Flock (The Ravenhood)

“Somebody couldn’t keep a secret.”

IT’S BEEN DAYS OF SILENCE, days of unanswered texts. I’ve gone from worried, to confused, to angry, and all I want at this point is just a little fucking acknowledgment. Pulling up to the garage, I take a steadying breath. My leaping heart has taken an unexpected nosedive from the place it was seventy-two hours ago, and all of that is due to their deafening collective silence.

I’ve been patient, given them enough space to handle whatever took them from me without ample explanation.

I don’t have to have answers, but I do have to lay eyes on them. I know what they do behind the scenes is dangerous, but their silence at this point is just cruel. I haven’t slept at all, and just finished another shift Sean didn’t show up for, but thanks to the gossip mill at the plant, I did hear that he called in. I’ve been tempted more than once to call Layla, but that’s not how this works.

Calling for a simple proof of life check for the sake of my sanity would have been the next step if I didn’t see several cars outside of the garage, including the two owned by the men I came to seek answers from.

Hood business. All of the last few days had to have been filled with it because the parking lot is more crowded than ever. Virginia is here, so is Alabama. But it’s not a meetup. That was last week, which means there won’t be another one for at least two. Unless something is really wrong.

Exiting my car in sheer panic, I feel the boom of bass and can’t help my relieved grin when I hear the mood on the other side of the door—voices mixed with laughter.

They’re okay. You’re okay.

I have to believe that hood business is what’s kept them away because the alternative is too painful. I haven’t let myself dwell on that. Nothing about our last interaction indicated that was even a possibility. But if they’re ghosting me, I’m not going to give them the satisfaction of doing it without an explanation—especially after how close Sean and I have become this summer both as friends and lovers. And Dominic, well, I can’t even pinpoint which feelings exist due to lust or intrigue or the culmination of both but that last night we spent together, it was love I felt, that I wanted to admit.

Because I truly love them both.

And if they’re okay, I’m okay.

Gnawing fear eats at me as I approach the door with shaky resolve. It’s when I reach it, that I hear the out of place melody blaring through the garage and I know they were expecting me.

“Afternoon Delight” carries through the air, out of the doors as my chest churns and dread fills the pit of my stomach.

It’s a joke. It has to be. And it’s not funny. I’ll find a way to punish Sean for this.

Standing at the door of the lobby and looking into the bay, I see it’s business as usual with the addition of several guests. My guys crowd around the pool table, cutting up, beers in hand as they pass a joint around. Sean watches Dominic take a shot at the table, refusing to look up. He knows I’m here. I’d changed after work and am dressed to impress in his favorite red sundress. My lips painted to match. I stand, a beacon waiting for some sort of acknowledgment as they chatter on and a few heads I don’t recognize turn my way. When the next song begins to play just as I step through the threshold, my fight for attention quickly shifts to my threatening nausea.

It’s then I know why Sean is keeping his eyes down. He doesn’t want to watch the dagger he’s slowly pushing into my chest.

“Cecilia” by Simon and Garfunkel begins to play as the door slams behind me, securing my place in the trap.

Every word of the song like a slap to the face.

This isn’t happening.

This isn’t happening.

But it is. The song, the lyrics, the out of place melody pierces me as my heart rages in my chest, continually slamming into the crumbling barrier, begging to be set free, for a destination anywhere but here. Tears burn my eyes as I watch the two men I came for blatantly ignore me, as more heads begin to turn my way.

Dominic is hunched over the table, taking his shot as Sean stands in the corner, his hands wrapped around his pool stick as Tyler whispers in his ear, his eyes on mine, a smile on his dimpled face. He doesn’t know.

But Sean does, and so does Dominic.

The rest of the party huddles around the kegs, oblivious to the fucking knife slicing through me. Dominic takes the shot, before finally, he looks directly at me, a smug smirk playing on his lips.

Lumps of betrayal clog my throat, choking me as that smirk brands me with the scarlet letter, turning all our dirty deeds against me.

Drowning in deceit, I sink further and further where I stand, fighting the bile climbing up my throat while drifting into the wave of despair.

Neck on fire, my heart screams for mercy, beat after painful beat against my chest as Sean finally lifts his eyes to look at me.

That’s when I break, utterly humiliated and completely taken aback by the second faces of the men I’ve fallen so in love with. Each lyric turns every beautiful moment we shared into one of my degradation.

I’ve been played.

I let them in.