by A. E. Murphy
Presley smirks, his familiar façade back in place. “You love me, huh?”
I ignore him and press my hand against his heart that thuds against my palm with rhythmic balance. “They aren’t going to keep her from you. I won’t allow it.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Carter wraps his arms around both of our shoulders, effectively putting himself between us. “Let’s go have some fun. I feel like this week we haven’t done anything fun.”
“I beg to differ; New Orleans was very fun.”
“Did you drink that blood juice yet?” Presley asks, leaning around his friend to look at me.
“No, but I think I will. With all this dancing we’ve been doing, I’m constantly exhausted. I need a full night’s sleep.” I click my fingers. “Let’s play murder in the junkyard. Do you still have that flashlight in your trunk, Carter?”
“Aren’t we a little old for murder in the dark? It’s a kid’s game.”
I slap Presley’s trailer keys to his chest. “You chicken?”
“No.”
“Get the flashlight, Carter.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
We wait for him to return and I take a coin out of my purse.
“Heads or tails, you guys.”
“Heads,” they both say at the same time. I grin as they glare at each other when they also chorus, “I said it first.”
This is insane.
“You’re heads,” I snap playfully at Carter, then grin at Presley. “You’re tails.”
“Whatever.”
“Stop talking at the same time,” I shout-laugh, shoving them both. “It’s weird.” I poise myself, ready to flip the coin.
“Why is it just between us two?” Carter questions. “Maybe I want you to find me in the dark.”
“I’ll flip against the winner. Okay?”
He pulls a face at me and shines the flashlight on the coin. My hands glow in the near pitch-blackness as I flip the coin off my thumb, catch it in my hand, and slap it against the back of my other one.
“Whoever it lands on goes against me.” I reveal the head of the coin and wink at Carter. “Just me and you, baby. You’re still heads. I’m tails. Whoever it doesn’t land on is the person seeking.”
I flip it again as before and reveal a head again.
“Shit,” I mutter, pouting. “Well, I guess I’m it.”
I take the flashlight, stuff the coin back into my bag, and tap the glowing object against my palm. “You have forty seconds to hide.”
I switch off the light, turn around, and start counting aloud. Giggling when I hear one of them slip and curse.
Moments later…
“This is my spot,” Carter hisses.
“Just like when we were kids,” Presley retorts and I laugh harder.
“Now she’s heard us and I have to move too.”
They scuffle away as I stare at the closed chain-link fence that surrounds the junkyard.
Forty seconds pass and it’s so quiet I could hear the whisper of a ghost. Creepy. Why’d I have to think of ghosts right now?
The flashlight creates a large jagged circle as it passes over crushed and whole cars and other items. I move forward, careful to watch my step and listen for the sound of breathing.
I peek under, over, inside the first part and then continue on around the bend.
“Marco,” I singsong in the creepiest voice I can conjure.
“Polo,” Presley calls from somewhere to my left.
“Polo!” Carter yells from somewhere to my right.
“Guys,” I snap, laughing. “You’re not supposed to want me to find you.”
I creep forward, flickering the light both ways until I see a shadow move. When I approach the car Presley is hiding behind, I shine the flashlight on his grinning face and nod for him to follow, putting a finger to my lips so he understands that he has to be quiet.
When I turn to find Carter, Presley gets way too close to my back.
“Dude,” I hiss, “we’re gonna crash and fall.”
He pulls my hair to the side and presses a kiss to the back of my neck.
Fuck.
Burning tingles shoot down my spine and for a second I stop breathing.
“Don’t,” I hiss but really I want him to do it again. That felt oddly arousing. I shiver at the thought of him kissing me there again.
I step away and search for Carter, needing him back as a buffer.
I find him behind another car, he grins when he sees me but then scowls when he sees Presley.
“Found you both. Your hiding places sucked.” I skip to the trailer that stands to the side and knock on the door. “Let’s check this bad boy out.”
I check the battery power on my phone as well as the time and turn to face them.
