41. Spencer
SPENCER
The teenage attendant droned on and on about the rules as I adjusted the velcro on my sensor vest — no contact, no moving furniture, no breaking shit — but I wasn’t really listening.
Instead, all of my attention was devoted to Kiera and the kids, monitoring from a distance how things were going between them.
“Nervous I'm gonna kick your ass in front of the kids?” Leo nudged my shoulder. But as she followed my gaze, her expression turned serious. “Nervous about Kiera?”
“No. Well, yes— I mean…” I shook my head as I smoothed the velcro in place. “I’m sure about Kiera. It’s just nerve wracking introducing anyone to the kids.”
It was a multifaceted concern. Firstly, I wanted to make sure that the kids were okay, and I took vetting anyone I brought around them pretty seriously. It was months of living with Dom and Leo before I even mentioned them to Abi and Caleb.
But then there was the matter of how well a new person would take to the kids.
“I can’t imagine myself with anyone who adores those two any less than I do.”
“Well I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Leo smirked. “I don’t think Kiera’s stopped smiling since she met them.”
It was true — we’d been here less than an hour, and already, I could see the way her face lit up when she chatted with them. Though mostly, she was talking to Caleb.
I scoffed. “You know, you’d think that the little girl who’s been begging me to bring home a girlfriend since she was ten would take a bit more interest now that I have.”
“Girlfriend? Is that what you’re calling Kiera now?”
“I mean, not explicitly, but sort of. We haven’t talked about it, if that’s what you mean. But it has a nicer ring than ‘captive,’ no?”
“Depends on the context,” Leo smirked devilishly before shaking her head. “Sounds like I’ve gotta step up my game though. Don’t want her getting any ideas about you pulling rank on me.”
“Oh yeah, you should be super worried, Major,” I rolled my eyes before returning my gaze to Abi, who was squealing as she hung off of Dom’s bicep. “But seriously… you think the girl’s okay?”
“Yeah,” Leo smiled. “She’s just watching from a distance, sussing out the stranger. Give it a few hours, and I’m sure she’ll warm right up.”
“You’re probably right.” I nodded.
“I usually am.”
It made sense that Abi would cling to Dom and Leo — she’d known them forever. But the more she saw that Kiera was cool with us and her brother, the more cool she would feel about Kiera… I hoped.
Mostly, I was glad to see that Kiera didn’t seem to be taking it personally. Kids could be fickle, and I’m sure a lifetime of entertaining Maura’s scummy boyfriends had shown Kiera just how weird meeting a new grown-up could be.
I was proud of Caleb, too. Despite it being his special day, Caleb had really taken an interest in getting to know Kiera. He made sure to ask her real questions about herself: where she was from, what sorts of things she did for fun, how she met us.
She was purposefully opaque with some of those answers — and after having her face plastered all over the news for months, I didn’t blame her — but when it came to the safer topics, I could tell she was really willing to share, looking for common ground the two of them could bond over.
“He’s a sweet fucking kid,” Leo smiled as Caleb started talking to Kiera about the comic books he read, pulling up pictures of the art on his phone.
“I know. I can’t believe it.”
“Isn’t he supposed to turn into a grouchy little teenager at some point?”
“He’s saving that for the next time the two of us are alone. Or when I finally corner him about that engine oil.”
“God,” Leo laughed. “Its hard not to give him a pass, though. He’s really beaten the odds with Bill as a role model.”
“Fucking Bill,” I grumbled. Even hearing his name made me sick with rage. “Sometimes I think that Caleb is so sweet just to prove that motherfucker wrong.”
“Or maybe he found a better role model to look up to,” Leo nudged my shoulder.
I hoped that was true — on a good day, I let myself believe that being around me had unwired some of the bullshit toxic masculinity his father pushed — but it was hard to take credit for anything when the boy’s heart was so good.
I shook my head, hoping to blow past the compliment. “Poor Kiera’s so worried about him recognizing her. I don’t know how to break it to her that he’s still a teenage boy under all that sweetness. I doubt he’s clocked much outside of his own little bubble, let alone whatever news cable is running.”
And then there was the part I didn’t voice: He’s got bigger things to worry about unfortunately.
Eventually, the employee gave up on us actually absorbing their instructions.
With a groan, they swiveled their glossy gaze over the room.
“Teams of two, sorted by the colors on your vest. Three shots to take someone down. There’s an emergency button on your blaster if you run into any trouble. Any other questions?”
“When do we get to shoot things?” Abi called out before Dom schooled her with a look. “No, sir, no questions. Thank you.”
