by Eden O'Neill
Last night and this morning had been weird enough.
I had to say I was glad I hadn’t drunk any alcohol last night because coming to school with a hangover would have just been the cherry on the weirdest fucking night ever in recorded history. Actually, upon getting to school, I questioned if I’d had an out-of-body experience. I questioned if last night had happened and if this morning Dorian Prinze had actually been nice to me.
With school came the stares.
They occurred once I entered the familiar halls of Windsor Prep. People were talking. I also got more than a few catcalls. They’d all obviously heard about me having my own personal costume party last night, and I got the usual song and dance of people talking about me. More than one creep tried to fondle my ass, and after fighting off a third, I came across Bru at his locker. He had a curious brace on his hand and a more than knowing expression on his face when he looked at me.
He smiled a little. “So, um…”
“Don’t.” I shoved him, making him laugh.
He lifted his hands. “I wasn’t going to say anything,” he stated, but he most certainly was going to say something. He hung an arm on his locker. “Do I take it that this war with you and Legacy is over? Wells and Thatcher never said who they were getting your clothes for this morning, but they don’t move unless Dorian tells them.”
Sounded like Wells and Thatcher had never revealed my dirty laundry, but my brother was intuitive. He’d guessed it was Dorian I’d stayed with last night.
“I don’t fucking know,” I admitted because I didn’t. Dorian Prinze was a special egg. A dark special egg. I grabbed my brother’s arm, lifting his brace. “Anyway, it sounds like you’re starting your own war. Wolf mentioned you slugged him.”
It’d been freaking weird too. The guy didn’t even seem mad about it.
My brother grinned. “He actually said I had balls after I did it. Standing up for my sister and all that.”
He said as much, and I threw my arm around him, pulling him down with me. I gave him a noogie. “I can fight my own battles.”
“I know,” he said, wrestling me away. He smiled. “But I’ve been a little shit to you recently, and I think we both know that I owed you.”
I was happy to hear him say that. I was happy to hear we were cool again.
He lounged back against the lockers. “Anyway, I think I got lucky hitting Wolf this time. He said he’d kill my ass if I tried something like that again. Pretty sure this was a one-off.” He chuckled. “It was kind of weird actually. It was almost like he let me punch him when I found him last night.”
Again, an uber weird morning. The guy had fucking stabbed me, but thought it was cool that Bru was standing up for his sister?
Epically.
Fucking.
Weird.
These Legacy boys were most certainly a special breed.
“So are you and Dorian a thing?” I gazed around after what my brother said. He laughed. “Sloane, that’s a good thing. It means you’re basically shielded around this place. You know that, right?”
I could assume that was probably a given if Dorian and I were a thing, but I wasn’t his property.
“He doesn’t own me,” I said to Bru, and he merely laughed again.
“You’re going to get me killed one of these days,” he said, but did toss an arm around me.
Gratefully, my brother hadn’t fucked his hand up enough not to play. He went on to explain he got the brace from the school nurse this morning, and it was temporary. He just needed to rest and ice it until the swelling went down, I guess.
He’d still be able to play ball, and I was glad he wouldn’t suffer again for another one of my stunts.
My brother ended up walking me to my first class, and though we chatted for a little bit, he didn’t bring up anything about Dorian or Legacy. I was glad. I wouldn’t talk any more about it if he did.
Last night and this morning were just all too weird.
*
Dorian wasn’t at lunch.
In fact, none of the Legacy boys were. According to Bow, they’d gone to Jax’s Burgers today. They’d invited her to come along, but she’d opted to stay at school. She apparently wasn’t much of a rule breaker, and I guessed they’d been dragging her along to eat with them when they had gone.
I supposed they trusted me enough not to take advantage of her now because none of them were there in the courtyard that day. Of course, many of their legions of fans still were, and I noticed Bru out there with them.
I wondered if that burger invite they’d given him that day had been a one-off, or if Bru had simply made enemies with Ares when my brother had decided to defend my honor this morning.
Odds were, that probably wasn’t the case considering how lax Ares had been when it came to the whole thing, and really, any distance between my brother and that psychopath Mallick I was completely okay with anyway. The guy was fucking crazy.
I mean, he’d stabbed me this morning.
The little rabbit talked my ear off now that she was back at my table, and I didn’t mind because I really had missed her. Call me crazy, but I really did want to protect this girl. She just had this innocence about her, and it couldn’t be helped.
“I can’t believe you just walked in there,” she said, truly awed after I told her about busting up the guys’ poker game. “They just let that happen?” She shook her head. “That doesn’t happen, Sloane.”
Well, they’d let me. At least, Dorian had. Again, the whole thing had been unusual. Telling the story back, it almost seemed like he’d stood up for me for a hot minute before dragging me away.
“Who’s Charlie?” I asked, casual about it. The name had been a buzzword in my head through my first few classes. For obvious reasons, I hadn’t asked Dorian about it when he’d asked what I heard.
Bow stopped eating.
Like she legit stopped, the fry falling out of her mouth. She rubbed salt off her lips. “Charlie?”
