by Mary Martel
I wanted him to be mad. I didn’t want him to be mad at Tyson and I didn’t want him to be mad at me. I simply wanted him to be mad at the situation.
But that was stupid.
It so was.
None of them should be mad at this situation, or at me. This whole thing was so overwhelmingly confusing that I wasn’t sure what to expect from anyone.
Quinton came over to where I stood in the safety of Tyson’s arms. His hand came up and he cupped the side of my face.
His eyes were warm, intense. I liked this look a whole lot better than his cold, hostile one.
“No, baby,” he said gently. “I am not mad. How can I be mad when I’m getting everything that I want? Besides, I got to kiss you first and that’s all that matters to me.”
Tyson grunted as Quint leaned in. He kissed me on the forehead and backed away.
Walking backwards, he said, “I will wait for you two downstairs. Don’t take too long or I will come back and bring her downstairs myself.”
He turned around and sauntered to the door.
Tyson’s put pressure on his arm around my shoulders, pulling me in closer.
“You see what I mean?” He muttered. “He’s a smug bastard.”
My body shook with laughter and I wasn’t entirely sure why I was laughing. Maybe it was a stress reliever. The last two hours of my life had been extreme and very bizarre. I had a feeling that extreme and very bizarre were about to become my version of normal.
I would take laughter over tears any day.
Tyson walked us over to the love seat and moved me so I was sitting. I immediately pulled my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around my knees.
I stopped laughing and watched him as he pulled my dreamcatcher out of the white box. He stood and toed his black boots off. I was glad he thought to take his boots off, I didn’t want them on my new bed. Very considerate of him.
“Hold this for me,” he said as he held out the dreamcatcher towards me. He shook the pretty thing in the air, telling me to take it from him.
I sat up and let my feet fall to the floor as I took the dreamcatcher from him. I held it up in front of me while he put a knee into the bed, then the other and he pulled himself to his feet until he stood on the the bed. He held his arms out at his sides, keeping balance as he walked to the head of the bed.
I spotted what I had missed in my earlier perusal of the room, a small, white hook had been screwed into the ceiling above where I would lay my head down on my pillow tonight.
Tyson held his hand out to me and I got to my feet. I walked to the bed and held the dreamcatcher up to him. He took it and hung it up on the little white hook.
With my hand, I smoothed out the comforter he had wrinkled by standing on it. As I did this he jumped down from the bed.
He backed up and squinted his eyes, studying his work.
“What do you think?” he asked me.
I backed up until the backs of my knees hit the love seat and I sat down, taking in the view.
What did I think?
I thought it was perfect, just perfect, like everything about the room. I loved it. The black looked good against the yellow color of the wall and I imagined the feathers floating around on a gentle breeze that would come in through the window if I opened it. Maybe after everybody left I could open up the window, lay down on that bed and watch the feathers move around above me.
“It’s lovely,” I murmured distractedly.
He laughed and said, “You’re adorable.”
I looked from the dreamcatcher to him and smiled. I liked receiving gifts. And I loked Tyson.
His eyes dropped to my mouth and filled with heat. I knew he wanted to kiss me again and I also knew I couldn’t let that happen. Not at the moment. We needed to get downstairs and staying in here kissing would mean Quinton barging in and getting an eye full. I didn’t want that.
I stood and practically ran to the door.
“Time to go downstairs now,” I mumbled as I sprinted past him.
His laughter followed me all the way down the stairs, mocking me.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I sat on the floor with my back to the wall and stretched out in front of me. My feet were crossed at the ankles. They were sweating and felt like they were burning inside my socks. I shouldn’t have picked a spot to sit that was so close to the fireplace because this was torture.
When I’d come down the stairs with Ty right behind me, everyone was in the dining room and they were all talking. Tyson and I stood back in order to watch the show.
“Don’t look at me,” Quinton said angrily. “I’ve never watched a movie with her before, there hasn’t been time for stuff like that. I have no idea what she likes.” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “You would have to ask Ty about what she likes.”
Quinton had looked embarrassed by his lack of knowledge of me, and I’d felt so bad for him that I had actually taken a step towards him in order to help him in any way I could. Tyson had stopped me by placing a hand on my arm and I’d stepped back into him. He wrapped his arm around my waist and held me close to him. I got his silent message. He wanted to watch, and he wanted me to not interrupt and potentially ruin it for him.
“What about a horror movie?” Damien had asked.
The entire room had exploded in a chorus of very loud no’s.
I had wanted to laugh.
“Scary is out,” Julian had muttered. “She doesn’t need any more scary shit in her life.”
“That sucks,” Damien had muttered sullenly. “I love scary movies. What, are we going to have to watch chick flicks or something from now on?”
I’d had to put my hand over my mouth to keep any noise I might have involuntarily made inside.
“We could watch the Titanic,” Julian had suggested.
