by Quell T Fox
Alec is dressed in khaki shorts with a black button up and black boots. The dark colors make him look extra leave-me-the-fuck-alone. Callan has on fitted red shorts with a white t-shirt (we’re twins!) and black Vans, his hair perfectly swooped over to the right, the sides shaved down to perfection. The slightest bit of stubble that grew on his face overnight makes him look even more yummy. Not that I want to pick a favorite here, but if I had to pick one it would most definitely be him – when it comes to looks. Lenny has everyone beat with the personality. Maddox has on grey camo shorts and a black, sleeveless t-shirt with black sneakers, his dark hair styled into a perfectly messy fauxhawk. I can’t tell if it’s stubble on his face or if he keeps it trimmed that short, I’m not an expert in men’s facial hair.
They are all hot as hell.
“You guys ready?”
“Well, it’s about damn time,” Maddox says. “Let’s go before we all die of starvation.” I roll my eyes. I didn’t expect sarcasm from him, Lenny yes, but not Maddox.
“Oh please, you guys are far from starving.”
“Hey, are you calling me fat?” Lenny whines again. I look at him and shake my head, laughing under my breath.
We walk out to the car, Maddox opens the door for me, but I walk past him and open the door for the back seat. “What do you think you’re you doing?” He looks at me with a disturbingly, confused expression on his face.
“Sitting in the back. Is that a problem?” I look at Callan and wink at him. His face is still holding a tinge of red. Poor guy. Maddox notices, throwing his head back and swearing up at the sky. “What’s the matter big guy? Don’t like not getting your way?” I pout my lip, giving his firm shoulder a squeeze and slide into the backseat. I scoot to the middle, Alec getting in on my left and Lenny squishes in on my right. We all buckle up, my hand brushing Alec’s as we both clip in our seatbelt at the same time. He quickly pulls his hand away and scoots as close to the door as he can.
“I’m not fucking diseased you know,” I scoff.
“Ignore him.” The comment comes from Maddox who is sitting in the driver’s seat (cause where else would he be?), his dark and stormies watching me from the rearview mirror.
We drive just under ten minutes to a small diner. The building is full of windows and looks like it’s covered in tin foil. I’ve never seen anything like it. I don’t mind these small towns and their diners, actually I kind of love them. The food is homemade and comforting. A nice change from the fast food that I’m used to eating. Neither Fuckwad nor I cooked a lot, we always ordered take out.
We all pile out of the jeep, Alec being the first the jump out of the car like it’s on fire. He opened the door before Maddox brought the car to a complete stop. Callan holds the diner door open for everyone and we all file in. There is a sign placed by the door letting us know that we can seat ourselves. The place isn’t busy and we have plenty of tables to choose from. Alec takes the lead to the back and picks a U-shaped booth. He parks his ass right on the end.
“Move,” Maddox tells Alec in a no-bullshit kind of tone and he stands without a word. “Ladies first,” he glances at me with a smile. I find myself clenching my thighs together, the cause? Maddox’s tone. The things he could make me do if he talked to me in that tone.
I scoot in, Maddox sits to my left and Alec sits back down on the end. On my right is Lenny, with Callan on his. The waitress comes over, immediately handing out menus and asking what we would like for a drink. We all order coffee and juice. I look over the menu and decide that I’m in the mood for pancakes. I haven’t had good pancakes in a while and these places always have good pancakes.
When the waitress returns, she takes our orders. Each of the guys orders two whole meals each. I know I shouldn’t be, but for some reason ordering only three pancakes makes me feel self-conscious. I’m the normal one here. I shouldn’t be the one feeling some type of way.
“You guys hungry, or what?”
“Oh, this is nothing. You should see us when we are really really hungry.” Lenny states playfully while adding way too much cream and sugar to his coffee. I take note on how each of them takes their coffee. The way you drink coffee says a lot about your personality. It’s something I firmly believe - I don’t care how crazy it sounds. Alec drinks his black, yeah, I figured that one. Callan puts a normal amount of milk and sugar in his, and Maddox takes his the same way that I have mine, with only cream.
We chit chat back and forth about nothing in particular until we see two waitresses walking towards our table, each with a giant tray filled with food. They pass out the plates that take up most of the table and everyone starts eating right away. I’m the last to finish eating, not sure how that happened since I had the least amount of food, I don’t question them. They’re men, they should eat. No one seems to be in a rush to leave, so we sit back and let our stomachs settle while finishing our drinks.
“Tell me more about you guys. I told you my shit in the car, but you all haven’t told me anything.” I look to each of them, minus Alec, who is doing something on his phone. He must have a real good battery on that thing to never put it down.
“Not much to say,” Maddox says between sipping his now cold coffee.
“How do you all know each other?”
“We grew up together. We all lived in the same neighborhood, went to the same schools. Our parents were all kind of shitty, so we understand the mom thing you mentioned. But, we at least had each other. We did everything together,” Callan answers.
“I see. And what exactly is his deal?” I tip my head towards Alec.
“He hates everyone. Isn’t that right, Alec?” Lenny teases in the voice people use to talk to babies. He’s going to get punched. I can see it now.
