24. Twenty-Four
Twenty-Four
Xavier
Across the breakfast table, my wild girl looked less like a college co-ed and more like a goddess.
Her lithe frame and height were only accentuated by the long line of the bedsheet toga.
It might have been a silly costume, just like mine, but Toni Barrett was always meant to be a queen.
To the others around our table, I appeared to have little time for anything other than the bowl of food in front of me.
But Toni’s blush was all I could see, that and the shy smile when I mouthed my true desires to her.
I longed to get my mouth on her, to taste the honey between her legs again, to make her call out my name while I lifted her to the heights of pleasure.
I watched her pour more sugar into her cereal.
She deserved that. She deserved everything.
Gone was her skeletal frame. Her father and brother did little better than starve her all year.
Just one more of their mechanisms to control her.
But three months of eating Chef Brad’s food had undone that little bit of their torture.
I’d done my best to banish the rest of her ghosts with what snippets of time we managed to steal, but the lingering hollows under her eyes were evidence that the spectre of her brother still weighed on her.
Fuck the spectre, that motherfucker loomed at the edge of every damn thing we did.
For a while–weeks actually–I’d brushed Francis’ presence off.
Opting, instead, to prioritize making Toni smile.
And trying to find answers. I was doing a pretty good job with the first part, but not so much with the second.
In the last week, though, neither had gone particularly well.
Sitting across from her without being able to touch her, hold her while she laughed at whatever Michele mumbled beside her, that was my torture.
Breakfast ended and was followed immediately by a staff meeting. I didn’t need Cole or Abbi to tell me where I’d be today. The same place I spent most days, on the Activities Field. What I hadn’t anticipated was that I’d be stuck with Stephanie Carpenter all damn day.
When Abbi said her name after mine in the staff meeting, she literally squealed.
Then, the meeting broke up, and I tried to jog away.
Too bad Stephanie had been running with me as a camper every summer for the last five years, so she nearly kept pace, screeching at my back “Today’s going to be so fun! ”
I didn’t answer. Nor did I say more than ten words to her the rest of the afternoon.
In fact, I did everything I could to shake the bitch off.
Barking orders, ignoring her, and at multiple points throughout the day, even making a point to physically push her off me.
I didn’t like doing it, but she kept pawing at me, putting her hands on my arm, or shoulder, and even my chest. The touch of her skin made me itch.
Almost as much as her voice grated on me with every backhanded comment like,
“I’m so glad we’re finally getting to run a program together.”
As Lands Program Head, I’d purposely scheduled Stephanie in areas and classes I hated. Maybe if she wasn’t such a bitch to Toni I would have reconsidered. Not that she stopped complaining about it. “It feels like you’ve been avoiding me all summer.”
I had. The rising ire in my chest was only proving that it had been the right choice.
“What do you think of my new shorts?” She asked, bending over in a gratuitous attempt to get me to check out her ass.
“My daddy bought them for me!” What eighteen-year-old still calls their father ‘daddy,’ fucking creepy.
Not that I gave a fuck. There was only one girl’s ass I was interested in ogling these days.
All she was doing was stirring memories of holding my wild girl’s cheeks in my hand as I railed into her from behind.
I couldn’t let my mind linger on that thought though, otherwise, I’d be sporting a semi, and this useless bimbo would think it was for her.
I was grateful when Isabella and her girls arrived from the beach.
I wouldn’t have called us friends, but I had adopted a kind of tacit peace with my girl’s friends after last summer.
After all, it was Brennon and Cole who forced me to pick a side, and just like Abbi, Michele, and Bella, I’d picked Toni’s.
Bella’s presence also made it easier to avoid Stephanie.
“Stephanie!” I boomed to her from across the field, “Get these girls ready for the races!”
She whined, “But Xavierrrrrrr, I did it last time.”
“And then you spent the rest of the hour tanning on the beach volleyball court. So, NOW!”
She dragged her ass, behaving like a toddler mid-tantrum the whole time, but at least she followed orders so that I could stand beside Bella and use the time to watch Toni from afar.
