Chapter 3 The Beginning of the End #4
“Oh, uh, Dad, the thing is, that she didn’t know Sivan was in my room. She just smelled the cologne and complained.”
Oh God…I hear the sound of heels clacking against the wood, and before I even look behind me, I already know that it’s Sheena.
“Hello, Captains,” she says.
“Yes, hello,” our fathers reply in unison as she walks in between the four of us, staring at Sivan and me.
“Now this is interesting, where did you come from?” Sheena asks, looking at Sivan. She turns her attention toward me. “Where did that piece of trash go that was in your room this morning, Vincent?”
“There was no trash in my room.”
“Right,” my father says. “Sivan was the only one in Vincent’s room, he spent the night it seems. Too drunk to get to his own ship.”
Sheena’s eyebrows raise and she looks the two of us over.
If Sivan holds it together without shouting, it will be a miracle.
“Captain,” she says, keeping her eyes locked on us. “You say there was no one there aside from Vincent and Sivan…this morning?”
“Yes, the boys just ran into us out here. Girls were already gone, it seems.”
She cracks a crooked smile and raises an eyebrow at us. “Well, I find that interesting, because when I came into the room this morning—”
“Unannounced,” Sivan interrupts. “She entered his room without his permission, and I was changing clothes. I got so damn nervous that I hid under the covers, so she wouldn’t see me in my underwear.”
“Yeah, Dad, I asked her not to come in, and she just barged in anyway. You know, I’m an adult, it’s a bit weird for her to still be able to barge into my room whenever she wants. I was getting dressed too and was afraid she’d see me naked. Even after I asked her to leave, she wouldn’t.”
Sivan has that look he gets, right before he’s about to really dig into someone. “She even insulted my cologne and said I smelled like a cheap slut. Plus, her daughter was eavesdropping outside the door, too.”
“Now, Sheena,” my father says, crossing his arms. “Sivan is like a son to me, and I have to draw the line at you calling him a slut.”
“Yes, Captain. I understand. Forgive my impertinence. I had no idea that Sivan was the one hiding under the covers. How should I have known there would be a man in your son’s bed?”
“You say that like there’s something wrong with it,” I say. “Is there something wrong with two friends sharing a bed after a night of drinking?”
“Right, right,” my father says. “Nothing wrong with that. Surely you can’t see anything wrong with the two of them sleeping in the same room.”
“If I may add,” Sivan’s father cuts in. “It seems you have insulted my cologne on two instances now. What is it that you find disagreeable about this scent? It’s the same one I bought for Sivan. It smells great.” He sniffs his own sleeves. “This is expensive cologne.”
The rest of us give a chuckle, but he’s quite serious, as crazy as that sounds. This is good, though. It’s a diversion from the fact that Sivan was naked in my bed.
She’s holding a hand on her chest like she’s offended by what Sivan’s dad said. “Oh, I don’t believe I’ve ever insulted your cologne, Captain Crawford. I find it most agreeable. I truly apologize if I have offended you in any way.”
“I’d understand if you were talking about his cologne, smells like low tide!” Captain Crawford says as he pushes my father. “Let’s go, Rodri.”
“Right,” my father agrees. “It’s time for the meeting, lets head out, boys.”
Phew, we made it through without further interrogation.
Now that our dads have started walking down the hall, Sivan and I exchange a glance.
That was really close, and we both know it.
Not only did they almost catch us kissing, but we also technically admitted to being naked in bed together—although I think we covered it well.
“Just a moment,” Harlow’s mother says.
Our fathers stop and turn toward her. “What is it?” my dad asks. “We’re gonna be late for our own meeting.”
“Well,” she says, “I would feel ashamed of myself if I didn’t mention something to you, captains.”
What the hell? She’s actually looking at Sivan and I, as if she’s telling us that she knows everything.
“Vincent and I are going on ahead,” Sivan says, walking away, while I quickly follow behind.
“Yes, it’s just as well, I’ve forgotten what I was going to say anyway,” she says with a chuckle.
Sivan and I both know… She heard everything. She was definitely outside the door with Harlow. That was absolutely meant as a warning to us. It was a silent threat.
We’re the first ones to arrive for the meeting, so we take our seats beside each other, near the head of the long black table.
It always smells like freshly painted lacquer in here, because this table is constantly being replaced.
Crew members can’t help but start fights in this room, which nearly always leads to a sword in the table, or a good table flipping.
“Dads aren’t here yet,” Sivan says, scooting his chair closer to mine. “Someone must have stopped them on the way.” He rests his hand on my thigh under the table, then squeezes lightly.
“Don’t do that, I’m so ticklish!” I chuckle, pushing his hand off my leg.
“You’re ticklish? If you hold my hand under the table during the meeting, I’ll let go of your thigh.”
“I can’t hold your hand! Are you crazy?” I ask through laughter. “Come on, stop!” He squeezes my thigh again, and I wiggle to the side.
“Hold my hand, and I’ll stop,” he repeats, pumping his eyebrows at me.
I can’t stop laughing, even though I hate being tickled. I’m just squirming in my seat while he tickles me.
The door opens wide, and I jump backwards into my seat.