“What is it with you and that fucking movie?” Quinton had barked at him. “The second half of the movie is the best part and then it’s ruined when that bitch lets him go, after promising she’d never do that. Who ends a movie like that? And, who the fuck watches that stupid thing like once a month? Titanic is out. I refuse to be forced to endure three hours of that bullshit.”
“We are not watching the Titanic,” Addison had growled. “My twin can’t watch movies like that anymore. It will give him nightmares and he already had enough problems with sleeping, he doesn’t need more. All those people in the water…” He’d taken a deep, shuddering breath and shook his head.
I had been holding my tongue every time something got said that I had no clue the meaning of because I hadn’t wanted to be nosy and I felt like they would share things with me on their own time. That was the nice thing to do, the thing the old me would do. The me who would run away and hide at the first sign of trouble. I was trying to be stronger, bolder, less of a scaredy cat.
I’d slipped out of Tyson’s arms and stepped further into the dining room.
Binx darted out from under the dining room table and curved his tiny, little body around my ankles. I bend down and scooped him up in my arms.
I’d cradled Binx in my arms and he immediately started purring. Goodness, I didn’t even have to pet him to get him to purr for me. I’d cuddled him close to my chest and murmured, “Awe, what a sweet, sweet little boy you are.”
I had looked up and caught them all watching me. I sighed. Oh well, it was likely something I would have to get used to until they got used to me.
“I’m with Quinton,” I had told them in a shy, quiet voice. “I could only stand to watch Titanic the one time. I couldn’t stomach watching the ending more than once. I more than positive there had been room for the both of them on that makeshift raft. Poor Jack died because he had the misfortune to fall for a rich, spoiled brat. And, then she just goes and marries another dude and has kids with him. What did it take her, like, two minutes? I mean, come on.” I paused to shake my head.
I singled out Damien and gave him a small, half smile. He’d actually talked to me today and he
hadn’t been a dick. I could be nice to him, if he could try, then I would too. “And, I actually do like scary movies. I don’t watch them much because I tend to do it late at night when I’m all alone. I freak myself out over every little noise, and I end up not sleeping. I tried to watch one in the middle of the day once and it just wasn’t the same.”
There.
That was nice, and I’d even shared a little about myself without having to be asked first.
I could do this.
“What’s your favorite horror movie?” Damien asked me. I was glad to see his eyes weren’t cold or bored but warm and interested in hearing what I had to say.
“Strangeland,” I told him, and I didn’t even have to think about it. That movie freaked me right out. It also made me never, ever want to meet someone off of the internet. There were a lot of freaky people out there and you never really knew who you were talking to. That movie, just, ugh.
Damien’s eyes sharpened as he focused solely on me. “You’ve seen Strangeland?” He asked me in a surprised voice.
“Yeah.”
Julian started laughing.
“He made me watch that movie with him,” Julian told me. “He tried to watch it on his own and couldn’t do it. He does that a lot. He might love horror movies and scary shit, but he always needs someone to hold his hand through it. And, you watch it all by yourself in the dark. Our brave girl.”
Julian continued to laugh at Damien’s need for hand holding. I didn’t laugh. Everyone should have a hand holding buddy for when they wanted to watch scary movies. I was envious of Damien having Julian there for those things.
“Do you enjoy scary movies?” I asked Julian.
After a slight hesitation, he answered me, “No. I hate them. I like tragedies and love stories.”
I liked those, too, but still…
“I’ll do your horror movie hand holding with you from now on, if you want me to.” I told Damien before I could think better of it.
Holy crap! This was Damien. Why would I do that, offer to hold his hand? He had a girlfriend… You didn’t offer to hold the hand of someone who had a girlfriend.
“I-” I tried to cover for my error, but he got there before me.
“I would love that,” Damien said in a husky voice while watching me with his warm, intense eyes. “You’re saving Julian’s ass here big time. Before I leave tonight, you’re going to have to give me your number, so I can hit you up.”
What?
Damien wanted me to give him my phone number? What was going on here? And, what about his girlfriend? Wouldn’t that make her angry? I knew it would make me really, really angry.
“We aren’t watching a horror movie,” Quinton stated, cutting into the awkward silence that had followed Damien telling me he was going to get my phone number.
I had agreed with Quinton. My first night in a new place… I absolutely did not need to be watching a horror movie before going to bed.
None of this had anything to do with why I had stepped forward to begin with. I needed to forget about holding Damien’s hand and get back to the important stuff.
I sought out Abel and found him sitting next to his brother. They were both staring at me intently.
“What’s the deal with you and not wanting to watch people going into the water?” I blurted out. “Why would that give you nightmares?”
I didn’t get it, and I wanted to know.
From here on out, if I thought about it, then I was going to ask about it. They never held off on asking me questions. Why should I hold off when they didn’t? That wasn’t how you got to know someone.
There were so many questions I never asked because I didn’t want to be rude in doing so. That time was over.
