Game Over Boys, page 79
“Not that it matters,” Chasm adds in a low voice. “Because the paperwork has been turned in already.” He scratches at the side of his face with a single finger. “We’re already married.”
“Son, care to take a walk with me?” Walter asks, but before I can decline, Chasm steps forward and nods. It’s all very old-fashioned, and I roll my eyes. “I’m not going to hurt him, Kota,” my grandfather adds with a small laugh. “But all young men can benefit from the wisdom and experience of their elders.”
I give him a look, but Chasm lifts both hands up and out.
“I’ve got this,” he tells me, and then he exits the room with my grandpa. I guess they’re going to walk around inside? In circles around the pool? They might walk around the yard, but if they do, they’ll take a bodyguard with them.
“He’s not going to rip him to verbal shreds, is he?” I joke and Carmen gives me another smile.
“I know I’ve said it before—and believe me when I say I speak for your grandfather as well—we’re so proud of you, Dakota.” She crosses her arms as she studies me from across the room. I fidget in place, but I’m desperate to know what she’s going to say. “You suffered for so long on your own, you don’t have to do that anymore. I’m not going to add any stress to your life. What do you need from us right now?”
“We need Justin dead,” Saffron answers for her, standing up from the bed. “More importantly, we need that weirdo teacher dead. Your sperm donor is nothing without that man.” She tucks a hand in her pocket and comes over to stand in front of me. With the other hand, she touches my cheek with her palm. “Congratulations, honey.” She gives me a kiss on the opposite cheek. “I haven’t always had the best taste in men, but you’re different.” Saffron chuckles again. “Different than Tess and me both, I think.”
She pats my arm and leaves the room, discussion closed. Saffron doesn’t particularly care if I get married young. Carmen … she’s still standing there, but her eyes say that she’s deep in thought.
“Can we attend the rehearsal dinner?” she asks finally, and I see that she’s staring down at one of Justin’s numerous notes. “Assuming there’s going to be one.”
“This is Dakota’s call to make.” Maxine slips out of the jacket and tosses it on the bed. “If you want us there, we’re there. If not, I understand that, too.”
“I can’t guarantee that anything involving Justin will be safe.” I wish I could. But the Seattle Slayer is unpredictable by nature. He might head to China, regroup, wait for the heat to die down, kill us later. That’d be the smart choice: let Tess go to jail, let Paul take the fall for his crimes.
But there’s always option two: go out in a blaze of fucking glory.
No matter how much I wish the Banks could be with me during the rehearsal dinner and the wedding, it’s not happening. I won’t put them at risk like that.
There’s a bit of awkward silence there where my face says I’m so sorry, you can’t come but my mouth refuses to obey any orders. My grandmother takes over, breaking the tension with a bit of humor at my expense.
“At least we don’t need to discuss what happens between husband and wife in the bedroom,” she says with utmost sincerity, and my mouth drops open. My face is flaming as both my sister and my grandmother laugh at me. “Don’t give me that look. It’s important to be educated about life.”
“Come here,” Maxie grabs me by the arm and drags me over to the bed. “Let’s get through this stuff together. Maybe I can take a few items to pawn for my tuition?”
“Maxine Banks,” Carmen warns, but my sister is only half-teasing.
“You can have all of it,” I tell her, lifting an embroidered dress for inspection. “Whatever I don’t need for the rehearsal dinner, it’s yours.” There are easily ten outfits here, one of which Justin suggested I wear to the bachelorette party that he had planned. I’m not attending that, by the way. I’m only playing along enough to survive until we have a solid backup plan. I told him that via text. His response? Whatever you want, Princess.
Creepy, right?
We unpack the clothes in warm afternoon sunshine, the sound of Parrish’s pencil scratching on paper carrying across the hall. GG thumps in his cage. Maxx tosses a small bouncy ball against the wall and catches it, working on strengthening his hand. Their door is wide open now which makes me smile.
When Chasm comes back, my family politely excuses themselves, and I take a big risk by closing my own door. Some moments are just meant to be private.
I’m standing there with my body leaned back against the door, hands tucked behind me.
