by Cassie James
So Piper tells us her parents are leaving for the weekend, and we all show up Friday night with no plans of leaving until Sunday evening. It’s honestly one hell of a surprise that the house is even still standing after we all take our turns fucking her through it well into the early hours of the morning. By Saturday afternoon, we’re already all just goddamn exhausted. A giddy sort of easiness permeates the air as we lounge by the pool, just laughing at anything. Life seems unexpectedly easy right now, and easy is something that we can all really use a dose of at the moment.
I glance over to where Jude and Piper are sharing a lounge chair. He’s leaning forward with his feet planted on either side of the chair, a bemused sort of smile on his face as Piper crosses her legs in front of him, facing him while she gives him hell about something he’d said earlier in the day. It might be as domestic as they’re ever going to get, and I don’t even try to hide my laugh when she reaches out and shoves against his chest hard enough to send him sprawling backward. Tyler laughs from his spot at the edge of the pool, and we both only laugh louder as Piper hops up and throws Jude a dirty look over her shoulder.
She swishes her hips in my direction, padding softly over the patio and blowing a kiss at Tyler—who’s still laughing in the pool—as she comes. Piper drops into my lap and wraps her arms around my neck before sticking her tongue out at Jude. It’s juvenile, sure, but it’s so goddamn nice to see her so carefree that I don’t think twice about it. He flips her off, and her body vibrates with her peals of laughter. I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her close, content to have her in my arms in the warm afternoon sun. Piper nuzzles against me, dropping her head against mine as she heaves a deep breath of the warm spring air.
“I wish all summer could be like this,” she laments suddenly, and the air whooshes from my lungs in one painful breath. We haven’t talked about it yet. Every single one of us skirts around the subject anytime someone else brings it up, but school’s almost up and we still have a lot of shit left to figure out. “Bren, when does your internship start?”
“The second week of June,” I answer morosely. The chance to intern with Stan at HBI is incredible, but just because I hacked his most secure piece of technology doesn’t completely get me out of a proper internship. Instead, I get the kind where I spend half of my time in a shitty corporate apartment near Silicon Valley and half of my time doing whatever the hell Stan Hyde’s personal intern does. I might get some time in Malibu, but that’s absolutely not a guarantee. I mean, plus side, it’s ended up being a paid internship, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I lose any chance of spending a lazy summer together with my girlfriend.
I’m sure her train of thought is following mine when she sighs and tightens her arms around my neck. I squeeze her back, wishing this one moment of peace would never end. “What about you Tyler—when does your pre-season stuff start?” she asks, and my heart hurts a little bit for her all over again. We’re finally starting to figure out who we all are together, how all of our shit works between Piper and each of her three boyfriends, and then we all just sort of up and disappear to do our own shit.
“Pretty much all summer,” he admits quietly, and she sighs again, her body going slack against mine. I want to hold her until the disappointment goes away, but I’m sure she’s in for another punch to the gut when she turns her head in Jude’s direction. He hasn’t said much about any upcoming shoots, but he’s been auditioning all semester—I don’t doubt that he’s going to be busy, too. And where does that leave Piper—home alone with her crazy ass mom all summer? At least we’re all tied for shittiest boyfriend of the year awards.
“It’s fine, Piper,” Jude calls from the chaise lounge, where he’s finally just spread out with his arms behind his head. He turns his head to regard us, but I can’t quite tell what he’s thinking when his eyes are shaded by his sunglasses. “I’m getting my own place once school’s out. You can move in with me.”
“What!” I ask as I jerk forward. Piper shrieks, and I have to tighten my grip around her waist even further to keep her from toppling straight out of my lap. There’s a splash of water as Tyler pulls himself from the pool and suddenly tensions are high and the peace is broken. “Man, that’s not cool at all!”
“Yeah, hold up,” Tyler says a little more diplomatically. He pulls a chair around to face Jude, and suddenly we’re in the awkwardest fucking triangle in the world, all staring at one another with grim faces. “You can’t just offer something like that without all of us talking it over.”
“What’s there to talk over? You’ll both be in dorms once school starts, everything I have on my upcoming schedule films here, and Piper doesn’t want to be stuck here with crazy ass Jackie. It’s a no-brainer,” he says easily, but there’s something in the way she stiffens in my arms that tells me there’s something she’s not saying—that maybe it isn’t as easy as he’s making it out to be.
I don’t get the chance to ponder it because suddenly she’s laughing at him as she asks, “Do Bren and Ty get to come over on weekends? I’d hate to give up my custody of them.” He grumbles a response that sounds a whole hell of a lot like “fucking whatever,” which makes her laugh that much harder. “And what about Macie—is she allowed to come over whenever I want her to, as well?”
“Fucking house train her first,” he bites out, and that has me laughing right along with her. He sits up straight then, shoulders squared as he pushes his sunglasses to rest on top of his head. He’s as sincere as I’ve ever seen him when he continues, “I’m being serious, though, Piper. Whenever you get the hell out of this place, you’ll always have a place with me, wherever that is. And these dipshits are obviously welcome over whenever.”
