Dirty Fraud

by Eden Beck

  As she jabs her thumb back towards the main hall, we spot her and Astor spilling out onto the lawn. She’s waving her arms wildly while he just follows several steps behind, looking miserable, his hands jammed deep into his pockets.

  Wills chuckles, and Blair looks a little guilty. “Man, Astor’s really getting it.” He grabs one of the pastries and shoves the whole thing in his mouth in one go. “Just wait until Thursday, she’s really going to blow her top.”

  I stop picking at my own croissant and look up. “What’s happening Thursday?”

  Both Wills and Blair look at each other a second, and then slap their foreheads.

  “I forgot to ask you before,” Wills says. “We’re going to Blair’s for Thanksgiving. His parents host this big old thing.”

  “We?”

  “Unless you have better plans,” Blair says, leaning closer and smudging the tip of my nose with chocolate from the pastry in his hand.

  “You know,” I say. “I was really thinking of going back to the foster home … but I guess I’ll take it into consideration.”

  They invite Dana to come along, but she waves us away. “I need to thank my dad for what he did in person.”

  Right. I quickly thank Dana again for getting her father involved in the first place. I draw the jackets over my shoulder’s tighter, and realize that I’ve finally stopped shaking. One day I’d like to know where the other kids end up, but for now, it’s enough just to know they’re out of there for good.

  The thought of spending a holiday with both Wills and Blair is intoxicating; I can think of little else in the days leading up to our trip. I don’t think much else could make me feel closer to Blair than being in his home with his family there, and I definitely want to be closer to Blair. I know Wills is okay with it, more than okay with it, and that makes it even better. He positively glows over the next couple days, and it’s everything I can do to keep the duo out of trouble before we get out for the long weekend.

  Chapter 18

  The holiday finally comes, and I am delighted when Blair and Wills show up at my door early in the morning and carry my bag down to the front grounds of the school. A private SUV is waiting for us; big, black, and glossy.

  Before we can start climbing in, I spot Victoria and Astor heading towards us from up the hill. Astor is as unreadable as ever, but Victoria is doing nothing to hide her fury at being pinned with me for the weekend.

  I tap Blair on the shoulder and nod towards the pair headed our way. “For the love of god, please tell me I’m not sitting next to her.”

  He chortles a laugh and sweeps me up in a kiss. “Don’t even worry about that. Wills and I already claimed dibs on you. You’re sitting between us.” He laughs again just as Wills comes up and wraps his arms around me from behind.

  “Except you’re sitting closer to me than you are to him,” he teases, and kisses my neck. I giggle and smile at them both. I really hope Victoria is getting an eyeful of this. If she’s going to throw a fit, I might as well give her something to have a fit about.

  “What am I going to do with you two?” I ask, knowing it’s a pointless question.

  “Oh, I have a list.” Wills says, opening the door for me just as Astor and Victoria reach us with their bags in tow thanks to a gaggle of freshman following close behind.

  “My list is longer,” Blair quips as he gets in beside me.

  Wills nods at Astor and then gets in on my other side as their minions put their bags into the back. Astor climbs into the front while Victoria is still loudly complaining about one of her designer pieces getting scuffed up. He slams the door shut and stares irritably out the window with one hand to his temple. I bet he lives with a perpetual headache saddled with that witch all the time.

  Victoria is left to open her own door and climb over the middle seat and into the back, a fact she loudly gripes about for the next fifteen minutes, and I smile to myself about it. Sometimes it’s the little things, and even though she’s there, and Astor and I are at odds right now, it almost feels like the good old days to me.

  The car ride isn’t so bad. We fill the awkward tension with Christmas carols, and the boys are super impressed that I actually have a half-decent voice. They keep starting a song and then dropping out of it so that they can hear me sing, and Victoria has been doing nothing but sitting in bitter silence in the back the entire ride, which suits me just fine. She doesn’t dare try to pull anything with the boys this close, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling the death glare she fixates on the back of my head the whole drive.

