Page 77 of The Lost Kings
I was tucked away behind a stalk of sunflowers, putting together two crowns for my best friends to wear on their birthday. A gentle flutter near my heart had me smiling as I realized they’d both become so much more than my best friends. Memories fluttered through my mind of the nights they’d hold me close while I was tucked under a firm chin, or wrapped in a pair of strong arms.
The twins never joined the same bed at the same time when I crawled through that loft window at night. Some nights it was Gio’s bed I’d take refuge in, and other nights it would be Kingston’s, but regardless of which brother I slept with, sleep was truly all we did. Never once had either brother pushed things while I was under their covers. Not like when we were in the car, or if we’d manage to sneak off to the locker rooms again. But it was always just heavy kissing and rubbing.
With Gio, we’d often sneak over to the farm and lay out a blanket under the stars, and there he’d kiss places on my body that I never imagined anyone would touch, much less kiss. Other times, Kingston would hold my hand and take me through his garden, and more often than not, we’d end up in a patch of soft grass, my arms around his neck while his lips devoured mine.
I was completely in love with my best friends, and while each and every day seemed to lead us further into uncharted waters, I had no doubt we’d be okay. Even when I noticed Gio glare at where Kingston’s hand would linger when he needed to touch me. Or how Kingston’s jaw would work when we were in the car and he’d watch Gio pull me into his lap, where I’d begin rocking my hips and getting lost to the sensation of having him throb underneath me.
I caught their glances that they sent to one another as sharp as the knives they always practiced throwing. I felt the tension, and while a better person…a better friend, would do the right thing and step away, I only burrowed deeper. I craved them, individually and explicitly. Gio was the cool breeze on a sweltering summer day, and Kingston was the sun that brought the heat. I needed the warmth as much as I needed the cool relief, but the longer we snuck around our families’ backs, the more tenuous things felt.
We’d successfully kept our secret for nearly four months and now, not only had graduation arrived, but with it, the twins’ eighteenth birthday. The manor was a buzz this morning with Anna, Taylor and Alex all discussing the party the twins would throw that would include kids from school. I had no idea why it was so important for them to host something that would be so public, but I had to remember that while they lived with us, they weren’t held to the same extreme privacy conditions that I was.
Although, in school, they were going under different names so maybe they felt that anonymity was allowed. I also heard the party wouldn’t be held in the manor but an older home that still belonged to Juan and Taylor that they occasionally still frequented when theyneeded a getaway. Apparently, there was a nice sized pool there that the high school kids would all love.
I planned on going, but I was a little frustrated because when we were around school kids, that meant we couldn’t be ourselves, and we certainly couldn’t act like we knew each other unless they snuck away. I wouldn’t be asking them to do that at their own party, and that’s what I had to keep in focus. This was their celebration, and it wasn’t about me.
Finished with the crowns, I gathered the dejected pieces and tossed them to the side about to stand up when I heard my name being spoken. I was in the garden outside of the twins’ kitchen and as I glanced up, I realized their window was open.
“I don’t want to tell Kyle because I think he’ll overreact,” Juan said with a bit of a frustrated sigh.
Taylor turned on the faucet only to turn it off again. “I think this might be something worth an overreaction…they’re going to get hurt if they keep this up.”
“They can’t both be in love with her,” Juan stated as a matter-of-fact. It made my heart squeeze tight, my chest aching as though he’d just struck me.
“And why not, there were signs for years that they’d both fall for her,” Taylor agreed, but the way her tone shifted made me think she might be upset about the fact that there were signs and they’d either missed them or just hadn’t done anything to prevent them.
There was a long silence and then another sigh. “So I tell her father that I found his daughter asleep in my sons’ room again. I tell him that Hector caught her sneaking into the locker room with Kingston, or that another person sent me a photo of her kissing Gio? How would you take that information?”
Another long stretch of silence and the entire time my face flushed the hottest it ever had. I couldn’t believe they’d caught us. How mortifying.
Taylor walked closer to the window and a few glasses clanked. “The boys are eighteen now…Presley is only sixteen. We owe it to her parents to include them on what’s going on…and let them decide.”
A rock fell straight into my stomach as their voices faded and I finally moved from my spot. My knees were covered in dirt; my fingers soiled from the sticks and my heart was bruised.
I knew it seemed impossible to everyone else that I could love two brothers at the same time. That my heart had room for both, but it was true. My heart was split directly down the middle, and while I knew they hadn’t said it, I knew they?—
My feet ambled to a stop as I made my way around the eastern side of the manor, and through Carter’s terrace. Her back door was wide open, and I found her lounging on a reclined patio chair. Fingers still curled around the crowns, I made my way to her and plopped directly in front of her.
Green eyes bounced up from her phone, and then a frown tugged down her beautiful features. “What’s wrong, cuz?”
Did I tell her? Would it be so terrible to have someone who could give me some advice, because how did I just now realize the twins had never one time told me this was serious to them? They’d never said they loved me or called me their girlfriend. They never once explained their plans for after graduation or turning eighteen.
I had just been blissfully going along with everything like a bird coasting on a wave, unaware danger lurked beneath me.
“You made the twins birthday crowns?” Carter sat up and pointed at what was in my lap.
I nodded, angling them in the sun. “Do you think it’s possible for two people to love the same person?”
Carter inspected me then the crowns, and then set her phone aside. “I think it might depend on how old the people are. I think when people are young, it’s hard to know what you really want and what’s real versus what’s infatuation.”
That felt like a cement block to the face.
She was right, and I wasn’t sure how to reconcile that. They were turning eighteen…of course they wouldn’t want to continue kissing and heavy petting a sixteen-year-old…we couldn’t go any further than that for another year and a half anyway…why would they stay with me?
They weren’t even technically with me…they were just?—
“Guys like to have fun, Presley.” Carter reached forward and gently held my hand. I tried not to let my eyes water, but rejection was too close to the surface. My cousin seemed to notice as her tone softened. “Just do me a favor and only have fun in return. Don’t give your heart to anyone who hasn’t told you they want it. Don’t expect anyone to help you achieve your dreams when they haven’t asked exactly how they could make them come true. Be picky. You’re allowed to have fun too, just don’t get stuck.”
Carter was as old as the twins, but her birthday was a few months back. Now she was flitting around doing whatever she wanted, with little to no consequences. She was free.
