Chapter Four – Angel
I sat in the middle of the large sectional, Priest on my left and Bishop on my right. That left Deacon to sit either beside Priest or Bishop, and he chose the latter. We were all seated and ready by the time Ramona arrived, although I’d be lying if I said I was totally in the moment. No, my mind was still caught up in what Deacon and I had done in his room.
I’d now kissed all three of these guys, and each time, it had felt like the entire world had shifted. I didn’t know what to think.
Ramona stood in front of us, her phone in her hand, as always. Her long, thick black hair was down, falling over her shoulders, and her black eyes surveyed us on the couch. The expression her face wore was not what I was expecting. She didn’t appear upset.
Then again, Ramona was hard to read.
“All I can say is, you’re lucky,” she started off with. “I thought we’d have to do damage control after your little stunt at the show last night, but…” Ramona trailed off, something that wasn’t like her.
Priest leaned forward. “But what?” He was acting remarkably normal, considering he’d just caught Deacon and I making out while Deacon was still naked. Not at all how he’d acted last night after seeing Bishop kiss me.
“Have you looked through Black Sacrament tags today?” When none of us said a word, Ramona went on, “Well, something changed overnight. I wish I knew what it was, but… you’ve gone viral. You’re trending.” She gagged at that. “I hate that clock app, but we all know it can be good for starting careers, ending them, or boosting. You guys are definitely seeing a boost.”
Bishop shook his head. “I don’t get it. Why’d we go viral?”
“It’s not so much your return show that’s gone viral as it is the kiss,” Ramona bit out the words, like she didn’t want to say them aloud. “People who’ve never even heard of Black Sacrament are seeing the video where Priest kissed Angel at the end of the show. You’re being shipped heavily with each other now.”
“Shipped,” I repeated. The word sounded familiar in that context, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It sounded like something Cleo would say.
“Yeah, they’re shipping you because they want you two together.” Ramona pointed between Priest and me. “It seems that your little stunt, Priest, might’ve been the right call after all. We won’t be able to see the numbers yet, but new and old fans alike are clamoring for your album together. We need to capitalize on this and release a single to keep the buzz going, hold everyone over until you release your next album.”
Bishop glanced at me. “So, what does this mean? Since everyone is shipping Priest and Angel, they have to keep doing it? Pretend they’re together?” I could hear the doubt in his voice, and I knew he wasn’t too thrilled with this turn of events.
“That means we need to be smart about this. Draw it out. Don’t come out and say anything about the relationship between the two. Tease the fans. Build it up. Let them keep shipping Priest and Angel together for a while.” Ramona pursed her lips as she stared at each of us. “I don’t have to remind you of how important this comeback is. Not only for you, but for me as well. We have to do this right.”
Priest grinned. “It sounds like you don’t have faith in us, Ramona.”
“Considering I warned all of you to not stick your tongues down Angel’s throat and you did it anyway, yeah, my faith in you is very small right now. Like immeasurably small,” she replied. “But we can work with this. You got lucky. This means that, even if you aren’t feeling it anymore, you’ll have to fake it in the limelight.”
Saluting her, Priest said, “Aye-aye, sir. But you don’t have to worry about faking it. It’s real.”
Ramona frowned. “That’s what I’m worried about.” Her phone rang right then, and she glanced down at the screen and sighed. “Duty calls.” She said not a word more as she hurried to the door and left.
It was only after she was gone that I asked, “What do you think she meant by that?” I was mostly asking so I wouldn’t have to think about what Priest had said before that.
It’s real. He didn’t mean that he really liked me, did he?
Ugh. There I went thinking about it anyways.
“I think she meant she got a call from someone that she had to answer because it’s something to do with work,” Priest deadpanned, earning himself a glare from both Bishop and Deacon. I, on the other hand, was too busy replaying what he’d said before in my head.
“I think,” Bishop spoke slowly as he leaned forward on the couch, “she meant that if it’s real, it’s worse. If it’s real, people can get hurt, relationships can blow up and end…” His eyebrows came together.
