“Well, shit, maybe the other shop owners want to sell their places, but can’t.”
“Because of the tunnels,” Church agrees. “The Fellowship doesn’t want my parents to get ahold of those buildings, just in case.”
“So that means there really must be something down there worth hiding, huh?” I ask, and Church nods, just once, but the gleam in his eye … that scares the crap out of me a little.
No way in hell is my future husband going down in those tunnels, with or without my other, you know, future husbands.
Not over my dead body.
Oh. Ow. Ouch.
Bad metaphor.
Over my living body.
They’re not going into those fucking tunnels over my very much still alive body.
Not a chance.
Winter break rolls around, bringing with it my eighteenth birthday. All the boys have already had theirs, but none of them particularly cared to make a big deal out of it. We cooked and baked together, had little parties with candles in the Culinary Club dining room. And I put together small but thoughtful gifts for each boy. Spencer, Ranger, Tobias, and Micah got sex on their birthdays, but poor Church didn’t since we hadn’t quite gotten to that stage of our relationship yet.
Next year though, it’s on.
“Happy birthday, Charlotte,” Dad says at breakfast that morning. He asked me to come up for breakfast—just me—so we could talk. He even made French toast and scrambled eggs, adding bottles of hot sauce and ketchup next to the maple syrup. My gift is a beautiful frame with my acceptance letter to Bornstead U inside, printed on cardstock, the words embossed in navy blue. Yep, that’s a definite gift from the headmaster right there.
“Thanks,” I say, smiling and then setting my fork down next to my plate. “Pretty sure neither of us thought I’d live to see this day, huh?” I joke, and Dad’s face pales to an awful ashen shade. “I just meant, I thought you might kill me … like, metaphorically speaking. Also, my bad, I shouldn’t have made a death joke with a cult on the loose.”
“Charlotte,” he snaps, eyes darting to the door. To be fair, he has a reason to be nervous.
Last night, I sat down and wrote out a list of all the minor but creepy incidents I could remember from last year.
1. that day the window above the sink was open and I heard rustling in the bushes
2. the large dark figure on Halloween—Mr. Murphy insists this wasn’t him
3. the candle wax in the girls’ dorm and the missing Jenica picture
4. the strange sounds in the foliage outside the girls’ dorm
5. the creaking sound of footsteps in the upstairs of the girls’ dorm—although this easily could’ve been Ranger
It’s very clear that the Fellowship’s initiates have been stalking me for quite some time.
Dad exhales sharply, reaching up to rub at his temples. He seems to realize what he’s doing, forcing his hands into his lap and making himself smile at me.
“Your mother sent some gifts as well. I put them upstairs on your bed.”
“Awesome, thanks,” I say, wondering how long I have to sit here before I can call the boys to come get me. It’s not that I don’t want to spend time with Dad, just … we love each other, but we don’t have a ton to say to each other, if that makes sense. “Are you … going to be okay with seeing her on Christmas with Ian there?”
Tomorrow, we’re hopping on a plane back to California to see my mom and aunt. Monica, too. But Mom’s already dropped about three thousand subtle hints about Ian being at her house on Christmas day. I just hope Dad can handle seeing them together.
“Ian Dave is a good man,” he says, looking like he’d truly enjoying punching the librarian’s face in.
“Him and Nathan, right?” I ask, tilting my head to one side, like maybe I’ll be able to figure my dad out if I look at him from a new angle. “You seem to trust them both, but I’m really struggling to understand why.”
“I’m not at liberty to answer your questions, Charlotte. You know that I would if I could.”
I don’t bother to argue with him. He’s an impulsive rule follower. Doesn’t make him a bad guy, but it also just seems so stifling to live life so rigidly. I don’t want to live a shallow life like my Aunt Elisa, but I also don’t want to live in a box like my father.
“You’ll at least let me fly on the Montague’s jet, right?”
