Pandora
The proctor announces the end of the exam time, and I quickly hit the submit button.
Well, that was it. The last exam for the semester.
Of course it was biochem, and of course I’d floundered while staring at the answers.
Worse: only a handful of questions were multiple choice, and Professor Richter decided to make us all answer long-form questions to prove that we actually know what we’re talking about instead of randomly guessing.
Professor Richter is sitting at the front of the examination room, nodding to all the students who walk by.
“If I don’t fail, you’ll see me again next semester,” I say cheekily.
I catch the slight eye-roll, before Professor Richter realizes what she’s doing. She purses her lips. “I’m sure you’ll do well, Ms. Pavone. I’ll see you in January.”
For Biochem 102 or whatever class it is. It’ll be equally dull, talking about more enzymes and hormones and fiddly things that don’t matter.
Ugh, when do we get to start dissections?
As I exit the exam room, my phone buzzes with a text, and I’m excited to hear from Blaze, Asch, or River.
Unfortunately, it’s from none of them.
Unknown Number
This is your first and only warning.
Back off or you’ll regret it.
Wow, that’s not ominous. I wonder which of the frat douches got ahold of my number, and was stupid enough to text me.
I copy the number and forward it to Anastasia Voronkov, who can do almost anything I could dream of with tech.
Pandora
Can you figure out who this number belongs to?
Anastasia
As long as it’s not a burner, sure. Give me 5.
I check the time on my phone. It’s early afternoon on a Friday. Shouldn’t she be in school? Unless the high schools have started winter break already, and it’s only colleges that make students hang around for ages to take exams.
Anastasia
The name is Peyton Anderson. You’d think he’d have at least tried to cloak the number. Amateurs. Need more info, or do you know who it is?
Peyton sounds familiar. The hallway is loud with students who are discussing their exam though. One of my classmates mentions the answer to one question, and it’s not what I answered.
Whoops.
I need to get out of here before knives start crawling out of the walls.
The bathroom is crowded too, and the lounge area is full of other students buzzing with nerves.
What does it take to get some privacy around here?
I end up exiting the building entirely and huddling down on a bench outdoors. It’s way too cold for anyone to want to join me here, so I have peace and quiet as I pull my notebook out of my backpack.
Or, y’know, Rachel’s notebook.
I flip to the page where I’d written down all the frat douche’s names. I’ve since added their various sins and how I’ve punished them. Next to Keegan’s name, I drew a bunch of little rats. They’re honestly very cute.
I find Peyton Anderson, and my only note on him is that he was probably there at the gym.
‘Probably,’ since aside from Zayden and Keegan—and Blaze, and Asch, and River, don’t think about it don’t think about it—I don’t actually know who was there.
Anyway, are any of them without sin? They all joined the Kappa Assholes knowing it would give them free pussy, and if anyone had any issue with Declan raping Carly, they hadn’t shown it.
I use my phone to look up Peyton’s socials, and I’m not surprised to see that he’s friends with Keegan. Unlike the other frat douches though, the rest of his account is locked down.
Really? He doesn’t want strangers spying on his private life?
I huff and go over to Keegan’s account. He hasn’t posted in a while—shocker—but as I scroll, I find pics of him with Peyton, and a woman who looks a lot like Peyton.
Wait. Is Keegan dating Peyton’s sister?
Who in their right mind lets one of these frat douchebags date their sister? Peyton, that’s just not cool.
I’m still scrolling when somebody walks up to my spot on the bench. I glance up and smile when I see that it’s River.
“Hey!” I say, getting up. “You finished your exam?”
“Yeah. It was easier than I thought it’d be,” he says, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me close so he can kiss me. “How’d biochem go?”
I shrug. “Fine? I didn’t feel like chopping off Professor Richter’s fingers when I was done, so that means I’ll probably pass.”
“I think it’s frowned upon to chop off your professor’s fingers anyway, so that’s probably a good thing,” River says dryly. “You want to come hang out for a little while? Blaze and Asch should be done with their exams too.”
“Sure!” I snuggle closer to him. “It’s so cold, you need to warm me up!”
He wraps an arm around me. “Then let’s head out,” he says. “My car will be freezing, but the house is warm. Too warm, honestly. I don’t know why Blaze keeps it like a—”
He stops talking, his body going tense.
