by Lane Hart
Charlie: Holy shit!
Ty: What are we gonna do?
Charlie: No fucking clue.
Ty: But she can’t leave, right?
Charlie: Fuck no.
“A lot is going on today,” Ty tells Sky as he strokes her hair. Looking up at me, he says, “We’ll figure this out. You know you could stay here with Charlie and me. We’ll take care of you.”
“Absolutely, Sky,” I agree.
“You don’t need me,” it sounds like she mumbles through the sobs.
“Yes, we do,” Ty assures her. “You’re our best friend. We love you.”
“No,” she replies with a shake of her head. “You’re just scared to be together…without me. You don’t need me here.”
“That’s not true,” I disagree. “We do need you. We want you to stay.”
“I-I can’t!” she cries. “I need to go.”
Her head pops up first, and then she’s on her feet, flitting around the room again and cramming her suitcase full of her things. I figure it will take a while, but then a few moments later, she’s snapping it closed.
“I’ll go wait for a flight at the airport,” she says, and we both lurch forward to haul her suitcase off the bed before she can. Ty reaches it first.
“Please, just stay a few more days,” Ty begs her. “And then if you want to go, you can go.”
“I want to go home,” she tells him.
“Let us go with you and at least be there while you wait,” I offer.
“No. I just want to be alone,” she says through the sniffles. “Please?”
“Fuck!” Ty shouts. “Fine. But don’t walk. Will you at least take Graham’s car to the airport? It’ll give him a reason not to up and leave before we can talk to him later tonight. We’ll take him to pick his car up after he cools down.”
Sky hesitates a few moments before she says, “Okay.”
“Okay,” Ty replies.
“I can carry the luggage,” she tells him when she tries to take it out of his hand.
“I’ll take it down and put it in the car,” he says, and she nods her agreement before she takes off out the door.
“Are we really gonna let her leave?” I whisper to Ty.
“Not much we can do,” he replies. “But I have a plan.”
“You do?” I ask. “Then why are you letting her leave?”
“Hopefully it won’t be too late.”
“Too late for what?” I ask.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” he says with a sigh before he hauls her luggage out of the room.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Tyson
“Why the fuck are you in my room?” Graham yells at Charlie and me when he comes home late Friday afternoon and finds us sitting on his bed.
“Sky’s gone,” I tell him.
I don’t miss his flinch at that unfortunate realization before he recovers and says, “Good. I told her to leave! And as soon as I pack my shit, I’m out of here! Now get the fuck out of my room!”
“No,” I tell him. “I know you’re angry, but you need to hear the whole story.”
“The whole story,” he scoffs. “You fucked her! She fucked you! Both of you! What else is there to the story?”
“She hasn’t slept with us since you two got together,” Charlie explains to him. “Earlier today, she was only watching, not…participating.”
And yeah, I wince because I know what’s coming. Charlie and I talked about it after we hugged Skyler goodbye and let her leave, hopefully just temporarily. We decided to come clean with Graham, but it doesn’t mean it’s gonna be easy to admit the truth to him, about what we’ve been doing.
“She was watching me and Ty fool around,” Charlie says.
“You two? Really? Yeah right,” Graham grumbles with a roll of his eyes. “How the hell do you expect me to believe that?”
We figured he wouldn’t buy our explanation, so that’s why we agreed on the next part—proving it.
“Because it’s true,” I tell him before I lean over and grab the back of Charlie’s neck to kiss him good and long, with lots of tongue. He even gives my bulge a squeeze through my shorts.
“Jesus! Okay, that’s enough!” Graham eventually yells at us. “Take it to your own damn bedrooms. I don’t need to see all that shit!”
“Sky was just watching today, like you are. She encouraged us to be together,” Charlie explains.
“And it was my fault she was topless. I asked her to take her shirt off, but I didn’t touch her,” I admit to Graham, figuring he doesn’t really need to hear about the fact that I licked her fingers and put them on my cock. That was all me, not Sky.
“Ty and I don’t want to be together without Sky. She’s the missing piece that made us work, and we shouldn’t have let her walk away from us to be with you,” Charlie tells the angry man.
“Fuck you,” Graham huffs while flipping us both of his middle fingers.
“We love Skyler, and we love being with her. Do you?”
“How can I love someone who cheated on me?” he shouts.
“Forget today,” I tell him. “Before this morning, did you honestly love Sky, or were you just using her?”
Graham swipes a hand down his face and blows out a breath. “I came home between classes this morning to ask her to stay.”
Charlie and I exchange a look of surprise before we both grin. This is good. Great, even.
“So, you do want her to stay. Tell her that!” I suggest.
“I wanted her to stay before I caught her in bed with you two,” he amends.
“You didn’t just stop loving her because you thought she was fucking us,” Charlie declares. “And really, how did you not know we were with her before you banged her in the pool? We could barely keep our hands off each other around you after going at it all day long…”
“That is way more than I want to hear,” Graham grumbles, holding up a palm to stop him from going on.
“We were with Sky before you. A lot of times before you. We loved her, and you stole her from us,” I explain. “She didn’t cheat on you. Not even once!”