“Charlotte, I frown on that sort of excess. There’s nothing wrong with our economy tickets.” Nothing wrong with economy tickets except for cramped knees and people with smelly socks who take their shoes off, screaming babies, and people smacking you in the face when they put their seat back. But sure. Okay, boomer.
“Alright, then.” I stand up, slipping my phone from my back pocket and shaking it for emphasis. “I’m going to call the guys to come and get me.”
Before I head out to the front porch to make the call, I pause next to Dad’s chair and put my arms around his neck, giving him a spur of the moment squeeze. None of the boys have intimacy issues like I do. I think I’m starting to learn from them. It’s okay to give hugs or say I love you every once in a while. That stuff doesn’t make you weak or vulnerable, it makes you stronger.
“Archie’s well-meaning, but he doesn’t understand me at all,” I tell the guys as we walk back to the dorms, the breeze kissed with the frosty promise of new snow. “Guess that’s the thing about most parents, huh?”
“Unfortunately, my mother understands me too well,” Church says, looking up at a few tiny snowflakes that are drifting down from the gray sky. He’s got a thick scarf wrapped around his neck, the rest of him bundled up in a wool coat. “She wants me to purchase a place near Bornstead U for us to live in.” He looks very pointedly in my direction. “Or would you rather live in the dorms?”
I stare at him like he’s sprouted antennae.
“Your mom wants you to buy an—I assume—absurdly expensive place to live … or else we can live in tiny, little shared dorm rooms that are probably gender specific, strictly binary, and filled with Ikea furniture?”
Church laughs as Spencer smirks and gives him an I told you so sort of a look.
We push open the door to the boys’ dorm, the massive fir tree in the corner decorated with lights and glittery glass ornaments. Luckily, most of the students are leaving for break tomorrow, so the building isn’t as empty as it could be. I’m just glad the guys are going to join me in California for at least part of the holiday. Each of them has separate plans to meet up with their families at some point during the two-week period, but I’ll always have at least one person with me at all times.
Because … cult stuff.
Not because I’m madly in love with them or anything.
“Is it just going to be me and Church …” I start, trying not to be ungrateful but hoping beyond all hope that the other boys will live with us, too. I’m still not exactly sure what’s going on with all of us, but I like what we have here. It’s our own little family in the making.
“Are you crazy?” the twins ask from either side of the group. It always impresses me how they’re able to talk in unison, even when they’re fairly far apart. “We’ll be there.”
“We’ll be there,” Ranger agrees, pausing at the bottom of the stairs and giving Spencer a look. “Don’t worry about that.” He looks back at me as I stand there with my hand on the railing, waiting to see what they’re up to. “We have something to do right now, but we’ll be back. Micah.” He joins them and the three of them peel away from Church, Tobias, and me.
My heart starts to pound right away, and I have to scrunch up my face to hold in my excitement.
They’re totally planning birthday shit for me.
I just know it.
They’ve all told me happy birthday already, and I’ve gotten a few random gifts: like a set of fancy pillows from Church, some high heels that look like cakes from Ranger (the Shoe Bakery store is my new obsession), a new laptop from Spencer, and a stack of admittedl
y cute clothes from the twins.
But that’s not it.
I could tell those gifts were more diversion than anything else.
“Don’t ruin this surprise,” Tobias says, pointing at me in warning, his mouth curving up into a smile. “We worked hard on it.”
“Surprise, what surprise?” I ask, flouncing up the stairs to my room before he can answer.
Because I know them too well, and I know that whatever they give me, it’s going to be good.
“Charlotte, wake up,” Tobias says, gently shaking my shoulder. As I crack my heavy lids, the first thing I see is him smiling at me.
“What time is it?” I ask, glancing toward the window above my bed. It’s dark out, but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s winter in Connecticut. Shit, it’s probably like three in the freaking afternoon.
