Chapter Seven
My dirty laundry smells better than my father ever will.
~ Zayne
CHLOé LOOKED UP at the dark, ominous cloud overhead and was thankful she had decided to meet up with Justin for an early lunch rather than later.
It’d been the week from hell already, and it was only Wednesday, so the idea of being caught up in a thunderstorm just seemed like a little more than she could handle right now.
But maybe this was karma. She’d lied to her fathers, and now she was paying the price. She just hoped her transgressions would be paid in full sometime soon, because she wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take.
She walked up to the front entrance of the high school where Justin taught, and made her way to the front office to get a visitor’s pass.
Once she was cleared to enter, she headed through the halls and up several flights of steps until she reached her brother’s classroom.
The door was open a crack, and just as she was about to knock, she caught sight of him sitting behind his desk with a frown on his face as he spoke to a student sitting opposite him.
“This is the third time this week we’ve had this discussion, Xavier. Not only are your grades slipping, but your attitude. Talk to me, help me understand why you’re acting this way. There has to be a reason.”
The boy sat still and silent with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face as he looked anywhere but at his teacher.
“You’ve always been such a great student. This makes no sense. So unless you clean up your act or start telling me something that does make sense, I’m afraid I’m going have to call your parents in and have a talk with them.” Xavier rolled his eyes, and Justin shook his head. “Nothing to say?”
Again, silence met Justin’s question.
“Okay, then, that’s it. You can go.”
Xavier stood and hiked his backpack up over one shoulder.
“I’m trying to help you here, not bust your chops. Try to remember that, okay?”
“Yeah, okay .”
Chloé quickly turned away from the door, not wanting the kid to think she’d been eavesdropping, as he pushed out and walked in the opposite direction. Then she poked her head inside the classroom.
“Is now a bad time, Mr. Thornton-Priestley?”
Justin sighed but smiled as he stood up and waved her inside. “Only if you’re going to give me trouble.”
“Who, me? Never. I save that for our fathers.”
“Isn’t that the truth.”
“Hey now. Be nice.” Chloé held up the takeout bags she brought. “I bought Thai.”
“Okay, you win. I’ll be as nice as you want.”
Chloé grinned and took the seat Xavier had just vacated. “You mind if we eat in here? It looks like it’s going to storm outside.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Let me clear this off a bit.” Justin began to move some textbooks and a stack of papers to the shelves by the window. “I was happy you called. Wasn’t sure whether or not you survived Sunday night.”
Chloé shook her head as she started to unpack their lunch. “Barely. It was touch and go there for a minute.”
“I bet. So, is that the reason for the Thai? You need someone to vent to?”
“Can’t a sister just come and say hi to her brother?”
“She can… But she often comes for advice too.”
Chloé pursed her lips then handed over his utensils. “Well, you are older and wiser than me.”
“Hey,” he said, pointing a fork at her. “Watch it.”
“Aaaaand you’re clearly good at listening when there’s a problem,” she said. Justin frowned. “I caught the tail end of your discussion with Xavier.”
“Oh.” He sat back in his seat. “I don’t know what’s going on there. He’s always been such a great student, but the last couple of months, not so much.”
“I’m sure he’ll come around.”
“I don’t know about that—he seems to be getting worse. But that’s not why you’re here. So, fess up.”
Chloé took the lid off her pad thai and looked at Justin who was inhaling the delicious aromas of his red curry. “Would you like a private moment?”
He glanced up at her with narrowed eyes. “I missed breakfast, so I’m a little hungry.”
“Oh, really ? And was there a good reason that you missed breakfast?”
“My alarm clock didn’t go off?”
“That’s not a good reason.”
“But a valid one. Unfortunately, there’s no sexy men keeping me in bed.” He scooped up a spoonful of rice and curry. “Maybe that’s because two of the last available ones are in yours.”
“Ha. Ha. They weren’t available, they were together—”
“Available enough for a threesome.”
“And now you just sound bitter.”
“Yeah, yeah. Well, apparently you were what they were looking for anyway. Plus, I’m more a one-on-one kind of guy.”
“I know. I always thought I was too. Weird, huh?”
“Or not so weird. Maybe you just didn’t know any better, and when you met them, it made sense.”
Chloé looked at him, a shocked expression on her face.
“What?”
“I… I just wasn’t expecting you to say that. That’s all.”
“I mean, don’t get me wrong, these two still have a long way to go before they get in my good graces, but I’m not going to tell you what you feel is wrong.” He shrugged. “It’s what you feel.”