“Mmhmm.” I took a drink. “Dorian mentioned his name.”
Now, she coughed. She full-on choked despite not eating any food, and I handed her the soda in front of her.
She patted her throat after a drink. “Dorian mentioned Charlie to you?”
I sat back, figuring the truth was better. I was serious that I didn’t want to do her wrong again. “No, he didn’t. I overheard. He mentioned the name Charlie.”
Her lips immediately closed like I’d known they probably would, but I didn’t regret being honest. That was what separated me from the boys themselves. I didn’t just stomp around all deceitful and caveman-like when I wanted something.
I didn’t just take things from people.
Dorian had done that last night, but I knew he was still in my head despite him being an asshole.
I knew because I was asking about Charlie.
I knew because I cared Dorian wasn’t here today and off doing whatever the fuck he was doing. He wasn’t at lunch with the other boys, and I knew this as fact.
Bow didn’t, though. She couldn’t have. Dorian had been rather tight-lipped about that with Thatcher and Wells. Bow laced her fingers together. “Charlie is Dorian’s uncle.”
“His uncle?”
She nodded. “He died last year,” she said, my lips parting. She frowned. “He was like a brother to Dorian. He was like a brother to all of us really. He was close in age. Only nineteen when it happened.”
“What did happen?”
She appeared hesitant again, her throat working. Her expression shifted, and she appeared pained.
“Someone hurt him,” she said, nodding. Her cheeks flushed, and when she blinked away, I realized I triggered something.
“I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. Nineteen was so young.
She moved her shoulders. “The boys took it pretty hard. All of our families.” She leaned in. “Charlie grew up with Dorian. Same house and everything.”
Yikes.
Lunch ended at the bell,
and she sat back. Bow grabbed her stuff.
“Probably not mention Charlie again?” She wet her lips. “It messed with our families pretty bad. The boys and me.” She nodded. “Broke Dorian, though. Broke Dorian real bad. He took it the hardest.”
For obvious reasons. Especially if they lived together.
I nodded, of course, lifting my hand. “Of course. I’m sorry I brought it up.”
“You didn’t know.” She forced a smile I knew she didn’t really mean when she turned with her things and walked away.
Why else would she hide something she normally loved to do?
Chapter Twenty-Five
Dorian - age 17
“Hey, you fellas got room for another player?”
I stopped mid-shot, and Wolf, Wells, and Thatcher stood tall on the court. We’d been joined by a fifth.
Charlie.
My uncle came waltzing onto the community park’s basketball court like we’d seen him every day. Like he hadn’t been away at classes, and we all hadn’t been missing him. He raised his arms. “What do you say? Or am I too fucking old to hang out with you guys now?”
Grinning, I ran, the other guys too. I tackled Charlie’s ass, and he caught me.
“Dude,” I said, catching his hand first. I held tight as I hugged him, the other guys crowding around. I pulled back. “When did you get in, bro?”
“Just now. Just now,” he returned, smiling wide. He looked good. Hair slicked back and rocking a little style with his bomber jacket. Charlie looked like a college boy through and through. He put out a hand to Wolf. “Wolfy!”
Wolf grinned, taking him in, and Thatcher and Wells did the same. We’d expected Charlie home for the three-day weekend, but not until Saturday.
It seemed he wanted to see us early.
I’d welcome that, always. I missed my uncle, my brother. Home life had been different since he’d been gone for the past few weeks. I was used to always having access to him, down the hall and in my life.
He punched at our chests, asking in on our basketball game again. My buddies and I all welcomed him with open arms.
We played into the night.
We played like we were kids again and not divided by years or miles. Wolf and I were juniors this year, Wells and Thatcher sophomores. We’d all been really coming into our games on the football field, and I hoped were making Charlie proud. He’d left quite a legacy on the field himself after he left. He’d been quarterback before I took over.
Charlie told us all about his first semester so far as we played. He was a freshman at Pembroke University. I could imagine most of us would be going there too. Pembroke was kind of like a sister school to Windsor Prep, and many of the guys and girls who matriculated through the academy’s halls ended up there.
We all played so long Charlie and I ended up sitting down for a drink, letting the guys play for a bit. We sat on the benches, chugging water while the other guys just dicked around.
“You look good, man,” I said. Charlie did look good, amazing actually.
Charlie smiled a little, sitting back. “Thanks. I am good. Stressed to fucking hell already with classes…”
I chuckled.
“But good, Robin. Real good.”
I’d missed that too, being the Robin to his Batman. I shook his leg. “How’s the female situation?” I asked, the first shit he should have led in with. What the fuck did I care about school and academic shit? “You should have started with that shit, by the way.”
The jostle had Charlie shaking his head. He was pretty modest when it came to women, didn’t talk about them a lot. He laced his hands. “I’m sure you can imagine.”
“I can.” I grinned. “But stop leaving me hanging like an asshole.”
“Your ass needs to be focused on school.” He brought me under his arm. “Not girls.”
Who did he think I was? I mean, he knew me, right? We had the same blood.
I wrestled with him a bit but didn’t leave from under his arm when he stopped. He patted my chest. “How have things been here? In school?”