  When we pull up to the house a couple of hours later, I can’t contain myself.

  I glance over at Blair in surprise and blurt, “I thought we were going back to the condo.”

  I catch a glance from Astor in the side mirror as Blair throws the door open and offers me a hand out. “Nah, this is the only proper place for a party.” As soon as my feet hit the gravel outside the car, he pulls me close and whispers a quick warning in my ear. “I never told the others about that weekend. Just so you know … I couldn’t let them ruin it for me.”

  His eyes rake over me, and I feel the heat coming off of him here in the cold. I know what part of that weekend he’s remembering, and it brings heat to my own cheeks.

  Astor gets out of the car and slams the door so hard that it shakes. He stalks off without looking at any of us, and I’m sure he overheard some of that. Good. He should know what he’s missing out on by playing these twisted games.

  Blair wraps an arm around me and smiles, looking up at the massive mansion. “Welcome to the family cabin. You like?”

  I nod and then I realize that no one else is amazed by this ‘cabin’, and make an effort to keep myself in check. “Just so you know,” I say as Wills hops out behind us, all our bags gathered up in his hands, except for Victoria’s which he leaves her to deal with, “I’m kind of dying inside, but I’m going to try and keep my cool.”

  Wills snorts and starts leading us up to the house after Astor. “Don’t. It’s completely adorable watching you freak out.”

  Blair shakes his head. “I mean, it is kinda cute.”

  “It’s disgusting.” Victoria grumbles as we head for the door. “I may vomit.”

  “Whatever, Vic, just do it outside,” Blair tells her coolly.

  She might be Queen back at school, but she isn’t here. His comment makes that painfully clear. Painful for her, great for me. I take his hand and give it a gentle squeeze, and he winks at me and lifts my hand to his lips, kissing the back of it.

  I meet Blair’s parents, Heath and Darla Rashnikov, and I like them right away. They are very friendly and welcoming, the sort of people who make you feel like you’ve known them for ages even though you just met. They don’t even bat an eyelid when Victoria tries to not-so-casually hint that I’ve already seen their Manhattan house. Blair’s mother, Darla just gushes on about how she hopes I got a chance to use the master tub, and I have to hide the massive blush that rises in my cheeks.

  Astor sees and his face grows even more stony, a muscle popping out at the base of his jaw.

  “Careful,” I say, as I pass by on my way to being shown my room, “You’ll crack your teeth, clenching so hard like that.”

  Blair shows me to a big room that overlooks a meadow, and just beyond that, a forest of towering pines. The room has double doors that open onto a balcony, a fireplace with a super soft white fur rug before it. The king-sized bed is elevated off of floor enough that there are steps leading up to it like some sort of sultan’s palace. I have to keep from making jokes about king’s harems while the parents are still lingering in the hall, chatting with Wills and Astor about their college plans.

  I have a private bathroom that’s even more magnificent than the master bath at the condo—and this is just one of the guest rooms here. I’m pretty sure five-star hotels don’t come this decked out.

  Blair has a huge grin on his face the whole time, watching me as I walk around and take it all in. I
shake my head as I check out everything. Blair walks up to me and slides his hands around my waist, gazing into my eyes.

  I have to tease him. “I guess this will do. I mean … what, no mini-fridge?”

  He laughs at me in surprise. “I can have one installed if you like!”

  I laugh hard then too and hug him tight. “Don’t be an idiot. It’s perfect.”

  He kisses me long and slow, and murmurs against my lips. “It’s only beyond perfect because you’re here with me.”

  I hold his face in my hands. “You’re so sweet. Thank you.”

  He looks over my shoulder into the bathroom. “Did you notice how big the bathtub is?”

  I giggle and my cheeks warm as I blush, thinking of the first time we made love; my first time ever. “Shut up. Your parents are watching.”

  He just glances back at them, and gauging the fact that they’re still chatting with his friends, he risks a quick slap on my butt. “You know, they say practice makes perfect …” He trails off and gives me a wink along with a smile so big that his dimple deepens all the way in.

