Page 51 of Seven is Swell

She opens the door wider, and I try not to make a face at all the weird and semi-funny stickers all over their door, but she rolls her eyes and points at one of the guys inside, lounging on the sofa in sweats. “That’d be Danny’s handiwork. It’s his mission to find the most obscure stickers he can so he can try and get a reaction from me. The other one over there is Aaron. Guys, this is Delaney.”

I wave. “Hi, thanks for having us over. It’s nice to get out of the chaos of my dorm for a bit. I’m not sure if it’s completely my doing but everyone that I’m not sure actually lives there or not is at least 60% insane. Oh, this is one of my mates, Jackson.”

The guys get up and come to shake hands with us, casually framing either side of Violet and touching her in some way. It’s sweet.

“Insane how?” Danny asks with an eyebrow up.

“I feel like it’s too early in this transaction to answer that truthfully,” I admit while Jackson snorts and tries to cover up a laugh.

“Delaney has a way of making all of us feel like we can be ourselves, so we tend to let loose around her. The insanity she’s referencing is a testament to how well we all get along.”

“Aw, that’s so cute,” Violet preens.

Then we have to be awkward for a minute. Jackson pulls out a paper from his pocket, asking for a pen as well. “This is a little uncomfortable, but hopefully you can understand that we have to protect Delaney because of who she is. Would you guys be willing to sign an NDA? It’s just because she’s had issues in the past with people trying to sell info to the media, and we value her privacy too much not to take small steps to ensure she has some protection. It’s nothing crazy, but it will mean you guys can actually talk about whatever and I won’t be worried about her oversharing.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, I guess. If it makes you guys more comfortable.”

Jackson hands the paper over and they all read over the simple agreement briefly before signing along the bottom and passing it back. I was worried that might cause problems, but seeing how easily Violet agreed helps me breathe a bit easier.

“Can I get you guys a coffee?”

“Absolutely,” I answer, following her to the kitchen area. She’s got a whole little coffee bar set up so we both have fun picking out flavors to mix together before sinking down onto the couch, and it’s...nice.

“So, did you figure out who wrecked your locker?” she asks.

“Oh yeah, she told us about that,” Aaron pipes up. “Pretty crazy people like that are on campus. With the way this school collects accolades you’d think the students would have a bit more respect.”

I notice some pictures pinned to a wall, her with Spencer and two people that must be their parents. I made assumptions when Spencer told me his sister was my neighbor and I met Violet properly after yoga class, but it’s nice to know for sure. “Your brother is currently with the culprit, so you can ask Spencer if he knows her motives.”

Violet slams her coffee down on the coffee table, screeching. “What?!”

“It’s not my business, I shouldn’t have mentioned it. I just...that girl really makes it hard to stay rational, you know?”

“Who? Please tell me he didn’t go back to that bitch.”

“Shelly? They have a history?”

“For fuck’s sake! Oh, he’s getting his ass chewed. Yes. They dated in high school, and she was so terrible to him. Poor guy needed therapy when they finally broke up because she was so good at gaslighting him that his self-esteem sunk really low. He’s worked way too hard to slide back into that.”

“How has his foot been? It causing him any problems since I fixed it?”

“Oh I like you,” Danny says with a warm smile. “You’re bringing all kinds of good gossip over. We get a bit dull because we’re all pretty introverted and we thrive on other people’s messy lives. You fixed an injury for Spence?”

“Oh dear. I think I’m getting myself into trouble.”

“For fuck’s sake. I was going to try and hook you two up!” Violet says. “I’ll deal with him later. I guess that ship has sailed though, huh?”

I shrug. “I don’t actually know how many mates I’ll have; I have no idea. I’m not impressed with the company he keeps though, that’s for sure.”

I feel all of them eyeing the marks on my arm. It’s Aaron that speaks up though. “What do you mean you don’t know how many mates you’ll have? Don’t you have seven marks on your arm? That’s insane, by the way. No wonder you wanted a bit of quiet. Here I thought it got noisy in here sometimes with three of us sharing this smaller space, but I can’t even imagine seven.”

I sigh. “It’s a long story, but basically my mom complained a lot to the goddess when her marks kept changing; I think the goddess wanted to get one more over on my mom or something, I don’t really know. My mom figures I couldn’t complain about how many mates the goddess gifted me if I only knew about them once I met them. I could be done finding them, but I could literally have like ten more for all I know.”

Violet gasps. “Is that even possible? You really think you haveseventeen?”

“Gods no, that was just a random number. If I end up with that many mates, very bad things are going to happen to lots of people. I just meant, I have to meet the people the goddess chose for me and grow a suspicion that they’re mine, voice it aloud, and then a mark will appear if it’s meant to be. So I'm upto seven, but I'm not ready to know if there are more than that or not. I think seven is a nice number and I’m already stressed trying to figure out how the hell to balance them all. Time is a hot commodity, that’s for sure.”

“I can imagine,” Violet says, and then seems to think of something else she keeps to herself. No doubt it was a sex question; we’ll get there someday.

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