“Serious?” Carter asks, looking at Presley. “Wouldn’t you rather stay with the Oakses?”
“I’m getting under their feet.”
“It’s not true,” I argue.
“It is, and they’re getting under mine. Maybe staying here wouldn’t be so bad.” He steps up the two steps and unlocks the door, it opens outwards which is weird, but he figures it out. “I just don’t want to leave Paisley.”
“You wouldn’t be leaving Paisley.” I step in behind him as he searches for the light switch.
When he flicks it on, I’m surprised to find a clean, furnished trailer. A bit dated but it looks like it has everything he needs. We explore a little bit, shuffling around each other in the small space.
“It’s got indoor plumbing, bonus,” Carter calls and I hear the toilet flush.
“Smells a bit dusty,” I comment, running my fingers along a shelf above my head. “But it’ll do.”
It has just a four-seater booth table, kitchen opposite, cabinets lining the ceiling, there’s a closet to the right and to the left is the door to a small double room and another closet, then the toilet and shower.
“It’s nothing like your old house,” I mutter. “But it’s rent free and it’s a ten-minute ride to Paisley.”
“Five,” Carter comments. “You’re just slow as fuck.”
“Fuck you,” I snap at him, but I’m only joking.
“There is a comfy-looking bed back there.”
Presley stomps past us and starts opening and closing the cabinets. His eyes light up when he finds a bottle of Jack, seal broken but probably still drinkable.
He twists off the cap and takes a healthy swig, then he points at Carter. “Stay the fuck outta my bed.” Then he smiles charmingly at me. “You can climb in it anytime you want to.”
“Give me that,” I mumble and yank the bottle from his hand. I down a few gulps and gasp, then almost puke, but I manage to keep it down.
“Stop laughing.” I hand the bottle to Carter.
“I’m driving.”
“Stay here,” I suggest. “So Presley doesn’t have to be alone on his first night.”
“Not a bad idea.” Carter sniffs the amber liquid via the neck of the bottle and mentally prepares himself. “Want me to, bro?”
“Fuck yeah,” Presley replies and they slap hands and fist-bump. “Reckon I could rig my room up with a TV and PS4?”
“Xbox, man, Xbox.”
Smiling, I watch Carter take a healthy swig and react the same way as me. “That’s vile,” he chokes, his voice no more than a rasp. “My mouth burns. Kiss me better.”
I giggle and drink more after Presley, then answer, “You heard him, Pres. Kiss him better.”
Presley gags much like we did after our first sip.
The third and fourth go down much better.
We sit on the benches, Carter beside me and Presley opposite.
“Can you believe that just a month ago we hated each other?” I tease, feeling the buzz of the alcohol thrumming through my happy head. “And two months ago I was in a straitjacket. Well… not really… but almost.”
“Why did you get put in a mental hospital?” Carter asks and I watch Presley s
pin a coin between his finger and the glossy surface of the table.
“Do you really want to get into that now?” I ask, taking the bottle and drinking more. “Seriously?”
“You’ve got to tell somebody, right?” Presley asks, still spinning the coin.
“Not here.” I hold the neck of the bottle and nod to the door. “Because then this will always be the place I told you.”
They don’t argue, they follow me back out into the junkyard. We keep passing the bottle back and forth until we find a comfy place to stand. I lean against a truck, looking up at the stars which are spinning overhead.
“I feel like I’m on a carousel,” I whisper and Carter kisses my jaw. My mind snaps back to the reason we’re here. “If I tell you both this, you have to pinkie swear that you won’t tell a soul. If he finds out, it won’t just be me who suffers. He’ll make everyone I love pay to make himself look like the victim.”
“Your uncle?” Carter questions and I nod while holding my pinkies out to them. They both take one each and I grin at my crossed arms and their rolling of eyes.
