of slamming doors and laughter told me that the afternoon classes were over, I forced myself to leave the bed and turn my laptop on. It seemed to take forever to load and I twitched impatiently as my empty stomach rumbled. The screen finally finished loading and I connected to the university server…
Well, I tried to. It seemed that everyone was online at the same time, starting their exam study early…or frantically trying to research for their last assignments.
I tapped my nails on the desk impatiently and wondered why I was even torturing myself. Logan would be here in a few short hours to bear it with me. I grimaced as the long list of emails appeared on my screen, the ones at the top showing emails from ten of my siblings. It looked as though Lo and I were the last to send ours out. I glanced down the list and noticed that there were some earlier ones from the younger triplets and Cooper that I hadn’t opened yet, so I procrastinated by clicking on them and looking at the pictures they’d sent me. I laughed at a particularly funny email from Jake, but my smile faded as the inbox screen returned and those ten unread emails stood out clearly.
I pushed roughly away from the desk and strode into the bathroom to get dressed. I didn’t have to deal with them until later…but right now, I needed to find Stone.
***
Stone wasn’t in his room, or the music rooms, nor was he outside at his table. He wasn’t in the dining hall either, but I saw Briar and Alec so I made my way over to them. Neither of them looked up.
“Ahem,” I coughed shyly, blushing a little at having to interrupt their kiss.
“Yeah?” Briar asked dreamily, not looking away from Alec.
“Where’s Stone?” I asked quickly. Briar frowned and glanced up at me distractedly.
“Oh,” she said after a pause, “He said he was going to find you.”
I blinked in surprise, but felt a small smile grow. “I must have just missed him,” I said with a shrug, “Thanks.”
“Have fun,” she murmured, before Alec’s lips crashed back down on hers.
Jeez, get a room, I thought with a smile as I jogged up the stairs and back to my room.
The door was open when I reached it, but the room was empty. I frowned at my computer screen, noticing that the screensaver wasn’t up…and that there was a crushed box of Smarties on top of my rumpled bed. I crossed to my desk and noticed Stone’s extra packet of smokes was missing. I glanced out the window, but couldn’t see him at his table. He wasn’t there yet. It seemed, I’d only just missed him again.
I worriedly looked back at my computer, but none of the emails looked to have been read. I didn’t know what to think, so I started to leave again, intending to take Stone another box of Smarties and confiscate his smokes.
My phone rang.
I pulled it from my pocket and eyed the back of it curiously. Was there some crazy reason my phone always chose the wrong moment to ring?
Preparing to hang up if it was my mother, I glanced at the display and then scrambled to answer it when I realised it was Logan.
“Hi,” I said quickly.
“Evie,” he said excitedly, “I’m here early. I’ll be at your place in a minute.”
He hung up.
I stared at the wall blankly and then slowly lowered the phone from my ear, snapping it closed.
What the fuck?
Why the hell was Logan happy?
I didn’t have time to ponder, because he’d literally meant a minute. My older brother burst through my still-open doorway and swept me off the floor in a huge bear-hug.
“Wh-what?” I gasped, “Umm hi.”
Logan put me down and held me at arm’s length, beaming down at me.
“I have good news,” he said.
“Today?” I asked incredulously. His smile slipped a little, but he nodded enthusiastically.
“Ivy has come to her senses.”
“She has?” I asked, completely lost.
Logan nodded smugly. “She finally agreed to move in with me.”
“Oh,” I said with surprise, “Um, that’s really exciting Lo…”
“I’m going to tell everyone,” he continued, “I had to wait for her to realise she can’t live without me, but now that she has, I wanted you to be the first to know.”
“I’m missing something,” I said slowly, “All this because your girlfriend wouldn’t move in with you? You wanted her to move in and she didn’t?”
Logan’s smile grew to a broad grin as he shook his head. “We’re having a baby,” he said simply.
My ass hit the floor.
***
“You’re what?!”
“Ivy is pregnant,” Logan said with a laugh, helping me up.
“Congrats,” I said shakily, blinking rapidly as I tried to make sense of what was happening, “When’s she due?”
“Tomorrow,” Logan said with a shrug, “But first babies are apparently always late.”
“Tomorrow?!” I squeaked, “Logan!”
“Shhh,” Logan soothed me, pulling me into a hug, “I didn’t tell anyone because Ivy freaked out about it. She left me.”
“What? Why?”
