by Mallory Funk
“What the fuck happened to you guys?” Derek asks with wide eyes.
“Who the fuck did this?” Cole says. I don’t think I have ever seen him so pissed, and that is what makes me laugh harder.
At that moment, we all go quiet. We hear a lock click and the deadbolt click in place.
“It was one of them! I know it,” Cole exclaims.
“Of course it was one of them. They locked the fucking door!” Derek says on a snicker.
“They both work in the salon, so that’s going to be a tough call. By the look on Paige’s face, I’m going to say that it wasn’t her,” Sam says.
Paige gets a serious look on her face. She gets up, walks over to the door, and starts banging loudly on it.
“If one of you bitches doesn’t open this door up, I’m going to kick someone’s ass! I never had my coffee yet! You can’t keep me out here with them!” The rest of us are sitting on the porch or standing in front of the steps, and we are all watching her with the same amusement. We know how amazingly grumpy she gets if she doesn’t have a cup in her hands the second that she opens her eyes.
“Oh shit, I don’t think I can deal with Paige and no coffee after how I woke up this morning,” Liam says, and Cole nods his head in agreement.
“I said open the fuc-“ Paige’s words get cut off when the door opens and a hand grabs her, pulling her inside. The locks click in place again.
“What the fuck? Are they in this together?” Cole says.
“Paige, you better not have done this to my face and lied to me about it! I swear, I will get you back this time!” Liam yells. The rest us take a good look at Liam and Cole and start laughing.
“Fuck you, asshole, concentrate!” Cole says.
“How can we concentrate when you look like that?” Kyle says laughing.
“Those chicks are up to something, I just know it!” Derek says once everyone calms down.
“I wouldn’t laugh if I were you. None of you are safe!” We hear Courtney yell through the door.
We all stare at each other not knowing what to think. Derek is right- the girls are up to something.
“Well, I guess you guys just joined our numbers,” Cole says as he sticks out his hand to Paige’s brothers with a serious face.
“If I didn’t love coffee so much, I would SOOO be on your team,” I hear Paige yell. I can’t help but laugh.
“She’s selling us out for coffee!” Luke says looking like he can’t believe that really happened. My brothers and I all give him a look that says, “like really?”
We all look at each other. “Ahhh fuck,” Sam says.
“What?” Kyle looks at us.
“They got the coffee fucking makers!” Sam says. At that statement, our eyes all widen. Fuck.
“Let’s just go pick some up while we wait for their attack,” I say. We all get up.
After twenty minutes, we are all standing in the living room and we just realized how fucked we are.
“They had to have taken them!” Liam says. Thankfully, both he and Cole washed up and now don’t look so bad. Cole’s hair colour had just been a spray on dye.
“My question is how the fuck did they do that without any of us knowing?” Noah says.
We have all just came to the conclusion that Paige, Tara, and Courtney have not only locked us out of their house, but also have stolen our keys to their house and our vehicles. They have also taken our wallets too, so we can’t even walk to get coffee or anything at all. I also left my phone beside Paige’s bed, so I don’t have any way to message her. Fuck, what are they are up to?
“What I don’t get is how fucking sneaky these chicks are. There’s eight of us. I swear, my wallet was in my pocket when I got here. Paige was the only one out there with us, so she had to have done it. She tricked us!” Noah says.
“Well let’s go over there and find a way in. There has to be a window or something we can get into,” Derek says. We all make our way over to the girls’ house and that’s when all hell breaks loose.
“Ow, fuck!” I look over at Kyle and he has a big blue paint spot on his chest. Next comes a green and then a red one. We all look up and see the girls in the upstairs windows with paint ball guns aimed at us. Oh hell no.
The girls start shooting at us and we can hear the laughter from down here. Oh, they are going to pay. This house can’t keep them safe forever.
“I got it! I’m in!” Noah yells. Next thing I know, the front door opens. We all charge inside and look for the women. They have officially declared war. We go up to the rooms where we saw them in the windows, but they aren’t there. They must have heard us, but there is no way they left because we are all in the way of the exits. As there are eight of us, we block the road and start searching.
I come into Paige’s room and find T hiding under the bed. I give her a “Really?” look. “Seriously, that’s the best place you can hide?” She tries to push herself farther under the bed looking more scared than a few minutes ago when she was safe from the eight men that she shot with paintball guns!
I grab Tara and yell, “I’ve got T!”
Making my way to the living room, I hear Sam say that he has Courtney, and Liam says that he has Paige. Oh boy.
We have them all in the middle of the living room, and the eight of us are spread out around the living room blocking any exits. They have some paint on them, no doubt from us carrying them into the living room.
“Well, ladies, what do you have to say for yourselves?” I snort at Cole who is trying to sound like the girls are on trial. He shoots me a glare.
“It was just a bit of fun, you know, Ha Ha funny? Ever heard of it?” Courtney says.
“You took our keys, wallets, and coffee!!!” Luke says loudly. Oh damn, the Johnsons are not good when they are denied their coffee.
“Yeah! And then you proceeded to shoot us!” Liam adds.
