by C. L. Stone
There was a black truck parked in front of the doors that I didn’t recognize. When I got closer to the church, I heard shouting inside. I paused, unsure if I should enter if they were fighting. I’d had enough of that today.
I opened the front door and followed the sound of voices and crashing until I found the kitchen. Silas and North were shirtless, causing me to do a double take. Their muscular chests were caked in patches with dust. Each held a sledge hammer.
Silas was standing back, wiping his brow. His broad shoulders and smooth chest had that exotic olive complexion. His muscles flexed as he caught his breath.
While North wasn’t quite as tall or as broad as Silas, North’s tapered shoulders and long torso were just as exquisite.
I caught myself staring at their defined abs and the sweat that coursed over their skin. North had dark hair trailing up from his jeans, up to his belly button. Silas had something similar but it wasn’t quite as thick as North’s.
The kitchen was a disaster. The fridge and stove had been pulled out. Half the cabinets were demolished. It looked like they were working on the other half. There was a collection of broken wood and yellow Formica piled up by the door.
Silas spotted me first. He bent over until his hands were on his knees. He gasped and swallowed. “Please tell me you brought water.”
I dropped my book bag and pulled out of it several large bottles I had gotten from home.
They both grunted in what sounded like a positive way, and fully dropped their hammers onto the tile. They collected the bottles from my hand.
“Thank god,” North said. “We tell Kota we can handle it, and we forgot to bring everything.”
“What else are you missing?” I asked, stepping around a broken piece of cabinet to put my bag down and out of the way.
“Luke, for one,” North said. “He was supposed to be pulling the carpet in the chapel and check in every once in a while to help us haul out this shit. I haven’t heard from him in a couple of hours.”
“I’ll go check on him,” I said. “I brought crackers, too, if you guys are hungry. They’re in the bag. Just dig in it.” I picked up one of the water bottles to take to Luke.
“Thank you, aggele mou,” Silas said. He leaned back against one of the few cabinets left. He opened his bottle of water, drinking heavily. Lines of water slipped past his mouth at the corners. The drips weaved across the muscles in his neck and along his chest. I forced myself to turn and walk toward the door, not wanting to get caught staring.
North flickered a half smile at me when I walked past him. He planted a hand on top of my head, his fingers massaging my scalp. “Keep my brother in line, will you?”
Nothing was said about the fight. Did they not know or were they trying to mask that they did know? I pursed my lips. I wasn’t sure how to approach it now that I hadn’t said anything. Maybe Kota didn’t want to tell them.
In the chapel, I found Luke on his back on the stage at the far side of the room. The floor had been cleared of debris, half the carpet was rolled up against the wall.
“Luke?” I called out. I had to climb over a roll of carpet that was blocking the door. “Did you need a hand?”
He sat up, smiling. Locks of his blond hair fell into his face, but most of it was held back with my clip. “I think we need twenty. Two will do, though.” His shirt was off, too. His leaner body glistened with sweat. He approached me, holding his hand out.
I was caught up in watching his stomach and chest that at first I didn’t understand what he was wanting. I remembered the water bottle and handed it to him. “You’re doing a good job.”
He took the water, opening the top and slurping down a couple of gulps. He poured some water out onto his hand and slapped it to his forehead and neck. “I think I’d rather be whacking down cabinets.”
“They wanted help hauling.”
“That’s the boring part,” he said.
“Let’s go help them and maybe they’ll let us swing the hammers,” I said. The idea was actually sounding fun. It was better than being stuck at home or worrying about Kota or the others.
He smiled. “You’re dressed kind of nice to be doing this.”
I looked down at my shorts and blouse. I was still wearing the torn blouse with the missing buttons. He was worried about my clothes? His looked more expensive. “I’m just going to end up washing these, anyway.”
He rubbed the back of his hand across his brow and crossed the room. He picked up his blue, button-up shirt and tossed it to me. “Put this on so you’re not getting your stuff dirty.”