“Did he give you shit?” I ask, because I’m not quite sure what their talk was about. My grandfather isn’t a very confrontational person, but this situation is testing everyone’s limits.
Chasm stays where he is, his own hands stuffed into the pocket of his hoodie.
“No.” His voice sounds strained, so I push up off the door to move closer to him. He’s staring at my now uncluttered bed, and I wonder if his thoughts haven’t strayed to more, um, private acts. But then he looks up and I’m struck by the vibrancy in his gaze. Helping drunk girls, tutoring me, the sunflowers. I should’ve known all along. “He offered me some advice.” Chas hooks a pretty smile, reaching up to rub at his smooth chin. I caught all three boys shaving in Parrish’s bathroom this morning. It was the cutest sight I’ve ever seen in my life. “Good advice.”
“Good advice?” I ask, trying to peer into Chasm’s face. He reaches up suddenly and yanks his hood into place, like he’s trying to hide his facial expression from me. When I step in front of him and push it back, our eyes meet again and I’m not just struck, I’m eviscerated. Bad metaphor? Yep, bad metaphor.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I choke out. Bad metaphor or not, I can’t breathe. I cannot fucking breathe for the way this boy is looking at me.
Chasm wets his lips and then he reaches out and puts his fingers on the back of my neck. Our kiss, there’s fate and future in it. I can taste all the possibilities from all the years ahead of us. He uses his mouth to convey his feelings, and a deep warmth stirs in my belly. I grab onto his sweatshirt and he holds me with his right arm, tucking me close against him. Not only is he warm, but he smells good, and he feels strong, and I like the sensation of belonging I get when we’re together.
“I’m not going to tell you what we talked about.” Chas’ voice wavers slightly, like he thinks I might press for more. I won’t. I’m sure Walter imparted advice about love and long-term relationships, maybe threw in some man-to-man stuff. I’ll leave it alone. “But it mattered to me.” He hits his chest with his fist for emphasis. “It mattered.”
There’s a space of beautiful sunlit silence where everything is okay. Safe. Normal.
“Good. I was worried he might box your ears.”
A smile hovers on Chas’ face but it fades away in the space of a few blinks. He doesn’t respond, studying my lips instead of looking into my eyes. When he does glance up, I’m captured all over again. It’s that easy for him to reel me in.
Footsteps sound in the hall; there’s a knock on the door.
We both hesitate before answering.
“Fuck it. You’re my wife.” He takes my face between his hands this time, and he savors my lips like candy. His touches linger. His exhales are potent and passionate. His intentions are clear as glass.
The door opens, and I feel Tess’ presence like a physical thing.
Hey, at least she tried to knock this time.
She waits for the kiss to finish and for me to turn around before she speaks. Parrish and Maxx are both waiting in the hall behind her.
“You told your grandparents?” she asks, and I nod. My grandparents. I like her referring to them as they are. As my family. The Banks will always be my family. “Good.” Tess sighs, crossing her arms. It looks like she wants to say something else, but simply can’t bring herself to do it. “Please leave your doors cracked.”
She gives the other boys a look before she leaves the four of us alone at the end of the hallway.
Chasm reaches out for my hand, sliding the pair of engagement rings from my finger. He studies the one from Justin and then tosses it into the trash can near my door. It hits the bottom of the metal can with a sharp clang. The other ring—the pink diamond that Parrish originally gave to Lumen—goes into my nightstand drawer. I’m so surprised that it takes me a second to realize he’s put a new ring on my finger.
I don’t recognize it, and I have no idea where it came from, but the way he caresses it with his thumb tells me that it’s sacred.
“My dad gave this to me at the cabin the night we ran into him,” Chas says, looking up at me. “He was going to propose to my mother with it. He never had the chance since she passed away. If … if one of us … well, you’re the only girl that deserves to have it.” He turns away from me and walks quickly down the hallway toward the staircase.
I let him go because I can sense that he needs a bit of space.
But my heart. Oh my heart. Dugeun dugeun. That’s the Korean onomatopoeia for the thump thump or the boom boom of a frantic heart. In Japanese, it’s doki doki. No matter which way you put it, I’m wild for that boy. Crash crash. Clang clang. Pound pound. Whoosh whoosh. My pulse races.
