by C. L. Stone
North frowned, looking down at the floor to where his brother was sitting. “This is complicated.”
Luke fell back until he was lying on the floor, his hair spilling out from the clip he’d been wearing. He stared up at the ceiling. “Tell me about it.”
“Look,” Kota said, stepping forward, waving his hand through the air. “Just tell me, okay? It’s been a bad day. You can’t make it much worse.”
Silas grunted. “I didn’t think it’d be this bad, either,” he said.
“It’s not just Gabriel,” Nathan said. He was looking at the floor, kicking at the carpet with a dirty sneaker. He stopped and then leaned forward, elbows on his knees, covering his face. “We’re all dating her.”
“I know,” Kota said quickly, and then paused to think about it. He’d known about Dr. Green already. Then Victor had made it clear he was interested, and there had been the kiss when she was in his sleeping bag. He had only kissed her forehead, but Kota had suspected if he’d let it go on, there would have been more.
It would have kept him—and maybe the others—up all up all night, hearing it, knowing what was going on. It’s why he’d told him to get out for the evening and cool off.
“Well, I didn’t know about...” He looked at the rest of them. He’d suspected Nathan, but not so much the others. He strained his brain to fully realize the truth. “Wait…All of you?”
But now, as he looked at the guys, their similar guilty expressions and the way they wouldn’t meet his eyes, he knew. They were all interested in her.
Kota bowed his head in defeat. This was it. It was what he had been worried about from day one. The minute she’d first met the others, he could tell they liked her. “It’s over,” he said quietly, feeling his heart breaking because he was about to lose her. “Isn’t it? You’re going to ask her to pick one of us? One of us leaves and joins her on a couple team in six months?”
“No-o-o,” Luke said, sitting up quickly. His hair spilled around his shoulders as he frowned. “God. You’d think we’d do that?”
“You think she could do that?” Victor grumbled. “Do you think she could pick one of us, and then split us up like that?”
Kota slowed his breathing, shaking his head. “I don’t... I don’t really understand. What other option is there?”
The guys shared looks with each other and then returned their eyes to Kota.
Nathan was the first to speak. “We share her,” he said. He frowned and then leaned forward again, covering his face. “Shit. That’s hard to admit out loud. I’m sure that’s not really the right way to say it.”
Kota struggled to understand. Share her? He had to have heard that wrong. “What are you talking about?”
“We stay with her,” North said, his voice strained. He cleared his throat and continued. “All of us. We care enough about her, and each other, to stick together. And...we share her.”
Kota made a face, shaking his head. “You can’t mean... that’s not...”
“It can work,” Victor said. “And it happens. Not every relationship is one plus one equals two.”
“Yeah, I know,” Kota said. He’d heard about love triangles before and more complicated relationships, but he’d never really given it much thought. “But...”
“It’s not going to be easy,” North said. “I didn’t like the idea at first. But I’d rather give it a try than assume we have to split up.” He pointed at Kota. “Because trust me, I will follow her. I don’t care if she picks you after it’s all said and done. I’m behind her and I’m not leaving. And like hell if I’ll let her go on Academy jobs without watching her back.”
“Me either,” Victor said.
“You all can’t really believe it would work,” Kota said, looking around the room at them. He couldn’t picture it. Did they really know what they were getting themselves into?
He looked at Nathan, his oldest friend, and usually the most sensible in their group, second only to Mr. Blackbourne. He stared at him and waited. He couldn’t formulate all the questions he wanted to ask at one time.
Nathan groaned, sighing. “I don’t know if it will work,” he said. He faced Kota straight on, his serious blue eyes focused. His shoulders straightened like they did when he was confident. “None of us do. But what’s the alternative? She leaves because she feels guilty about splitting us apart? Or she chooses one of us and the rest of us are all angry at that person? And what happens when she does need to go on an Academy job and one of the others are there? Are we going to fight the whole time?”
Kota swayed on his feet. They all looked at him, determination in their eyes like he’d never seen before. He’d seen it in Gabriel, too, when he’d come at Kota, ready for a fight over Sang. Now he knew there had been more to it than just him being angry over Sang crying.
Unable to stand anymore, Kota sunk to his knees on the carpet. He sat back on his heels, counting as he tried to make sense of everything.
But the counting couldn’t take away the thoughts floating through his brain, the visions of Sang kissing Gabriel. Victor kissing her in his sleeping bag, in plain view. Dr. Green in the photo.
They thought they’d hidden the pictures, but he’d found them, and even though only her head and back were visible, he’d known it was her.
“I don’t think I can do this,” Kota said.
“We can’t do it without you,” Luke said moving toward him. “You can’t say no. One of us not going for it breaks everything.”
“I can’t,” Kota said, closing his eyes. “I can’t... stop thinking about her with someone else. I can’t watch that. I can’t...”
“I know,” Nathan said. “I see the same thing...when...after you kissed her at the campsite.”