Alec responds with a flip of his middle finger.
“He loves us though, don’t let his assholeness let you think otherwise.”
“Assholeness?” I question.
“Making up words, it’s a hobby of mine.” Lenny adds, with an exaggerated wink that makes me laugh.
“Do you guys normally pick up girls during your annual men’s road trip?”
“This is actually the first.” Callan answers, causing me to smile. I like that he’s trying.
“You guys married? Girlfriends…kids? What?”
“No,” Maddox breathes out a haughty laugh, “nothing like that.” Like that was a ridiculous question. I didn’t think it was.
“Do you have any siblings?” Callan pushes his glasses up his nose, and folds his hands together, placing them on the table in front of him.
“None that I know of, but I also don’t know my dad, so it’s a possibility,” I shrug and sip the last bit of my cranberry juice. “You?”
“None of us have siblings.”
“Something we have in common.” I tilt my head to the side, examining Callan. He looks nervous. Talking to me must really be tough for him.
“Indeed.”
Our dark-haired waitress walks over and places the bill face down. “No rush, whenever ya’ll are ready,” she says, popping her gum.
“Let’s get going back to the motel and find something to do.” Maddox scoots towards the edge of the booth and we all follow his lead. He stops at the counter to pay the bill while we all walk out the door and get into the jeep. I sit in the back again, between Lenny and Alec. Not sure what Alec’s problem is, but I’m going to break past it. Everyone loves me. He can’t ignore me forever. It’s impossible. I don’t care how much of an asshole he thinks he is, he’s no match for Friday McKay.
CHAPTER 11
Lenny
The more time that I spend with Friday, the more I think Maddox is right. I trust him with everything. I would follow him blind, either way. Yeah, he’d probably fuck with me for a bit, but I know he would never intentionally steer me in the wrong direction. I never question his intentions. But when it comes to Friday, I’m starting to realize it for myself. I think that once I let the others know what I’m feeling then Callan will
come around. As for Alec? He’ll either have to suck it up and stick around or leave...and I have no idea what would happen to us if he left. Our Circle would be incomplete again…then what? Are we able to close it without him? Do we have to find a replacement? I’m not sure how all this works, but it’s something I need to talk to Maddox about.
Maddox’s idea of finding something to do was lounging around and watching TV, we’d have been better off at the diner, at least there we had food. I’m hungry, again. Already. Friday and I are sitting up on one of the beds, Alec is laying on the other. Maddox and Callan are both sitting in the desk chairs, one borrowed from the other room.
I’ve been itching to use my magic and I think it has to do with Friday. Usually it’s containable, but ever since last night it’s been different. I half expect to look down and see my skin glowing, because that’s exactly how it feels. I’m going to have to sneak out at some point to let some of it out, maybe I can get Mad to come with me and I can talk to him then. I pick up my phone and send him a text. Our powers are cool, but if we could talk to each other telepathically, that would be fucking awesome.
Me: We gotta go out when she goes to sleep.
Maddox: Need more already?
Me: Not for that, jerkoff. It’s something else.
Maddox: Fine.
And while on the subject of texting, I’m curious…
“Has your ex contacted you lately?” My question causes Maddox and Callan to stop what they are doing and raise their heads. I like that Callan seems to be on board with this. At first, he seemed to be more on Alec’s side, but now he’s trying. He’s coming out of his shell a bit, which is something he never does. I like it. I like seeing him talking to a girl. To our girl.
“Not since the last time I told you guys. I think he’s given up, or just busy getting fucked again, who knows.”
“Does it bother you?” Callan asks the question and wow he is really blowing my mind!
“Not really, to be honest. At first, I was mad, furious. I wasn’t ever upset, though. We didn’t belong together. We weren’t happy, we were bound to break up anyway. It wasn’t…right. You know how some things just don’t feel right?”
“Or the times when they do?” Bold of Maddox to make a comment like that.
They stare at each other for a long moment, neither of them blinking either. It’s kind of…awkward.
“Who’s hungry? Can we order some food?” Clapping my hands together and standing cause someone needed to break that up…whatever that was. “Callan, you hungry? Maddox?” They both shake their heads.
“Are you ever not fucking hungry?” Alec comments but doesn’t look up from his phone.
Gasping in an overly dramatic way, Friday’s hand goes to her mouth and she points at Alec. “It speaks!” I bark out a laugh. I swear I saw the corner of his mouth twitch, but I’ll never know for sure. I can only hope.
“I could eat. Come on, Lenny. Let’s go find some food,” Friday stands to her feet and slips her flip-flops back on.
“Mad? Keys, please.”
He takes the keys off the bureau and holds them over my open palm. “Crash the car, and you die.”
“Yeah, sure.” I snatch the keys from his hand as he tries to pull them away. “Too slow, ya old fart.”
Friday and I rush to the car, laughing the whole way at my calling Maddox old.
“Do you really think he’s old? How old are you?” She asks as she buckles her seatbelt.
“Twenty-five, and no. He just gets so bent out of shape by me fucking with him. Getting him riled up is my lifelong goal.”
“Like, literally?” She looks at me with this extremely serious look and it takes me a minute to realize what she means by that. A little lightbulb finally goes off in my head.
