by Goode, Ella
“I heard they live here,” she says, looking up at the concrete and glass building. “This is where the rich kids live,” she adds.
I know Zeke does well for himself and while Levi doesn’t get paid for playing football, everything here is free. Zeke also has a free ride, so I’m not surprised that they can afford to live in these fancy digs. The real question is why Zeke is even here. College is something he doesn’t need. He’s brilliant and I know he was making money on his own before he and Levi took off for school. If I had to guess, he enrolled because Levi was here and that I would eventually join Levi. Zeke likely came here for college so that the three of us could all be together. I make a mental note to ask Zeke if he really wants to attend college. I don’t want him doing something he doesn’t want to just so that we are all doing the same thing. I want to make sure everyone is doing what they want and not sacrificing their own dreams for the benefit of the team. We can be together and all do different things. I make a mental note to talk to Zeke about this stuff.
“It’s just a condo.” I slip my arm into Erika’s, pulling her with me. I don’t want her to feel out of place.
“Do you have a key or something?”
I pause for a moment after we enter the building. I do, but I can’t remember where I put the thing. They gave it to me forever ago when they got the place.
A man behind a desk pops his bald head up to look at Erika and me. “Oh, shit,” I mumble. Busted. I know it for sure when the man says my name.
“Olivia,” he says. It’s my given name but no one calls me that. How does he know my name?
“That’s me,” I chirp, trying to play it cool. “Just popping in to grab something.” I pretend I’ve been here before.
“Of course.” He nods. I walk over to the elevator and hit the button that I notice also has a keyhole, but it opens instantly. Maybe you only need the key when the doorman isn’t here. I wonder if that’s the key I was given?
I pull Erika in with me and hit the button for the top floor. Nothing happens. The doors don’t even close. I hit it over and over, but the button only blinks red at me. Dang it. I don’t see a spot for another key. Not that I have one. This mission is failing miserably.
“Ma’am, you have to enter your code.” The man behind the desk stands. It’s then I notice a keypad. My mind blanks for a moment. Then, I type in the date we met. My birthday would be too easy for people to guess. Zeke would have picked something we remember but others wouldn’t know.
The doors close and I let out a long sigh. “We are really on a time crunch now.” I look over at Erika.
“Yeah, he’s totally going to call them.”
I nod in agreement. Moments later the elevator doors open to the top floor, revealing an entryway that opens into the living room and kitchen. My jaw drops in awe at the size of this place. Of course, they have the penthouse condo. I don’t know why I expected anything less.
I’ve seen the place a million times on FaceTime. I wish I could stop and inspect everything, but I know I need to get a move on it. I also know I made a mistake coming here. Seeing it in pictures and through a phone is one thing, but being here is another. I never want to leave this place now. It feels like home. The whole place smells of them. My eyes linger on pictures of me and pictures of the three of us all together. I don’t live here but I’m everywhere. My heart explodes with love at the thought of them picking each of these photos out and then hanging them in their home. I know in this moment that no matter where we all are, they will always be my home.
“Come on.” Erika nudges me, reminding me of our timetable.
“Right.” I head down the hallway and stop at the first room. Instantly, I recognize it as Levi’s with the athletic gear in the corner. I stand there, taking it in, but Erika nudges me again to remind me that I need to move. I head to the closet but find nothing. Erika looks under the bed and comes up with nothing. We head back into the hallway and into Zeke’s room. Computer screens line one wall. They are on sleep mode, but the combined screensavers form one giant picture of me. Even Erika stops to look at it.
“No wonder you didn’t give a second thought to them being over at Hope’s.”
I nod in agreement. God, I love them so much. My eyes start to sting.
“Nothing here either,” Erika sighs. “Maybe they stored them in the other room.” She grabs my elbow this time, leading me out of Zeke’s room towards the door at the end of the hallway.
I’d seen both Levi’s and Zeke’s rooms before, but I’ve never seen this room and I have no idea what’s in it. I push open the door and freeze, knowing instantly whose room it is.