“Well, to be fair, that was really funny. You should have seen your faces!” Paige starts laughing and it sets off the other girls.
“Damn, you guys are so not seeing the humour in this. Come on, let’s get you some breakfast and coffee and maybe you all will start laughing.” They make their way to the door. Once we get outside, we see they have breakfast and coffee set up for all of us.
“Well, this is a start,” Liam huffs as he sits down.
Paige sits next to me as usual. “You guys know we have to get you back for that now, right?” I ask her.
“Like get me back how Liam does, or get me back like you’re actually going to do something?” She asks smirking at me.
“Those were not empty threats! It was just taking me awhile to come up with something. Don’t worry. Now that I know that the rest of them are going to be in on it, I have no worries on how it will go down,” Liam declares.
The women roll their eyes. It seems that they don’t believe us. We will have to fix that because that is twice now that they caught us unaware, and I know for a fact that we are going to have to get them at least once before they get us again.
Chapter Thirteen
Paige
The rest of the weekend goes by in a blur. Some of the ideas that the girls come up with to “attack” the guys are awesome. It was a fun weekend and a great way to take my mind off Shaun.
On Monday morning, I’m sitting in my office working on the books and I find a paper in the pile of work.
“Don’t think that I haven’t forgotten about you. If you want to keep your family safe, you will come to me. I will tell you when.”
With a shaky hand, I put my hand over my mouth. Oh my god. He’s going to come after them. I can’t believe that he has taken this so far. How had he changed from the guy I had met into this? Or was he always this way and I never knew? Has he done this to anyone else? I call the police and tell them about the note. They say that they will send someone to come and pick it up and get a statement. They are also going to check the security cameras that I have in the salon. Sam, who was watching over the salon for
the day, comes and stays with me the whole time, no doubt texting his brothers and telling them what happened. Everything that happens after that becomes a blur and next thing I know, Trevor is right in front of me cupping my face in his hands. I see his mouth moving but I can’t make anything out that he is saying. I’m terrified now. Not just for myself but for my family too.
“Baby? Baby! Talk to me. You’re scaring me,” Trevor says. I see the worry in his eyes and that must be what snaps me out of it.
“He-he’s go-ing to hu-rt yo-u,” I sob into his chest.
“No baby, you listen to me. We are going to catch him. He can’t keep doing this to you. It kills me when I see you cry.” He wipes the tears from my eyes as my crying slows down.
“Why don’t you get her home and I will stay here with the girls. We will see you tonight,” I hear Sam mutter to Trevor.
I see Trevor nod as he guides me to his truck and helps me in.
When I see we are pulling up to my driveway, I look over next door and see the “For Sale” sign up at my neighbor’s house beside us. I call the number on the sign, and I notice that Trevor stops the truck and turns it off while sitting there patiently for me to finish. I see the confusion on his face when I ask how much and if it needs any work. I find out that the neighbors were an elderly couple who decided to move six hours away to see their grandkids grow up. They are planning to move the following weekend. I make all the arrangements, and I tell the realtor to meet me next door with the paper work in a couple hours.
Trevor looks at me, waiting for an explanation. I tell him that once we are inside I will tell him. Sitting in the living room, I tell him how I want my brothers to move closer so that I can get to know them. I also explain that having them near would also help if Shaun ever comes around. Trevor listens and nods along with everything I say.
“How do you know they will want to move?” he asks me
“I don’t, but it’s our parents’ money, or our dad’s, but they live in a three-bedroom house that’s half the size of mine, if not less. I don’t feel right living in this big house with them living over there. I haven’t spent a dime of my parents’ money. I never really felt right doing it, but if I use it on this maybe I can convince them to move here. If not, then I guess we will save it until someone wants to move. Who knows, maybe we will eventually own the whole block.” I can’t help but laugh at the look on his face.
“Well, text them and ask them to come for dinner and we will see what they say. If anyone can convince them, I know you can. I would feel much better if you had them around too. They already seem pretty protective of you and have given me the big brother speech.” I feel my lips twitch.
“The big brother speech?” I raise my eyebrows.
“Yeah, you know, the ‘hurt her I will hurt you’ sort of thing.” I don’t know exactly why, but this makes me break out laughing.
“You are so strong, baby. I love seeing you laugh, even more now due to you crying earlier. You seem to be handling this a lot better than most people would.” He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear.
“I just…” I take a deep breath. “I just don’t want him to ruin this. Us. Our family. I was scared to love or be loved for so long that now that I have that, and you, I don’t want to lose it. I will not let him take that away from me. I wish we didn’t have to go through this and he would just let me go. I’m scared that he’s going to hurt you, or one of your brothers, or mine, or even one of the girls. I can’t let him stop me from living my life. I won’t let him ruin my happy.”