“We’re good,” Priest said. “Trust me. We got this. Nothing’s going to blow up in our faces. I walked in on Deacon making out with Angel while he was naked and I didn’t freak out. I was totally fine with it.”
Bishop’s mouth fell open. “ What ?”
Priest seemed to recall Bishop had no idea about that whole thing, and he quickly said, “Oh, yeah. I walked in on Deacon making out with Angel while he was naked. And I didn’t freak. Isn’t that amazing? The not freaking out part, not the make-out part.”
Bishop’s head whipped in Deacon’s direction, and all Deacon did was shrug. He was back to scowling, but his hands fidgeted on his lap, which made me wonder if he was thinking back to that kiss and how those hands had been wrapped around my neck so snugly.
I felt immensely awkward right then, so I got up and said, “I should… go do something somewhere else.” Smooth one, Mags. Very smooth.
Priest leaped to his feet and grabbed my wrist, stopping me from going anywhere. “No, hold on. I think we should all be on the same page.” He helped me sit back down, and then his tall frame hunched over to sit on the coffee table facing me. “Deacon too, since apparently he can’t keep his mouth off you, either.”
My cheeks burned at that. The way he was talking, it was like none of them could control themselves around me, which was just ridiculous.
“Bishop and I talked. Jealousy’s only going to tear us apart, so… what if we agreed not to get jealous? And by that I mean, if I want to kiss Angel, I can kiss her, but if you want to kiss her, or Bishop wants to kiss her, that’s okay to o.” He was saying this to Deacon, acting like it was a totally normal thing to suggest.
And it most definitely wasn’t.
Deacon gave Priest a weird look. “What exactly are you saying? Because it kind of sounds like you’re suggesting we all date her at the same time.”
Priest blinked, and it took a moment for it to sink in. “That does sound like what I’m saying, doesn’t it?”
Bishop was busy shaking his head and burying his face in his hand while Deacon was flabbergasted. “Dude, you can’t even share your food. What makes you think you could share her?”
“First off, I have an issue with the food because we’re all adults here, so if you wanted what I got, then you should’ve ordered it, too. Second, I’ve shared girls before. Not in a long-term capacity, sure—more like the passing threesome or foursome, but how hard could it be?”
“The girl in question is right here,” I chimed in, and even though my cheeks were on fire, I tried to act annoyed. “Did anybody stop to wonder if I’d even want something like that? Maybe I think you’re all disgusting and I hate you—”
The look Priest gave me shut me up, and I squirmed a little as I corrected myself, “Okay, maybe I don’t hate any of you, but that doesn’t mean I want to get passed around like… like…” God, I couldn’t think of anything that got passed around.
Priest, however, could: “Like the last joint at a stoner party?”
“Or the last snack,” Deacon muttered under his breath, making Priest grin. For the first time, I was seeing why the two of them were friends. Underneath his stony cold, brooding exterior, he was just another guy.
They all were, even Bishop. They were hot, yes, and they looked even hotter all painted up and dressed for a show, but that didn’t mean I wanted to date them.
My sister’s stupid comment was coming to full fruition, and I wasn’t the one who made it a reality. Was Cleo some sort of prophet or something? She had to be, because this was absolutely insane.
“Whatever,” I said, “It doesn’t matter. Just because you guys might be okay with it doesn’t mean I am.”
“To be fair,” Bishop begrudgingly spoke as he rubbed the back of his neck, “I never explicitly said I was fine with it, either.”
Priest rolled his eyes. “Maybe I’m just trying to skip the boring middle part of it and jump right to the end where we all get what we want. Is that really so wrong? Am I wrong?” He divided up his time between staring at each of us, though he lingered on me the longest.
Probably because, if I wasn’t okay with it, then this was all pointless.