“Almost six,” Tobias tells me, sitting on the edge of the bed next to me. I must’ve gotten so hyped up waiting to see what the guys were planning that I wore myself; I don’t even remember falling asleep. With a yawn, I sit up, stretching my arms above my head. Tobias watches me, his attention sweet and tender, his expression softening the sharp lines of his face. “Are you ready, Chuck the Micropenis?”
“For what?” I ask as he stands up and holds out a hand for me to take. Some of my hair is plastered to the side of my face with drool. If this is my birthday wish coming to fruition, then I’m not properly dressed. Drool-covered faces and romantic birthday endeavors don’t exactly go hand in hand. “Can I brush my hair, do some quick makeup, and change my dress?” I ask, but Tobias just laughs and pulls me into the hallway. I notice the attic door is open, the wooden ladder dropped down to the floor above us, where my old room used to be.
“Don’t worry: we’ve checked and rechecked that attic today. You’ll be safe.” He curves his hand around mine and tugs me up the staircase, then waits with his hands on either side of the ladder as I climb up.
There’s a ton of junk up here, but nothing fun like at the antique shop. Instead of glass clowns and secret bookcase doors, there are a lot of old bed frames, mattresses, and broken chairs. Yawn-fest.
“The roof access is up here,” Tobias says, showing me over to one last set of stairs. As I climb each step, my view of the sky beyond the open door gets better and better, until I’m standing out on the roof, surrounded by stars.
“Wow.” The word comes out in a whisper as Tobias joins me, leading me around the corner and onto the part of the roof that faces the woods behind the school.
The rest of the guys are there, dressed in warm clothes, and waiting on a blanket mound that’s spread across three different mattresses. They must’ve dragged them out of the attic for us to lay on. Stargazing, I think, without even having to ask. I mentioned offhand to the twins that I wanted to do something like this, and here we are.
They listened.
It means more to me than I can say. My throat closes up and tears threaten at the corners of my eyes as Micah comes over with a bundle of sweaters, scarves, and mittens, bundling me up against the cold.
“You used to be such a badass, Chuck,” he teases, pulling a hat down over my head. For now, the sky is clear, but I can see clouds moving in and threatening to cover the school. We’re going to get a buttload of snow, huh?
“I’m still a badass,” I grumble as I look around at the scattered candles, the champagne chilling in a bucket, and a tray of chocolate-covered strawberries on an old nightstand. There are even white lights strung up from the flagpole to the raised portion of the roof, where the exit is. They’ve clearly put a lot of work into this.
“What happens if the Fellowship finds out we’re up here?” I ask, imagining a bunch of robed cultists pouring out the door and onto the roof, surrounding us. They could throw me off the building, be done with me once and for all.
Tobias kicks the door closed and yanks on the handle to show me that it’s locked. He then lifts up a set of keys.
“All of these open the roof door. We took them from pretty much every staff member on campus, including your dad, Eddie, even Nathan. And don’t worry: we told the headmaster we’d be up here with you tonight. He didn’t seem to like it, but he agreed to it.”
“He … did?” I ask, blinking in surprise as I turn back to Spencer, Church, and Ranger.
“He did,” Tobias confirms as the twins each gently take me by the elbow and lead me over to their kick-ass mattress setup. Looks like it takes at least three queen-sized beds to house us all for a sleepover. Not that I think the boys are all going to sleep in one big bed with me. Not yet, my mind snickers, and immediately starts to scheme. Hashtag goals, am I right?
“Take a seat, Chuck-let,” Spencer says, patting the spot next to him. Happily, I crawl onto the mattress and lie on my back, my head on one of Church’s fur-covered pillows, my gaze on the dark sky above us. The stars are so bright up here, I can even see the swirling brilliance of the Milky Way.
Spence covers me up with a blanket and then lays down beside me. Ranger crawls in on my other side, with Church next to him, and the twins on the other side of Spencer.
For a little while, we all just lay there in silence, staring up at the sky.
“This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever done,” I whisper, not wanting to break the quiet perfection of the moment. I’m not even mad when one of those stupid owls hoots in the distance.