“Holy shit.” Parrish steps close and takes my hand, studying the ring. The band is tarnished silver, the gem as purple as the summer ripened grapes we ate together earlier this morning. Amethyst? I think it’s an amethyst. “This is happening.” He rakes the fingers of one shaky hand through his hair.
“Happened,” Maxx corrects softly, and I glance up to see them both looking back at me like they’re afraid. I open my mouth to reply, but X reaches out and touches a gentle finger to my lips. His touch tingles. “Once Justin is gone—whether that means in a different country or a shallow grave, I don’t know—we’ll talk it over. For now, let’s just be.”
Parrish pulls me into his arms and holds me. Just holds me.
We drop the subject temporarily.
Later that night, I fish Justin’s ring from the trash and give it to Maxine.
That should pay her way through college, don’t ya think?
The next few days are relatively boring. Dare I say … normal? We go to Whitehall, Maxx sneaks around in his old uniform, and the rest of us do our utmost to stay together and away from any spot in the school where we might get jumped. We have lunch with Justin again, and he’s a consummate gentleman. He’s nice to me. He’s respectful. He’s funny. He’s charming.
Freaks me all the way out.
“Good morning,” Danyella says, hooking her arm with mine. She’s already at work on a new production for this year—Hamilton—even as the theater is still undergoing construction. I feel a sense of guilt each time I pass by the doors, but admitting publicly that I was the one who set the fire won’t do me any good. When I declined to rejoin the crew, Danyella gave me an admonishing speech about how actions taken under duress in the name of saving a life don’t karmically count against a person the same way as malicious intent.
I gave in; I’m on the production crew again.
“Did you hear the ECMP this morning?” I ask her. I’ve become a religious follower of Jack’s Emerald City Murder podcast since … you know. His cohost—some woman whose name I can’t remember—has a much better, much less creepy voice. She is, however, just as much of an opportunist as Jack. She’s been using her cohost’s disappearance to speculate on all sorts of sordid what-if scenarios.
She’s … sort of right though, isn’t she? Jack Larae was murdered (or is he even dead?) by my kidnapper/mom in an abandoned mansion on the night of the opera—gasp. My life is so Agatha Christie. It is. It just is.
“No,” Danyella begins, clearly unsure as to where I’m going with this. When I look over my shoulder, I find Maxx trailing us, hands in his pockets, looking like any other Whitehall student. Okay, fine, not like any other Whitehall student—like a model. Chas is caught up in conversation with someone asking him about the student body president position (he’s running), and Parrish is up ahead, looking like he’s off to the coal mine. “Why?”
“A girl’s body was found floating in Lake Washington.” If I sound bitter, it’s because I am. I’m worried that the body belongs to Veronica Fisher. I’m worried that the body being found in the lake means that Justin is up to something. It’s not a surprise that he’s plotting, but … I’m prone to fantasy. I’m a hopeful person. I want him to go to Beijing and never come back.
“I wonder if it’s Veronica,” Danyella says absently, not at all ashamed to voice the subject aloud. I cringe, but she speculates. “It’d make sense, considering that her parents’ boat went down. It’s tragic but expected.”
Ah. Yes. Danyella isn’t aware of the kidnapping plot and subsequent loss of Veronica from our house. After everything we did to keep her safe, she died anyway. Why is life so cruel? Aren’t things supposed to work out in the end?
“On the show, they were hypothesizing that the Slayer sunk their boat.” I don’t have to say anything more than that. Danyella is looking at me like yeah, duh, I assumed your dad killed them. I sigh as Chas catches up with us.
“Fucking student council election.” He snorts and then reaches into his pocket like he’s going for a cigarette. Chas frowns and then sighs, ruffling his hair instead. “What a waste of time.”
The ring on my finger fucking burns. I rub it with my thumb and wonder if Ji-hyun (Chas’ mom) would’ve liked me.