It didn’t take long for Bella to chuckle and roll her eyes, “Hey, you two are like a pair of lost puppies. Just making eyes at each other.”
I grumbled low in my throat, but couldn’t deny it, either. It had been so long since we’d connected properly; I was a little bit lost without my wild girl.
“She misses you.”
I knew it, but it was nice to hear someone else confirm it. I snatched my water bottle from the ground and pretended to take a sip. Stephanie’s eagle eyes were still watching from across the field, and I mumbled, “I miss her, too.”
Bella gave me a sad smile, “I know something’s up. We’ll find a way to fix it.”
I took another feigned sip.
“You don’t know anything.” I wasn’t trying to be unkind.
But they didn’t know a damn thing. Toni and I had agreed to keep it as quiet as possible, to keep everyone safe.
If word got back to Jack or Francis, we were sure Franklin Barrett would make Toni disappear, for real this time.
Then, I had another thought, “Whose we?”
“Don’t you worry about that, Ese.” She winked, before darting in to join her girls as they chased one another up and down the racetrack we had arranged using traffic cones.
The first race had been a human wheelbarrow race, and now the girls were onto their final challenge, using old brooms as pretend horses to race from one end of the track to the other.
Hours later, after we finished with the last cabin–Dogwood, a group of fifteen-year-old boys who, unlike me, were definitely interested in Stephanie’s little get-up–I desperately needed a break.
From people, from Stephanie, from all of it.
So, when she approached me and asked, with hooded eyes, “Well, Gladiator Xavier, shall we go get some dinner?” I brushed her off.
“You go. Bring me back a plate. I’m going to get set up for the wide game.”
“Okay,” she smiled, “I promise to bring you back something delicious.” I rolled my neck and stretched as she skipped off.
The tightness across my shoulders eased the further she from me she got.
In fact, I relished the hour of peace that dinner brought me.
The Activities Field was far enough from the dining hall that the sounds of the meal were little more than dulled background noise, leaving me to enjoy the still August evening and the cooler breeze that came with it, clearing out the blistering heat and leaving only a comfortable warmth in the air.
I could tell the second dinner ended and the lodge doors were flung open.
Kids hollering and feet beating against the dusty paths as they ran back to their cabins.
After that, it was only another fifteen minutes before Stephanie and the first of the cabin groups started to arrive.
She carried the plastic plate for me, all wrapped up with kitchen plastic-wrap, like it was some precious thing.
“Put it in the shed,” I ordered when she brought it to me. With kids already arriving, there was no time to eat it now. Plus, I wanted to join in the game, and ultimate frisbee on a full stomach would only end one way. At least the way I played. To win.
Once all of the cabin groups were present, and most of the staff, too, I explained the rules and arranged the other Lands staff across the field as officials.
Then, Cole and Abbi–Caesar and Cleopatra–got down to picking their teams. This wasn’t girls versus boys or any of that garbage.
Cole and Abbi had clearly pre-arranged an even split of genders and age groups across both of their teams in an attempt to make the game as fair as possible.
I didn’t give a shit, because there was no way in hell I was playing on Cole’s team, nor would he pick me anyway, so I simply stood behind Abbi while she called out cabin names.
It was only as the crowd dispersed, each cabin group joining its respective team that I noticed Toni’s absence.
Fear pierced through me, as I frantically searched both Cole’s team and my own for any sign of her.
But there was none. The only thing that kept me from taking off to search for her was the fact that Jack was watching from the sidelines, and both Francis and Mitchell were already lined up behind Cole.
She was probably on her way and just running behind with clean-up down at the beach.
I didn’t have much time to think about it once Jack blew the air horn.
Ultimate is a fast-paced game. It was also supposed to be no contact, especially since all the kids were playing.
For the most part, staff on both teams held back, letting the kids make most of the plays.
As team captains, both Abbi and Cole stayed primarily in their opposing ends, working with their team’s defence to prevent the opposite side from scoring.
Which worked out perfectly for me, because I derived a special kind of pleasure from beating Cole in any form of sport.
I’d missed my chance at midsummer with both of us sitting out of the marathon, so I used this game to make it up to him.