Kota slowly opened his eyes, looking at Nathan.
Nathan was glaring at him, the hurt and pain in his eyes. “I get angry just thinking about it, even though I know you’re not being stealing her away. I can’t help it.”
“I feel it, too,” North said. “I force myself to just get over it.”
“Well one of these days, we’re not going to just get over it,” Nathan said, looking over Kota to North. “Not unless we work this out. We’re not ready. Not until I don’t feel like punching your teeth out anytime you get close to her.”
North opened his mouth, lips pulled back, teeth bared, ready to snarl, when Victor stepped in, hands wide.
“Wait,” Victor said. “I’ve been reading about this in psychology studies and through examples people talk about in articles. First, we need to establish we’re okay with this, including Sang if we’re ready. Then we need to set up boundaries.”
“I’m not going back to not kissing her,” Luke said. “That took too long last time. We already know she wants to.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Victor said, looking at them each, in turn, his eyes intense. He peered at each of them and waited for their attention. Kota recognized it as something he did on stage before he spoke. When he did speak again, his voice was calmer, quieter than before, so they all had to strain to hear. “Clearly we have issues with kissing her or doing other things in front of each other. So now if we’re in on this and she’s okay with it, we need to set up rules. If someone else is around, you don’t get to kiss her.”
Luke raised his hand. “I don’t mind seeing it. It doesn’t bug me.”
“This is the way it is for now,” Victor said, turning to Luke. “We can’t risk anyone getting angry. We need Gabriel to agree to this, too.” He looked around, waiting for someone else to say something. “The other part is, we need to divide our time with her better.”
“She’s already dividing her time,” Nathan said.
“Not enough,” Victor said. “And not evenly. She’s there with you every evening.”
“Well, I can’t help that, can I?” Nathan asked as he leaned back on the bed.
“She can sleep at my place,” Silas said in his deep voice, surprising everyone. “Charlie doesn’t mind.�
�
“It’s more than just sleeping,” Victor said. “It’s dates and how we spend our time with her.”
“That’s not going to work,” North said. “We’ve got school. And there’s seven days in a week and nine of us.”
“Nine?” Kota burst out. “Who...Mr. Blackbourne...he...?”
The others nodded.
“It was his idea in the first place,” North said.
“His plan,” Nathan said.
Kota tilted his head back, groaning. He couldn’t believe it. He’d thought Mr. Blackbourne was the most sensible, and here he was suggesting this very strange plan. Kota wasn’t even sure why they were talking about it. “North’s right,” he said. “Nine of us, and seven days. How are we supposed to wait so long between to see her?”
“You’ll see her nearly every day since we’re working together,” Victor said. “If we’re still a team, we’re going to have to still work together. And for the time being, we’re still in school together.”
Kota looked at his knees on the floor against the white carpet, shaking his head in disbelief. He wasn’t convinced. “I don’t know. Does she want this?”
“She was willing to try,” North said quietly. “Her main concern was us fighting about it.”
“All of these things won’t work anyway without us all in agreement,” Victor said. “You don’t even have to choose right now.”
Kota lifted his head up to meet Victor’s eyes. “You said we had to figure this out.”
“Yes,” he said, “but this only works if you’re ready for it. We can’t do it without you. I can’t do this without all of you.” He looked again to the others. “This only works if we’re willing to work together. It’ll be hard enough going into it, learning our boundaries.”
“Are you sure she wants to?” Kota asked. “This has to be a lot for her.”
Victor continued. “She’ll bail if she thinks we’ll fight over her. She’ll find another team or leave altogether.” He paused, his shoulders dropping. “She’d do anything to stop us from killing each other over her, even if it means her joining another team. We all have to give this serious consideration, and then come to her when we’re ready. We’ll have our work cut out for us just to convince her we’re serious. And hopefully, we haven’t driven her insane enough that she’ll want to.”
The room silenced once more. Kota breathed in, counted, breathed out, counted some more. Never, ever, would he have guessed this would be a solution.
“I don’t know,” he said. He needed to think, to go over whatever Victor was reading and see it for himself. Hadn’t Sang said something about Lily? Or was it Marc? Something about their team?
Before he finished the thought, there was a pinch of electricity zapping his butt. Emergency call shocked his body. His heart skipped as he reached for his phone.
“Tell whoever it is to fuck off,” North said. “This is more important.”
It was Mr. Blackbourne calling through, so while he wanted to follow North’s suggestion, he couldn’t ignore the call and answered the phone.
“She’s fine,” he said. He suspected Mr. Blackbourne had heard about what had happened with Sang. He’d forgotten to text him as well as Dr. Green on the ride in and cringed, afraid Mr. Blackbourne was probably pissed. “If you want a doctor to...”
“Stop talking,” Mr. Blackbourne said, his voice loud enough that Kota was sure the others could hear. Still, he put him on speaker. “Where is she?”
“In the bath,” Kota said. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“It’s her father.”