“But that isn’t—”
“Don’t you dare say fair,” he counters, and I shift, pushing her into a more comfortable position as Jude passes us all hard stares. I hate to admit he’s making sense, but I have to give him this one. “Life goes on, Piper, and we’re not all going to see each other every single day anymore. That sucks—a whole fucking lot—but I’m not offering this to you to try to hoard you away from Brennan and Tyler. I’m offering you the chance to get out from under Jackie’s wing, and yeah, this might throw the balance off a little, but I’m never going to keep you from seeing anyone. You know that, right?”
Piper hums in the back of her throat but doesn’t immediately offer him an answer. She sags against me again, the tension in her frame melting away slowly as Jude leans back in his seat as well. “It’ll be okay, Piper,” Tyler says as he pushes himself up from the now dripping chair. “If there’s one thing I think we’ve proven it’s that you’re not getting rid of us that easily. Even moving in with that asshole isn’t going to run us off.”
He’s laughing as he finishes speaking, but Piper isn’t laughing with him, and Jude’s only rolling his eyes. None of us have time to get weird again, so I do what I can to lighten the mood. I knock my shoulder against hers gently and she leans forward so she can turn her head and face me. “Piper, if moving in with Jude’s the best thing for you, it’s the best thing for you. I feel confident that I’m speaking for all of us when I say that we’re always going to be as open minded as possible about whatever you need from us.”
“Yes,” Tyler says as he snaps his fingers in our direction and nods along, not quite crazily enthusiastic, but not in that cool, calm way Jude has either. He offers Piper the gentlest smile before continuing, “We’ll make a deal—no, a pact—or fucking whatever, man.” He runs his hand through his hair as he struggles with his words, and Piper pushes at my arms until I let go of my grip on her waist. She finds her way into Tyler’s arms as he continues, “Piper, you compromised for us when we were still trying to figure out how each of our relationships with you worked, and I think we all agree that what we have now works. No one’s jealous, everyone gets time, and it’s not weird when we all hang out. Right, guys?”
I nod as Jude scoffs and rolls his hand for Tyler to move it al
ong. Tyler rolls his eyes in Jude’s direction but reaches down to cup Piper’s face. She closes her eyes and leans into his touch as he continues, “We’ll always compromise for you, too, to make sure we’re always open-minded and ready to adapt to whatever it is you need, okay?”
She nods before pushing herself onto her tiptoes to press her lips against his. I turn my eyes away, letting them have their moment, only to catch Jude rolling his eyes before dropping his sunglasses back over them and leaning back against the reclined lounge, arms stretched lazily behind his neck again. It’ll always be a little strange seeing her with someone else, but it’s who she is, and I love that she unapologetically takes what she wants. And Tyler’s right anyway, our jealousy faded a long time ago. This thing with us is unconventional, but it works, and I don’t think I’d change it for the fucking world.
“Hey, maybe get a fucking room,” Jude calls after a few seconds, and I laugh at the comment. My eyes jerk back in their direction to see Tyler holding a middle finger up to our smartass friend, never pulling his mouth from Piper’s as he does so. Yeah, it’s definitely a weird fucking dynamic, but it’s ours. And at the end of the day, Piper’s happiness is what matters most to me, and if this is what happiness looks like to her, then it’s what happiness looks like to me, too.
26
Piper
Tyler is kissing the hell out of me, and I’m so engrossed in it that I barely hear Jude shouting at us to get a room. I moan into the kiss as I open my mouth for his tongue to tangle against mine. He pulls me close as he dominates my mouth, digging his fingers into the hair at the base of my skull and making me shudder as one of them brushes over the tiny port hidden there. Tyler groans into my mouth at the intense reaction, his other hand dropping to my hip to drag me closer against him.
“Piper Leigh Hawthorne!”
At some point, I must’ve died and gone to Heaven in his arms because I swear to god I can hear Jackie’s voice through the fog in my mind. But then she’s shouting my name again, and I wrench my lips away from Tyler’s at the realization that she really is here. My blood runs cold as I jerk out of the circle of Tyler’s arms.
Jude and Brennan jump up from their chairs, moving quickly to stand behind me—as a reassurance or to try to be intimidating, I couldn’t quite be sure—as Jackie’s face appears along the side of the house. Shivers wrack through my body in aftershocks, and my lips tingle from the pressure of being kissed so thoroughly for so long. I barely register the sight of Jackie pushing through the gate, her face livid as her eyes rove from me to the guys and then back again.
“Are you listening to me?” she screeches as she storms through the side gate, her chest heaving with the force of her labored breaths. “I asked what in the hell do you think you’re doing?” I know I should start trying to cover my ass immediately, but I just can’t seem to get my words straight in my head. “Roman convinces me to leave you alone, tells me that you’re good, that you won’t get into trouble, and then you break every single rule we laid out for you?”
I almost tell her that I’d diligently answered each and every one of her demanding text messages, but I figure I’m in enough shit as it is and should probably keep my smartass comments to myself. There’s comfort, at least, in knowing that a reset isn’t going to happen, but there’s still enough crazy behind those eyes to suggest that any talks of college that Dad might’ve been trying to work out for me are definitely about to be off the fucking table.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” she demands, and I shrug. There’s not much I can say. She set some ground rules for my time alone at the house, and she’s right, I broke every single rule they’d given me when they told me they were going to let me have the house to myself for the weekend. But in my defense, I didn’t actually expect her to just show up out of the fucking blue, not with Roman allegedly on my side.