“I tried to tell the truth about my childhood with my uncle and cousin, I tried to speak out, but he made it seem like I was crazy. Nobody would believe the insane girl hell-bent on revenge because she was put away for a crime she didn’t commit. All I did was call this supposedly incredible detective who reigns in NYC. He never even answered. My uncle, who is always watching, saw the call and the next day I was being carted away. He fabricated stories about my drug addiction and how psychotic I was and then I was diagnosed clinically insane.”
They used different words but that’s basically what they were saying.
“Fucking hell.”
“Yeah. It sucked. It didn’t help that I bleached my hair and got piercings and drank a lot after juvie released me. I got caught with Es and other pills, I did cocaine for a while. Anything to help keep me awake at night.”
“The nightmares?” Carter asks and takes my hand in his.
“I was locked in a room with a tiny window, I wasn’t allowed outside, I wasn’t allowed books… All I had was a radio constantly playing into my room which I danced to incessantly. Dance had always been a release for me but it was in the asylum that I truly honed my craft. Luckily, whoever ran the hospital realized the doctors were corrupt jackasses and they sent in this amazing doctor who very quickly realized I wasn’t insane. She sorted that entire building out and saved so many people.” I tear up at the memory. “Even though by that point I’d convinced myself that I was insane, she saw through it. That kind of isolation does something to you, it fucks you up mentally. Two months after she promised to get me out, because I needed to be rehabilitated back to a well frame of mind, I tasted freedom and I ended up here… with both of you.”
Doctor Conway was an incredible woman, she looked twenty-five but truly she was a lot older. I don’t know what kind of magic seemed to freeze her in time, but she knew what she was doing in a way a woman of twenty-five never could have. And she was really strong. So strong. I’m just glad she was on my side.
“And then I made your freedom hell.”
I pat Presley’s cheek. “I forgive you.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“Well, I do.”
We share a smile until Carter asks, “Why didn’t your uncle just have you killed?”
“Two reasons, if I suddenly go missing, that’s a headache he doesn’t need, and also because that doctor has all my confessions on tape and she knows the location of evidence that might be strong enough to bring him down, and if anything happens to me, she’ll leak it all. She’s my fail-safe. In death I have nothing to lose, and even if not everybody believes me, enough people will and he’ll lose any chances he has of becoming president.”
Carter gapes at me. “This is so fucked up. What do you have on him?”
I drink more and close my eyes. “That’s something I definitely do not want to talk about.”
“You can tell us.”
“I don’t want to,” I admit and bite my lip. “I don’t like talking about it. Especially not with you guys. Even though the shit that happened wasn’t my fault, it’s embarrassing and it makes me feel tainted and used and I don’t ever want to feel that way with you two.”
“You were assaulted.”
Silence settles over us, nothing but the sound of the gentle wind whistling through the cars.
“Let’s go back inside and play cards or something. If we can find some, that is.” I turn back the way we came and peek at them over my shoulder. I don’t want to see the pity in their eyes any more than I have to. “Don’t let it ruin the night. Okay? What’s done is done. I’ve never been happier than I am now.”
Carter grabs my wrist. “Me neither.”
“I mean… my life could use a bit of work but I’m not unhappy,” Presley says, smiling drunkenly. “I’m just frustrated. Nothing seems to be going my way these days.”
“It will,” I promise even though it’s not for me to make promises like that. “Is anybody else feeling drunk? I’m feeling drunk.”
When lips touch mine, I don’t protest. In this drunken moment of deep confessions it just feels so natural to kiss somebody.
Carter hums against my mouth and I hear Presley throw the empty bottle. It smashes in the distance and my tingling nose feels warmer by the second. I don’t know why those things are related.
Hiccup.
I moan against Carter’s lips as that unyielding need teases my sex. I pull him closer but he’s yanked away and softer lips replace his.
It’s Presley, I can tell by the way he nips my lower lip.
I touch my tongue to his and feel him smile.
“Guys, come on,” Carter grumbles, yanking Presley away in a similar fashion.