Logan shifted uncomfortably against me and sighed. “Well, we’d been keeping things pretty casual…Ivy hadn’t really wanted to make our relationship a big deal. You know, she didn’t want to do the whole ‘meet the family’ thing. I thought that was all fine, she let me call her my girlfriend when we went out and all that, so I thought we were just taking things slow and would eventually get serious…”
“Then she fell pregnant,” I supplied.
“Yeah,” Logan said a little sheepishly, “I didn’t think it was too big a deal. I wanted children eventually and I love Ivy…but Ivy was…um, well, she wasn’t really happy about it.”
“Why not?” I asked carefully, looking up at him as he squeezed me tighter.
He wrinkled his nose at me. “One of those stupid woman things. She thinks she’s too plain to marry me.”
I blinked. “Come again?”
Logan sighed, “She thinks I’m too sexy for her.”
I burst out laughing at the irony, but Logan gave me a small shake. “Hey,” he said softly, “Not funny.
“I’ve been busting my balls for the last seven months trying to convince her to just move in with me and give us a shot.”
I winced, “I’m sorry, Lo. No wonder you didn’t tell the others.”
I could just imagine the chaos of mixed reactions that news would have incited in my family. There’d be jokes, there’d be reprimands, there’d be constant streams of advice…and my mother? I shuddered, glad that I wasn’t bringing the first grandchild into the world.
“So, you want to help me write my email?” Logan asked hopefully.
I smiled sadly and guided him over to the computer. “Only if you stay while I read the others’.”
“Deal,” he answered quietly and wrapped one arm around me as I clicked open the first link.
***
I managed to hold back the tears as we read each email and sent our own. I hugged Logan tightly when he rose to leave, knowing that if he hadn’t been here, I’d have been a complete emotional wreck. As it was, I was hanging on by a thread.
My door flew open and heavy steps announced Stone’s arrival. His tread stopped abruptly and I pulled away from Logan to look at him. Oh boy, he did not look happy.
His gaze went from me, to Logan, and back again, his expression becoming increasingly more tense.
Logan looked at me sharply and raised an eyebrow, “He still doesn’t know?”
I shook my head quickly and Logan closed his eyes, pulling a pained face. “I’ll just let you two talk,” he said quickly, nodding at Stone briefly, before making a quick exit. I almost smiled, knowing that if it had been any other brother – they’d have stayed.
As soon as the door clicked shut, Stone’s temper snapped. “What the fuck is going on?” he growled at me.
I trembled a little, and sat down on the bed. “Please don’t yell at me like that,” I said softly, “Not today.”
“Then talk to me,” he said in a low, fierce voice, “Because I’m sick and tired of running after you like some love sick puppy, while you tell everyone we’re not a couple. I’m through trying to figure out what you want and how to make you happy… and I’m fucking done pretending I can handle being one of many.”
“You’re not,” I whispered, “There’s only you.”
“BULLSHIT!”
I winced and opened my mouth to correct him, but he powered on.
“Logan and Cooper are always ringing you. I thought they’d stopped when we started dating…but you just started hiding them.”
“No, I didn-”
“SHH!” he barked, “Then there are the names on your phone and today, there are emails!”
He shook his head, his shoulders shaking a little from the ferocity of his breaths. “I thought you were this shy, sweet little thing that needed protecting…a cute little kitten with a hidden spunk, a sharp humour and an inner sex goddess!
“But here you are, stringing more than ten men on at once! How many more do you have your claws into Evelyn? Is this sweet act just a game to you?”
I stood up and reached a hand towards him. “Grant,” I tried to soothe, “Please calm down. I promise I’m not playing with you or anyone else. Logan and Coop are my older brothers. They’re all my brothers.”
Stone’s laugh was cold and soft. He stepped back from me and ran a hand over his face. “You expect me to believe that all those names are your brothers? Nice try, Eveyln, but I’m not buying it.”
I lost it. I wasn’t going to be t
alked down to. I wasn’t going to put up with this today. I was hurt and sad and I’d had it up to here with Stone’s bossiness and assumptions.
“What’s the point in asking me to talk if you’re not going to listen?!” I snapped, “You tell me to talk, then you tell me to shush, then you tell me I’m a lying bitch!”
I yanked the top drawer of my bedside table open and grabbed the large, laminated photo from it. I slammed it into Stone’s chest and snarled at him like a beast. “Well fuck you!” I shouted at him, “If you’d ever bothered to ask me about my family, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. If you’d bothered to ask me to be your girlfriend, your friends wouldn’t have kept this from you! They’re the ones who have been fucking with your head!”