The silent room had grown still. Everyone froze, becoming statues. They all looked brittle, ready to break at any second.
“Damn it,” I had cursed myself silently. What had I said to turn them into brittle statues? What had I done?
It was like trying to waltz through a minefield with these people. If they could all come with an instruction manual, that would be extremely beneficial to me.
“I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but our parents died in a plane crash,” Abel said in a small, subdued voice. “The plane went down into the ocean. There were very few survivors and our parents weren’t among them. One of the survivors said there had been more of them but they lost a bunch of people to sharks. He said that our dad was one of the one’s to be attacked by the sharks. Unless it’s a pool, water freaks me out and I won’t go in it anymore.”
My heart had tried to break inside my chest, and I had wanted to cry.
Quinton had taken it upon himself to be in charge of what we watched after Abel’s confession.
That was how I had come to find myself seated on the floor in Dash’s living room in between my Salt and Pepper twins with each of them holding on tight to one of my hands.
Thankfully, Binx had climbed into my lap and he made everything seem so much better.
That cat seemed to love me. I fell in love with him right back.
Dash was on the floor with his legs drawn up to his chest and his back to the end of the couch furthest from me. Damien, Julian and Quinton were all seated together on the couch. Tyson didn’t sit. He leaned against the wall beside the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.
They had chosen a Tv show instead of a movie, and they picked Sons of Anarchy. Apparently, Addison was a huge fan.
After the first episode, my heart went out to Jax in a really big way. After three episodes, I was hooked. Gemma and her fierceness. Clay, who seemed like a serious A-hole. Tig, who was Clay’s man servant. Opie, and his broken family. And, have I mentioned how hot Jax is?
The guys were into all the explosions and gunfire. I was into it because I fell in love with the characters.
After two and a half hours, Julian stood up and yawned.
“I’m headed home,” Julian said. “Damien, are you coming, or, are you staying here?”
Damien put his hands into the couch cushions and pushed himself to his feet.
“I’m going with you,” Damien replied to Julian. He then looked to me, and asked, “Where’s your phone?”
“On my dresser,” I answered.
“Right,” he muttered, and walked out of the living room. I heard his feet as he thundered up the stairs. I assumed he was going to do something with my phone, probably put his phone number into my contacts. I was fine with him messing with my phone.
Addison and Abel stood up from the floor.
“We’re going,” the twins said at the same time.
I stood with them.
No way was I doing this movie night thing with just Dash. I wasn’t ready for that closeness.
“I have to get something out of the Rover,” I told them as I ran from the room. I sprinted up the stairs, passing Damien on his way down. When I got to my room, I grabbed my keys off of the top of the dresser and ran back down the stairs.
Headlights lit up the way as I walked to my Rover. I grabbed the box out of the way back and ran back to the house.
With everyone else besides Dash leaving, I was going to bed. With my tattered box. And, hopefully Binx.
My tattered box. A box full of shit I wasn’t entirely sure I needed to look through. But, I was going to look through it because it held secrets my mother had kept hidden from me and I wanted to know everything. I’m sure I would change my mind tomorrow and not want to know any of it. But, this wasn’t tomorrow, it was today, and today I wanted to know.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I left my door cracked an inch in hopes of Binx maybe wandering in to sleep with me, and made my way towards the bed. I tossed the box on top of my new bed. It hit the bed and the contents spewed out all over my new black and yellow comforter.
I stepped closer, drawn to the pictures and pieces of paper that had spilled out of the box.
There were more pieces of paper than there
were pictures.
Letters. There were lots of letters.
The pictures were great, but it was the letters that told the real story.
I grabbed one at random and unfolded it.
I started to read.
My dearest Vivian,
She’s my daughter. Not yours. She belongs with me. I grow tired of hunting you down with my magic so I can send you these letters. Yet, you’ve done something to make it so I can’t actually find where you are. Since you don’t have magic, you must be working with an extremely powerful witch.
Did you tell them why? Did you tell them about her? You better not have.
You should really consider giving her to me now because I will eventually find you and I can promise you that when I do, you aren’t going to like how it ends for you.
Goodness.
There was no signature at the end.
The letter confused me. How did you send a letter to someone when you had no idea where they physically were? Could magic be used for something like that? I didn’t know, but the more I thought about it, the more I was sure you could use magic that way. I would ask one of the guys about it in the morning.
I was done with that letter, so I moved it to the side and picked up another one.
Vivian,
If you do not give her to me, I will kill you. She’s mine and she needs me.
I’m tired of playing this little game with you, Vivian. Enough is enough. Give me my daughter or else.
Who was this crazy person who had been sending my mother letters? If what I was reading was true, then Vivian Kimber hadn’t really been my mother at all.
I didn’t even know how to feel about this. The writer of the letters had called my mother by the term ‘sister’. But, were they male or female? I didn’t know how to determine the sex of a person based on their handwriting. It wasn’t in my skill set.
I picked up another letter.