“She should’ve told me!” Graham says.
“Told you what? That she wanted to be with us but cared about you more? That, at the first chance she got, she bailed on us for you because she’s been in love with you for years, even though you didn’t even see her for who she was until a few weeks ago?”
“You both told me I shouldn’t lay a finger on her!” Graham reminds us. “That’s why I waited so long after she showed up. And the whole time, you were sleeping with her?”
“We just didn’t want you to hurt her,” I tell him. “Like you did today.”
“That was…that was her fault,” he stammers.
“No, it’s my fault. And Charlie’s fault,” I clarify. “But not Sky’s fault. She didn’t do anything wrong except take her shirt off and watch me suck his dick.”
“You…whoa!” Graham throws his arms up in the air in front of his face, as if trying to ward off those mental images. “For the millionth time, I don’t want to hear about that shit!”
“Did you even know that she liked that shit? I bet you didn’t. We spent a helluva lot more time with her than you did this summer,” I remind him. “That’s why we asked her to stay, to try and make this work. Charlie and I are bisexual. That’s not gonna change anytime soon, and we think it only works with Sky. What you need to decide is whether or not you really care about her. Because we do. Our problem is that you’re the only one who can convince her to come back to us. All of us. So, what’s it gonna be?”
“I-I don’t know,” Graham says before he begins to deflate with a heavy exhale. He sits at the foot of the bed with his back to us, his broad shoulders slumped. “You want me to share her with you two?”
“Yes,” Charlie and I answer simultaneously.
“How the hell am I supposed to do that when I love her and want her all to myself?”
“You could give it a try,” I
suggest. “For us? For her, because you love her.”
“We’ve been friends and roommates for three years,” Charlie reminds him. “And this isn’t exactly what Ty and I imagined for ourselves. We had no idea that it would work out this way. We’re happy. We were happy. I think Skyler was too…”
“I don’t like it,” Graham says with a shake of his head. “But I don’t want to lose her either,” he mutters. “Now that she’s gone, I’d do anything to get her to come back.”
“Then go to the airport! Maybe she’s still there, and you can convince her to stay so that we can give this a try!” I get to my feet to urge him. “Because she left thinking that you wanted her out of your life, even before this morning happened. She thought you had an expiration date as soon as your exams were over.”
“How do I convince her? What am I supposed to say? ‘Quit school and move in with us, so we can see if a foursome works’? That sounds ridiculous,” he scoffs.
“Well, that and telling her you love her is a good start,” Charlie assures him.
“You think so?” Graham asks when he gets to his feet and faces us.
“Yeah, it is,” I tell him. “And it’s a good thing that you’re not saying to hell with her because Sky may be knocked up with your kid.”
“What?” Graham exclaims, his blue eyes nearly bulging out of his head.
“Oh, you remember your first time in the pool with Sky?” I ask.
“Y-yes,” he answers with his forehead creased in thought.
“So apparently both of you were too caught up in the moment to think about a condom,” I explain.
“And Sky’s not on birth control,” Charlie adds, which causes Graham’s skin tone to go about three shades lighter.
“Right. But we got her the morning-after pill, only the pharmacy was slow getting it in, and it may not have worked,” I finish up story time.
“What do you mean, it didn’t work?” Graham asks.
“Skyler’s late,” Charlie and I both say in unison.
“Why the hell didn’t she tell me?” he shouts.
“I think she just realized it this morning. So, it could be a fluke, or she’s…”
“Sky’s…she’s…she’s…” Graham stammers as he leans over and braces his palms on his thighs, like he’s trying to catch his breath.
“Possibly pregnant,” Charlie fills in for him. “Yes. She hasn’t taken a test yet, though.”
“Fuck! I don’t think she needs to,” Graham mutters when he straightens. “She threw up last night out of the blue.”
“And she was eating pickles around four a.m.,” I add.
“Oh, yeah. She’s definitely knocked up,” Charlie concludes.
“We don’t know for sure until she pees on a stick,” I remind him. “We need to see if she’s still at the airport and, if so, get her to come home and take a damn test.”
“You really think she’s still there?” Graham asks.
“Maybe. I haven’t looked up the schedule for flights going to Florida. It’s been hours…”
“Then let’s go!” Graham interrupts.
“She took your car so we can go in mine,” Charlie offers.
“Great, let’s do this!” I agree before we all head downstairs.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Skyler
It’s just my luck that the first flight home doesn’t leave until eight o’clock tonight. That means I’ve been sitting in the same uncomfortable chair in the boarding area for over six hours. The only time I’ve moved was to go to the bathroom and grab a sandwich and drink for lunch. I also stopped in one of the shops and bought a pregnancy test about three hours ago. Since then, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read the instructions on the back or looked at the two possible outcomes—pregnant or not pregnant. Still, I haven’t been able to get up the nerve to actually open the box and take the damn thing.
It’s not like I really need to.
I had unprotected sex and now my period is two days late. And I’m never late. Those facts, along with the sickness and the weird cravings can only mean one thing.