“I’m not sure that I’ve ever stargazed before,” Micah says, his voice contemplative. He hesitates for just a moment before he adds, “Happy Birthday, Chuck.”
“Happy birthday,” Church adds, sitting up and grabbing the champagne bottle by the neck. He pops the cork—very likely that dad doesn’t know about this part of the plan—and then pours us each a glass. “To Chuck,” he says, and we all raise our glasses, clinking them together.
I salute the sky and then down my own drink, handing the glass back to Church, so I can snuggle into Spencer’s side.
“We have plenty of food if you’re hungry,” Ranger says, still sitting up and holding his champagne in one hand. “We cooked a feast for an army.” He nods his chin in the direction of a table, laden with those silver serving trays that caterers always seem to use, the ones with the little flames underneath to keep the food warm.
Damn.
They really put a lot of work into this, didn’t they?
My pulse pounds out an excited rhythm as Spencer puts his arm around my waist.
“Good, because I can eat for an army.”
“Just let me know if you want one of these fucking strawberries,” Ranger adds, hooking a thumb in the direction of the tray. “Because I’m feeding them to you—personally.”
“Oh, you want to feed me now?” I joke as Spencer chuckles beneath me. “Is that your new kink?”
“Fuck off, Carson.” Ranger sets his glass aside and lights up a joint. He passes it to Micah first, sending a white tendril of smoke curling up into the still air. “I bet if we get high enough, we can stay here all night and talk existential theories about stars.”
“Or other things,” Tobias suggests, like they’ve all got a certain subject in mind that they’ve been planning on bringing up. Right away, alarm bells go off and I start to wonder if this might be about our relationship.
I sit up, accidentally elbowing Spencer in the side and making him groan.
“What other things?” I ask, hoping I don’t sound too much like a crazy person.
Several of the boys exchange looks as Spencer uses his elbows to prop himself up, a blue-green scarf tucked underneath his chin.
He told me he was okay with me dating the twins because he was confident that I’d pick him, that they were no threat. All along, I felt like he was hoping I’d choose him at some point. So maybe that’s it, why we’re here? After all, it wasn’t realistic for me to expect them to share forever, right?
“We wanted to talk to you about your engagement to Church,” Tobias starts, but he’s smiling at me, one knee casually propped up on the
mattress, his breath fogging in the cold air. “It’s not fake anymore, it’s real, so we need to figure out where we’re going with all of this.”
My eyes widen, but I don’t interrupt; I want to hear what they have to say.
“You know that Tobias and I always planned on sharing a girlfriend or, one day, a wife.” Micah pours himself another glass of champagne and then knocks it back in one swig. “But we didn’t want to share with anyone else.”
“I didn’t want to share at all,” Ranger says, glancing at Church. “But that’s not how things are working out.”
“How do you mean?” I ask, struggling to control my racing heart. If this goes from the best birthday ever to the worst, I swear, I’ll flip one of these mattresses off the roof and into the trees. Good luck getting that out of the canopy, Eddie.
“We’re all in agreement that we like how things are going with you,” Church says, and then he smirks. “That sounded fucking clinical. What I mean is, we all like you, and that doesn’t seem to be changing.”
“We figured since we were going to the same college anyway, that we should just … make a mutual agreement,” Tobias tacks on, ruffling up his hair like he’s concerned he might be messing this up.
“We don’t want you to date anyone outside of this circle,” Spencer continues, finally sitting up the rest of the way and watching me from turquoise eyes. He’s struggled with jealousy the most out of anyone, so I’m curious to see where this conversation is headed. “But we won’t date anyone else either. Just us, and you.”
“For how long?” I ask, and Spencer’s gaze softens.
“For as long as you want. We’ll always be friends, Chuck-let,” he says, gesturing at the other guys. “We’ll always be family—you included. If there’s romance forever, then we’re okay with that. If there’s not, we can rearrange things and figure it out when the time comes.”
The Forever Crew Page 23