Kota stood up, still holding the phone. His heart began racing even as he told himself it could be anything. “Did something happen to him?” He shared a look with the rest of the guys. From Mr. Blackbourne’s tone, he knew something was terribly wrong.
“He’s at the Sunnyvale house now,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “And he’s demanding his daughter back.”
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BOOKS BY C. L. STONE
The Academy Ghost Bird Series:
Introductions
First Days
Friends vs. Family
Forgiveness and Permission
Drop of Doubt
Push and Shove
House of Korba
The Other Side of Envy
The Healing Power of Sugar
First Kiss
Black and Green (Late 2016) – Turn the page for a sneak peek!
The Academy Scarab Beetle Series
Thief
Liar
Fake
Accessory
Hoax (2016)
Other C. L. Stone Books:
Spice God
Smoking Gun
READ AN EXCERPT FROM THE NEXT BOOK IN THE ACADEMY GHOST BIRD SERIES
The Academy
The Ghost Bird Series
BLACK
AND
GREEN
♥
Book Eleven
♥
Written by C. L. Stone
Published by
Arcato Publishing
THE RETURN
We’d just returned from camp. I’d listened as the others discussed the plan of keeping the team together when a phone call interrupted everything.
I’d thought I couldn’t panic any more than I already had after simply listening to them.
Until Kota called for me in alarm. I’d never forget the desperate tone in his voice.
I dressed quickly and rushed out of Victor’s home in downtown Charleston. Kota drove North’s Jeep, with Nathan in the passenger seat, and Victor, Gabriel and I crammed into the rear seat together. The others would follow after gathering laptops and other supplies.
My father was back and from the way Mr. Blackbourne had described it, he had called the school, asking for Mr. Hendricks or someone who could bring me back from school camp; what we had told my sister about where we’d be for the week.
“We need to make sure he doesn’t do anything desperate,” Kota said. “If he came home to check in and found you gone, he might be worried. Remember, he’s just as desperate to keep your background a secret. Now that your stepmother hasn’t been around to keep you at home, he’s probably worried about exposure.”
What we couldn’t have was Mr. Hendricks finding out, either.
My heart was in knots, still in turmoil over the argument I’d overheard when in Victor’s bathroom. Gabriel had held my hand as we listened, and the more they argued, the closer he got. By the end, we were clinging to each other. We’d stared into each other's eyes, knowing what the other was thinking.
It can’t end. We have to stick together. The more they fought, they more it was obvious to us. We had to find a way to convince Kota. Mr. Blackbourne had been right. Kota was the core of the team. Without him believing in it, the others would doubt. We would fail. We would break.
But right now, we had more immediate problems. We hurried as quickly as we could on Mr. Blackbourne’s orders. He and Dr. Green were on the way, although we would still get back to Summerville first.
Most of them were still dirty from the camp we’d been at hours before. I was the only one relatively clean. In my rush, I’d dressed quickly inside Victor’s closet, not daring to waste time. I’d put on fresh underwear, no bra and a bulky sweatshirt I suddenly realized might have been Luke’s because it was baby blue and too big for me. I’d also pulled on cotton shorts that were the first things I’d seen inside Victor’s closet that were about my size. I didn’t recognize them, and for all I knew, they weren’t shorts at all, but one of the boy
s’ boxers and I was too panicked to notice the difference.
Hope filled my heart on the way to Sunnyvale Court. Maybe my father was just worried about me. Maybe he was upset that I’d left Marie alone for a week. Had something happened to her? An accident?
“What about my mother?” I asked Kota as he drove and then regretted looking to him for an answer. His hands were locked at ten and two, and he edged over the speed limit, despite normally being such a stickler for road rules. He hadn’t even gotten on my case about my seatbelt, which at first I’d forgotten about, but had slowly, quietly put on. I turned and focused on Victor beside me. “Is it because of her? Is she back?”
“She can’t be,” Victor said quietly. They’d all been so quiet in the car, so intent on the road, and consumed by their thoughts. Victor held my hand, my fingers almost numb at the strong way he held on to me, although I returned the squeeze. “They wouldn’t dare, although she’s been demanding a transfer to a different hospital.”
“We’re working on pretending to get her a transfer, and then just drive her around the city in an ambulance and bring her back inside the hospital from a different entrance. We’ll give her a new room and a new doctor,” Nathan said. He spoke to the windshield at first, and then bent over the middle console to look back at me. “She wants medications she overdosed on and a different doctor that will listen to her demands. She thinks a different doctor will release her from the hospital.”
“We won’t be able to keep her forever,” Kota said. “But she’s still there. We would have been notified if things had changed.”
I settled into the seat, bringing up my legs and pulling the sweatshirt over my knees to cocoon myself inside. I lay my head on my knees. “He’s probably just checking up on me,” I said. “He came back, but...he’ll go again.”
Victor’s palm found my back and he rubbed warmly, leaning in. “It’ll be fine. We’ll be there to listen.”
