by Carrie Banks
Taking my phone, I rush down to the stateroom that I will never sleep in again. Looking around wistfully, I gather my things. Charging to the bathroom I clean out my toiletries.
She’s there lurking in the corner, the sea siren made of stone. Now I understand what her smug eyes were trying to tell me.
I throw everything quickly into my overnight bag and rush off to find Gabby.
Dashing down the hall, I hurriedly scroll through my contacts and find Aunt Mel.
My thumb hits call without hesitation.
“Tessa? Did you mean to call me?”
“Yes. Aunt Mel—I can’t explain right now. I have a small emergency. I’m in Newport with a friend, can you come get us?”
“Where are you?”
“Bannister’s Wharf.”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
I disconnect feeling relieved that I have a plan to get Gabby off this sinking ship.
“Oh shit.”
Arriving at Barron’s stateroom, I pause at the destruction inside.
She’s trashing the place.
Lamps are sideways and the bed is destroyed.
I step over Barron’s strewn designer clothing. They’re soaking wet and reek of beer. Gabby is over by the mini fridge popping cans of Barron’s favorite German stout.
She takes a few sips then turns them upside down, dumping it all on the rug. I watch her clumsily climb into the bed.
Pulling down her panties, she squats on the mattress.
Dumping my bags, I rush her. “Don’t! Be better than this, better than him.”
I pull her panties up for her, when she collapses into my arms.
“Why Tess? Why me?”
Still drunk and now tired, her hair’s limp and sticky. Her eye makeup has smeared down her face. Her skin’s wet with sweat and beer. She alternates between hiccupping and crying—speaking a little broken Spanish in between.
“I don’t know. Let’s just get out of here. My aunt is coming for us. We’ll go back to her house, sort this out and get cleaned up. I’m here for you, Gabby. We’ll get through this together.”
“Okay.”
She leans on me and we get up. Gathering her bags, we leave the room.
No one escorts us off the Majesty.
As we walk off the ramp to the dock, I know in my heart that I will never step foot on this yacht again.
I turn around for one last look and see Barron out on the top deck. His silhouette is illuminated against the dark sky. I can’t see his face well, but the bottle in his hand is hard to miss. He puts it to his lips taking a long swig.
I walk Gabby down the dock to the brick walkway passing shuttered restaurants. We find an old worn bench under a tree and wait for our rescue.
Facing the road, I stare out into the deserted night seeing nothing but emptiness. Getting my phone, I call Ryan.
“Tessa—I’m on the other line with Barron.”
“What did he say?”
“That he and Gabby had a huge fight and JD got involved.”
“Well, JD certainly got involved, but he’s not telling you the truth. You need to get here. Now. It’s bad.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can baby. Hold on.”
“We’re gone. Gabby and I just left the Majesty and Ryan—I’m never going back.”
“What the hell happened?” He roars.
“You need to hear it from Barron. I’ve got to go. My aunt’s here. She’s taking us back to her house.”
“Be safe and get some sleep. Text me, if you’re still up later. I love you, Tessa.”
“Did you just say that?”
“Yes. I did.”
“I love you, too. I’m so crazy in love with you. I’ll call you later.”
I look over at Gabby staring at me with a mixture of hate and envy.
“Sometimes, I hate you.”
“Why?”
“You’ll never understand.”
I decide to let her comment go. We just need to get the hell out of here and make it through the rest of the night.
I usher her into the back of my aunt’s Mercedes E350; a parting gift from her ex-husband. Aunt Mel doesn’t ask any questions as she drives us through the dark, empty streets.
Gabby cries softly while I stroke her hair and whisper that it will be alright.
But both of us know it won’t be.
I’m completely Gobsmacked and I wonder if I’m going to have to choose sides. Gabby’s. JD’s. Ry’s. Where are we all going to be when the dust settles?
CHAPTER SIX
BARRON
Acid burns the back of my throat.
I feel like shit.