The thought of going back home, dropping this baby bomb on my father, and then quitting school to go to doctor’s appointments and get ready for the arrival all alone is so freakin’ depressing.
Once I know for sure, I’ll tell Graham, but it’s not like he ever wants to see me again…
“Skyler!”
At the sound of his voice, I jump to my feet, and my shaking hands drop the box I’ve been holding for hours while I look through the crowd of people for him. A path finally clears for him to jog over.
“Sky! Thank God you’re still here,” Graham says when he reaches me.
“Really?” I ask, confused because he was so angry this morning, and now he looks…relieved.
“Yes! Don’t go,” he says as he grips my upper arms and stares into my eyes. “Please stay, and not just for another few weeks. I know I’m asking you to sacrifice a lot to move up here. You only have one year left at Pace, but I hope you’ll consider transferring to live with us.”
“Us?” I repeat.
“Me, Charlie, and Ty,” he replies, as if that’s a given, like he didn’t walk in on us this morning and yell at me to leave.
“Please?” he begs. “If you give us a chance, I promise you won’t regret it.”
“What about earlier? You were so angry,” I remind him.
“Yeah, I was,” he admits. “And I wish you would’ve told me about them. It was a lot to wrap my head around, but Ty and Charlie talked to me. They explained how much you meant to them. And I think I could even try to be okay with it, if you tell me you want them too. Anything you want, I’ll give it to you if you’ll just stay, because I love you.”
“You love me?” I ask in disbelief.
“Yes! I love you. That’s what I should have told you last night, or this morning, when I came home to ask you to stay. But then I flipped out, and I was already scared that I wasn’t enough of a reason for you to give up your life and move here. Maybe the three of us are enough, though?” he asks then pauses. “And if you say no, then I’m going back to Florida with you. You wouldn’t want me to miss all of my exams, would you, after all your hard work trying to help me pass?”
“No, I want to stay,” I assure him through the tears blurring my vision. “It’s just…I think I may be…”
“Pregnant?” Graham asks before his eyes lower, and he bends down to pick up the pregnancy test box. “Yeah, I know. Charlie and Ty were just full of surprises. They even made out in front of me!”
“Oh,” I mutter, unable to believe he already knew and sounds so okay about all of this.
Turning the box over, he says, “So you haven’t taken one yet?”
“No. Not yet.”
“Then let’s go home and see what it says,” Graham tells me with a small grin. “I can’t promise not to freak out at some point if I am going to be a father, but I’ll try to keep it together.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling,” I tell him with a tearful burst of laughter. “I’ve been freaking out for hours wondering, and a part of me was even hoping...”
“Me too,” Graham agrees. He uses his thumbs to wipe away the dampness from my cheeks, then clutches my face between his palms to place a soft kiss on my lips. “Let’s go home.”
“Okay,” I agree with a smile.
Graham grabs my luggage in one hand and intertwines our fingers in the other.
“Charlie and Ty are here too,” he says, when we start to walk back toward the exit.
“Oh really?” I ask.
“Yeah. They’re so out of shape, they couldn’t keep up with me,” Graham replies.
“Well, you are the fastest running back in the state.”
“Only if I kill my exams next week,” he mutters.
“You will,” I assure him with a squeeze of his hand.
…
Graham
Back at the house, Charlie and Ty give Skyler a
nd me some privacy so she can take her pregnancy test. While she’s in the bathroom, I’m burning holes in the carpet, thanks to the speed at which I’m pacing the bedroom floor, waiting.
Finally, the bathroom door opens.
“What did it say?” I ask Sky when she walks out.
“I’m pregnant,” she responds, her face equal parts excited and terrified.
“I knew it!” I scoop her up in a bear hug that lifts her feet off the floor. “Everything is gonna be fine,” I whisper in her hair. “We’ll figure this out together.”
“What if I…what if I turn into my mother?” she asks.
Lowering her back down on the ground so that I can look at her face, I tell her, “You won’t be.”
“Mental illnesses like hers can be genetic.”
“Yeah, they can. But there are also medications to help with it. I don’t think you have to worry about that, though,” I assure her. “You’re gonna be an amazing mother. And I’ll be there with you every step of the way. So will Charlie and Ty.”
“They don’t have to be…” she starts, but I see her chin tremble at the thought of not being with them, and I know it’s what she wants.
“Do you love them?” I ask her.
“Yes.”
“Then they’re not going anywhere,” I tell her. “This morning…I had no idea how important they were to you, or you were to them. I’ve been so busy that I didn’t see what was going on. But now I have, and I’m trying to understand. It may take some time for me to get used to the idea of seeing you with them, but I will.”
“You want to…see that?” she asks.
“I think so,” I answer. “Seeing is probably better than worrying about what’s going on and not knowing for sure.”
“Good,” Sky says. “I want you to be there too. Actually, I had a dream about it last night.”
“A dream?” I repeat with a smirk. “Like a naughty dream?”
“Yes, and you were there, giving them permission, then watching and…participating.”
“Participating?” I ask, since that’s more than I think I bargained for. “I don’t know about that. Guy on guy isn’t really my thing.”