I blushed, holding the shirt up and looking at the Calvin Klein logo. Wasn’t that an expensive brand? “Over my own shirt?”
“Take that blouse off.”
My eyes widened at him. “Luke...”
“Not right here, dummy.” He smirked and landed a gentle chop on my head. “Not unless you want.”
I blushed. He was such a tease! Why did they all enjoy picking on me so much?
He laughed, hooking his arm around my neck and pulling me around so we were heading back out of the chapel. “Sang, your face is priceless.”
I found the restroom so I could put Luke’s shirt on. The hem of the blue shirt was long enough that it covered my shorts. It made it look like I wasn’t wearing any at all. I rolled the sleeve cuffs up my arms. I folded my shirt and went to find the others in the kitchen.
Luke had taken up Silas’s sledgehammer. Silas stood by the door, his arms folded over his broad chest. I walked up behind him, my hand reflexively touching his back so he knew I was there. As my fingers pressed to his smooth back, he jumped at my touch and spun on me.
“Shit,” he said. “You’re too quiet.” He put a palm to his chest over his heart. “You can’t sneak up on me like that.”
North laughed. “You’re scared of a little girl, Silas?”
I narrowed my eyes at North for calling me a little girl as if I were a child. I knew he didn’t mean it like that but it still stung a little that he would suggest it.
Silas only smirked at him. He reached out for me, putting an arm around my shoulders. His fingers closed over my collarbone. “Come on, Sang. We’re going to watch Luke kill himself.”
He pulled me forward until I was standing next to him. His body warmed me and he continued to hang his arm on me. My heart pounded. Was I back to being uncomfortable around touching again? Maybe it was because he had his shirt off and my mind kept thinking of his abdomen and chest. If I turned my face, I could get an up close and personal view.
“Ha,” Luke said, his laugh definitive. He twisted his hands over the handle of the hammer. His eyes sought out mine and he winked at me.
“Don’t get distracted,” North warned. He was standing a couple of feet away from Luke, just out of reach of the swing of the hammer. His lips tightened and his eyes became stern, as if unhappy they had been interrupted.
Luke lifted the hammer slightly off of the floor, pulled back. He twisted his body, using the momentum to smack the hammer against the cabinet in front of him. The door broke off one of the hinges. A large crack splintered the center of the door with a large dent in the middle but the cabinet itself mostly remained intact.
The guys laughed. I couldn’t help but smile. Luke pursed his lips. In a huff, he lifted the hammer again, swung it over his head and let it fall hard on top of the cabinet. The slam was deafening. It cracked the top in half but the cabinet still held.
“You’re terrible,” North said. “Sang could do better than that.”
Luke blew out a heavy breath. “Let her.”
Silas looked down at me. “Want to give it a try?”
I brightened, nodding. “Yes!” I had to admit, it looked like a lot of fun.
They all laughed. I wondered why it was funny.
Silas let go of my shoulder and nudged me forward. “I’d pay to see this.”
“Come here,” North said, curling his fingers at me. He had me stand beside him, holding his o
wn hammer out to me. “Do you know how to use this?”
I locked eyes with him, hovering a finger to my lower lip but not touching, almost forgetting it was swollen. I shook my head. I’d swung a regular hammer before but I never even attempted to lift a sledge.
“You’re right handed?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He pointed to where I should stand. “Hold the bottom with your left hand.” He held the end of the sledgehammer in an example. “Then near the head, hold it in your right.”
My fingers tingled. I was nervous that the others were watching me.
North slipped behind me. His chin hovered over my head, his body pressing into my back. He wrapped his fingers around mine as he showed me how to hold the hammer.
“When you’re ready,” he said, moving his body in a motion like the swinging move he wanted me to do. As he was doing it, all I could feel and think was how his body flexed against me. The heat made my insides flutter. “All you have to do is lift it. Get it up over the top. Let gravity do the rest.” His nose pressed to my hair and his breath tickled the back of my head. “And don’t you dare hurt yourself.”