  “I don’t know about that,” I tell him. “It was pretty perfect the first time.”

  “I still think we should keep trying to perfect it.” He kisses me again and I have to stifle a soft moan, thinking of what he wants with me, because I want it with him too. We don’t get many opportunities to be alone at the school, but with a house like this … we could disappear for days and barely be missed.

  Even though it’s clear Blair wants to take me here and now, we follow the others downstairs, for lunch. Victoria keeps trying to be overly affectionate to Astor at the table, but he keeps swatting her away. It gets so uncomfortable that even Blair’s parents start to pick up on it and suggest we all do something to get out of the house.

  “What do you want to do, Teddy?” Blair’s mother, Darla, looks at me pointedly, cutting Victoria off in the middle of speaking. “From what Blair’s told us, you haven’t been up to a cabin like this before.”

  “Definitely not,” I say, wondering how much Blair’s really told them about my past. “I don’t even know where to start.”

  Darla perks up immediately. “Well then, I’ve got an idea.” She claps her hands and starts ordering the boys to head into the garage for winter gear. “There’s a hill out back that’s perfect for sledding, if you aren’t too grown-up for that sort of thing.”

  To her side, Victoria wrinkles up her nose—but it only makes Darla more adamant. I think she and I are going to get along just fine.

  She promises to have hot chocolate waiting for the rest of us, and gets up to start right away. She spots Victoria starting to follow the rest of us, but waves for her to stop.

  “Don’t worry, Victoria, you can stay here with me and help.”

  I have to cover my face so they don’t see my utter delight as Victoria finds herself being wrangled into washing potatoes at the sink. She stares at them like she doesn’t even know what they are. I have a feeling she’s never seen a raw potato in her whole life.

  She lasts about two seconds until she sees Astor coming along before she throws the potatoes into the sink and hurries after us. “Well, if you’re all going, I’ll go to.”

  Darla exchanges a look with her husband, and I wonder what exactly they’re thinking … but they don’t try to stop her again.

  Blair loans me winter clothes and we all get dressed and go out. Every one of us has a great time, except Victoria, but nobody seems to mind it. We’re all too busy shoving snow down the back of each other’s jackets to pay any attention to her constant complaints about the way the cold makes her skin too dry. She keeps saying that it’s too cold, even after we’ve all had hefty servings of spiked hot cocoa, but she refuses to leave Astor’s side so long as he’s here with the rest of us.

  I keep hoping that I can nail Victoria with a snowball, but she stays out of the games and huddles under a blanket by the outdoor gas heating lamps with a sour look on her face.

  We all head inside once it starts getting dark and Darla tells us that dinner will be ready in an hour and a half. Victoria stalks off to her own room, placed conspicuously at the opposite end of the house as Astor, as I head to my own. The buzz from the hot chocolate has started to wear off, and it’s left a bone-chilling cold in its wake.

  I’m halfway through a hot shower, just about to rinse the soap out of my hair, when the steamy shower door opens and Wills steps in with me. I gasp in surprise, but he only smiles and leans in to kiss me as his hands and arms slide around me.

  “Don’t worry, I locked your bedroom door behind me,” he murmurs as his kiss leaves my lips and heads down my neck.

  “Won’t the other’s notice?” I ask, but my voice is weak and small.

  “Let them.” The voice is Blair’s as he appears in the doorway. He grins at me, winks once, and drops the towel around his waist before stepping in on my other side.

  It is unquestionably the hottest shower that I’ve ever had, and certainly the longest.

  No one says anything when we come down for dinner, but I catch Astor looking purposefully down at his plate the entire time and refuses to answer any questions with anything other than a one-word response.

  Rather than a traditional dining table, the Rashnikovs have a massive round table set in the middle of the kitchen. Even though the kitchen is all stainless steel, crystal chandeliers, and high-grade marble—it adds a homey, family touch. I see why they host this dinner every year for Blair’s friends. This huge house would be empty between just the three of them.