“It’s our room,” I gasp. I stand there, unable to move when I see the oversized bed. This room was meant for the three of us to share. The beauty and simplicity of the space takes my breath away. I can feel the love in this room.
“BROWNIES!” Erika screams, jerking my attention away from the massive bed and the possibilities it holds.
“What is that?” I yell back at her. She scared the crap out of me. Why the fuck is she screaming about food again? She picks the strangest times to get hungry.
“It’s our code word! What else would it be?!” She looks at me like I’m the crazy one when she was the one who yelled “Brownies!” at the top of her lungs. She obviously doesn’t realize that we actually have to agree to a code word before using it.
“You can’t just call out some random not-agreed-upon word as a code word,” I say admonishingly. “Why are you screaming it to begin with?” I turn my head to see what she’s looking at.
I see movement out of the corner of my eye and I glance down the hallway to see Levi and Zeke blocking our exit.
“Ohhhh,” I whisper.
“Yeah.” She lets out a snort. “Put that doorman on the list.”
I nod my head in agreement. It looks like I’m in trouble if I’m reading Levi’s and Zeke’s faces right. I lick my lips, not sure how I’m going to get out of this one.
So I say the only thing I can think of.
“I heard you were at Hope's place.” I put my hands on my hips, trying to pretend to be mad. “Were you there for her brownies?” I add that little jab to give an extra reminder that I never got these brownies.
“We’re going to need a new code word. ‘Brownies’ will never work,” Erika mutters beside me. I don’t know what she’s talking about. Brownies always work.
15
Levi
“Some kids are finding Brentwood too challenging. We were helping the new dropouts move.” I smirk.
After a day and half of not seeing Livvie, I thought I’d attack her on sight, but I got to release some of my pent-up energy taking care of the pencil dick and the snot-nosed girl. Then I had to go to practice. The scout squad we played against was going to be sore for days. I’ll have to order a pizza for them or something to make up for the hits I laid out.
“What’s this about brownies?” Zeke asks, throwing an arm around Livvie’s waist as she creeps toward the door. “I hope they’re from the Sanchez's bakery. Heard those are killer.”
“We ordered some for Olivia’s birthday and they’re ready to be picked up,” the roommate improvises. I wonder if she knows that she rubs her ear when she lies.
“Yup, and if we don’t go now, they’ll be ruined.” Livvie tries to wriggle away, but my brother is not having it. He picks her up and carries her into the living room.
I sweep the special room for any disturbances before shutting the door. Livvie hadn’t made it to the closet. If she had, she would’ve seen her things tucked away in the walk-in closet in the custom shelving we commissioned over the summer. The drawers are lined with velvet. The hangers are all soft and squishy. We even bought some nice-smelling little pillows that some sales lady said Livvie would love. It’s ready for her. We’re ready for her.
The door latch clicks into place like a punctuation. I can only hope that she’s ready for us.
Out in the living room, Livvie i
s sitting in a chair with a calculating expression on her face. The roommate is gone.
“Where’s your friend?” I ask.
“I called Tank to come and walk her home,” Zeke volunteers from the kitchen. He walks out with a mug in his hand, which he hands to Livvie.
I arch an eyebrow. “Tank is who you’ve picked out?” Tank is a boxer who wouldn’t know how to smile if someone cut the Joker slashes into his mouth. Plus, he’s twice the size of Livvie’s roommate.
“They seem like a good fit.”
“Who is this Tank?” Livvie asks with narrowed eyes. From the look on her face, it appears she’s adopted the roommate.
“He’s a good guy,” Zeke assures her. “Drink the tea. She has an upset stomach from eating too much cheese pizza,” he explains to me.
“Ordered double cheese, did you?” I shake my head fondly.
Livvie scrunches up her nose. “Tiple. The ad said it was the best pizza on campus so I ordered a cheese pizza and then they asked me to repeat myself. I guess they thought I wanted more cheese.”
