29. Twenty-Nine #2
We both looked at him questioningly. His smirk was a mile wide, “I bumped into Abbi, and needless to say, she is not happy with us”
Toni’s hands slapped to cover her mouth, “Oh fuck! Her cabin!”
“What happened to Abbi’s cabin?” I asked, pulling a still sleepy Toni to her feet.
“We’ll tell you on the way,”
They did, and though my jaw nearly broke from grinding my teeth at every mention of Francis, I couldn’t help my pleasure when Brennon talked about stabbing him.
I wasn’t sure why, but I was licking my lips and trying to hide the lust painted on my features.
Brennon’s icy eyes sparked as he watched me suck my bottom lip.
Toni, who was walking, curled under his arm, just gave him a squeeze.
Though, when we got to the nurse’s office, knocking on the door repeatedly until she answered, any levity we’d regained was immediately gone again.
The looks of absolute disgust thrown at Brennon and I while the nurse cleaned, disinfected and bandaged Toni’s wound were nearly laughable.
Or they would have been, if she hadn’t eventually thrown us out of the building altogether, despite multiple protests from Toni and our repeated assertions that we didn’t do that to her.
Brennon and I waited in silence outside the door that she’d slammed in our faces for about two minutes before my wild girl came skipping from the building. There was a huge smile on her face, and she beamed at both of us.
“She asked me about a hundred more times if one of you did it. Then, she asked which one of you was my boyfriend. I said both of you. That shut her right up.” Toni snickered, “And you should have seen her face when I told her you were also boyfriends.”
She fully cackled then, a wild giggle the likes of which I hadn’t heard from her in so long. Brennon joined in, and I smiled at their infectious responses. Only, when their laughter died down, they both looked at me. Two sets of blue eyes laced with uncertainty.
Toni asked gently, her voice quivering a little as she looked between Bren and I, “You are, right? We are?”
“We are what?” I wanted to ask but refrained.
None of us were on sure footing, not completely, after everything that went down.
Last night we connected physically, but maybe there were things we needed to say, too.
Still, when Brennon reached out, I let him pull me in, so our chests were pressed together.
Then, he leaned down and kissed me. It was equal parts soft and demanding, as his tongue licked at the seam of my lips.
I pulled back, blushing, and he grumbled “I’m going to keep kissing you until you stop being so goddamned shy about it. ”
“I might never be as out as you, B.”
He growled back, “I don’t need you to be, but I do need you to be proud of this, of being mine.” He slapped a hand to each of our chests in turn, “That’s an order.”
“Okay” I answered so softly that I wasn’t even sure Nettie heard me.
“Good boy,” he praised, and it made something light up inside me.
It also made Brennon smile. I couldn’t help my response to his approval, and every time I got it, it just made me want it more.
This time, I kissed him back. Not a deep kiss, but one that left my lips tingling pleasantly afterward.
Maybe it was a step backward after the last twelve hours, but it was all I was capable of right then.
He didn’t frown or seem angry when I pulled away.
Then again, I don’t think either of us was capable for being upset when a very happy-looking Toni stepped between us.
Brennon leaned in and kissed her, too. Just as deeply as he’d done with me.
While their lips connected, Nettie slipped her fingers between my own.
A quiet gesture to remind me that I was part of this.
When their lips broke apart, she turned my way, with an expectant smile.
I would never deny my wild girl anything ever again.
So I kissed her, too. She drew back with an ever bigger, brighter, wilder smile than before.
“I know we still have a lot to figure out, but remember?” She asked, shifting our hands so she could fold my fingers into a fist, then doing the same to Brennon’s, “Remember how it used to be?”
I nodded. Brennon’s rough voice, low and solemn, repeated the words, probably for the first time since we were sixteen, “We fly together.”
“Or not at all.” I finished the vow. Our knuckles touched, of course, that was part of the ritual. But more than that, the three of us stayed huddled in our small circle. Clustered together against all the threats waiting to pull us apart.
Eventually, we did have to separate. Outside the nurse’s station, we weren’t in the faraway Library, but the very heart of camp. The sounds of waking cabins, certainly the first few on the boy’s side told us we didn’t have long until kids came thundering up the paths for breakfast.
After the events of last night, we all agreed it was unlikely that Francis, or even the other two, would be at breakfast, but Jack very well might be.
And who knew if that was it for Franklin Barrett’s spies.
After all, I’d always just assumed Stephanie had some kind of stupid crush on me.
Not that she was a brainwashed psychopath capable of drowning someone.
So, it wasn’t a huge stretch to imagine there might be others like her.
Thus, Toni and I quickly explained to Brennon that he needed to ignore us, and we him, during meals or really any time the sun was up.
His distaste was clear. Subtlety never really was his favourite thing.
Blue hair and neck tattoos don’t exactly scream self-restraint, even if they did suit him, I couldn’t help but admire the thorny black vines that crawled up his neck.
Still, he acknowledged the logic in our approach.
I directed Birdie to leave first, to head straight to the dining hall, then Brennon, who I instructed to backtrack towards the office.
Nobody would think twice about finding him there before breakfast. I was the last to leave.
My plan was to go around the backside of the dining hall via the Throw before heading through the kitchen.
I waited and watched as they walked away.
We parted on the promise to reunite later, but I couldn’t help it if each of their footsteps sounded like the ticks of a clock, counting down until we faced our next catastrophe.