“Okay.” I was top of my classes. Not a wiz like Wolf or even Thatcher, who was brilliant too. I shrugged. “I get by.”
“Mmm.” He grinned at me, but his smile faded a little. In fact, it wiped away completely. “How is she?”
She.
I was surprised he hadn’t led in with that.
I’d never asked Charlie about him and his relationship with our headmaster Principal Mayberry after the party he’d caught my friends and me at last year.
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t aware of the fallout.
The guy had been a wreck when he left for college, and though he hadn’t talked about it, I knew that’d been because of her. From what I understood, he’d ended things with her. I hadn’t meant to, but I’d stumbled across one of his text messages before he left. He’d been wishing her well, ending things because he was going to college.
It should have ended sooner.
I assumed, since he had ended things, what had been going on had just been a temporary infatuation. Charlie was dealing with personal shit and needed a release.
I supposed she’d been good for at least that, and Charlie did seem happier now. Lighter. I picked up the spare ball the boys and I’d brought, spinning it around with my fingers. “She’s fine, I guess.” I shrugged. “She and Coach—”
“Wait. Coach?” Charlie raised a hand. “She and Coach are a thing?”
I frowned, confused. “What do you mean? They’re married.”
“Still?” He sat back, looking thoroughly thrown by the information. Shaken. He outlined his lips. “You mean to tell me they’re still together?”
“Yeah, why? Are they not supposed to be—”
“No.” He pulled a joint out of his pocket, lighting up in front of me, which was something he never did. I mean, I knew he smoked weed. I wasn’t a fucking idiot, but he tried not to do it around me. Something about wanting to be a good example or some shit. He blew smoke through his nostrils. “They’re not. She was supposed to leave him. She said she was.”
I watched him, red creeping up the side of his neck. He drew another hit, and with the tension, I wished I hadn’t said anything. I knocked his knees. “How about we do another game? We can do two on two. Have Thatch sit out or something.”
Thatcher never liked playing as much as us anyway.
In his own thoughts, Charlie had to come out of them just to look at me. But once he had, he wrestled my hair, grinning in the way he always did. He passed it off like what I said didn’t bother him, but that grin didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“No, y’all play,” he said, letting me go. He jutted his chin forward. “I’ll watch you guys.”
He leaned back with his blunt, and though I didn’t like that, I couldn’t tell him what to do. I tossed him the spare ball, then headed back out there with the boys. We played for a little bit before I noticed Charlie over there on his phone. He was just playing on it, his fingers scrolling, but then out of nowhere, he was standing.
I stopped bouncing the ball. “Charlie?”
He was putting his bomber jacket back on when I came over, something he’d taken off when we’d started playing. He popped his collar. “Hey, Robin. I’m gonna take off.”
My eye twitched. “Take off where?”
“Just to go visit some friends.” He put his blunt out under his sneaker, tapping my fist. “I’ll be back for dinner, though.”
My family tended to eat pretty late. I usually came home when Mom shot me a text, and since I hadn’t gotten that, I assumed food wasn’t ready.
I studied Charlie. “Charlie—”
“I’ll be right back. Gotta go.” He was rushed, an urgency in his voice I didn’t like. He started to walk away but I grabbed him.
I hugged him.
I didn’t know why. It was like I felt compelled, and the gesture definitely threw him off. He frowned before folding his big arms around me.
�
�Dinner,” I made him promise, pulling away, and he nodded. He wrestled my hair again like he liked to do, making me smile, and next thing I knew, he was disappearing into the park.
I lost him through the trees.
*
Wolf and I played hoops long after Thatcher and Wells left. They were tired, but I simply wanted to tire myself out. I had stress in my muscles I didn’t like, so I played hard. Wolf was with me. I could tell he was tired too, but he kept playing.
I was like my dad in that way. He tended to work out too when he had thoughts roaming his mind.
The hour got so late. So late in fact, Wolf and I both decided to call it. My mom definitely should have texted me for dinner by now but might have gotten word Charlie was back and wanted to do things big.
I went ahead and asked Wolf if he wanted to join us. He or the other guys often did and Wolf never turned down my mom’s pot roast. My mom and I weren’t meat eaters, but she made it for Dad.
Wolf and I could smell the roasted meat all the way down the block, the pair of us walking home from the park since it was so close. We got pretty close to my house before we noticed the cop car outside it.
And my god dad’s Mercedes.
“That’s my dad’s car.” Wolf noticed at the same time as me, the pair of us picking up the pace. We got to my house, and I opened the door, placing the basketball down beside it.
“Mom?” I called.
“Dad?” Wolf asked, not far behind.
We heard no answer.
A buzzing hit my ears I didn’t like, a tension. In our search for our parents, I felt a tightness in my chest. It was an anticipation of something, a ringing in my head.
We found our parents in the kitchen.
Like all our parents, my mom and dad and Wolf’s. My god dad Ramses and Wolf’s mom, Brielle, were both there. Brielle had been headmaster of our school before we’d enrolled and Principal Mayberry had taken over.
The cop was with them.
