The Academy - Friends vs. Family (11 page)

Gabriel shook his head. “Trouble, you should say something when
you’re hurt.” He snatched the bottle from me. Chucking it across the room, he
pulled a prescription bottle without a label from his back pocket. He twisted
the top and spilled the contents into his palm. It was full of a variation of
different pills.

“What are those?” I whispered.

He ignored me, finding two red, slim capsules. “Here. Take these,”
he said, placing them in my open palm.

I flipped the pills over, looking for markings. “What are they?”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Will you just listen to the doctor? Take
them.”

“You’re a doctor?”

Luke laughed, shaking his head. “It’s fine, Sang.”

I hesitated, but grabbed one of the water bottles still sitting
around and swigged down the pills.

Gabriel nodded, beaming. “See? Gotta trust me.”

“If I die, I’m coming back to haunt you.”

They both laughed.

The pills he gave me worked, and I wasn’t feeling sore or the
crack in my tailbone. I learned later they were muscle relaxers, given to him
by Dr. Green just for me. That evening, I made a quick dinner for the guys and
afterward, I sought out extra pillows and blankets. They set up a cubby space
for the two of them in the attic. The floor of the attic left just enough space
so they could sleep side by side with their heads near the door.

Gabriel complained about the heat. I found a fan in the shed and
plugged it in, pointing it in their direction. That seemed to help.

I checked on my mom and tried to wake her up. I offered her some
soup and put the cup near her bed. She grumbled through half open eyes and
drifted off again. I wondered if whatever Luke gave her to breathe in might
still be lingering in her system. I sent a text to Dr. Green. His reply said if
she didn’t wake up again and actually eat something by the next morning to call
him.

By nine, I was curled up on the bed, pretending to read but my
eyes started drooping. The boys were preoccupied in the attic with the laptops.

I
meant to get up and brush my teeth and do other things to stay awake. With the
boys there, I felt awkward falling asleep so early. I turned over on the bed,
putting the book down for only a minute to let my eyes rest.

W
hat a
F
amily
i
s

I dreamed of being swallowed up by a dragon. His fire breath
licked at my feet on my way down into his belly.

I shot upright in my bed. Two bodies enclosed on either side of
me. In the darkness I caught Luke’s blond head to my left and Gabriel on his
side on the right. Did I not feel them crawling into bed with me? Was I okay
with this?

I couldn’t kick them out. They looked exhausted. I secretly didn’t
want them to go away, either. I was terrified we would get caught, but my
sleepy head dismissed this, and instead desired their closeness. I felt less
lonely with them beside me.

I shifted onto my side to try to give them more room. I relaxed
against the pillow, listening to the noises in the house.

When I woke up again, Luke’s arm was draped over my side, his nose
pressed to my shoulder. Gabriel leaned against me, his foot on top of my ankle.
I was hot and uncomfortable but didn’t want to move, didn’t want to wake them.
Squished, I forced myself to go back to sleep.

The air shifted around us, causing a draft against the wisps of
hair across my forehead. My eyes fluttered but I closed them again promptly. I
dismissed it because the attic door was open and I didn’t know if maybe I was
sensing changes to the weather outside through it.

Dual smacking sounds shattered the silence. Gabriel stiffened next
to me and jolted up until he was sitting. Luke tumbled away in a shot and fell
out of the bed.

I leapt up, scrambling on my knees until I was upright, afraid. I
held my hands up, wary of monsters, of demons from my dreams suddenly come to
life.

“Ow,” Gabriel grumbled. “What the fuck?” He sat on the edge of the
bed, a hand shoved against his face. Luke was on his knees on the floor,
covering his forehead with a palm.

“At least Sang is paying attention.” Kota’s voice sounded through
the dark. The window was open behind him and a gentle breeze picked up the back
of his hair. “What are you two doing sleeping?”

Did he not ask why they were sleeping next to me? Didn’t it bother
him that they stayed so close with me? My insides shook at fully realizing they
had slept in the bed with me. While I was half asleep, I appreciated that they
were close by. Now that I was fully aware, it felt strange and especially
awkward that Kota knew about it.

“The attic sucks,” Gabriel whined. “And we were right here with
Sang. Nothing happened.”

“Mr. Blackbourne left you both here so you’d take shifts. Do I
have to explain it?” He turned to me. “How are you?”

I swallowed thickly. “Fine, I think.”

“Nathan’s outside,” Kota said. “He’s going to take you both over
to Silas’s apartment. Victor’s there already.”

