“I’m sure he feels guilt too,” Felicity said. “It’ll be good when this is all cleared up so you two can hug it out. You’ll need it.”
The thought of hugging Nathan made me feel awkward, but she was probably right. “Come on. Finish your coffee. I’ll get you a glass of water, and you’re going to bed.”
She laughed. “Yes, mom.”
I helped a very wobbly and hungover Felicity up to her bed and set a glass of water on her bedside table. She sat down on the bed and fell back fully clothed, and I laughed. “Don’t stay like that.”
“I won’t,” she snapped. “I’m the mom. Quit bossing me around.”
I shuffled Concrete into the room to snuggle with her while she slept and then I left the room and pulled the door closed behind me. Relief didn’t cover how I felt about knowing Felicity was okay, but if it was possible, this just raised the stakes. Every day that we didn’t catch Connor, things got worse. If we didn’t hunt him down and stop him soon, everything was going to be damaged beyond repair.
21
Cherri
I should have expected that I would struggle to sleep the night before the prison visit. I changed into my PJs, climbed into bed and turned off the lights as if I was actually going to be able to sleep, but nothing could be further from the truth. One hour passed, two, three, and I still hadn’t drifted off. All I could think about was talking to Venom and the possibility that he would be able to help me find my way back to Deon.
In spite of the fact that I knew almost instantly that I wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night, I gave it a solid try until just after midnight. I’d drift off for twenty minutes and then come back to, praying I’d actually slept through the entire night, only to be sorely disappointed. I looked out the window from my bedroom into the night sky and figured if I wasn’t going to be able to sleep, at least I could enjoy the beautiful South Postings evening sky. It wasn’t as light-polluted there as Postings Proper and the stars were actually visible. It was just shy of a full moon, and it had been years since I’d taken any sort of night dip in the pool, so I climbed out of bed, changed into my bathing suit, and left my room in the interest of a swim.
As I was passing Kyle’s bedroom door, it opened, and Brayden walked out. He was too busy trying to sneak that he didn’t notice me standing there until he turned and came face-to-face with me.
“Hi,” he said.
There were a thousand things I could have said in that moment, but it was clear Brayden still wasn’t comfortable with discussing his and Kyle’s relationship, so I settled for a simple, “Can’t sleep either?”
His face actually registered a little relief,then he leaned against the wall and shook his head. “No. I’ve been trying, but I just can’t make it happen.”
“Same here,” I said, then I motioned to myself in my bathing suit. “I’ve decided to wash my worries away in the pool. Wanna join me?”
Brayden and I had been far from besties before The Royal Court went through all its shit, and ever since I’d returned, we’d only spoken here and there out of necessity. We talked a bit more while Brayden was helping us try and find where Connor was dragging him off to. Since that turned into a dead end and we were relying more on other avenues, a passing comment was all either of us spared. Brayden was, however, a kindred spirit. Our torrid feelings for Nathan, whatever they were, had left us both in precarious positions, and with me trying to move into more of a sisterly position with him, and Brayden trying to back down to be a true best friend, we were both being awkward as hell around the man.
“Sure,” Brayden said. “I just have to change.”
He started off down the hallway and I followed, waiting outside his room while he quickly slipped in to get changed. A few minutes later he came back out, and we both walked down the stairs and out the back door to the pool. Instinctively, I headed towards the utility shed near the pool to crack on the lights and turn on the auto-heat, but then I noticed the glow of lights from the area already.
“Someone’s out here I think,” Brayden said.
We walked down the path to the pool and saw that there was already an occupant. Nikita was sitting on the edge of the pool’s deep end, just in front of the bar, with her feet in the water, flicking through her phone. When Brayden opened the gate to let us in, she looked up and tilted her head.
“Wow,” she said. “I don’t typically have visitors for late night dips.”
“Do you come out here often?” Brayden asked.
“Once a week I’d say. During the warm months anyway,” Nikita replied.
Brayden walked around to sit on the edge next to Nikita, while I opted to wade into the shallow end of the pool, grab one of the floating noodles, and swim to the deep end. I kept myself aloft with the noodle under my arms and splashed around in the warm water.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Nikita asked.
“I’m too anxious for tomorrow,” I said. “The fact that we may get an actual, solid lead on where Deon is has me on edge.”
“That makes sense,” Nikita said.
“You?” I asked.
Nikita shrugged. “I don’t sleep well in general. In a weird way, whenever we sleep in Nathan’s house instead of our room in the main house, I sleep worse. I think it’s because I’m constantly afraid I’m going to wake up to find you guys all dead or missing or something. Being at the pool gives me a clear shot of the house just in case.”
“I think that’s kind of my problem too,” Brayden said. He gave Nikita an awkward look, but decided to press on regardless. “You know, when Nathan’s not under the same roof it makes me nervous something’s going to happen when we’re not all around to help out.”
“I mean, Nikita could kick just about anyone’s ass,” I said.
Brayden nodded. “I know. Plus, he’s not all that weak himself, it’s just…” He kicked the water. “Old habits.”
“We’re a group, aren’t we?” I said with a laugh. “We’re so fucking dysfunctional we can’t see straight.”
Nikita laughed. “Yeah, and I’m in therapy.”
“Maybe we need a good, old fashioned clearing of the air,” I said. Both Nikita and Brayden looked at me strangely, and I rolled my eyes. “Oh come on. Are we not going to acknowledge the big-ass, Nathan-shaped elephant in the room?”
They looked at each other, then back at me, and Brayden was the first to break, oddly enough. “Being around you two really freaks me out. I mean, I was so jealous of you, Cherri. Then I was jealous of Nikita. I’m not really all that jealous at all anymore, but I don’t know how to get my mind off of it, you know? It’s like…” He looked at me. “We’re clearing the air, right?”
I swished around in the water. “Let it out.”
“I hated you. I mean, I fucking hated you. Whenever Nathan would be trying to run around behind your back, even though I knew it was because he didn’t really have feelings for you, I encouraged it. I wanted to torpedo your relationship.”