All Grown Up (Eden High)

I cleared my throat and wiped my face as if to erase the evidence from my eyes. He didn’t say anything for the first few seconds, which only made me twitchy. Since we were kids, Jace has always had this sixth sense about the rest of us. It bordered on spooky at times, but the older we got, the more intense it became. I have no doubt that he’d felt my angst all the way there; nosy ass.

“What’s wrong?” Guy’s worst than a parent.

“Nothing, what makes you think…?”

“Cut the crap. You having trouble holding out?” I’m not going down that rabbit hole with you, bruh. Next thing, I’ll be hearing how weak I am and how far up my ass you’re going to plant your feet, no thanks.

“It’s not that.” Shit, I didn’t mean to say that. Way to give a leading answer; now he knows that there’s definitely something.

“Then?” I sat up higher on the bed and looked anywhere but at the screen as I thought of ways to evade giving a truthful answer. But years of ingrained loyalty won out, and I told him the truth.

“I think I have a problem.” I couldn’t even bring myself to say the damn words.

“How so?”

“I…have you ever felt…like you own Sian?” He stared at me for what felt like a full minute before he snickered. “Are you serious? Where’ve you been for the past two years?” I wasn’t sure what he was getting at, and the look on my face must’ve said as much.

He sighed and sat back in his chair, rubbing his finger over his lip. “How do I treat Sian and my kids?” I rolled my eyes at that one.

“I’m not asking about the… kids.” Wait, there’s very little difference between the way he treats the three of them with a few variations, and everyone knows he thinks he owns the twins.

“Yes, jackass, I own Sian; she’s my most treasured possession, but not in the way you’d own a toy or a car or some shit like that. Are you feeling that? Like you want to wrap her up in something soft and keep her in a safe place. Like you wanna watch over every little thing she does? You don’t want her to get so much as a hangnail; you want to stand in front of her at all times to block the storm and the whirlwind?”

I could only nod my head as he went on to describe pretty much everything I was feeling. “Good, I’d be worried if you didn’t feel any of those things. I guess you’re going to be bringing her back with us then.”

“I was thinking about it.”

“You should; you won’t be able to leave her there after…never mind. We’ll be there tomorrow, don’t do anything until we get there.”

“Bruh!”

“I’m not talking about that, you ass. I mean about the notes and stuff she’s been getting.” I didn’t answer because I wasn’t about to lie to him. If I do that shit, he’d act like a disappointed parent.

“I gotta go!”

“Alex!” He kept calling my name as the screen went dark, making me laugh. He’s going to tie himself in knots for the rest of the night until he gets here tomorrow.

The smile didn’t last long, and neither did my patience. I should wait until full dark before leaving to go to the school, but it was dark enough, and with the pandemic keeping everyone pretty much indoors, there was no one hanging around outside. I didn’t see uncle Chad’s henchmen hanging around outside but didn’t fool myself that they weren’t somewhere around as I got in my ride and headed towards the school.

I thought of breaking into the security room and looking back through the surveillance tapes to see who had been leaving shit in her locker, but that would take some time, so instead, I planted a camera the size of a pencil eraser inside her locker. On second thought, I did go to the security office and downloaded the backup files. From what I remember, they aren’t allowed to erase anything from those files for at least a couple of years. It’s just going to be a pain in the ass sifting through everything to find what I need.

Once back home, I went over the plans I’d made for her birthday, looking over everything one last time and bemoaning the fact that I couldn’t take her to Jace’s island where we’d proclaimed our love for one another. It’s probably the safest place, come to think of it, but with all the travel restrictions still in place, I didn’t want to risk it.

I don’t want to just take her to some hotel room to take her virginity like that’s the only thing on my mind, though it’s pretty much the only damn thing on my mind, but I have this need to make it extra special for her. I’d wanted that before I knew that someone was fucking with her, not only because her parents are screw-ups who haven’t been taking good care of her, but because what I feel for her demands it.