Chapter 13 Cameras, Monkeys, and Sneaky Pirates
I make it to my father’s ship a few minutes after eleven.
Sivan went to Muffy’s to pass the time while I talk to Matteo.
He’s going to meet me back here before the inspection.
He wanted to hide in my bathroom or under my bed, but I wouldn’t let him do either.
The last thing I need is for him and Matteo to get into a fight today.
As I round the corner, I see Matteo leaning against my door.
“Hey, sorry I’m late. We woke up late this morning. ”
He shrugs at me. His eyes look tired; there are dark circles under them like he hasn’t been sleeping. “I didn’t remind you to be here on time, so of course you’d be late.”
Raising my eyebrows at him, I open the door. “So, it’s your fault?” I say, trying to lessen the obvious tension.
We step inside, and I look around the room, trying to make sure the monkey isn’t hiding somewhere while also checking for anything that resembles a camera. With my hand on my hilt, I start to remove my sword from my coat, but stop, remembering what Sivan said.
“What are you looking for?” Matteo asks.
“Cameras, monkeys…sneaky pirates… I don’t fucking know anymore.” I drop my head backwards, already feeling overwhelmed.
“That’s a rather odd combo. I wasn’t expecting you to say any of those things.”
He’s standing no different than he normally does, but things feel weird between us.
I look him up and down, trying to pinpoint what’s changed, but can’t find anything.
I just know that something is off. We haven’t really talked in days, aside from the fight in my father’s office, so I really owe him an explanation for the Harlow stuff. He did say he was in love with her.
“I, uh—don’t know where to start with everything,” he says, ruffling his hair. “I’m just gonna say whatever comes to mind. Your dad isn’t here, so let’s just lay it all out in the open. Why the fuck did you propose to Harlow?”
I hold a hand up. “Stop. No. I did not propose to her. Is that what she told you?”
“Yes. She said you wanted to marry her, that you had a change of heart. Then she said that you and that shitface went out the bathroom window—which you did, leaving me there to try and make her feel better. And finally, yesterday she said you wanted to call it off. What’s your version of what happened? ”
“First, don’t call Sivan a shitface. He doesn’t talk bad about you; it would be cool if you did the same.”
“I don’t have to respect him right now. He’s not here; it’s just me and you…brother.”
I promised Sivan that I would keep calm, but all I want to do right now is punch him. He has the smuggest look on his face. “That’s where you’re wrong, brother. You do have to respect him—pirate hierarchy and all.”
“Don’t throw that bullshit in my face. I was raised on this ship by your father. I have the same status as you do. Do you have to respect Sivan?”
He’s wrong. I mean, my father does grant him the same privileges, but that doesn’t mean that he’s of equal ranking.
But there’s no real way for me to point that out without sounding like an asshole.
“Listen. We can’t continue talking if you’re going to fixate on Sivan.
Damn it, Teo. We have so much shit to go over before inspection. ”
He tilts his head at me. “Did you just call me Teo? What’s really bothering you? You wouldn’t say that unless you were feeling really helpless. That’s your go-to when you need me to bail you out. What happened, Vincent? Did you promise to join crews? Or is it worse?”
“Stop. I called you Teo because I’m trying not to absolutely lose my shit on you.
I have something to say to you, but I want to get the stuff with Harlow cleared up first. I did not propose to her.
I have no interest in her. When relaying our engagement news to you, she purposely left out the fact that she blackmailed me. ”
He rolls his eyes at me. “It’s always something with you. How did she blackmail you?”
We’re standing only about three feet apart, and I’m starting not to trust myself.
Between what happened earlier and everything that he’s said the past few months, I think a few good punches between brothers is warranted.
But I’m going to be a captain in a few days, so I need to try and handle this with words.
“Listen to me, you’re being a real asshole right now.
She blackmailed me by having a camera in my room.
She has a video of Sivan and I having sex.
She said if I promised to marry her, Sivan and I could be together in private, as long as I kept up the appearance of being her husband.
If I didn’t go along with her plan, she said she’d tell our fathers and everyone else about us. ”
“That wasn’t part of the plan…” He holds his hand over his mouth. “Are you lying to me right now?”
“What? No. What plan? Why would I lie?” He’s never questioned my integrity before. I’m a bit thrown off by everything he just said.