I… I’d never had one boyfriend. How could I possibly be okay with three? Then again, before this, I’d never kissed a boy, and now I’d kissed three—but just because I kissed them didn’t mean I wanted to date them. Maybe I was just sampling the local flavor.
Okay, yeah, that sounded weird, even to me.
When I didn’t say a word, Priest asked, “Does that mean I’m wrong and you don’t like us?”
“So what if I do? That doesn’t mean I’m okay with dating all three of you—” I stopped once I realized what I’d said. I’d basically admitted that I did, in fact, like all three of them. At this point I was grasping at straws, and Priest knew it.
He gave me a lopsided smirk that made my stomach flutter. “Just admit it. It’s okay. You want to be our angel, offstage. It’s okay. It is.” Priest glanced at the others. “Tell her it’s okay.”
Deacon glowered. “I never said I was fine with this conversation you and Bishop had. Maybe you’re assuming too much—”
Priest clapped his hands to shut Deacon up. “We all like Angel, and our angel likes us. I don’t see what’s tripping any of you guys up here. We can be a power quad. It’ll be hot. Everyone will wish they were a part of it.”
A power quad? What in the world was Priest talking about? I gave him a funny look and muttered, “This is not happening. This… I need to go somewhere else and think.” I hated how much I tripped over my words, and I also hated how much I wanted to throw all caution to the wind and tell him he was right.
I liked them. I liked the fact that they liked me. I wanted them all.
But to date all of them at the same time? I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.
Could I?
Before I could say or do anything else, AKA before I made a bigger fool of myself in front of the three guys I had crushes on, I got up and went to my room. This time Priest didn’t stop me, thankfully. I didn’t know what I’d do if he pulled me back to the couch a second time. My willpower was already waning.
It was only when I was safely locked in my room, alone, that I let myself sink to the floor. Leaning against the door, I stared at the ceiling as I wondered what kind of weird dream I’d stepped into without realizing—because it had to be a dream, right? Something like that didn’t just happen.
I mean, sure, these guys might be more open in their sexuality since they were in a band, but that didn’t mean anything. Sharing someone, sharing me, wasn’t like hooking up… or, I imagined it was different, since I really had nothing to compare it to. I’d never hooked up. Never even drank alcohol before. I was pretty much a goodie two-shoes. Agreeing to be Black Sacrament’s newest member was as wild as I’d ever gotten.
I pulled out my phone and messaged Alexa: What would you do if you had three guys who liked you and they wanted to date you at the same time? I couldn’t give her any more specifics. And, if we were being technical, there wasn’t an actual agreement the three guys had agreed to, but if I knew Priest, I’d say he was out there with Deacon and Bishop getting them to do just that: agree.
She texted me back within a few seconds: WHAT IS HAPPENING . All caps. In a second message, she said, YOU HAVE THREE GUYS WHO LIKE YOU AND WANT TO DATE YOU? GET YOUR HAREM GIRL.
Of course she’d say that. I held in another sigh as I responded, What if it goes wrong? Also, stop yelling at me through caps.
Maybe that’s what I was worried about the most: something going wrong. If something went wrong, what would happen to Black Sacrament?
That’s a problem for future you. Current you should enjoy all the dicks!
I nearly choked on my own spit when her message came through. Thank goodness I was alone, otherwise the guys would’ve seen my face and asked what was wrong. How could I ever tell them that my best friend thinks I should enjoy all the dicks?
Another message came through: If I wasn’t sitting in class, I’d be calling your ass right now to tell me all the deets… unless you’re not allowed to tell me the deets in your super-secret new life.
Maybe someday, but I couldn’t tell her yet, so all I said was, It’s complicated. I’ll tell you all about it as soon as I can. So… you really think I should go for it?
Alexa’s answer was a resounding: YES .
Hmm. Even though my best friend thought I should go for it, I personally wasn’t convinced. I had to think about it more. As much as I wanted to be selfish and jump right into it, the last thing I’d want to do was ruin the guys’ friendship if it didn’t work out.