Chloé blinked, her eyes blurring a little. This was the first positive thing anyone in her family had said about her current situation, and it warmed her heart.
“By the way, I assume these two have names?”
Her cheeks heated, and she suddenly felt shy. “Ethan and Zayne.”
“Hmm. Well, if just saying their name makes you blush, they must be doing something right.”
She lowered her eyes to her meal and got busy eating some noodles in an effort to stop herself from saying anything embarrassing.
As they ate in comfortable silence, a loud rumble of thunder boomed outside. They looked to the windows.
“Geez, you weren’t wrong. It looks like it’s going to come down out there.”
Chloé frowned. “Great. That’s just what I need. To catch a taxi in pouring rain.”
“A taxi? Where’s your car?”
She rolled her eyes and reached for her bottle of water. “In getting repaired. It decided to break down last night when I was on a date.”
“Oh shit.”
“Great timing, huh? I should find out what’s going on with it soon.”
“I keep telling you, you’d be better off trading it in and replacing it. You’ll save money in the long run.”
“Yeah, I don’t think anyone would take it as anything other than scrap metal at this stage.”
Justin took another bite of his lunch, then pinned her with his big-brother stare. “So you were out with them again last night? The parentals were okay with that?”
“They should be, since they’re the reason we went out. That little talk they had with me on Sunday? They basically told me that if I wanted to keep seeing Ethan and Zayne, they had to come and meet our fathers.”
Justin’s spoon stopped halfway to his mouth. “You’re kidding.”
“Do I look like I’m kidding?”
He clamped his lips together, trying his best to hold back a laugh, but it got the better of him.
“I’m sorry. I’m just trying to imagine that. You, the boyfriends, and our fathers?” He laughed even harder. “That is going to be one awkward dinner.”
“You know, I was actually enjoying this conversation until now.”
“Oh, come on, if the shoe was on the other foot, you’d be laughing your ass off.”
He wasn’t wrong. But the shoe was on her foot, and she was well aware of just how awkward it was going to be.
“So what did these two say when you told them about this?”
She shrugged and said around her next mouthful, “They said okay . Crazy, right?”
“Actually, I think that’s pretty cool.”
“You do?” Again, Justin’s response caught her off guard.
“Yeah. They’re obviously into you if they are willing to put themselves through that kind of torture.”
Chloé leaned across the desk and punched him in the arm.
“Ouch.” He rubbed his shoulder but grinned. “I’m serious. That actually makes me dislike them a little less.”
“Dislike them? You don’t even know them.”
“I know, but it kind of went hand in hand with the fact they’re dating my little sister.”
“Whatever. I like them, and I think once you meet them, you will too.”
“Hey, I’m not going anywhere near that dinner.”
“You weren’t invited. I just meant in the future.”
“Wow.” Justin dropped his fork in his empty container and leaned back in his chair. “And just like that, I feel really pathetic.”
“Why?”
“Here you are talking about the future and planning to introduce your boyfriends to the fathers, and here I am with nothing but an empty apartment and students who can’t stand me.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. At least you’re not about to have to spend all your savings on a piece of shit car.”
He pointed at her. “There is that.”
A flash of lightning lit up the sky. It was crazy how dark it was outside for the middle of the day.
“Damn it. I hope this clears up before I head home.” Chloé pulled out her phone to check, and as she opened up her news app, the headline across the top caught her eye.
SENATOR RANDALL COPELAND CAUGHT UP IN SCANDAL AS RIFT BETWEEN FATHER AND SON GOES PUBLIC
Merde.
Her stomach twisted into a knot as she read the headline again, and when that sick feeling didn’t dissipate, she clicked on the gossip piece, telling herself she was worrying about nothing. But when a video popped up of the ballroom at the LondonHouse, all the blood drained from her face.
“Chloé?” Justin’s voice was faint under the blood ringing in her ears as she scanned the short article and her mind began to spin.
Senator Randall Copeland’s dirty laundry was aired publicly this weekend at a fundraiser held at the LondonHouse.
His son, Zayne Copeland, caused quite the stink in his father’s political circles when he arrived with a date on each arm.
His boyfriend, Ethan Holt, and a mysterious redhead who has yet to be identified.
The senator—a staunch conservative—has made no secret of his stance on “good Christian values,” but this flagrant display of debauchery has left his opponents asking one question: how can Copeland possibly stand behind his political viewpoints when his own family clearly has skeletons in the closet?