But years of suppressing who I really am, broke free tonight. I’m relieved. But scared as hell Charles will disown me. He’s as conservative as they come. Uptight as all fuck and is expecting an heir to continue the family name someday. I throw my head back and stare at the stars. If only my mother hadn’t died. Would I have come out by now? Would she have helped me tell him?
There was no way I could have at Pine Point. Some guys on the football team were already suspicious. I had a crush on Simon Pierce. He was two years older and the wide receiver. I stared at him too long. Snuck too many secret glances his way in the cafeteria.
More than a few people noticed. That’s when I went nuts on social media, snapping selfies with as many half-naked chicks I could with a drink in hand. I was the one who spread rumors about myself. About my parties, how many girls I’ve banged… My hand reaches for the back of my neck.
“You okay?”
JD steps from the shadows.
“I-I’m scared,” I barely manage to swallow. The lump in my throat is titanic.
He awkwardly shuffles over. “It’ll be okay. They’re both pissed as fuck. Rightfully, so…but Tessa and Gabby won’t breathe a word.”
My blues eyes cut right through him. “Gabby will.”
“You don’t have a fucking clue, do you? She won’t say shit. You just made her the laughingstock of Sea Crest by pretending to be into her when you’re only into dudes. Why? Why her? Why did you have to take it that far with pretending?”
I shrug. “I hoped I was bi. I-I Jesus… you can’t fucking know the pressure to be perfect in my world. To be Charles Foster’s blue-blooded son.”
“No. I don’t have a fucking clue about all that shit. I’m fucking scared too. My two best friends just walked out on me tonight. I might never get them back. Tessa’s been there for me since… fuck!” He balls his fists. “I don’t know what I was thinking or hoping for.”
“You kept your secret, too. It’s not all on me.”
I grab the back of his head as his own tears break free. My lips find his, a low groan vibrates through his chest as my tongue touches his.
“Fuck, I want you,” he breaks away, pressing the back of his hand against his swollen lips.
My cock is hard pointing at his.
“I’m a fucking asshole. Despite what just went down, I’m horny as fuck just looking at you.”
JD shakes his head. “I can’t. This…,” he gestures between us, “can’t happen. I can’t lose her over you.”
“What if you already did?”
“Then I deserve it. I’m just as much of a fucktard as you for doing this to Gabby. I don’t know how—but you need to find a way to make this right. So, do I.” He grabs his bag over his shoulder and walks down the stairs.
“Where are you going? It’s almost three in the morning.”
“Anywhere but here.”
I watch him walk away just like Gabby and Tessa did.
Everyone leaves me.
No one stays.
It’s always been this way until I met Ryan. I crushed on him hardcore when we first met. But then we became tight and it wasn’t like that for me anymore.
I could lose them all. Even my own father, but I can’t lose my brother. I can’t lose Ry. If I do—I might as well just fuckin, disappear too.
I r
aise the tumbler in my hand to my lips still tasting his on me as I swallow the aged to perfection scotch.
What a fucking mess.
While everyone was having their summer of dreams, I was trapped in a nightmare. It’s dark as fuck out on the water but everyone has woken up…dreams died tonight. And I single-handedly wrecked them all.
My cell rings from the pocket of my discarded shorts still laying on the deck. “Fuck,” I breath out hard. I pad over to my discarded clothes reaching into my pocket, fingers flinching when they find the phone. I don’t want to know who it is. But I can’t run from this anymore, either.
“Hey,” I choke out.
“What the fuck is going on, Barron?”
“Ry… did she tell you?”
“Tess? She just told me to get my ass to Newport. What happened? Why did they go?”
“I-I can’t do this over the phone.”
“For fuck’s sake! Just spit it out. Did you cheat on Gabby? Snort a line of coke? Jesus. Fuck. Barron!” He roars.
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, you will be. It’ll be four a.m. when I get into town. I expect your ass to be up with an explanation.” He ends the call.
My hands shake.