He backed off. I couldn’t see the guys behind me but I felt the weight of their eyes. I sucked in a breath, lifted with my legs and pulled the hammer around. I strained at first, trying to just pick the hammer head up off of the ground. I felt the weight of it. It slipped in my palms and fell back against the ground. It was heavier than I expected.
The others giggled behind me. I heard someone, North perhaps, moving forward as if he wanted to help.
Now or never.
I adjusted my hands on the hammer in a grip I knew would work. I heaved the hammer up. It sailed over my head. Momentum finished the swing.
The hammer slammed against the top of the cabinet, crushing through the surface. My bones rattled as the hammer crunched through the Formica. The head of the hammer dropped down into the bottom section of wood, disappearing among the debris.
Clapping and hooting startled me. I felt more embarrassed now than before I started when I thought I couldn’t do it. I had my hand still on the hammer and tried to tug it out of the mess of wood but I couldn’t get it to budge.
“Here, Sang baby,” North said. He reached out and took the hammer handle from me. He gently nudged me out of the way. He pulled once, noting how the hammer was hooked into the cabinet. He yanked hard again trying to get it loose. He huffed when it wasn’t moving.
“I broke it,” I said. My mind replayed the way he said my name. The tingling sensation returned. It made up for the fact that he called me a little girl before.
“Of course you would be the first girl on the planet to break a sledgehammer.” North jerked on the handle and the hammer popped free. He dropped it near his feet. “But not today.”
“She took out the cabinet,” Silas said. “One Sang, zip Luke.”
“Hey,” Luke said, making a face. “I started it for her.”
“You two haul this stuff out,” North said, hands on his hips and nodding to the pile of splintered wood they had collected by the door. “There’s a wheelbarrow in the back of the truck. See if you can get it in here. Take it out to the Dumpster. And get her a pair of gloves.”
“I want to do it again,” Luke said.
“We’ve wasted enough time today,” North said. “I want to get all this cleared out and you’ve still got homework.”
Luke rolled his eyes. North responded with a grunt, picking up his sledgehammer and swinging it against the cabinet I had broken. With a few swings he had it cleared from the wall and was starting to move down the line.
Silas’s face became granite as he hauled up his sledgehammer, and approached the cabinets. Luke and I stood by and watched the two of them working. They moved in a fluid motion. On occasion they glanced at one another as if they were watching out to make sure the other was okay. I was in awe of how their muscles moved as they were working and the way they seemed comfortable with their silent system.
Luke nudged my arm. I looked at him and he motioned to a large section of wood that we could haul out. I helped him wedge it through the door and we carried it together out of the building. No rest for the wicked.
G ROUNDED
It was dark when we pulled the last of the carpet into the rental Dumpster. I was sweating through Luke’s shirt. My muscles ached. I leaned against the side of North’s truck, trying to catch my breath.
It was hard for me to imagine the church as a diner before but after the cabinets were cleared out of the kitchen and we finished rolling up the carpet in the chapel, it was looking less like a church but even less like a diner.
Luke’s chest was heaving. He bent over with his hands on his knees after hauling the carpet out. “Glad that’s over.”
Silas strolled toward us. He had my bag in his hands. He held it out to me. “You’re not a bad little worker bee,” he said, his eyes dancing. He poked a finger at my nose. “You’re hired.”
I stood up straight and smiled at him, feeling a second wind. I took my bag from him, letting it drop at my feet. “Will you guys be back tomorrow?”
“It depends on what happens tomorrow,” North said, coming up next to Silas. “We’ll see.”
It felt like this was something they dealt with on a regular basis. Were they ever not able to make too many plans ahead of time because of their obligations to the Academy? Or was it they liked to change things often enough and moved with how they were feeling? Things seemed to happen at such a fast pace with them.