“She has a point,” Zeke agrees. Of course, Livvie could say that we should start eating our classmates and Zeke would fire up the barbecue. That said, I’d be dragging the bodies up to our condo, so I’m not anyone to talk.
“You want some vanilla ice cream?” I suggest. Livvie enjoys a small bowl when she has an upset stomach. Something about the cold and cream is good for her tummy.
“Are you trying to get me fat?”
“Only if you want to be. Doesn’t make any difference.” I’d take Livvie whatever size or shape she wanted to be. She’d be sexy no matter what. Like right now, she’s decked out in those tight exercise pants and a big T-shirt and all I can think about is how I want to lick her from head to toe. I surreptitiously check the clock. There’s only four more hours until midnight. I guess it’s time we cleared some shit up. “You want to tell us about the list?”
“What list?” she asks all innocent.
“That’s what we want to know,” Zeke says, settling into the chair opposite of Livvie. I brace my arm against the back. “What list?”
“Is Hope really dropping out?” Livvie asks over the rim of her cup.
Zeke and I nod.
“I bet the list only has Mr. Martin on it,” Zeke says.
Livvie’s mouth drops open. “You guys know about Mr. Martin? We hadn’t even met when I put Mr. Martin on my list.”
Zeke gives her a pitying look. “You think there’s anything in your life we don’t know about? We know about him and the girl that stole your science project.”
“Oh my God. What did you do to them?”
“Didn’t have to do a thing.”
“Mr. Martin left town a few weeks after you guys moved in, and now that I think about it, Julie Cranston also went to live with her grandma that year. What gives?”
“Baby girl, when you said we belonged to you, that meant you gave us the right to protect you. We’re not ever going to let anyone be around you who’s going to bring you down,” Zeke explains.
Our girl sighs and sets her cup down. “You guys aren’t going to get in trouble, are you? I’d like our first time to be here in the condo and not in the county jail whenever they allow us to have conjugal rights.” She taps a cute finger against the side of her mouth as worry creases her perfect forehead. “Oh no. Can we even have conjugal rights if we aren’t married?” She jumps to her feet. “We need to go to the courthouse right now.”
“It’s eight p.m.,” I tell her.
“Then let’s go to Vegas!”
I admire her problem-solving skills but step across the room to push her back into her chair. “No one is getting into trouble. Like every bully ever, Hope is all talk and no action. We showed her a couple of pictures of Frat Boy and she packed up immediately.” I don’t mention the cursing and shoe throwing because I don’t want Livvie to get upset. Hope’s temper tantrum didn’t last long because Zeke had compiled a bunch of video evidence of Hope putting other girls in danger out of spite, including some of her sorority sisters. Once she saw that shit, she had no problem leaving school.
Getting everyone to drop out of school if they’re going to bad-mouth Livvie isn’t an ideal situation and it doesn’t protect her once we leave here, but it works, for now.
Livvie sits down with a thud, another dark look creasing her forehead. My hackles immediately rise. I straighten up and demand, “Who do I have to kill now?” I’m not even kidding. I hate seeing dark clouds cover her face.
“I just had an awful thought.” She covers her face with both hands as her stricken gaze ping pongs between Zeke and me. “I can only marry one of you, so if you both go to prison, there can be conjugal rights for only one! This is terrible!”
I don’t have to look at Zeke to know he’s feeling conflicted about Livvie’s sudden understanding of what being with us really entails. On the one hand, fucking finally. We can hash this issue out and get everyone on the same page. This is what Livvie’s mom was worried about, and I guess she had good reason. On the other hand, I hate that Livvie’s innocence is being stripped away.
Her blacklist is short because she genuinely loves people and people respond in kind. She’s the type of girl who thinks that serial killers have a good side. I suppose I should be grateful for that otherwise she probably wouldn’t want to be with someone like me, who’s known for being an unsmiling asshole most of the time.
