A beat of silence.
“The hell did you just say?” Alex says in disbelief.
More silence.
“It’s true, I… I love her, man.”
Butterflies wreak havoc in my stomach. Hearing him say that will never get old.
“And I don’t want to fuck this up, so please, I’m begging you, don’t say anything. Let me talk to him.”
Alex hesitates, keeping quiet for long seconds.
“Fine.”
Thank God.
“Thanks.” Will exhales.
“Don’t thank me yet. There’s a reason I came into the pool house at the buttcrack of dawn. Had to tell you something.”
I know what Alex’s going to say before he says it.
“Kendrick and Winter are coming back today.”
“Thank the Lord,” I hear my mother say downstairs a few hours later. The front door closes, distant voices emerging in the kitchen as I hop off my bed in a frenzy.
“Is that Winter?” I yell from the second floor, scampering down the stairs in no time to welcome my cousin home. I’ve been worried sick about her. My mom stuck to her funeral story for a while, then started singing a different song once the time frame stopped adding up. Seven weeks is a hell of a long funeral.
She said Winter and Kendrick were taking a vacation in Canada—because them taking a vacation right before the end of senior year isn’t weird at all. Eventually, I decided enough was enough, sat my mom down, and told her I knew everything.
She wasn’t nearly as shocked as I’d anticipated. She admitted to suspecting I was in on it due to my lack of interest in the matter. My mom knows I can get real neurotic sometimes. After all, I hounded her with questions about my dad for weeks after he left, so for me not to bat an eye at my own brother leaving town?
Might as well write I know on my forehead in red Sharpie.
Turns out Winter has been staying with Haze in a secluded town for a few days now, although she spent the past five weeks locked up at the penthouse with my brother. I wasn’t the tiniest bit surprised to hear Haze had tracked her down and stolen her away to his hometown to keep her out of harm’s ways. He hasn’t been at school for a while.
We sure weren’t expecting Winter back into town so soon—Scratch that, we weren’t expecting her back at all. She was supposed to be flying straight to Canada at the end of the school year. Then my brother called my mom, informing her that he’d secured a deal with Haze’s psycho case of a brother, allowing Winter to move back home. Terms are, she’ll remain unharmed as long as the morning after prom, she’s on the first plane back to Toronto.
The second I turn the corner, I find myself mentally listing all the ways to chop off Haze’s balls. Because Winter’s eyes are teary, her makeup smudged down her cheeks, and her heart seems so miserably broken, I’m tempted to kneel down at her feet and pick up the pieces. Safe to assume her getaway with Haze didn’t go as planned?
I don’t say a word, closing the gap between us and trapping her into a tight, tear-jerking embrace. She starts to sob almost instantly. My mom joins in on the hug, whispering reassuring lies, the first being “It’s okay.”
Whatever he did, it’s not okay.
And it probably won’t be for a while.
But she’s home now.
And I’ll be there to help her through the storm.
It takes my cousin a whopping two hours to tell me everything. She walks me through an unexpected, gasp-worthy story, the twists and turns keeping me on the edge of my seat. To think I believed her tears were the product of Haze being a typical scared-of-commitment asshole. There’s so much more to this guy. This whole side of him I never would’ve thought existed.
We hear the front door close.
“Canada, come say hello!” a deep voice calls downstairs.
Will’s.
Two other voices reach my ear—my brother’s and Alex’s. I’m surprised their new recruit didn’t come with. Will and Alex found Blake a replacement while Kendrick was out of town. Some guy named Ryder.
Will had to go retrieve his belongings from the pool house this afternoon. Alex’s parents made it crystal clear his time was up. Something about Alex’s mom disapproving of Will running around in her backyard naked—go figure.
My anxiety shoots up by a thousand, my pulse quickening as I give Winter a quick hug and excuse myself to my bedroom to finish “homework.” I can’t believe this is the time. The moment we shed this weight from our shoulders, chase the black cloud constantly hanging over our heads. The moment we tell Kendrick the truth.
Winter zooms down the stairs to greet Will and Alex. I wait for Will’s text, following the plan we crafted this morning to a T. Will said he’d text me to come down once he’d pulled my brother aside so we could talk to him together.
I wait and wait.
He takes his sweet time texting me. Finally, my phone pings. Only problem is, the message on my screen is not the one we agreed upon.
Willy Wonka: Not the right time. I’ll tell him later. Promise.
Kassidy
Have you ever tried ghosting someone while living in the same house? Let me tell you it is not an easy task.
When my brother took pity on Will and convinced my mom to let him crash on our couch for a while, I was ecstatic. Thought surely it meant Will would find the right time to tell Kendrick about us.
Maybe squeeze in a revelation at breakfast. Fit a quick chat into one of their video game tournaments.
Nothing.
Zero.
The right time must be one hell of an elusive bastard because Will still hasn’t delivered on his promise. Three days have gone by, all of them a blur, and we’ve barely spoken once. Turns out it’s a lot harder to sneak him into my room with Kendrick on the other side of the wall.
He’s been texting me.
A lot.
Asking why I’ve been giving him the cold shoulder. Why I sweep past him in the halls. I’ve been turning a blind eye to his existence, dead set on ignoring his lingering stares when I walk into the room. Let’s just say if he hasn’t figured it out by now, it doesn’t bode well for us.
Willy Wonka: Upstairs bathroom. Five minutes.
I sigh at Will’s text and get dressed, slipping on a pair of high-waisted jeans and a crop-top hoodie. I tie my blonde hair into two loose braids as a finishing touch—thought I’d try something new. Winter and I are going to the movies with the guys in an hour. Then I’m covering Ethan’s afternoon shift at work. Late payment for my getaway with Will two months ago.
I pad out into the hall, inspecting the vicinity and tiptoeing toward the bathroom. I slip inside to find Will waiting for me, leaning against the sink. Silence drifts between us. He smiles, looking painfully beautiful, as always.
“Lock it.” He gestures to the knob with his chin.
I oblige.
In response, he cuts across the room, anchoring me to the door and ravaging my lips with an openmouthed kiss I return right off the bat. His tongue pushes past my teeth as he finds one of the blonde braids cascading down my shoulders and swirls it around his index.
“Fuck. Love the schoolgirl look, by the way.” His voice is packed with lust, his lips remolded by a mischievous smirk. I come to my senses just as he’s angling my chin for more.