Thank goodness, it’s just Matteo. He scans the room quickly. “Oh, where is everyone else?”
“Hello to you, too,” I say.
He’s looking at the two of us in an almost contemptuous way. Almost like—he’s disgusted with us.
“Where is everyone else? Where are the captains?” Matteo asks again.
He’s not hiding the fact that he doesn’t want to talk to us. I guess I should be understanding of what he’s feeling; he did walk in on the two of us naked on top of each other, so it’s probably not easy for him to be in here right now. But, honestly, why should he care who I have sex with?
Sivan pats my leg gently, then folds his hands on the table. “Matteo, are we to understand that you’re uncomfortable around us?”
Matteo rolls his eyes in reply, walking toward the table. “Well, Sivan, yes, you are to understand that. Are you not the same? Do you not feel uncomfortable after doing that?”
“Do I feel uncomfortable after having sex with Vincent? Is that what you’re asking me? Or are you asking if I’m uncomfortable because you interrupted us from doing it again this morning?”
“Wow,” I say. “Don’t go saying it out loud like that!”
“What? I’m not embarrassed. Are you?” Sivan asks me.
“Well, you should both be embarrassed,” Matteo says.
“What would you have done if Harlow or your father had come in instead of me? What does this mean? Have you two been doing this the whole time? Sleeping together? You’re both going to be named captains this year, and you’re sleeping together?
No wonder you don’t want to marry Harlow. When did this start?”
Before I can answer, the door opens, and our fathers walk inside. “Boys, where the hell is everyone else?” my father asks.
Matteo answers him, “I can send for them, perhaps they confused the time after last night’s round at the bar.” He leaves the room quickly to presumably notify everyone else.
Our fathers sit at opposite ends of the table. “So, boys, how do you feel about the latest news of Captain Slicer coming back around?” my father asks. “What do you make of it? Rumors? Or do you expect they are true?”
“Well, I hadn’t heard that, to be honest,” I say.
Sivan shakes his head. “We didn’t talk about that. No one mentioned it to us.”
“Didn’t talk about it?” Sivan’s father asks. “What did you two spend the night talking about then?”
“We didn’t spend the night talking. We spent half the night passed out,” Sivan says.
“Oh, well that solves it,” his father replies.
“Yeah, we hit the rum early,” I add. “We passed out pretty quickly after that.”
My father taps the table. “Oh, well, the rum was delicious this trip. Don’t blame you at all for drinking too much.”
It was technically one bottle, which by my father’s standards—well, really, pirate standards—would be considered a light round, but I’ll just let him think we drank too much. I’ll just make things worse if I try to correct him.
Several crew members barge inside the room, and the table is quickly filled with boisterous pirates.
“First order of business,” my father says. “Why the hell were all of you late?”
Finn, one of the crew members answers, “Easy, we were late because we got held up in the hallway. Sheena was out there consoling Harlow, and we just offered some friendly advice.”
“Oh, Harlow was upset about something?” my father asks.
“Upset about him,” Finn says pointing at me. “Says Vincent keeps breaking her heart.”
“Oh, come on,” Sivan says. “That girl is ridiculous, he doesn’t even like her.”
“Okay, calm down,” my father urges. “He does like her, he’s just not going to marry her.”
“He doesn’t like her as anything more than a friend, and she can’t seem to understand that,” Sivan says resolutely.
“Yes, that may be true,” my father agrees. “But why would you need to make that distinction?”
My stomach is in knots, thinking of the thousand ways this conversation could go wrong.
Honestly, Sivan is usually pretty vocal in the meetings we show up to, so I don’t know why my dad is poking at him.
Doesn’t really matter, because I can’t take a chance that Sivan says something about us sleeping together.
“Captain,” I cut in. “He’s making the distinction because I don’t like her, and everyone thinks I do. Sivan knows the way that I feel.”
My father drops an eyebrow at me and leans back in his chair. “Oh, is that right?” He’s gesturing for a drink toward the cook in the back of the room, but his eyes are locked on me.
Sivan is pressing his boot against mine under the table. Just that small amount of contact from him somehow makes me tingle.
“Yes, that’s right,” I say.
Captain Crawford is carefully studying the two of us.
He’d normally have interjected at this point.
It’s making me nervous that he hasn’t. But maybe I’m just afraid that somehow he knows.
I’m afraid of everything right now. Suddenly, I feel like all eyes are on me, like everyone knows we slept together.
“Well, you’re not yet twenty-one, once you see what’s out there, maybe you’ll realize what’s in front of you,” my father says.
I purposefully turn my gaze toward Sivan.
Our eyes meet, and the words I want to say are caught in my throat.
They’re strangling me from the inside out.
These feelings—they’re too big…I don’t understand them.
I can’t make sense of anything. It feels like I’m suffocating—I’m finding it hard to breathe.
“He sees what in front of him,” Sivan says.
I feel strange, my body isn’t reacting to anything—and no words are coming out.
Everything is suddenly spinning, and I’m falling—I’m falling toward Sivan, and I can’t brace myself.
My head lands on his lap, and everyone is shouting my name, but I can’t speak.
His hands are shaking—I want to tell him I’m okay, but everything around me has gone black.