Fairest

by Beth Bishop

  “My mom,” he said. “You always wear a jacket of some kind. I always wondered if it was because you’re cold or for protection.”

  “Protection,” I said. “She didn’t mind?”

  “Well, none of my clothes would fit or I’d have you in them.” Linc pursed his lips and then raked his hands through his hair. “My mom drinks a lot, so she’s usually asleep until after noon. I didn’t really ask.” He looked down at his bare feet.

  “Oh.” I felt embarrassed. “I’m…uh, sorry.”

  “You don’t need to be sorry.” He reached out for my hand.

  I took it and sat next to him. He looked so cute in jeans with tattered hems and a Pokémon T-shirt. I gave him a soft kiss for it.

  “It bothers you,” I said, and he nodded. “Okay, so why do you drink?”

  He shrugged. “I have more fun. It makes me more confident.”

  “Could’ve surprised me.” His head snapped up, and he looked at me. “Come on, Linc. You exude confidence no matter what state of mind you’re in.” He shook his head. “You do,” I insisted. “Don’t you think you can have just as much fun sober?”

  “Well, I have to say this morning is probably the first time I ever felt a girl up without being under the influence of something.”

  “And?”

  He smiled. “It was great. I’m quite taken with your breasts.” I smirked as he tucked a wet strand of my hair behind my ear. “It’s after ten, but do you want some breakfast?”

  “Yeah, I’m hungry.”

  “After we eat, I’ll drive you to your dad’s place to get your things.”

  We stood, but before we could leave his room, his cell rang. He walked over to his dresser and checked the phone. He looked at it and sighed. “It’s Whit.” He flipped open his phone. “Hey, man.” He looked over at me. “Yeah, I went with Father to see about Skye.” He walked back over to me and slid an arm around my waist. “She’s okay. We aren’t sure what’s up.” I furrowed my brow, but he shook his head. “Yeah, we brought her back.” Whit’s volume increased, but I couldn’t tell what he said. “No, she stayed at my house.” His fingers tightened a bit, and I slid my hand up his back for reassurance. “She’s still here.” He looked at me. “She’s standing beside me looking confused.” He smiled at me when I frowned at that. “Scratch that. She looks irritated.” He laughed and said, “Whit wants to talk to you.”

  I took the phone and said, “Hello?”

  “Skye,” Whit said with relief. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, but Linc told you that. You didn’t believe him?”

  “Well, I wanted to hear it from you. You want me to come get you? You know my parents and I already offered for you to stay with us.”

  “Hold on a sec.” After putting my hand over the phone, I looked at Linc and whispered, “He wants me to stay at his parents’ place.”

  “Yeah, I’d rather you didn’t.” Linc slid his hand under the edge of the hoodie and T-shirt, so he could touch my belly just above the top of my pants. “I want you to stay here with me.”

  “You sure your dad will be okay with that?”

  “Screw him if he isn’t,” Linc said.

  “Yeah, see…you say that, but I don’t think you really mean it.” I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not staying out there.” I removed my hand from the phone. “I’d rather not, Whit. I just don’t feel comfortable about it.”

  “You can’t stay in the city by yourself,” he said.

  “You aren’t my father, so don’t tell me what to do,” I said coldly. “I’m sure I’ll be flying out to Savannah before too many days. I’ll be fine.”

  “Then, I’ll stay with you.”

  “I’d rather you didn’t.”

  “Skye, it isn’t smart for you to stay in a city, any city alone. You’re only fifteen and—” but I didn’t hear him finish because Linc took the phone away from me.

  “If Father won’t let her stay here, I’ll stay with her,” he said. I heard an angry sound from the phone. “Bro.” Linc sighed and looked down at me, “I love her.” I felt nervous and uncomfortable to hear him say it, even more so to Whit. His eyes lit. “You knew I had it for her before she even started tutoring your dumb ass!” Linc let go and paced away from me. “You knew,” he shouted. “You knew, and you still tried to get into her pants.” He puffed out a sarcastic laugh. “Yeah, well, she chose.” I sighed deeply and closed my eyes. “Because I spent the better part of this morning with my face buried in her tits. That’s how I know.”

