“Well, yes, in most situations, but in this very specific situation, no. I deserve to feel guilty for hurting you and upsetting you, and you deserve to be spoiled a little bit because I did those things. So anytime you want something, you just call and extort me for it.”
At that, Gus finally cracked a little smile. “The new game in that series we were just playing came out.”
“Then I’m buying it for you,” I said. “Can you download it directly?”
His smile widened. “Yeah, but will you play it with me?”
I nodded. “I promise I will, but I can’t do it right now. I’ll get it for you right now, but I have a few more people I have to apologize to. You weren’t the only one I hurt.”
“Will they get to use the extortion thing with you too?” he asked, and I laughed.
“Probably,” I said, then I opened my arms, and Gus flopped forward out of his chair, onto his knees, and into a hug. “I love you, kid.”
“I love you too.”
“I’ll never, ever do that to you again, okay?” I said.
“Okay.”
He pulled back, and I pushed him back into his chair. “This summer, I’m going to be living with my friends, but I’ll visit you whenever you want, and my friend has a massive pool with a slide. I bet you could come over for some awesome pool parties.”
“Yeah!” Gus yelped.
“I’m already on it.” I stood up and kissed him on his forehead. “Okay, go find the game and I’ll buy it.”
I spent a little bit of extra time with Gus, letting him show me the beginning of his game and making sure he felt extra loved, then I gave him a final kiss on the forehead and left, promising to be back soon. He saw me out with a smile, then I swung through the kitchen to give each of my parents a final kiss and goodbye. I returned to my car. It’d already been a long day, but I felt much better than I did at the beginning of the day. Ciara had been taken care of, my parents and Gus had forgiven me.
All that was left was The Royal Court—but for that, I’d need backup.
“Yello?” I smiled at the familiar sound of Sicily’s voice. I might have liked to see him in person, but the day was running short, so a phone call would have to suffice to get his help.
“Hi.”
“Hey!” Sicily squealed. “I haven’t heard your voice in a whole week. You get your old friends back and suddenly you’re too good for your old pal, Sicily?”
“You know that’s not true,” I replied. “I’ve mostly been sleeping.”
“I’m just yankin’ your chain. No one can quit ol’ Sic,” he responded.
Sicily had been my only friend through the past six months. Given that he and Deon became close in the time that Deon was at Postings Proper High before disappearing again, when Deon did go missing, Sicily was just as frustrated as I was. He too believed that Deon was still alive and out there, and we had been working together to try and find him. Though we’d had no luck, we developed quite the bond in the interim, and now I considered Sicily one of my closest friends.
“I just finished apologizing to my parents and Gus,” I said. “It went way better than I thought it would.”
“Glad to hear it. You headed to Nathan’s now?” he asked.
“Yeah, and I was hoping you could meet me there? I know they were my friends before, but they’ve all changed so much in the past six months that it feels like I’m walking into a house of strangers. It’d be nice to have a familiar face there.”
He snickered. “Aw man, you know I’ve got you covered. I’ve missed ya anyway, so let’s take on The Royal Court together, girl!”
My smile grew, even if Sicily wasn’t there with me. “Thanks, Sic.”
“No problem. I’ll leave in the next five minutes here. See you soon.”
“Yeah. Bye.”
I hung up my phone and started up my car, but I waited a bit to leave. Postings Proper, where Sicily lived, was about fifteen minutes from Nathan’s house, whereas I was only about five away. I spent a few minutes flipping through college offers that were still open to me, and a few internships who’d reached out due to my somehow stellar grades at the end of the year. Though I would never ask him about it and he would probably never tell me, I assumed Nathan paid to make sure I graduated. It was the kind of thing I felt like I should thank him for, but also the kind of thing that it seemed like he should have done considering what he put me through. Regardless, it was going to be one of those few things that was never spoken between us, especially because I had no idea what to do with it.
Even before Deon, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my life post-grad. So many of my decisions were dictated by The Royal Court and what was best regarding my affiliation with them. I had no clue what I wanted to do now. Beyond finding Deon and ending things for good with Connor, I probably needed to set a personal goal to sort my own life out. To stay that I was lost would be an understatement.
My self-loathing had killed enough time for the moment, so I put my phone away, started up my car, and headed out to Nathan’s. I drove on memory, the trip being one I’d made a hundred times before, and it made me anxious the way it felt a little like settling into an old routine. Things would be very different now, though—for the better, hopefully.
I probably ran at Sicily for a hug a bit more eagerly than I should have, but it was really nice to see him. Not just because he had supported me through arguably the most difficult time of my life, but he also reminded me of Deon. Even once all of this madness was over, Sicily and I would remain close. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Aw, hey there, gorgeous,” Sicily said as he pulled me into a huge hug. “I didn’t like not seein’ ya for a whole week.”
“Me too.” I pulled away. “I have this thing where I recede in on myself when I’m sad. You may have noticed.”
“Nah. No idea what you’re talkin’ about,” Sicily replied. “Alright. You ready for this?”
“Yeah. Thanks for coming with me,” I replied.
Sicily braced his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest. “Not a problem, ma’am.” He was wearing his signature newsboy hat, and his goatee was much fuller than it had been at the end of the year. The strangest, best superhero ever.
I grabbed my bag, which Sicily almost immediately pulled from my hands, and then we started towards Nathan’s house. The stone facade of the main house was a little daunting given the myriad of awful experiences I’d had the last few times I’d been there, but ever since Nathan’s mom was killed and his father went missing, he had the inside of the main house on his family’s property renovated and now it was the official Royal Court clubhouse. He’d created a bedroom inside for all of the members, mostly by pairing, and he’d created a ton of entertainment spaces for enjoying ourselves over the summer. The story I’d told my parents and Ciara wasn’t entirely untrue. We were planning to enjoy ourselves a little over the summer.
Whether or not we would succeed was yet to be seen. It mostly depended on if we found Deon, and exactly how much of our lives Connor was determined to ruin from wherever in Maine he was.