“You’re full of shit. She wouldn’t do that.” His hands are on his hips, and he’s pacing in front of me now. Something is really off.
“You’ve never called me a liar before. I may be a lot of things, but I’m not a fucking liar.
Ask her if you want. But do you honestly believe that I would propose to her?
Think about everything that’s happened. What have I been like for the past year?
Was I happy about being separated from Sivan?
No. I was miserable. If I wanted to marry her, don’t you think you would have been the first to know?
Think about it. A proposal wouldn’t even make sense. ”
“Ha! Are you trying to explain something to me?”
I’m gonna punch him.
“Vincent!” Harlow’s mother shouts on the other side of the door, while knocking.
“What? I’m busy!” I shout back.
Matteo shakes his head at me. He’s still nervously pacing around the room.
“You men need to be on the dock by noon,” Sheena says. “Your father wanted me to remind you of that.”
It’s weird that she called us men. Not that we aren’t men, because we are, but she’s only ever called us boys when we’re together.
“Thanks, I got it,” I say loud enough for her to hear. “Matteo, before we sign the paperwork for you to be my first mate today at inspection, I need to know that you can accept the fact that I’m gonna be with Sivan.”
“What do you mean be with him? I know he’s gonna be there. You don’t mean that you two are going to be together, like, together in front of people, do you?”
“I do. We don’t want to hide our relationship. We’ve been talking a lot about what we want the next generation of piracy to look like, especially with Captain Slicer coming back around.”
“Right, and that goes down tomorrow…”
Tomorrow? No, it’s supposed to be Friday. I’m sure that’s what we figured out. He must be confused. I shouldn’t correct him right now, though.
“It’s hard for me to deal with all of this,” Matteo says, sitting on the couch in my room.
He exhales loud and long, his legs bouncing nervously.
“I’m really lost, man. I have so much shit happening right now, and the one thing I always held firm to is just falling apart.
Everything is just collapsing around me.
I can’t be in control of all of this—I don’t know what’s right anymore, Vincent. ”
“I’m sorry for whatever you’re going through. I don’t know what I can do to help… If anything, I’m just gonna make things worse for you with what I have to say.”
“Yeah, that is one thing that I guess won’t ever change. You’ve always made things worse for me.”
I chuckle until I realize that he’s not joking around. “What’s that supposed to mean? When have I made anything worse for you?”
“Alright, stop,” he says. “The whole time you were sick, he didn’t ask about you once.
On top of that, he ignored you and didn’t answer your texts.
You’ve given up on girls that treated you far better for doing a lot less.
What makes him special? Do you even understand how people are going to react to this?
The crew won’t accept it. You have so many problems coming your way and you’re worried about whether I can respect the two of you? ”
I swallow hard. I don’t want my voice to convey the pain that his words just caused me. “You’re supposed to be my brother…don’t you want me to be happy?”
My eyes meet his, and he shakes his head at me. “No. I’m tired of caring about your feelings.”
“Vincent,” I hear Sivan’s voice call outside the door.
Shit, it must be time to go. This is gonna end badly. “Yeah, come in.”
Matteo stands up from the couch as soon as Sivan enters.
“Time to go?” I ask.
Sivan places his hat on my dresser and stands beside me. He kisses the side of my head, which I’m sure is quite sweaty right now, because I am so fucking nervous and shaken by what Matteo just said.
“Yeah, we should head,” Sivan says. “Did you two”—he points at Matteo—“clear things up?”
Matteo shakes his head. “Nah, we’re not gonna clear things up. Vincent is a completely different person thanks to you. I don’t even recognize him anymore.”
Sivan backs up taking a bit more of a defensive stance. “Why is he different? Because he’s sleeping with me? Is that what makes him different?”
“Shut up,” Matteo says. “Your father isn’t here now, and as far as I’m concerned, you’re no different than me. I don’t have to respect you. You’ve ruined him.”
Sivan takes a step closer toward Matteo, and I quickly place my body in between the two, feeling their tempers escalate.
“What?” I ask. “How has he ruined me?”
Matteo is staring me straight in the eyes.
Now that he’s closer, I can see that his eyes are a bit bloodshot, and the dark circles underneath are worse than I thought.
“How can you ask me that? You know damn well that you were fine before all of this started. And it’s got nothing to do with you liking men, it has everything to do with him. ”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” I say. “What is your fucking problem with him?”