Infamous Like Us (Like Us 10)

How many hands touched her?

How many cameras stared her down?

How many flashes caught her eye and disoriented our girlfriend?

I can’t think this. He’s thinking this, and one of us needs to not feel sick every time paparazzi descend like vultures. And that has to be me. I’m in charge.

“Banks got hurt,” she chokes out, upset. She looks at him. “You got hurt.”

“I’m fine,” he says strongly and nasally. “Barely hurts.”

I swallow hard. “The Olympics are getting closer. We’re all in the news more than we were in January. Paparazzi are just overly eager right now, which is why Banks took an elbow to the nose.”

Outside the Aquatic Center, I made a path for Sulli and Banks. He had our girlfriend’s back flush against his chest. He held her arms and practically moved her feet for her. Lifting her up foot by foot. She was frozen. In shock at the sheer amount of cameras and paparazzi and yelling and flashes in the night.

I could faintly hear Sulli saying repeatedly, “I can’t see.”

I can’t see.

I jogged around to the driver’s side of Sulli’s Jeep. Shouting at everyone to get back. Get back.

Banks pushed Sulli into Booger. He shut the door. I was already inside the Jeep, and I had poor visual of everything beyond the cameras. The flashing.

According to Thatcher’s report, Banks spun around, went to grab a water bottle that Sulli unknowingly dropped, and he took an elbow to the nose.

Blood splashed against the window of her door, and Sulli screamed like she’d been eviscerated. That sound still slices me open. For a second, I thought Banks had been shot.

I swallow another rock. “I’ll have more men help us when you leave the Aquatic Center, Sul. It’ll get better.”

It has to.

How many times can she go through total mayhem before she’s wrecked completely?

How many times can I see Banks and Sulli hurt?

What about you, Nine?

I’m perfect. I’m standing.

Literally, I’m on my feet, and I fit a marshmallow on a stick. Passing the thing to Sulli, she leans over the fancy gas firepit. Flames lick glossy stones, and glass forms a tabletop around the heat. She scoots and sits more against Banks, right between his legs while his arms stay around her waist, and I take a seat on her left, the lounge chair creaking underneath me.

We’re quiet for a long beat. Watching the flames. Piercing more marshmallows on more sticks.

“I lost my virginity to Will Rochester,” Sulli suddenly says.

Blood drains out of my head. “What?” She…she had sex with Will? That means…when we had sex. It wasn’t her first?

Banks has gone motionless, his arms unmoving around Sulli. “That doesn’t make sense.” His gaze flits to me, and I bet I’m thinking what he’s thinking.

She bled her first time with me. When the three of us were in the bathtub together.

I popped her cherry. Unless…did I hurt her? I was careful. Banks and I were careful.

Did I hurt Sulli?

I feel sick.

Why wouldn’t she tell us about Will? Why would she lie?

“April Fools’,” Sulli says fast.

“Fuck,” I curse out, and she lightly slugs my arm. I capture breath into my lungs as shock wears off. “That wasn’t funny.”

Sulli tries to laugh. “I got you both, though.”

It is April 1st.

Banks ends up laughing deeply. “Yeah, you got us good. Akara almost shit himself.”

“Why are you laughing?” I ask him. “You almost crapped yourself too.”

He laughs more, his features brightening in the firelight. The vibrant noise from his lips makes me laugh, and then Sulli shares in our laughter too.

When the sound fades, a levity still remains between us.

“The triad survives another day,” Sulli says softly but with a little more hope as she roasts her marshmallow.

Beneath his bruises, Banks starts to smile. “We’re not the easy kind to drag down.” His smile vanishes as quickly as it appeared. “They’ll have to kill us.”

I shoot him a look, but he’s not exactly wrong.

“No one is fucking dying,” Sulli says adamantly. “That better be an April Fools’ joke.”

“April Fools’,” Banks banters, “we’re already dead.”

I let out a laugh. “Wouldn’t that be a plot twist? We’re fighting to stay alive, but we’ve already kicked the bucket.”

Banks tilts his head. “My heaven does include you two.”

Sulli isn’t finding humor in our death jokes. She stares haunted at the flames.

“Hey.” I nudge her arm. “Sul?”

“Don’t die protecting me,” she whispers. “You promise?” She stares from me to Banks, back to me. “Promise, Kits?”

I can’t.

I hate that I can’t hook pinkies with Sulli and be playful about a promise I’d love to keep. “I promise we’ll try not to die.”

Sulli looks heartbroken. “What if that’s not good enough?”

“What if that’s all I have, Sul?” My pulse is in my throat.

She rotates her marshmallow in the fire. “I understand…I just wish you two weren’t put in these situations because of me—”

“Not because of you,” Banks interjects. “We chose this.”