“What are you even doing here?” The words come out ruder than I meant them to, and for a second, I think someone else must have said them even though there’s no one else here. But Jackie’s face fills with more rage than I’d ever thought possible, and I can hear the guys shifting around behind me. Her eyes flash in their direction again, and I’m positive the amount of second-hand embarrassment they’re feeling has to be absolutely astronomical.
“I asked the neighbors to keep an eye on you—”
“What the hell!” I exclaim angrily, and she marches closer. She’s practically vibrating with the force of her anger. “You didn’t even give me a chance!”
She scoffs as she stops to stand in front of me, throwing her hands in the air as she does so. “You got a chance that you clearly didn’t deserve!” I blanch against the accusation in her tone, but anger is simmering inside of me. I’m not ready to admit that she’s right, and I’m definitely not ready to fucking apologize to her. Maybe I took it too far in inviting the guys over for an extended weekend sleepover, but I sure as hell deserve more than she’s been willing to give me.
“Did you ever stop to think that maybe I wouldn’t do shit like this if you weren’t so overbearing? I wouldn’t have to push everything so far if you would give me the tiniest bits of freedom!” I exclaim as I cross my arms angrily over my chest.
I’m afraid if I don’t keep them close to my body, I’m going to fully lose control and shove her away from me, especially since she inches closer with every word she screams in my face. I wish that the guys weren’t all standing behind me, so I could focus on anything other than the infuriating, reddening face that’s inches away from mine. “We weren’t even gone an hour before you had them over—if it weren’t for Roman, I would’ve been home last night, but no! ‘Jackie, listen to reason. She’s a teenager—she’s going to push boundaries. Let’s just see where this goes.’ And where did it go, Piper?”
“Where the hell did the neighbors tell you it went? We were here all night!”
“You know, Piper, I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt when all the rumors started making their way around the social circles. I thought there was no way you’d really spent all year sleeping around the way they said you were. But now, clearly there’s some merit to those rumors after all.” All Jackie has ever cared about was how things seemed. She doesn’t actually care who I sleep with, if she did she wouldn’t have turned such a blind eye to a hell of a lot of stuff over the last months, so I’m not sure why she thinks she has a right to bring it up now. “So who was it last night, hmm? Tyler? Jude? And who are you?” My eyes go wide at the intentional slight to Brennan, but she keeps going, and I’m seeing red. “Did everyone just take a turn, Piper?”
“You know what?” I take half a step back, trying to put some distance between us, but she follows me, and the anger surges fresh and hot. “Fuck you, Jackie! Don’t even begin to pretend like you give a shit about me. This entire experiment has been about nothing more than appearances.”
“If that’s the case, it failed didn’t it?” she scoffs as she asks, and she pushes me another step backward. Scuffling sounds from behind me, and I can see the guys parting to either side of us in my peripheral vision, shuffling awkwardly to the side, unsure of what, if anything, to do. “You’ve been nothing but a spectacular failure from the start. Stan never managed to get the personality right. You couldn’t be any less like my daughter if you were actively trying.”
“What’s to say I’m not trying to be different from your daughter?” I shout back, as I lean forward—closing the distance between us once more. Jackie’s nose crinkles with her snarl, and I take great satisfaction in continuing, “You raised a real peach, Jackie. Your daughter was fucking terrible and people hated her. They wanted her dead. Tori, the girl that was supposed to be her best fucking friend didn’t even want her alive. She left her alone in the pool to die because she didn’t actually care about her. And I’d rather die than ever be accused of being like her.”
The force of the push is so unexpected that I don’t brace against it, instead flailing wildly as I slip backwards
. My leg catches and drags along the rough stone surrounding the pool as I go. I grapple open air as I fall, my mouth falling open in shock, but I can’t catch myself before my temple slams against the lip of the pool. My eyes haze for a long moment, and I forget everything about human responses as I sink toward the bottom of the pool.
Is this what it was like for Piper? I wonder as I shake my head and blink my bleary eyes against the sting of chlorine. My head throbs and my leg stings against the scrapes lining it, and I’m addled enough that I don’t quite piece together that someone’s hooking their arms around my middle and pulling me toward the surface of the water. Shaking hands run over my throbbing temple, and I hiss as I pull back, still blinking blearily around the chlorine-treated water running in rivulets into my eyes.
“Are you okay?” Jude asks as he runs his hands over my face, wiping the water away that’s running into my eyes. I shake my head, but I hiss again when it throbs painfully. I wince against the sound of Jackie’s frenzied wailing.
“Piper, Piper, oh my god!” she screeches, and I reach up to cover my ears with trembling fingers. I can’t get my thoughts straight no matter how hard I try, and I need her to quiet the fuck down. I press my forehead against Jude’s heaving chest, barely processing that he’s pushing me toward the steps at the other end of the pool. “I’m so sorry—”