He won’t let me go there.
So I give him what he wants from me right now. And maybe in my own way I can show him that I was talking about him. That it’s all about him now.
“Okay,” I whisper, nodding.
A tic starts up in his jaw. “No tight tops.”
“Okay.”
“No short skirts.”
“Okay.”
His tic becomes aggressive here, like he’s mashing his teeth. “No dancing with boys.”
“I don’t even like dancing.”
“No touching them.”
“I don’t wanna touch any boys.”
I wanna touch you.
“No talking to them.”
“I don’t wanna talk to them.”
I wanna talk to you.
“No fucking looking at them.”
“I don’t wanna look at boys.”
I wanna look at you.
My easy agreement is making him even angrier and I don’t know what to do.
I don’t know how to melt his ire.
I’m giving him everything that I can in this moment — everything that he’s allowed me to give — but somehow it’s not enough.
“Be home by 11:30,” he says.
“I will.”
He breathes noisily then. A sharp, angsty sort of breath.
Then unfolding his arms, he goes on, “I suggest that at the end of the night, when I ask you if you touched a boy or if you looked at a boy, Poe, your answer had better be no. Or you’ll be responsible for what I end up doing to that boy.”
“W-what will you do?” I ask with my heart in my throat, my skin all coarse with goosebumps.
His eyes flashing, he growls, “Murder.”
The Horny Bard.
That’s the name of the bar that we’re going to.
It’s in Bardstown and it’s a regular hangout for all the soccer players. Hence I thought to invite Callie and Wyn, thinking that their boyfriends — well, Callie is married to Reed so technically her husband — either play or have played soccer and so they must have an in.
And as expected, like Alaric, they weren’t happy to hear that we wanted to go to a bar.
But when they heard it was The Horny Bard, they almost lost their shit.
“That place is a fucking rathole. The guys who go there are a bunch of horny and hard-up assholes trolling for easy pussy. And there’s no way you’re going.”
That came from Reed, as Callie told me.
“But you used to go there yourself,” Callie told him.
“That’s not relevant. What’s relevant —”
“How is that not relevant?”
“Fae, you’re not going.”
“That’s double standards,” Callie reminded him.
Shamelessly, he replied, “Fuck yeah, it is. But my wife isn’t going to that bar.”
“Your wife won’t be your wife if you don’t quit being a caveman, Roman,” Callie shot back; she calls Reed Roman like Reed calls her Fae.
So yeah, that’s how their argument went, word for word, as imparted to me by Callie.
Until she convinced him to go along with her.
Conrad, Callie’s oldest brother and Wyn’s boyfriend, had the same stance. Although he simply said, “Absofuckinglutely not, end of discussion.”
I’m not sure how Wyn convinced him but she did and now he’s going too.
Which is fine.
What is slightly weird is the fact that Ledger, Callie’s brother, is also going. And according to Callie, he volunteered for it only after Callie accidentally mentioned that Reed’s sister, Tempest, was also going. She lives in New York and visits when she can and since she’ll be in town this weekend, she’s coming also. And as soon as Callie let that slip, Ledger was like, “I’ll go too.”
“Why would you go?” Callie asked.
“Because,” he said, “it’s a rathole. Reed is right. And you need reinforcements.”
“Well, Con and Roman are enough reinforcements.” Then, “And since when is Reed right? You hate him.”
It’s true.
Ledger and Reed have been enemies for as long as Callie can remember. Some stupid soccer rivalry, and even though Callie is now married to Reed, they still butt heads sometimes.
“I do,” Ledger admitted. “But that doesn’t mean he can’t be right. Besides, more reinforcements won’t hurt.”
Again, word for word, as told to me by Callie.
But I guess I misspoke. It’s not weird. Because there’s something between Ledger and Tempest. Something secretive and mysterious that no one knows anything about. I, for one, am dying to know but Tempest is playing her cards close to her chest and Ledger outright denies everything that Callie asks him. So yeah.
But anyway, they’re all coming.
Including one of Callie’s twin brothers, Shepard. The other twin, Stellan, is staying home to watch Halo.
I’m not sure how that happened but I don’t care. The more, the merrier.
And to be honest, things have been fun so far. Yes, there were a few hiccups here and there, but nothing major.
The day started with all my girls coming to the mansion to get ready.
Their first time at the place I’ve called home for four years now.
Up until now, I felt like this was my prison and I didn’t want them to see the cage that I lived in when I got out of the other cage called St. Mary’s. But now that I know that instead of being a cage, this mansion was a safe harbor for me, I invited all of them over and it was great.