I wish we could keep her wrapped up in cotton with her rosy glasses shading her vision of this fucked up world with its judgmental people and its stupid-ass rules.
“I can’t marry either of you,” she concludes. “It wouldn’t be fair. We either all get married or none of us get married.”
“You’ll marry Zeke.” We’d already discussed this. Zeke’s the oldest and that shit means something to him. I know in my heart that Livvie’s mine. I don’t need a piece of paper from some clerk in an office to tell me that we’re together.
“What? I can’t just marry Zeke,” our baby girl protests. She points a finger at me. “You’re just going to be the best man or something? That sucks. Let’s move somewhere. There’s got to be a place where we can all get married.”
“Not really,” Zeke says. He leans forward and catches Livvie’s hands between his. “It’s apparently okay in several places for a guy to marry two or more women, but a woman getting together with more than one guy is basically outlawed everywhere. There are a few regions where it’s accepted, but I don’t think our Tibetan union would be recognized by any jail house in this country.”
Zeke started researching this years ago and has all the details, so I let him talk.
“That’s some bullshit.” Livvie presses her lips together in an unhappy line.
“We’re not going to go to jail, so that worry isn’t one you should have. Look, the thing is that there are a lot of shithole people with minds closed tighter than a fist who are going to judge us and, mostly, you.”
The thought of something bad being said about our Livvie makes my blood boil. My fists are going to get a workout if the news of what we did to Frat Boy doesn’t deter the dumbasses here on campus. I wrap my fingers around one fist and crack my knuckles. Livvie looks at my hands and then my grim face.
She tilts her head. “You can’t fight everyone.”
“Maybe I can,” I reply. I’ll fight everyone who hurts her or die trying.
Livvie pulls her hands from Zeke’s grip and gets up. She takes a seat in Zeke’s lap and then grabs one of my fists to press her lips against it. I shiver from the contact.
“You guys. Why do I care what other people think? Do you love me?”
“Of course.” My throat feels scratchy.
“You know we do.”
“Then it doesn’t matter. People can call me a slut—”
“Who the fuck called you a slut?” I roar, straightening to my full six foot five inches. That person is dead.
Livvie recaptures me hand. “Stop it.
I’m just saying that if that happened, I’d only be sad because it would hurt you. It doesn’t hurt me. No one’s opinions other than yours and my mom’s make any difference in my life. If you love me and aren’t ever going to want someone else, then that’s all that matters.”
“There’ll never be anyone else,” I say gruffly. If Livvie left tomorrow, I’d die a virgin. There’s not another woman who would move me. I know this for an absolute goddamned fact.
Zeke pulls Livvie up to his chest while she still clings to my hand. “We’ll always love you so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“Then will you kiss me already?” Livvie cries. “I’m dying. My body is literally wasting away from not being touched by you. Look!” She points to her round belly. “I ate a pound of cheese and my food baby is still only in the first trimester.”
I smother a snort of laughter. Zeke’s lips tremble from suppressed laughter.
“It was meant to be funny. You guys can laugh.” She pokes Zeke in the cheek. He breaks, because, how can he resist?
I kneel down and press my face into the hollow of her spine. Fuck, she smells good. Like cherries and spice. I take a deep breath and soak her in. She’s right. All that matters is that we love each other. The details—who gets to marry whom, whose ring she wears on her finger, that sort of shit is all extra. The real important shit is how we feel.
“So who’s kissing me first?” she murmurs.
I feel the vibrations of her words against my cheek.
“We have two hours,” Zeke informs her.
A motherfucking eternity, in other words.
“Really?” she sighs. “You’re really going to make me wait two hours?”
16
Olivia
They really made me wait two hours. They fed me, which was great, but my stomach wasn’t the thing in my body that was hungry. Levi rubbed my feet for a real long time. A few times it looked like he was ready to devour my toes and I got so wet at the thought. Who knew that toe rubbing could be so erotic? But he didn’t do anything. He just sighed heavily and went back to stroking every inch.
