The Academy - Friends vs. Family (36 page)

I paused, trying to remember where I’d put it. Blushing, I tucked
my hand inside my shirt, lifting the phone from the cup of my bra.

Victor grinned, taking the phone from me. “Secret pockets,” he
said. He flipped the phone in his hands and pushed a button. He drew close to
show me the illuminated screen. “This here,” he said, pointing to an app
displaying a pink heart. He touched it. The app activated, showing a map of a
cartoon house. It was the side view of two upstairs bedrooms, the bathroom,
both staircases, a couple hallways, a master bedroom downstairs, and a kitchen
and living room and the garage. “You can press any of these,” he said, and he
pressed the cartoon bedroom that was colored in pink, “and...”

While he paused, a loading icon circled itself. The screen changed
to reveal Victor and I standing together in the room at that moment, from the
angle of the camera in the vent. My eyes instinctively went to the vent and
back to the phone, as if trying to catch myself.

“It’ll make things easier on you, too,” he said. “You can check on
your mother and Marie without having to risk getting caught snooping.”

This made it better. I had access to my own cameras. It was now a
tool for me, not just them. “You have this app on your phone?”

He smiled, pulling his phone from his back pocket and pushing a
button, showing me the pink heart, dead center on the front. “You’re always
with me.”

I rolled my eyes, unable to smother the smile. “Don’t I get your
app?”

He shifted, as if debating this. “Maybe later.”

Did they not trust me? Or was there another reason?

“But now that’s out of the way,” he beamed, stuffing his phone
back into his pocket and crossing the room toward the attic door. “There’s one
more thing.”

“Did Luke cut that beam out?” I asked, knowing Gabriel had asked
him. I turned off my phone, drawn to Victor’s new surprise.

“Not just that,” Victor said. He dropped to his knees, hooking his
fingers around the door handle and opening it. “Crawl inside.”

I peered in to the shadows of the attic, not able to see far. I
twisted the phone around to use it as a light but his hand closed around mine,
stopping me.

“Trust me,” he said. “Just go a few feet in.” The fire flickered
in his eyes.

A smile brushed my lips. They might pick on Gabriel for his
presentation style, but Victor had a flair for it, too.

I crawled through the open doorway. Not a foot inside, as I
expected to feel the rough of the raw wood, I was surprised by softness. My
fingers spread out, smoothing over the fibers of a cushioned carpet.

The next part I noticed was the air. It wasn’t the warm and thick
air, but as cool as the rest of the house. It was still dark and I crept
forward, anticipating other surprises.

When I was about halfway to the platform, I stopped, sitting on my
heels, and looked back toward Victor.

He hovered in the doorway, a shadow against the light filtering in
from the bedroom. He crawled in, closing the door behind himself and casting us
into complete blackness.

“Victor,” I whispered to him.

“Trust me,” he said.

I waited.

A click.

The area lit up around us. A track of lighting had been installed
to the side.

The sconces were shaped like roses.

The lighting followed all the way to the back. The plush carpet
below me was a deep blue, nearly black. The walls were covered in a dark
material. I traced my fingers over the wall, feeling padding.

“It’s been sound proofed,” Victor said, crawling toward me. He
stopped two feet in and pointed to the side wall. “There’s this, too.”

I knee-walked back on the carpet toward him. Against the wall was
a miniature wardrobe about the size of a large travel trunk. It was painted a
similar dark blue color as the carpet.

Victor opened the front, revealing a tiny collection of the
clothing he’d purchased for me yesterday. Skirts, shorts and blouses were hung
up on the right side. A few pairs of underwear and a couple of bras were folded
neatly into place on shelving on the left.

“I’m sorry about the colors,” he said. “We had to keep it dark.
The light switch is hidden, but if they ever looked inside on their own, a pink
or light color they would probably see and...”

My hand shot out, my fingers falling on his lips. His eyes widened
at me but he didn’t have to keep saying he was sorry. He never had to
apologize. They had reasons, and I understood.

As if I needed pink carpet.

“It’s amazing,” I said.

His mouth shifted into a smile against my fingers. “Still not
done,” he mumbled. He nudged me toward the platform.

I started crawling. Now that there was light, I could tell the
beam had been taken out. There were carpeted steps built up against the
opening.

When I got close, I half stood. Another two-person beanbag chair,
like the ones at Kota’s, filled the space. This one, though, was mostly black,
but the top part to sit in was pink.

I turned slightly, looking back at Victor, who had followed me.

“Go ahead,” he said, prodding me on the leg.

I climbed the steps that allowed easier access to getting up and
into the beanbag chair. I crawled in on my knees, intending to move out of the
way so Victor could join me.

I stopped short. A gasp caught in my throat.

The lighting continued around my head, the rose sconces making a
circle above me. The walls had the same dark padding.

Attached to the walls was a collection of photographs.

There they were. All of the boys’ beautiful faces. Some were
individual portrait shots. Some were taken in places I didn’t know, bedrooms
and dining rooms of I assumed the boys’ homes I’d yet to visit.

Some photos had me in the shots. There was the one North had taken
with his phone while I was on his back. There was one of me being flung into
the pool by Nathan. There was one with Kota brushing my teeth. There were
dozens more of us at school. There were even some of Dr. Green and Mr.
Blackbourne.

My smile caught again and again as I discovered a new photo. There
were so many, I didn’t know where to start and I kept going back to look at
different ones to make sure I didn’t miss any.

Victor was partially standing on the stairs. His head tucked in,
and he studied at the display. “Pretty nice, huh?”

I slid over on the chair to give him room.

He smirked, flopping down into place next to me. I drew my legs
up, but he hooked a hand over my knees, drawing them into his lap. Our bodies
leaned in together. Victor wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I tucked my head
next to his, gazing around us at the lights, the photos, at the beautiful work
the boys had done.