As pissed as they both were, they gave me the dignity to tell Ry myself. With hunched shoulders I gather my clothes and tuck them under my arm as I walk inside still dressed in only a towel.
The door to my stateroom is wide open. She trashed the damn place. Tore it to hell and shredded my inner sanctum just as I shredded her to her very core. I’m not even mad. I sit on the end of the beer-soaked bed and let the tears clogging my throat fall.
I was so wrapped up in faking it to everyone…deluding even myself, that I had never stopped to even consider Gabby. I thought I’d just let it fizzle out in the fall. I’d be in Boston free from the lens of Sea Crest. Ry would be busy busting his ass as usual and I’d be free to be myself without all the bullshit here.
I thought Gabby would never know unless I decided to come out years from now.
But this…this fucking wrecked the girl. It was in her eyes. In the lines of her body. I broke Gabby’s spirit tonight, watched it escape from her body and float up to the sky.
I don’t deserve to be forgiven. I got hard thinking of my old lover and pictured him instead of her every damn time. Sometimes, I even slipped a little ecstasy into my drinks…anything to help me hide my truth.
CHAPTER SEVEN
RYAN
Dread fills me.
Adrenalin keeps me awake.
Instead of the fun-filled weekend I had hoped for with my girl—my world has turned to shit. Again. I’m cruising down the Interstate to Newport. Thoughts of my already fucked-up day replaying in my head.
My parents are messed-up. When they tried to lure me back using Cody and that backfired—they found a way to extort me using HSB. When I had gained early acceptance, I didn’t think I’d need scholarships when my family has been loaded for generations.
They’re both using my college education as a noose around my neck. When they ordered me to meet them at their new house and I flatly refused, they warned me they wouldn’t pay Harvard. My fall semester tuition bill is already late.
I’m fucked without their financial help and they know it. My internship pays me a bit, but not nearly enough to afford one of the most prestigious Ivy League schools in the country.
I had agreed to meet them on neutral ground at the Boston Yacht Club. “Ryan, this nonsense ends now,” my father warned.
“You call my anger at Abbs, nonsense?”
My mother’s lips thinned. “Enough. We’ve all suffered.”
“Really?” I smirked.
My father’s face turned the color of his stuffed Lobster. He threw down his napkin and slapped the flat of his palm on the table. “Apologize to your mother. Do it. Or you can kiss HSB goodbye.” He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the carefully folded tuition bill, unfolding it until it lay flat on the table between us.
“Make your choice. Right here. Right now. Ditch the Foster’s and become a Stone again.”
My answer was my back as I stood and walked away from the two of them again.
What kind of parents hold their son’s college education over his head?
Shitty ones.
I was stunned that they attempted to wield it like a weapon. But then again, my family didn’t become millionaires by playing nice. I had just always chosen to focus on sports, Abby and my friends rather than delve into how we became so rich.
I gunned the engine to my Rover as I peeled out and drove for hours, ending up on the same cliff overlooking the Atlantic... standing in the same spot with fists clenched as I stared out at the ocean wondering why. But the answer still eluded me.
Barron would lend me the money in a nanosecond if I asked. But he and Charles have already done so much for me. I can’t ask them to keep bailing me out. I need to man up and handle my own shit. I’m going to go to a fucking Ivy League school it just might not be Harvard anymore.
“Abbs,” I had whispered tracing her name etched in granite with my finger. “Cody is doing well. I’m giving him apples and mints. He misses you though. I can see it in his eyes. I’d never let Mom and Dad sell him. Tessa was so brilliant when she came up with the idea to start your charity. So, don’t worry. I’ll keep him safe.”
I sat there on that hill for the entire afternoon. Spilling all my secrets… telling Abbs all the bad things I had done since she left this world. The emotional purge left me wrung out. After, I drove back to the townhouse Barron had leased and crashed.
Until my phone blew up.
Something bad went down in Newport. And now an hour or so before dawn breaks, I parallel park and jog my way through empty streets to where the Majesty is docked.