“All your waivers are signed,” he barely glanced down at his clipboard before swinging the course gates open. “You’re good to go. You’ve got about thirty seconds to hide before the sensors turn on. Happy hunting!”
The inside of the game room was huge. Fog poured in from every corner, making the edges of the room hard to find.
The hiding spots were a mish-mash of differently styled buildings and landscapes: a medieval castle here, a futuristic sky scraper there.
But all of it was washed in the same saturated neon lighting.
The six of us charged the arena with our lasers in hand, peeling off to disparate corners to hide with our teammates. Seeing that my flashing green vest was a match to Caleb’s, I grabbed his arm and led him off to an outcropping of tall, foam boulders.
Dom had Abi riding on her back as she sprinted up the stairs of a tall tower, while Leo and Kiera sought out low cover by one of the main pathways.
I held my blaster close to my chest, trying to keep an eye on the competition without revealing our hiding spot.
And before I knew it, a pulse of red light flooded the room at the same moment that our lasers powered on: it was show time.
A shoot off against a military vet and a psycho like Dom didn’t seem like a fair game, but everyone in this room was competitive: even Kiera and the kids. We darted through smoke clouds, bounded over barricades, and slammed against walls as we chased each other in a fight for glory.
I’d taken two shots in my mission to knock out Leo, and Caleb seemed to be the target of Abi’s unrelenting barrage, but we still managed to outlast Leo and Dom. The only team still intact, I thought we might have a real shot at this round.
But while Caleb and I regrouped behind a wooden pallet, catching our breath, and Abi turned her attention to Kiera, it seemed like his mind was far from the game.
“What’s up, champ?” I raised my brow, peering around his edge of the pallet for hidden enemies.
But he just kept his eyes trained on me. “Do you think my mom would have liked this?”
“What?” I asked, startled by the deep whoosh of a successful hit in the distance.
“I just don’t really know that much about her,” Caleb frowned. “You never really talk about her.”
“I’m not sure that now is a great time, Caleb…”
“See, that’s exactly what I mean!” He wheeled around to face me. “Why not?”
“It’s not exactly a light topic. I don’t want to upset Abi,” I frowned. “Why is this bothering you all of a sudden anyway?”
“I know you’re not telling me everything.” His tone was not unkind, but that didn’t stop the words from hitting me like a brick to the chest.
“I… “ But I didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t wrong.
I let out a groan. “Just not now, okay?”
“Then when?” He crossed his arms over his chest, intent on getting his way.
“We will schedule something. I promise, okay?” I searched his eyes, hoping he’d see the sincerity in mine despite my anxiety.
“Okay fine. But I’m not letting you ghost me on this.”
“When have I ever ghosted you?”
The fact that he ignored my question heightened the dread in my heart, though I was sure he meant nothing by it.
I never meant to keep information about their mom from them. But how was one supposed to talk about their troubled, dead sister with her kids?
Before the heavy foreboding could finish clouding my mind, a blur of motion and light broke my rumination: Kiera and Abi, in a temporary alliance, had us completely surrounded.
Caleb and I lifted our taggers, but it was too late — they finished us off with two clean hits before Abi wheeled around on Kiera and knocked her out of the game.
“What the hell? I thought we had a deal!” Kiera gasped, but Abi just laughed.
“You’re still new around here, huh? Lesson number one, never let your guard down around a loaded gun.”
My brows furrowed as I looked to Caleb, “Where the hell did she learn that?”
He shrugged, shaking his head with a look of wild confusion on his face. “Don’t look at me.”
“That’s my teammate,” Dom smirked, emerging from the shadows to high-five Abi.
“You who I have to thank for that cute little catchphrase?” I raised an eyebrow.
“It’s a good lesson,” she shrugged.
“It’s a call from her principal waiting to happen,” I frowned before turning to Abi. “Do not repeat that at school.”
“What do I get if I promise?” She smiled.
“To play in the next round,” Leo grumbled before scruffing her hair.
“Deal!” Abi laughed before running off to find a new hiding spot.
I did my best to let Caleb’s questioning go and enjoy the rest of the night; he was only going to turn 18 once, after all, and the fact that he was celebrating it with us was a small miracle as far as teenagers went.
I couldn’t help but fear how things might change once I told him the truth, though. His mother’s story was complicated, and no one’s hands were clean, least of all Bill’s.
A part of me had hoped I could put this off until he was out of the house, maybe until Abi was out too. But the truth was that where I saw a sweet little boy, a young man was taking shape, and in order to move on from his childhood, he needed answers.
I just hoped that he could shoulder the weight of the truth.