North’s face flickered and he reached into his back pocket, pulling out his cell phone and answering it. “Yeah? What? No, she’s here.”
Uh oh.
North’s eyes widened and sought out mine. “What the fuck do you mean she’s grounded? What happened?”
I pursed my lips, avoiding Silas’s and Luke’s eyes on me by staring at North’s feet instead. My shoulders hunched as I cowered where I stood.
“No, she’s… yeah. She’s going home now.” North hung up, holding his phone out and pointing it at me as he came after me. “You’re in big trouble, missy.”
“What happened?” Silas asked, edging in front of me as if to shield me from North.
“Have her tell it, because I want to hear this, too.” His eyes fired bullets at me. “Start talking.”
I shivered. I swallowed. “Gabriel got into a fight and I tried to help.”
Silas smirked. Luke looked confused.
North shook his head. “Start at the top.”
I started describing how I was in the hallway when I heard shouts, until I was in the office getting checked out by Dr. Green. “Gabriel said I was grounded but I didn’t know he was serious,” I finished.
Luke rubbed the back of his head as if in disbelief. Silas’s mouth was open.
North lunged for my arm. He half dragged me back to the church. I stumbled along the gravel drive until he stopped under the light near the doors.
“Easy on her,” Silas barked at him.
North ignored him. He positioned me under the halo glow and examined my face. He licked his fingers and started smudging my lower lip and at my bruised cheek.
“Ouch,” I said, backing my head away.
“Stay still.” He cleaned the makeup off my face, observing the damage. He pulled my lip back with his thumb, checking the cut. “I thought something was wrong with your face but I assumed it was just the bad lighting in the kitchen. God damn it Sang baby, why didn’t you say anything?”
My lips twisted and I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling cornered and uncomfortable. “I don’t know. I thought you guys already knew and weren’t saying anything about it.”
He pointed a finger at my nose. “What the hell made you think you could jump into a fight?”
“Gabriel was in trouble.”
“Gabriel can handle himself. You, on the other hand, are in deep shit.”
I backed away a half step, unsure of how to respond. My mouth seized.
Wouldn’t he have jumped in and helped, too?
Silas approached. He traced a broad finger across my chin, tilting it so he could examine the bruising. “Who did it?” he asked, his deep voice bubbling with subdued anger.
“I don’t know who,” I said. “Kota’s got to, um…, wire the people who did it.”
North chuffed. “Uh huh. Kota, Victor and Gabriel are out there working overtime because of you. You were supposed to stay home and out of trouble.”
“But if I’m with you, I’m out of trouble, aren’t I?”
North’s mouth fell open but nothing came out. He grunted, threaded a finger through the dark hair on his head, and turned away to stare at the wall of the church.
Silas sighed. He bent over, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and hugging me. “Good one.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck to return the hug. He dropped an arm down to scoop me up at my butt, picking me up off of the ground. He pressed me to his chest, hugging me closer so he could stand up straight. It was way too hot but I didn’t care. His hug was amazing.
“Okay,” he said, turning sideways to North as he hung on to me. This let me peek over his arm at North. “Sang didn’t know. We can’t blame her for sticking up for one of us if she didn’t know. We’d do it for her.”
“She was doing what we would do,” Luke agreed, coming up from behind Silas. “What was she going to do? Run off? Are we going to ground her for that?”
“She’s grounded for being reckless,” North said, turning around again. He spotted me in Silas’s arms and his shoulders dropped. “But I guess if she’s here with us, it’s better for her anyway.”
“Right,” Luke said. “But she can’t stay out all night. I should take her back.” He motioned to me. “Let’s get going. You’re already in trouble. Kota will probably skin us if we let you get caught again.”
Silas lowered me to the ground until I was standing again. North spun me around and wrapped arms around my shoulders. His face pressed to my hair as he held on. “Next time, you better fucking say something. And no more fights.”