I board and head straight to the top deck. Barron is hunched over, clutching a bottle of scotch to his chest.
“Fuck. You’re wasted?”
His raises bloodshot eyes to where I’m standing with a hand on my hip.
“I don’t even know how to say this…or where to start…so I’m just going to come straight out and say it.”
“Say what?”
“That I’m gay.”
My eyes widen. “Bro? Stop fucking with me. What the hell is going on?” I swipe the bottle from his limp hand and take a long swig. Fuck, I need a drink too after the shitty day I had.
His eyes are gutted as he watches me drink. “What?”
He shakes his head. “Gabby was shit-faced and had the munchies. Tess took her to a pizza place. JD and I left the bar to get turn the hot tub on. We ended up making out. One thing lead to another—and I ended up naked in the swirling water with JD’s mouth wrapped around my cock. Tessa… she found us.”
The way he spoke. So, matter of fact with dead eyes… I knew he wasn’t fucking with me.”
“Jesus. H. Christ.” I sink to the fiberglass floor next to him. “You could have told me. You should have told me.” I take another swig, feeling numb, just trying to process.
“No, I couldn’t have. Not when I was still lying to myself. Denying my own truth and hiding behind bullshit pussy party rumors that I started myself.”
“JD is…?”
“No, he’s bi. I just…I liked the attention. We hung out a lot up on the bridge flirting and shit. Gabby would’ve cut my dick off if she had a knife.”
“Dude… How did you do it? How could you do it?”
His shoulders slump even more.
“I just did. I took E sometimes. Fuck… I’d fuck anything after two hits. Then black out after.”
I rub my sweaty palms on my thighs. “What now?”
“I don’t know. You don’t hate me?”
“Fuck, no. You’re my brother,” I glare hard at him. “I want to kick your ass right now, I won’t lie. But we’ve been through so much shit together. What’s one more scandal?”
Tears fall from his hazy eyes. We sit in silence passing t
he bottle back and forth until it’s kicked.
“I need sleep. Then I’ll handle Gabby and Tess. They’re at Tess’s aunt’s house in Little Compton.”
“I’m relieved. I was worried when they took off in the middle of the night. She trashed my room. Even the carpet needs to be replaced.”
“Dude. You’re lucky. Gabby? Hell, I’d expect her to dump fuel all over this ship and flick a match.”
He shudders. “She still might.”
“We better get this lady out of here and drop anchor in the harbor.”
He stands on shaky legs. “I’ll do that right now.”
“I’m coming with. You’re cocked.” I smirk, trying not to laugh. “And you like cock…”
“Asshole,” he mutters, punching my arm.
“Oh, I’m gonna tease the shit out of you. My cousin likes dick too. I could set you guys up on a date…?”
He grins. I wrap a forearm around his head and bring him in close for a nuggie. My fisted knuckles dig into his scalp.
“Ouch! Motherfucker!”
“That was for Gabby.” I let go and tweak his nose. “That was for not telling me.”
His lips quirk. Good. I brought him back around. He needs to face this shit head on and not turn to the bottle like I did when I lost Abbs.
I yawn, stretching wide and flex my biceps. “Seriously? I’m hot as fuck? You never crushed on me?”
He turns his head. “Nope. I like Latin dudes. Mocha skin and dark eyes.”
“Jesus. Okay.” I follow him up to the bridge. Barron picks up his walkie and tells the deck crew the plan. “Have you ever been in love?”
He jerks his head. “No. Almost. Once…but I had to leave Miami and come home.”
I put a hand on his shoulders. “You’ve got time.”
“What am I going to do about Charles. He’s going to lose his shit.”
“Or he could surprise you.”
“Doubtful. Look at the shit your parents pulled.”
“True. They have me cornered. They’re pulling HSB unless I fall back in line.”
“Fuck them. I’ll pay.”
“No. I need to stand on my own two feet, bro. I appreciate everything I do. But how can I ever be my own man if you keep bailing me out?”