  While Heath and Darla are chatting a little about the big dinner to come tomorrow, which they’ve hired caterers for instead of slaving over it themselves, I lean over to Wills and tap him on the shoulder.

  “Why don’t you celebrate with your family?” I know he has a large one, and though I’ve only been in homes once or twice that even acknowledged the holiday, I imagine it’s the sort of thing you’re supposed to do with big families.

  “Actually,” he says, “We used to all do them together. Our families are really close. This year we decided to keep it small.”

  Something about how he says it, the way his eyes dart briefly over to Astor, tells me this was his idea.

  “It’s not because of me, is it?”

  Wills has gone back to shoving prime rib in his face. In fact, now I think of it, I’m rarely around Wills at a time when he isn’t shoving something in his face.

  “No, I don’t think so,” he says. “I think it has more to do with her.”

  He points his fork at Victoria across the table.

  “What?” she snaps, jabbing her own fork into her meat so she can push it around her plate some more. The opposite of Wills, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen her eat anything.

  “Nothing.” Wills grins at her with food in his teeth, and she looks away, disgusted.

  Heath takes the opportunity to turn the conversation toward me. “Teddy, we’ve been looking forward to meeting you. Blair talks about you often.”

  So I’ve been told.

  “I’m really glad to be here. Thank you so much for having me,” I tell him with an earnest smile.

  He leans forward on one elbow and looks at me slightly puzzled, and I see Darla rest a hand on his arm, as if trying to subtly stop him. “I am curious about one thing however … which one of these boys are you actually dating?”

  Blair and Wills both speak up immediately.

  “She’s dating me,” both say simultaneously, and then they laugh a little shyly.

  Blair stretches an arm over my stiff shoulders and clarifies it for his parents. “We’re both dating her. Together.”

  Astor clenches his jaw and sets his glass of water down on the table heavily, and we look at him in surprise, but he doesn’t look back at us.

  “I wondered,” Darla says, shooting me a coy smile.

  “You must be quite the catch.” Heath shakes his head, but he’s also grinning. “I think we taught
those boys to share a little too well.”

  I feel a warm glow inside me, and I just smile and glance at my boys. I adore them, and I know how lucky I am to have them both. It might not be traditional … but neither am I.

  The conversation takes many more turns after that, but Astor and Victoria grow increasingly distant. After dinner we all settle in to watch a movie, but when Victoria tries to sit with Astor, he curls himself into an armchair and plants a big bucket of popcorn in his lap so that there’s no place for her.

  I’ve never been much of a movie-watcher, so at some point I fall asleep. I wake up confused and have no idea what’s going on with the movie … so I decide to excuse myself to bed a little early. I don’t think anyone can blame me for being exhausted. I hiked up that hill to sled down it more times than anyone else, and I drank more than my fair share of the hot chocolate … amongst other things.

  Someone’s laid out a lacy sheer nightgown on the bed when I get back, and I slip into it. I don’t let myself look at the label, or else all I’m going to be thinking about is how it’s wasted on my sorry ass. It’s definitely Blair’s pick, without question. It’s all sweetheart neckline and lace; romantic and bohemian, but still chic. If it were up to Wills, I’d probably sleep in a track suit. Astor—something sleek and sexy.

  Astor.

  A chill races up my spine as I think back to the little moments over this trip, and it’s just the first day. It’s evident that he and Victoria aren’t together for the love of it. I see it too in the way he looks at me, and even more—the way he won’t.

  I splash some water on my face to try to clear my mind of him. Why can’t I just be happy with the other two?

  I shouldn’t have to be with all three of them to be happy, but maybe there’s some truth to what Blair’s father said. The holy trinity comes as a package deal—to fully have one, you have to have them all.

  When I look back up in the mirror, my face isn’t the only one looking back. I let out a little squeak and whirl around to see the very person I’m thinking of.

  “Fuck, Astor!” I snap. “You scared the shit out of me.”