  I waved my hand at him and said, loud enough for Whit to hear, “Don’t fight, for God’s sake. I can solve the problem by not dating either of you. I don’t think either of you likes me half as much as you think you do. You’ve been friends forever. It’s stupid to fight over this.”

  I went into Linc’s bathroom and closed and locked the door. I shut my eyes and shook my head. The problem was that, now I had gotten to know Linc a little better, I liked him. Now that I had made out with him, I was really attracted to him. He might not have had the golden boy looks of Whit, but he was cute and charming when he wanted to be. From what I could tell, he was smart and a good student—far better suited to me in that respect than Whit.

  Of all the rumors I heard around school, only a few were about Linc. So-and-so gave him a blowjob or made out with him. He went up some girl’s shirt or down some girl’s pants. There were no sex stories like there were about Whit.

  At Whit’s party, Linc hadn’t hit on any girls. He hadn’t gone upstairs with anyone. He might play, but he wasn’t a player. Moreover, I believed him when he said he wouldn’t do things with other girls while he was dating me. I didn’t believe Whit when he made the same promise.

  There was a knock at the door, and when I opened it, I found a sullen-looking Linc standing there. “Are you going to take it back?” Puzzled, I lifted a hand and shook my head. “That you would date me,” he clarified.

  “Are you going to wreck your friendship with Whit?”

  “He knew I had it for you before he tried to date you,” Linc said. “He’s the one being the asshole, and he knows it.” He came in the bathroom and sat on the counter. “It’s not unusual for him to steal girls from me. It’s like he never notices a girl until I say something about her, and then suddenly, he’s interested.”

  “Is that how it is with me?”

  Linc looked up at me. “I’ve thought you were cute since I saw you your first year. I gave you a hard time, because I’m childish and afraid.” He straightened. “I told Whit that, and then you started tutoring him. Suddenly, you were all he talked about, and that’s why I kicked the hacky sack at you.”

  “So, how are things between you?”

  He shrugged. “Guys forgive and move on much better than girls. He’ll get over it soon enough. I just need to open his eyes to other prospects is all.”

  That hurt a little, because I believed that Linc was right. I believed that as soon as something more interesting came along, Whit would stray. I knew it shouldn’t feel like a slight to me, like it was my shortcoming for not being able to hold his attention, but it still felt that way. I couldn’t be sure the same thing wouldn’t happen with Linc. The very rich have odd ideas about monogamy.

  “What about you?” I asked. “What happens when someone cuter or smarter or whatever comes along and catches your eye?”

  “That isn’t going to happen,” he said flatly.

  “Well, just hypothetically,” I said. “What if it did?”

  “I wouldn’t cheat,” he said. “My father has mistresses. It’s one of the reasons my mother started drinking. The more she drank, the more he ran around. I don’t want to be like that.”

  “Okay, then.” I moved to stand between his knees. “Don’t drink. Don’t cheat. If you can do those things, I’ll date you
.”

  “I can,” he said. “Now, let’s go get breakfast.”

  We left Linc’s room, and after walking down a short hallway, we entered a wide, open living space furnished with overstuffed sofas in creamy shades. The back wall was solid windows and French doors, and I saw a walk from the back porch that passed through a well-manicured garden. I was certain it eventually went out to stairs and down to the beach.

  Across the living room was another short hall that Linc said went to the master suite and at the other end, a wide entry into a kitchen. Linc introduced me to the family chef. The kitchen was light—white cabinets, cream tile floor, light marble counters, buttercream icing-colored walls. All the brightness of the house almost hurt my eyes after being in Linc’s cave. There was a table and a bar. Since Linc took a stool, I joined him at the bar.