Nathan had a car? I didn’t know he could drive.

Gabriel grumbled, feeling around in the dark for his shoes. “What
time is it?”

“Four AM,” Kota said. “Welcome to it.” He removed the pillow from
the head of the bed so he could crawl, sitting on the edge near me. “Gabriel,
go with Victor to finalize some things. Make sure you check in with Mr.
Blackbourne. Luke, you’ve got homework duty.”

“I hate homework duty,” Luke said, but he stood up, rubbing at his
eyes. He stumbled forward, bending over and wrapping his arms around my
shoulders. “Bye, Sang.”

An arm hooked around my neck from behind me. I was pulled back and
Gabriel dropped his nose to the top of my hair. “Oy, Trouble,” he said. “Don’t
let Kota boss you around.”

“Get out of here guys,” Kota said. “Nathan’s waiting.”

Luke crawled through the window, followed by Gabriel. Kota got off
the bed to close the window behind them.

“I thought we were supposed to stay off of the roof,” I said.

Kota pointed a finger at me. “You are supposed to stay off the
roof. But no. We’re not ready to start sneaking in the back door yet.”

“We’re going to be ready for that?” I asked, moving to kneel on
the bed, grabbing the blanket and wrapping it around my body. Now that the
surprise was over, I was chilled. The ceiling fan and the fan pointed at the
attic stirred the cool night air seeping in.

“We have to be ready for lots of things,” he replied. He dropped
on the bed next to me, his arm moving behind my back. He leaned against me, his
shoulder pressing to mine. “You knew I was in the room before the other two. I
saw you open up your eyes. How did you know?”

“I felt the air shift,” I said. “Probably from when you opened the
window.”

“You’re a light sleeper?”

I nodded. I normally was. That’s what surprised me about waking up
with the guys next to me. I blamed the red pills Gabriel had given me.

I breathed in deeply in a half yawn, smelling fresh soap and his
spice. How early in the morning did he get up?

“You should still be more careful,” he said. “I had time to get in
and thunk those two in the head. It would have been enough time for your mom or
Marie to open that door and catch us.”

“I thought they were going to sleep in the attic,” I said. “They
snuck into the bed after I passed out last night.” I shifted on the bed,
pushing back the blanket from my shoulders to rub at my cheek and yawn.

“If they try that again, tell them to get back in the attic.
Someone is supposed to stay awake and they aren’t fast enough to get into the
attic from the bed in a dead sleep.”

I nodded. The skin around the bandages itched. I lifted the corner
of one on my wrist, to peek at the wound. It wasn’t a cut, but the skin had
been rubbed raw, enough to make the skin scab over. I ripped off the other one
at my wrist and the two at my ankles.

Kota stood and collected a book bag that had been dropped by the
window. He plopped the bag onto the bed and dug through the contents. “Silas
got these for you.” He handed over a small plastic bag with a sports store logo
on the outside.

Inside the bag were two hot pink sport wrist bands. I smiled. “He
was asking about my favorite color.”

“Gabriel would have a fit,” Kota said, putting the bag aside and
sitting next to me again. “I agree with Silas, though. We’ll need to hide those
scabs on Monday.”

“I like them.”

The corner of his mouth jerked up briefly. “Good. He’ll be glad to
hear it from you.” He brushed his fingertips at my wrist, tugging my hand close
so he could examine my skin. “God, Sang... it’s awful.”

I pressed my fingers into my palm and withdrew my hand away from
him. “It’s fine. It’ll heal,” I said softly.

Kota’s gaze fixed on me, his glasses glinting a little from the
morning light. His face came close to mine. “Stop doing that to yourself,” he
said. His finger drifted to my cheek, curling a lock of my hair between his
fingers. “You’re dismissing what’s been done to you.”

I scrunched my eyebrows together. “I remember everything,” I said.

“But you’re not angry. You’re not complaining. Would you even tell
me if your head hurt, or if your stomach hurt, if you thought I wouldn’t
notice? Would you have told me about the rice on the floor or even about the
shower if no one knew?”

I bit my lip, glancing away. I didn’t know the answer to that. Was
I supposed to tell people about every little ache and problem? No one else
needed to deal with it.

“What else hurts?” he asked me. His fingers sought out my chin and
he brought my face around so I was looking at his eyes again. “Sang, when
you’re friends with someone, you’re honest with them. Tell me what hurts.”