“I can’t believe you guys did this,” I whispered.

His free hand dropped onto my knee, his fingers tracing along the
kneecap. “We need to keep you safe, Sang. You needed a place to call us.” He
nuzzled me with his face, cheek and chin pressing to the top of my head. “And
we wanted to.”

“You didn’t have to,” I said, taking in a deep breath to swallow
back the trembling in my voice. “You’ve already done so much for me, even
before the clothes and everything from this weekend...”

His cheek bunched up as he smiled against my head. “Not quite done
yet.”

I stiffened against him. What else could there be? I was
overwhelmed as it was. I was like a little kid who just got way too many gifts
at Christmas and didn’t know where to start.

 He leaned against me, reaching around to his back pocket, and
pulled out a set of keys. The collection varied, from house keys with different
colored covers on the top, to a couple that looked like car keys. There was a
single keychain, a black and pink plastic heart with a white skull and
crossbones in the center.

“They didn’t have a prettier pink one,” he said, holding up the
set in front of me, the keys rearranging as he flipped it over to reveal more
of the keychain. “But Gabriel thought you’d like it. Skull and crossbones for
Trouble.”

I partly knew the answer before I asked, but I asked anyway.
“Where do the keys go?”

Victor shifted to pull his arm out from around me and to arrange
the keys. “Pink is your house key, green is Kota’s house, red for Nathan, dark
blue for Silas, white for mine, the baby blue is for Luke and North’s house,
orange for Gabriel’s. And not that you need them yet, but the black key is to
North’s Jeep, the green car key for Kota’s, blue for Silas’, gray for mine.” He
lifted my palm until it was facing up and dropped the keys into my hand. He
closed my fingers around the set.

I had keys to their houses and their cars. “I can’t drive,” I said
in a quiet voice.

“Not yet. Soon.”

I couldn’t wrap my brain around that right now. My fingers
massaged one of the keys in my hands. “You’d let me have keys? Kota said I’d
probably just get his and Nathan’s.”

“When Kota gave the order to North to make keys for you, North did
the right thing and made one of everyone’s. Kota had to be kidding to think we
wouldn’t give you one.”

A smile teased my lips. “I’ve never been to your house, but I’ve
got a key to it.”

He stretched back again to wrap his arm around my shoulders. “Any
time you want, Sang. I mean it.”

I tucked my head into his shoulder and dropped the keys into my
lap so I could put a palm against his chest. “I don’t know what to say,” I
said. “Victor...”

“One more thing,” he whispered. “Last one, I promise.”

My body rattled against him. I wasn’t sure I could handle any
more. “What’s that?”

He leaned away slightly, and with his free hand he stretched
toward a spot on the wall. There was a click and the lights around us snapped
off.

The darkness swallowed us up, but not completely.

Hundreds of stars started to glow. Stars lit up between the
photographs, above our heads on the ceiling, in every crevice. There were
enough to cast a gentle, eerie green glow on our faces.

“North thought you might like it,” Victor whispered.

I sat up and away from him, dazzled by all the stars. Some weren’t
stars at all, there were heart shapes mixed in. I counted the hearts. Ten. One
for all of us, including Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green. Our new family.

I extended my fingers to touch one heart painted next to a
photograph, giving Gabriel’s smile a ghostly illumination. “Victor...”

Victor shifted on the chair, he leaned over to where I was
looking, pressing his cheek to the top of my head. “Yes?”

My breath was gone and so was my ability to formulate what I
wanted to say. I let go of the star to bring the finger to my lips, pressing to
my teeth. “I don’t... I can’t,” I floundered. I mumbled more, but only
syllables.

Victor caught my hand at my mouth. He held it, his fingers warming
around mine.

I turned, catching the spark of his eyes in the dark.

“You’re not alone, Sang. With us, you’ll never have to be. Not
anymore.”

My fingers trembled inside his hand. Finding the words was only
slightly easier in the dark. “I don’t know how to thank you. I don’t know how
to... how could I ever...”

He settled back into the chair, drawing me along with him. This
time, he pulled me against him in an embrace. My palms pressed against his
chest as my head dropped over his heart, the beating nearly matching my own.
His hand brushed through my hair, fingers entwining through the strands. His
cheek pressed against the top of my head again. “Promise to stay with us, Sang.
It’s all we can ask.”

Stay? Were they kidding? “What do you mean stay?” I whispered,
closing my eyes and breathing in the opulent berries of his cologne. The crease
of his polo shirt folded against my cheek. My fingertips traced the angles of
his chest, as if to smooth out his shirt. “Did you think I would leave?”

“You always have the choice,” he said. “I’ve seen it in your eyes.
That desire to not burden anyone else with problems, and thinking the best way
would be to go home and never talk to anyone again. I did that, too, for a long
time.”

“You did?”

He sucked in a breath, and let it out slow before he began. “My
father has always been very demanding of me,” he said. His fingers traced along
the edge of my jaw. “He didn’t hit me, but he’d curse and scream. A wrong note
during a recital, a misused fork at a dinner party, any small thing would set
him off. He’d wait until we got home and spend an hour calling me an
‘ungrateful prick who never did anything right’. And that was probably one of
the nicest things he ever said.”

My fingers clutched at the material of his shirt. “Victor...
that’s awful.”

“I didn’t tell the guys, even after we’d joined the Academy. They
had pretty horrible things to deal with, so I felt like my own problems weren’t
that bad.”

I had no idea. If that was how Victor was treated, I couldn’t
imagine what the others must have gone through. “You said was,” I said. “Do you
mean he doesn’t do it anymore?”