  The chef prepared omelets while Linc and I talked about school. He was in Calculus, and once he became a senior, he could start taking college-level courses and earn college credit. The persona he generally showed his friends was far different from the boy I was meeting, now. He was serious about school and getting good grades. He wanted to go to college somewhere on the west coast, so he could be far away from his family. The more we talked, the more I realized that the charm and sometimes meanness were the ways he used to cover up the fact that he felt lonely.

  “Where do you want to go to school?” he asked and then chugged his freshly squeezed orange juice.

  “I hadn’t really thought about it. I’m sure my dad will want me to go somewhere expensive and flashy. It seems ridiculous to try to decide when I have no idea what I want to do. What do you want to do?”

  “Write,” he said. “Thrillers and mysteries. I’ve been writing for several years.”

  “Is that something your dad would support?” I forked up a bite of omelet and hummed when I chewed it. It was delicious, and I thanked the chef who seemed both surprised and pleased.

  “He doesn’t really care as long as I’m not idle.”

  “Writing,” I mused and drank some of my orange juice. “You are just full of surprises. Who knew a prince lay hidden beneath all that teasing and meanness?”

  “Don’t tell anyone, okay?” He winked at me and dug into his omelet.

  After breakfast, Linc drove me into the city. He took me to buy new luggage. Then, we went to my daddy’s apartment in the city. I had forgotten to take out the garbage and empty the fridge, so the place was a bit stinky. Linc was kind enough to do that for me while I scrubbed out the fridge. He seemed charmed—having never seen someone do house chores.

  Cleaning taken care of, Linc and I headed back to my room to pack my new suitcases with some of my remaining clothes. I would get more eventually, but for the time being, I was happy to have a few changes and some clean underwear. Linc took clothes out of my closet and chest of drawers, and I folded them and put them in the suitcases. He toyed with my panties and bras, going as far as to stick one of the cups on his head like a cap. He even teased me over a pair of cut-offs.

  “Take these back to school with you and wear them one Saturday,” he suggested. He lobbed them into my open carry-on. “Lay out in them and really make the girls jealous.”

  I snuffed. “I don’t think so.”

  When I reached in to take them out, he put his hand on mine. “Then, bring them to model for me.”

  I chewed my lower lip. “Okay.” Linc’s phone beeped, and he opened it. “That isn’t Whit, is it?” I didn’t want them fighting.

  “No, it’s a text from Father.” He scanned his phone screen. “They found your room at the Hilton ran-sacked. They think the guy was going to make it look like a robbery or something.” I swallowed and sat heavily on my bed. “The police took what could be salvaged, and Father is paying to have it shipped here.”

  “Oh, crap.” I stretched over him to the phone sitting on my bedside table.

  Quickly, I dialed the number of the bed and breakfast where the gang was supposed to go. After a brief conversation with the owner, I got Terrell on the phone. He said everyone was good, and they were enjoying living in the lap of luxury on my ticket. I laughed and told him that they deserved it, especially for having to put up with me. While he told me about the police coming by and clearing him and Nate of any wrongdoing, Linc sat beside me and stroked my hair.

  “I’m going to buy a place like that,” I told Terrell. “If you don’t have to work, you can go back to school.”

  “Sounds like a fairy tale,” he said and laughed.

  “Just call me Tinker Bell.”

  Satisfied that things were going well for my new friends, I resumed packing up my last few things. Linc took my hand in his and kissed the back of it. “You are the most selfless person. If I told anybody else that I know that their laptop, clothes, and MP3 player were wrecked, they would freak out.”

  I shrugged. “I lived long enough with so little, I don’t get attached to stuff like other people do. I get attached to people.” I shook my head. “I thought that guy shot Nate and Terrell. I was crazy scared and mad as a hornet.”

  “The police said the first shot missed hitting you by about three inches. Grrr.” He put the back of his hand to his nose and turned away from me.

  “What?” I asked. “Did you get a nosebleed or something?”