“And yet you can’t seem to resist,” I tease, turning and walking backwards so I can fix his tie at the same time. He looks at me with an expression that’s less student council president and more I drive a late sixties hot rod; also we’re married. I don’t acknowledge that toothsome stare. “Do you still think you can win it?”
He pretends to think for a moment and then snatches up both of my arms by the wrists.
“I know I can win it. There are enough people in this school who owe me favors.” His face shifts, like a sunset in fast forward. It goes from bright and sunny to dark in the space of a few blinks. “Whoever runs against me, I’ll have a secret I can expose. I know everybody’s secrets at Whitehall.”
“How about I beat the crap out of whoever runs against you?” X teases. I think X teases. It’s also possible he’s telling the truth. I glance back at him, but he pretends not to notice that I’m squinting rudely. He smiles at me instead. It’s red, white, and blue. It’s fireworks. It’s a parade. “What? I’m kidding. I’m not beating up a bunch of high school students.”
“Ouch. Tilted much?” Chas replies, digging around until he finds the pack of gum in his blazer pocket. He glares at it, as if it’s responsible for his lack of cigarette. “You’re here with us when you should be on a college campus. Sounds like somebody’s salty about it.”
Maxx looks like he might reply, but then his worst enemy pops around the corner.
It’s Ms. Miyamoto.
“Fuck.” Maxx lunges for the nearest door, yanks it open, and slips inside.
In the nick of time, too.
“Ohayo gozaimasu,” I greet, hoping I’m not totally butchering the pronunciation.
“Ohayo gozaimasu,” she repeats with a slight incline of her head. She pauses to have a small conversation with Chasm—fully in Japanese, mind you—as Parrish sticks close to me and Danyella. He’s scanning the crowd with the gaze of a distinguished royal peering down at unworthy peasantry.
“One day, when I’ve inherited Laverne’s fortune, I’ll remember exactly who it was that pissed me off when I was here,” he declares, not bothering to keep his voice down. “And when they come crawling to me looking for investors, for press, for distribution, I’ll spit in their faces and laugh on my way to the bank.”
Danyella adjusts her glasses.
“I would advise against the spitting part of that equation. Did you know there have been cases in which a person spat on another and received a bioweapons charge?”
Parrish gives her an odd look and then reaches up to run his hand over his hair.
“Yeah, well, that was hyperbole at best, Miss Schaeffer.” He rolls his eyes, and I smile. He’s not allowed to be such an ass and yet also be hot at the same time. Life isn’t fair. “What? Am I too pretty for you, Miss Banks?” He flicks his tongue against the corner of his lip and offers me a pornographic wink. No joke: a girl near us actually flutters her hands in front of her face like she’s fanning herself.
I roll my eyes, but I’m charmed.
I’m beyond charmed.
I’m also happy even though I know shouldn’t be.
After school, we plot and plan and scheme. During school, there are too many people and too many cameras. Despite the hostility of some of the students, I’m beginning to love it here again.
Normal was the right word to use. This … is all blissfully, perfectly boring.
Ms. Miyamoto separates from Chas, heading out the door toward the parking garage. She’s not gone for all of two seconds before Maxx pops back out of the classroom door, face pale, sweat on his forehead as he uses a single finger to pull at the collar of his shirt.
“Hey, um.” That’s what he says. Someone as confident as Maxim Wright. That stops me dead in my tracks. I turn around to see Chasm standing near the door alongside him. It’s not just any classroom door. It says Astronomy on the front of it. Also, it’s usually locked. Since the day I started at this school, I have only seen that classroom once.
With Mr. Volli.
“What do you mean by ‘hey um’?” I ask as my heart starts up a frantic beating in my chest. Not the dugeun dugeun kind, but the eeek kind. The ah, crap, what is it now kind.
“Yeah, exactly that.” Maxx grabs me by the wrist and pulls me into the stairwell, guiding me up the steps to the unused classroom.
We pause in the quiet space with its domed ceiling on the left side, morning sunshine streaming in through the windows. It takes me a second to place the creaking sound or figure out where it’s coming from.
“Oh for fuck’s sake.” That’s Parrish, pausing on my right side while Chasm comes up the stairs last. I notice that Danyella doesn’t join us.