Sauna, I think he was going to say.
“Anyway,” he says before I can comment, “let’s get out of here.”
I take his hand and follow him to his car. We wait while it warms up.
My eyes keep being drawn to his missing finger. My charm is in my jeans pocket, but I can’t reach it under my coat.
The finger is dripping blood again.
He should get that bandaged.
I blink a few times to shake the image away. Shit.
If I go home with him now, will I accidentally cut off another finger? Not that I cut off the first one. Really, that was barely even my fault.
“We deserve new stuff,” I say out of the blue.
“New stuff?” River repeats. “What kind of new stuff?”
“Stuff! Retail therapy! We survived our exams, it’s almost Christmas.
Oh, hell, I haven’t even bought presents for anyone.
I haven’t even thought about presents!” I’m glad I remembered now, and not three days before Christmas.
I reach out to rub River’s hand. “Yep, that’s what we need to do.
If I don’t have presents for everybody, somebody will cry. Probably Papa.”
“Your Papa is not going to cry,” River says, rolling his eyes. “I don’t think he’s even capable of crying.” He backs out of his parking spot. “So, to Harmony? It’s going to be crowded with everyone who has the same idea as you, you know.”
“It’ll be less crowded than in New Bristol,” I point out. “And Papa does cry! Like the time—”
I cut myself off. No, I shouldn’t tell River about that time.
I’d been really young when I’d seen him cry, but that moment never left me. After Mel had been born, and Mama couldn’t leave her bed for months. I’d snuck into her room, hoping to sleep next to her, but Papa was already there, crying silently.
I’d left before he noticed me.
“I bet everything here is cheaper, too,” I say. “Also it’ll be all the big chain stores, none of the nice indie ones we have in NB.”
“I think Harmony has a few indie shops,” River says. “They’re probably expensive, but their selection will probably be more interesting.”
River starts driving. His radio is set to some local station which plays the current hottest music. I tap my fingers along to the beat until the song ends and it goes to the DJs.
“Our top story for today: local police are asking for anyone with information about Zayden Henkel to step forward. His decapitated head is imploring everybody to help him find justice.”
I frown at the radio.
That can’t be right.
I glance at River, but he doesn’t react to what they said.
“What do you think that’s about?” I ask.
“What’s what about?” River gives me a quick glance before turning his attention back to the road.
“The news story,” I hedge.
“I guess it means the world has nothing better to worry about? Who even cares about John Allers opening yet another tech center? Doesn't he have plenty by now?" River scoffs. "You'd think the incident with Ezio and Samantha would have made the news. Maybe the cops are paid off."
“They could at least have mentioned the shootout on the highway! It’s old news by now. Old, buried news,” I answer.
Okay, so the host hadn’t mentioned Zayden. Probably.
Shit, what the fuck is wrong with me?
Why am I hearing things?
Everything is supposed to be perfect again. I have River, Asch, and Blaze on my side. The frat idiots are quivering in their boots. We’re sitting on a treasure trove of blackmail material.
Why am I still not normal?
“Like everything else even remotely interesting,” River confirms. “I bet the Bouchards pay the big bucks to keep the news stories tame when things do get out of hand.” His expression darkens. “I didn’t even hear about what happened to Franklin.”
“The university paper had a small article for him,” I say. “That’s how I knew where the memorial was. Well, and Blaze told me, because I think he knew you needed more emotional support.”
He falls silent. “I do appreciate you showing up,” he finally says after another song has started to play on the radio. “I know things were…” He hesitates, like he’s trying to find a good word to describe how things had been after the night at the gym, but he falters instead.
“Yeah.” I look out the window, watching people in their winter coats walking down the streets. In New Bristol, the streets would still be crowded, even in this bitter cold, but Harmony’s crowds are thinner.
River pulls into the parking lot for the shopping mall. It’s the only major concentration of shops, so unlike the malls in New Bristol, it’s still in business. Also, nobody wants to walk around outdoors in winter weather.
“Man, what am I going to buy everyone?” I say as we get out of the car.
I grab a few of the tote bags River has in the backseat.