  I walked around to find him rubbing his nose, which was a little red, and his eyes looked damp. He shook his head. “No,” he said, sounding stuffy. “It just…makes me crazy scared and mad as a hornet to know someone tried to kill you.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  When I lifted onto my toes and kissed him, he wrapped his arms around me and lifted me off my feet. They dangled there, like a ragdoll’s. Once Linc reminded himself that I was alive and okay, he set me down and went back to helping me pack.

  “I know you think we’re too young or whatever, but I love you, Skye,” he said as he tried to fold my Irstwitch sweatshirt. “Why don’t you have someone to do this for you?”

  “Why would I pay someone to do something I can easily do myself?” I asked, taking the sweatshirt from him and folding it properly. “I believe you. I care about you a lot. I don’t know about love.” I slid the sweatshirt into the suitcase and smoothed it. “I only just recently stopped seeing you as a bully and started seeing you as a boyfriend.”

  “Baby steps, huh?” he asked then smiled. His phone rang, and he rolled his eyes. “Father?” His smile at me turned into a look of concern. “Well, is he okay?” I looked at him, but he held up a hand. “When is he coming back?” Linc nodded. “She’ll stay with us until then?” He bit his lower lip and then relaxed. “Thanks, Father.”

  “What?” I asked when he hung up the phone.

  “Skye, your dad had a heart attack.”

  “Oh, my God,” I said, my eyes welling with tears.

  I would’ve crumpled into a heap in the floor if Linc hadn’t caught me. He gathered me in his arms and said, “He’s going to be fine. He’s had bypass surgery.”

  The tears spilled. “Oh, my God,” I whispered. “My daddy.”

  Linc tucked my head under his chin. “He dropped and broke his phone when it happened. That’s why no one could reach him on it. They’ll fly him home when he’s recovered enough for it. Father will call me back when they get a more permanent number for him, so you can talk to him, okay?” I nodded. “Until we know if your stepmom is involved in what happened to you, you’re going to stay with us, okay?”

  My daddy had a heart attack. He could’ve died. I could’ve died. I held on to Linc tighter. “Yeah.” Linc swayed from side-to-side a bit and stroked my back. “Thanks.”

  This time, the thought of staying with practical strangers didn’t bother me one bit.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The cop from New Orleans called to tell me that Winston had a heart attack
in Japan. I nearly jumped for joy until he said Winston was going to live; however, chances were that, even if he recovered, he wouldn’t change his ways. The man still smoked cigars twice a day. What did he expect?

  I asked the cop why they wanted to contact him, and he said he was sorry and that it was confidential. I apologized for seeming to pry. I just wanted to help if I could, especially with Winston’s current state. The cop said he’d let me know if my help was needed, but for now, I shouldn’t worry. I should just be thankful that my husband was okay, and that he’d hopefully be back in the States in under a week.

  I began to see how that wouldn’t be so bad—not really. Winston would come to Savannah and be laid up for a while. I could still do whatever I wanted and maybe even be less than encouraging about the lifestyle changes the doctors would undoubtedly tell him he needed. I wouldn’t suggest he be unhealthy, but I wouldn’t police him. If Skye was dead, it might be just the thing to finish him. Then, I would get everything much sooner than expected.

  I eyed myself in the mirror of my vanity. “You deserve it, Liz,” I said. “Yes, you do.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Linc set me up in the guest room at the end of the hall that shared a wall with his room. His older sister had a room across the hall from him, but he said she rarely ever visited. Still, I didn’t want to take her room. Linc assured me that I wouldn’t be spending much time in any room other than his, and I giggled at the thought.

  I unpacked a few things—mainly the toiletries I took from my daddy’s place. He was always good about keeping extra stuff for me to take back to school, so I was able to replenish my soap, shampoo, toothbrush, and toothpaste. What little makeup I wore I would have to replace, but I wasn’t worried about it.

  After I unpacked, we had lunch. Linc suggested that we go out for dinner, but I told him I would rather not. I had eaten out in New Orleans so much that I was ready for a home-cooked meal, even if I had to cook it myself.