23. Twenty-Three #3
“Honestly, that would be great,” my shoulders slumped, “Thank you,” I tried to force it out, but that was the final straw, and my voice cracked.
Like a swelling wave, the three girls rushed at me, encircling me in the kind of hug that I’d last experienced at fifteen.
When we all let go a minute later, I was smiling again, and able to wipe away my tears.
“So, how are we going to get T that alone time with Xavi? And without her brother finding out?” Abbi asked.
“Please don’t worry about it. Jack’s sending him home for a few days as of tomorrow anyway,” I explained.
“Doesn’t mean you don’t deserve some time, because it’s not just Francis cramping your style. We all saw Stephanie hanging all over your man today.”
Abbi looked pissed off on my behalf as she looked to Bella for the answers.
“Easy,” She pointed to me, “Instead of staff time tonight, just stay in the Village.”
“What? How’s that going to work? Francis basically spends his nights watching my front door.”
“Uh-uh,” she wiggled her finger, “You’re going to skip the game tonight. Go grab yourself one of those fairy porn books you like so much-”
“They’re not porn!” I protested.
“Fine, dragon porn,” We all laughed, “And then go camp out in Abbi’s cabin instead.
“You aren’t suggesting they fuck on my bed?!” Abbi hollered.
“No, I’m just saying she hangs out there, until after we’ve distracted her brother. Then Xav will meet her there, and they can have the whole evening to themselves.”
“Ummm, sounds great and all, but how are you going to distract my brother?” Some of my earlier panic returned, “He’s dangerous. What if he hurts you?”
“Leave that with us,” Bella replied. Her confidence obvious, but a peek at her watch made her flash us all a tight smile, “But now, we all have to go. Game starts in five minutes!”
“Let’s go! And, T, I know you miss your man, but please don’t have sex in my bed.
” Abbi said, rising from her chair and opening the door.
Bella followed her out, and both Mich and I moved towards the door, too.
Only, she paused in the door frame and said, “Thank you for telling us, Toni. Lying is easy. It lets us pretend. It takes a lot of guts to tell the truth.”
Then, she raced off, following Abbi toward the Activities Field.
Meanwhile, I was headed in a similar direction, but along one of the other paths, the one that would take me to the Staff Village.
I flew down the path like I was running the all-along marathon again.
My current read was indeed a book about fairy princes, three of them to be exact, and was easy to grab from my cot along with my ratty old Agonde sweatshirt before racing back up the hill to Abbi’s cabin.
Her cabin, Clover, was basically a mirror of my own.
Although, where mine was kind of a disaster with clothes and stuff spread everywhere, Abbs kept her floor neat and tidy.
She even made her bed. Although it was hard to not laugh at our differences.
My bed had an old, crocheted quilt on it, where her’s was slapped with a comforter sporting the logo and characters from an early 90s cartoon.
It took me a while to settle into my book.
Flickers of concern kept rearing their ugly heads.
Concern for whatever it was Bella had planned, and how Francis would react.
Not to mention, I mistook every strong gust of wind through the cabin’s creaky old door for Xavi’s arrival.
Only to be disappointed over and over again.
But eventually, fairy princes won out, and I found myself sucked into a kingdom where three rival princes were slowly, I hoped, going from enemies to reluctant friends, to lovers.
I’m not sure how much time passed, or exactly when I fell asleep.
Sometime after Prince A and Prince B got to the inn and found there was only one bed, but before anything really exciting happened.
When I woke up, the last of the day’s light had passed the window.
The cabin wasn’t exactly dark, but the shadows had set in.
I tried to reach for Abbi’s little alarm clock, the one she kept on the chest of plastic drawers beside her bed, but I couldn’t quite move.
Not completely. Something had me pinned in place, a weight on my feet I assumed was her covers, right up until I tried to kick them off.
“Fuck!” a shout and a grunt that sent me spiraling. I threw my hands over my head, a knee-jerk reaction, and before I could bring them down at whoever was actively crushing my legs into the mattress, two clammy hands clasped my wrists and pinned them where they were.
And in a lazy, pleased drawl, a different voice chided, “Well, well, well, look what we found.”
Immediately, I started to thrash, kicking my body in every possible direction, but my brother’s grip on my wrists was too solid. Then, another set of hands wrapped around my ankles.
“She kicked me.”
Mitchell. Of course. Who else would be willing to play sidekick to Francis’ horrible plans. Because whatever my sibling was about to do, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind it would be horrible. I just hoped it would only be horrible for me.