I swallowed again, feeling my lips tremble. Why did I find it so
difficult to talk now? As soon as he asked me the question though, I really
didn’t feel anything hurting at all. Most of it was my tailbone and at the
moment since I wasn’t moving, it didn’t hurt. My wrists were tender and he
already knew that. The pain in my ankle wasn’t bothering me yet.

“Sang,” he whispered, but the power in his voice was taking over,
commanding an answer.

“I am a little sore,” I offered.

“Is that it?”

“And my wrists and ankles...”

His eyebrow arched.

“My, um... I think I might have cracked my tailbone.”

His head tilted. “How?”

My cheeks heated. “When Nathan and Silas were looking for me in
the house and I was in the shower. I could hear them talking. I was trying to
make noise so I jumped with the stool to try to get the wood to bang against
the tub.”

He sighed. He shifted, wrapping his arms around my waist. He sat
cross legged on the bed and I let him pull me into his lap. He pressed his
cheek to the top of my head, keeping his arms around me. “Is that it?”

“I think so. I mean the ankle you know about but it isn’t so bad
right now,” I said. My fingertips pressed to his chest and I rested my head
against his shoulder. I couldn’t believe how easily I’d let him pick me up into
his lap. When he’d done it at Nathan’s house and in front of everyone, I was
too in need of wanting to feel him, or anyone, that I didn’t give it a second
thought. Here and now, when he probably didn’t need to and did it anyway, I
didn’t know what to think. He called me his friend. Do friends do this?

“Why didn’t you tell me about your tailbone yesterday?”

“We were kind of busy,” I whispered.

His cheek rubbed against my hair. “Sang, you need to speak up for
yourself more.”

“I’m not used to talking.”

His hand lifted, brushing at the hair against my face. He curled a
lock behind my ear. “I like it when you talk to me,” he whispered.

“I like when you talk to me, too.”

The corner of his mouth curled up. “Then we have to talk together
a lot more.”

The way he said it made my heart ripple. I did enjoy talking with
him, and lately I rarely got to spend time alone with him like this. Did he
mean to say he wanted more like this or something else? “What happens today?” I
asked, not sure how to approach what I’d been really thinking about.

“Well,” he said, dropping his hand against my leg, his wrist
hanging loosely over my knee. His other hand rubbed at my back. “You and I are
going to have a nice, quiet Sunday. We’ll keep an eye on your mother. Nathan
should be back soon and he wanted to hang out.”

“I didn’t know he drove,” I said.

Kota grinned. “Sweetie, we all drive.”

“He has a car?”

“He took mine.”

“You let him borrow yours?”

“He can use it when he needs it,” Kota said. “I think we all have
copies of each other’s keys.”

“To your cars?”

“To everything.”

I twisted my lips. Something in his eyes told me a secret I wasn’t
sure he wanted to tell me. “Do you have a copy of the key to my house?”

He tilted forward, pulling out his set of keys from his pocket.
There was a house key with a pink cover near the top in the collection.

“Kota,” I said. I thought I should be shocked or angry about it,
but I wasn’t. I wasn’t hurt that he’d done it, just that he didn’t tell me. If
he had asked me for one, I would have given it to him. North must have made
copies when he offered to do so when Marie wanted one. Was Kota not going to
tell me they had those?

“It was convenient of you to bring us one,” he said, stuffing the
keys back into his pocket.

“So everyone has one?”

He seemed hesitant to respond but he nodded. “If they didn’t
before, they do now.”

I made a face. “Do I get keys?” It only seemed fair.

He laughed softly.  “I suppose you should get mine. Maybe
Nathan’s. I don’t know how you’d get to anyone else’s house to use a key.”

Wasn’t that a big deal to have copies of someone’s key? Did
friends keep copies of house keys and car keys? “Maybe I’ll learn how to
drive.”

“You still need a car.”

“Maybe I’ll borrow your car,” I said, giggling.

He grinned and his hand brushed over my side, tickling. “If you
ask nicely.”

I gasped, laughing and playfully patted at his hand. “Could I
please borrow your car, Kota?”

“Nope.”

“Aw.”

“I have to teach you how to drive, first.”

I perked up. “You’ll teach me?”

“Who else was going to?”

I didn’t have the answer to that. Outside of the guys, who else
would ever teach me how to drive? Marie was old enough now but we knew better
than to ask our parents. It wasn’t an option to us.

“Anyway,” he said. “You’ve done your homework, right?”

I nodded.

“It might be a good idea to start working ahead when you can.” He
reached for his book bag and dragged it closer. “If it gets busier in the next
couple of weeks, we won’t have to study so hard to keep up.”