“Papa already has every cooking implement known to man, Mama never wants anything, Uncle Slayer hasn’t worked on his train layouts in years…
I’m pretty sure Mama would get mad if I gave Ares gasoline, and she’ll really get mad if I get anyone a dildo as a joke gift… ”
River shrugs, taking the tote bags from me.
“You can get some new brand of hot sauce for your Daddy, at least. I’m sure he’d appreciate that.
And maybe if you got your uncle a new train piece, it would get him to work on them again.
It would give him something to do beyond cutting people’s fingers off,” he mutters.
I laugh, even though River doesn’t think it’s funny.
“He probably needs a new knife!”
My phone buzzes, and I take it out to see a new text from Blaze.
Blabe
Where are you?
Pandora
Shopping! Come join us at the shopping center. We’re buying presents for everybody. Well, everyone in my family. I don’t know if River is doing presents.
What do you want for Christmas?
Blabe
A GPS tracker on you.
Be there in ten.
I chuckle and show the texts to River. “I don’t think knowing where I am at all times will make me less infuriating, will it?”
“No,” River says bluntly. “It’ll only make us accomplices to whatever you’re up to because then we know where you are and can’t plead ignorance.”
I find a bench for us to wait at, and I scoot closer to River so I can lay my head against his shoulder.
“Remember Christmas two years ago?” I ask quietly. “When Rachel dragged us to that shop all the way across town just to get their limited edition sweater.”
River exhales slowly then nods. “Yeah. Then it turned out she didn’t even like it in person.” He smiles ruefully. “It was pretty ugly.”
I remember the garish colors, which had looked a lot more muted in the online mockup. Rachel’s disappointment had been palpable.
We’d all laughed anyway, and in the end I’d bought the sweater for Rachel. I never saw her wearing it, but that wasn’t really the point of the gift.
“It was a fun outing,” I say. “Even if we didn’t buy anything. And we did discover that Chinese restaurant! I’ve gone back multiple times since.”
River links his arm in mine. “It was good. That whole day was good.”
It had been. It had been before she’d started keeping secrets from me.
“Last Christmas…” I blink a few times, and for a split second the world is covered in a blurry haze. “Last Christmas sucked. I was with my family, but it wasn’t the same without you and Rachel to meet up with on the 26th and do our own mini gift exchange.”
“Yeah,” he mumbles. “I missed you, Pandora. I missed both of you so much. I…” He’s quiet for a moment, then he adds softly, “I’m glad I have you back.”
“Me too. I’m glad you’re back in my life.” I squeeze his hand, the one with only four fingers, and maybe I should apologize for my part in him losing the finger.
I don’t regret having his bones with me, though.
Maybe River doesn’t regret what happened to me at the gym, either, no matter how much he apologized for it.
We sit quietly until Blaze and Asch find us. Neither of them are bleeding from any orifices, so everything must be fine again.
Asch is the first to approach, and he touches my chin to tip my head up to kiss me. “Hey. Shopping, huh? My idea of a perfect day,” he drawls.
I give him a quick peck, and do the same for Blaze. “Yep! Christmas shopping. I’ve got…” I count off on my fingers, then run out of fingers. “At least eleven gifts to buy.”
“What do you want for Christmas, Pandora?” River asks. “Besides the heads of your enemies on a silver platter. Because I don’t have enough silver platters for that.”
“Boo!” I knock his shoulder gently. “I like snakes, knives, the color pink, the color black, and the three of you!” I hook my arm with Blaze’s. “So if you want to save money, your gift to me can be you joining me for Christmas at my family’s place.”
Blaze shakes his head. “I told you, it won’t work. Maybe next year.”
My smile widens.
He expects to still be with me next year.
“So a knife with a snake handle,” Asch says, deadpan. “Maybe in pink. Well, at least you’re specific.”
River gets up. “Easy,” he says. “There are pink knives with snakes everywhere.”
Blaze grumbles about it, but we make our way through the shopping mall. They trade off who’s closest to me, and overall we joke about the upcoming holidays and perfect gifts.
At no point do the walls start bleeding again.
This is the solution, then.
I have to be with all three of them, all the time.
That’s going to be a problem over the break.
As long as the Christmas tree doesn’t cry out in agony, I’ll be able to pretend that everything is fine.