When I look into Trevor’s eyes, all I see is his approval and love for me. He tells me that he is staying with me for the rest of the day and we decide to go to the grocery store and stock up both houses. I call my brothers and tell them to come by for supper and they have no problems about that. After we get back from grocery shopping, we put everything away while getting everything ready for supper. I see a huge supply of tampons and pads under the bathroom sink. I can’t help but let out a small laugh. There must be at least a two-year supply for each of us. Which means the girls are planning something already against the guys. I can’t help but wonder how much we can get away with before they retaliate against us. These girls seem to come up with these ideas and I can’t help but go along with them. I know that one day it’s going to come back to us because hello? Eight against three! It will still be funny whatever it is.
“Babe? Are you okay?” Trevor asks. I hear him coming closer.
“Oh, I’m fine, honey. Just putting my TAMPONS away.” I laugh as I hear his retreating footsteps.
Once we have everything ready, I fill out the paper work for the house next door and make financial arrangements for the house with the bank. Everyone starts coming home from work and are freshly showered. We are all sitting on the patio with our plates full having small talk while we eat.
“Did you see they sold the house next door?” Cole says.
“I didn’t even know it was for sale,” Tara says.
“I saw the sign this morning, but I can’t believe they sold it that fast. I wonder who our new neighbors will be,” Courtney says.
“The Johnson brothers,” I say calmly, and I feel my lips twitch when everyone looks at me like I am crazy.
“You know other Johnson brothers?” Kyle says in mock horror.
I can’t help but laugh. “Oh no. I don’t.” Then I see everyone’s look turn into confusion except Trevor’s.
“What do you mean? I know we never bought that place. Last time I checked, we weren’t moving,” Noah says suspiciously.
“I mean that I bought the house this afternoon when I got home after seeing the sign. The couple is moving out this weekend, and we can go and check if anything needs fixed up then. I want to get to know you guys better and I used our parents’ money to buy it. I haven’t touched it since I really don’t need it with my income from my salons. I thought that with you guys close, you could also be near in case Shaun decides to come around- you know, power in numbers and all that. Also, it’s bigger so you guys can have a lot of space. This is what I think we should use our parents’ money for. Now that I found and know about you guys, I don’t think of it as just my money and I never really wanted it anyway. We can fix the house and do whatever to it. If you guys don’t want to move in, then I guess we will just let it sit there until one of us takes up the space.”
I look at my brothers. I can’t seem to read the expression on their faces, but they nod at me and then Noah speaks up. “Okay, we will fix the house up and move in. I would like to be closer, and I think that it would be easier to get to know you by living beside you. I think it might be nice, and it will make it easier when we men decide to get you girls back for the paint balls.” The women just roll our eyes because we really don’t believe the men will retaliate against us.
“After that note today, I think it would be a good idea for us to be closer too. If your ex ever shows his face here, or hurts any one of you, he’s dead,” Luke says.
After everyone eats and cleans up, Trevor and I head up to bed and I can’t help but notice how natural this all feels. We have been spending a lot of time together, and I find it hard to remember when I used to go to sleep without being in his arms. I love sleeping with him at night. He also seems to be insatiable as soon as we are out of sight. We have been having sex every night since that first time, and every time feels better than the last. I don’t seem to grow bored. I like that he seems to take control in the bedroom. All I really have to do is look at him and I’m turned on. I know that he has had more experience, but I don’t let that bother me. I love him and, ever since he came into my life, he has shown me that he has eyes for only me. By the way he holds me and looks at me, I know that he loves me like I love him. I feel like I have known him my whole life and it’s amazing. Like I told him earlier, I will not let Shaun take this away from us.
After we make love and Trevor goes to sleep, I get up to grab a glass of water since I don’t seem to be tha
t tired. I pull his t-shirt over my head and I head downstairs. I stop in the hallway when I see Courtney’s bedroom door is open and there is music playing. I decide to take a peak and see what she is up to.
I quietly push open the door in case she is sleeping, and I am trying really hard to hold back my laughter at what I see. Courtney is dancing around her room holding her hand up like a microphone singing along to Spice Girls’ Wannabe. I know she hasn’t noticed me yet because she starts shaking her hips and singing louder. She starts to do a turn and stops mid way when she sees me standing there. Her eyes widen, and a look of embarrassment comes across her face.
I start to clap which earns a glare my way. “Wow! That was just wow!” I lose it and start laughing, and she starts throwing her pillows at me. I run into the hallway and Court follows me.
“Like you have never done it before.”
“Well of course I have, but I also shut and lock my door so that I don’t catch an audience!” She just rolls her eyes at me.
“Well, at least it wasn’t one of the men.” At that confession, I start to laugh. I know she would never live that down because she still gets harassed for humping T in her sleep.
“I don’t know…” I trail off when T’s door opens and Derek comes out putting his shirt on.
Both our mouths drop open. He hasn’t looked up and seen us yet. Once he does, he stops and stills. His eyes go wide.
“Well well well… what do we have here?” Court says with a smirk crossing her arms over her chest.
I see him swallow hard and T comes out behind me and runs into his back.
“Hey baby, you forgot your...” Tara stops when she sees us and goes a little pale.
“You little slut!” I gasp at her dramatically.
“So how long have you been spreading your legs for this fine piece of man meat?” Courtney asks. At that, Derek chokes out a laugh.