“No, I don’t do the fucking,” I wink, saving myself.
“And you’re okay with that?”
“For now.” I shrug a shoulder because really, I don’t care. I’ve never had any interest in being the top. “I’m fine with whatever it is that goes on with us two.”
“Where are we going?”
“I saw a pizza place around here somewhere when we drove in, I just have to remember where it was.” She makes the most delicious sound with her mouth at the mention of pizza and I’m tempted to pull over right now and show her that I can do the fucking, if I want.
“Let’s find a liquor store. I want to get drunk.”
“You got it, Sweetcheeks.”
We don’t drive for long before we find the pizza place. I may have used a spell to help me find it, but no one needs to know about that. I’m itching to use my magic still, that tiny bit did nothing to scratch it. I was going to use my GPS, but we both realized that we forgot our phones because we ran out of the room so quickly, afraid of being mauled by the big bad wolf. We pull into the parking lot and there are only a few cars here. It’s attached to a gas station slash liquor store. Ah, now that is convenience.
“I’ll get the pizza, you get the liquor?” I raise an eyebrow.
“Got it.” We both get out of the car and head in opposite directions.
I walk into the pizza place, the bell above the door dings as I pull it open. It smells like fresh baked bread and my mouth starts to water. The other guys said they weren’t hungry, but I know better than to not get enough food. Once we get back, especially if we start drinking, they are going to want the food. I get to the counter and order six large pizzas. Yes, six. There are five of us and I can eat one myself. The tall, skinny guy behind the counter lets me know that it’ll be a bit because they make them to order. I head back outside figuring I’ll go help Friday, but as soon as I round the corner, I see her walking out. Her arms are full, carrying two very large paper brown bags.
This girl is ready to party.
Fuck, yes.
I take both bags from her and we head back to the car.
“Pizza will be a little while. What did you get?”
“All sorts of stuff, I wasn’t sure what you all like to drink.” I tap the bottom of the bumper with my foot which opens the trunk. I put both bags in there and then close it.
“Let’s wait in the car, the people in there don’t seem friendly.” I point towards the pizza place. She chuckles and gets into the car.
“What’s your story Lenny?”
“My story? It’s not a good one.” I run a hand through my hair and then tuck it behind my ear. “All of us grew up together in the same neighborhood. Our parents were all shitty in their own way. Mine, though? It’s hard to say she was the worst, what she did was messed up but I don’t think anything can beat what Alec’s mom did. That’s his story to tell, though.” I turn to face Friday, lifting my knee up onto the seat, the sun shining through the window and causing the red in her hair to glimmer. Her honey eyes are brighter today, definitely more so than I remember them from yesterday, they remind me of Alec’s eyes. His are also a weird shade of honey. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter who was worse or not, they were all bad. Basically, my mom left me when I was ten.”
“Oh, that’s—”
“But she didn’t just leave me with like family or something, she took off and left me in our house. Alone. At ten years old. Luckily, I already knew the guys at that point and Maddox took care of me. We never told anyone that she left. I don’t know where she is right now, probably dead.”
“What about school, bills? How did you stay in the house alone?”
“Maddox was working at the time, he paid the bills, not that there were many. He also made sure that I was up every day for school, he walked me to and from. It’s not like we had anyone to tell. None of the other guys parents would have care and if we told someone at the school or the police, we knew they would take me, and Maddox couldn’t have me be away from them because of the—” Shit, shit, shit. I almost said to much.
She makes a confused face.
“Ya know, just cause us.” Good save, Lenny. “Cause we’d known each other for so long, we were family.
If I got put into the system, I’d probably never see them again. Was it the right thing to do? Probably not, but he did a great job. I owe him my life.”
“Is that how you guys…ya know?” She brushes her hair off her shoulder, her eyes intently on mine.
“Started fucking? No, that hasn’t been going on for long. Maybe a little over a year.”
“Have you been with other guys?”
“No, and as far as I know, neither has he. I don’t think I’m attracted to guys and I don’t think he is either, it’s just…us. It’s hard to explain.” I run my hand through my hair, for no other reason than needing something to busy my hands with.
“Tell me about the first time.” She licks her bottom lip, sucking it between her teeth. I can feel my dick getting hard already.
“We live in the same city, back home. The other guys live further away, but Maddox and I spend the most time together. We were hanging out one night, drinking and it just happened.”
She takes a few strands of her hair and twirls them around her finger, possibly an innocent gesture but right now it’s really turning me on. My cock growing harder in my shorts.
“That’s it?”
She wants details.
“We were at his house, sitting on the couch watching hockey or something. I can’t exactly remember. We were talking about the guys and the upcoming trip and Maddox kissed me. Out of nowhere. He just leaned over and kissed me. At first, in that moment it freaked me out. I didn’t kiss him back, not right away. It took a few seconds for me to realize that I liked it. Once I felt how hard my dick was, I just went with it. I kissed him back, not realizing how much I really wanted it until it happened.”
“More.” Her hands move to her thighs, and she slowly slides them up and between her legs, leaving them there to rest. My eyes rest there for a moment, before bringing them back up and meeting hers.