Presley smirks at me, showing a flash of his lovely teeth. You know you’re drunk when you call teeth lovely like some eighty-year-old biddy with dentures. Like when they compliment you and tell you to look after your body and then bitch about youth being wasted on the— I have no idea what I’m thinking about anymore.
“What the fuck, Pres?” Carter snaps, shoving his friend who stumbles because whiskey. “You can’t just kiss my girl.”
“She’s not your girl, Carter. Besides, I called dibs.”
“Are we back to that? I kissed her first.”
“Guys,” I groan, rubbing my temples, trying to pretend like drunk me doesn’t love this. “Stop shouting.”
“Then, fix this,” Carter says and sways forward so hard his chest collides with mine.
I place my hands on his chest.
“Yeah, Scandal,” Presley prompts, coming to stand behind me. His hands begin massaging my arms. That’s so fucking nice. I let my head loll back onto his shoulder. “Just pick who you want to kiss. Fair and square. No arguments, no fallouts… just say a name.”
I blink slowly and look at Carter. I really like Carter. But then I look at Presley. I really like Presley.
“But… Can’t I just kiss both of you?” I ask, pouting. “This is way too big of a decision to make while this drunk.” I grab Carter’s shirt and yank him closer.
Presley pulls my hair to the side and kisses me in that spot that really gets me worked up.
“Just tonight,” I whisper, “let me kiss you both.”
Carter growls and swoops in, claiming my lips like before. Meanwhile Presley backs us up to the truck front and sucks on my neck.
There’s so much going on. My body is on fire. It’s hotter than the building that night and that is saying something.
“Oh my God,” I breathe against Carter’s lips and he moves to my neck too, biting and making me moan so loud I’ll be surprised if the entire town doesn’t hear.
I press my thighs together. I ache so bad. I’ve never ached this bad. I’ve never been this aroused.
They both turn me so Presley can have my mouth.
He groans, sounding pained when I reach between us and grasp his hardness thr
ough his pants. I reach behind me, letting the alcohol take away my inhibitions, and I grip Carter’s too as he tortures the skin between my jaw and shoulder. We rock together, all of us drunk, and all of us delirious with need.
I need more… I need less. My legs are jelly. My body is alive in a completely new way.
Somebody’s hand dips into my panties, I don’t know whose. I don’t care either. I rock towards them, leaning on them both for support.
A year ago I never thought I’d want even one man, I hated the idea of ever being what I was before to any man that ever touched me, and here I am between two, and both seem to know exactly what they’re doing.
Hands grasp my breasts. Lips are on mine. Lips are on my neck. Fingers are rolling my slippery clit back and forth so fast I just know I’m going to come soon.
“Oh God,” I pant. “Oh fuck… fuck…” My body tightens, my thighs press together and my hands on their cocks squeeze as my orgasm implodes every cell in my body, sucking all energy to my pleasure sensors. Presley slams his mouth over mine as my orgasm continues to burn around my body, almost killing me in the process.
“Whoa,” I breathe, and look into Presley’s eyes. They’re glowing in the dark. “I think… I’m dead…”
“I hope not,” Carter whispers and audibly chokes when I push my hand past the waistband of his pants and grasp his cock at an awkward angle. “Okay, we’re doing that now…”
Presley relaxes back against the truck with a smug grin on his face. “Have at it, Scandal.”
I work on his button, not easy to do one handed and then I laugh when they both rush to open their pants per my command. Presley is the first to drop his and I baulk at his girth. Carter is more length but they’ve both got incredible-looking cocks.
I smile at them in the dark, kiss them both one more time and then drop to my knees.
“Whoa,” Carter protests, gripping my hair as I hold his length in my hand, and Presley’s. They are both pointing directly at me, twitching like impatient snakes. “You don’t have to do that… you can just jack me— Oh Jesus.” I swallow the head. Blowjobs are something I’m well versed in but this is the first time I have ever wanted to do it. “Oh my God.”
“Good?” Presley asks Carter as I move my hand up and down his dick.
