The Academy - Friends vs. Family (7 page)

Gabriel put his flashlight between his teeth and angled himself
in. He got in on his knees, and sat down, crossing his legs. He sought my hand
in the dark and tugged until I nearly fell into his lap. He held me with one
arm around my waist, while he shined the flashlight around, checking how high
the ceiling went. “You call us from here?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I think it’s above the laundry room.” I swallowed,
the air was so dry and hot, I felt my throat getting scratchy again. My hands
were pressed against his chest as he held me close. I squirmed, twisting to see
where he was looking.

A playful chop landed on my head. “Stop wriggling.” He pulled his cellphone
out. “We need Luke.”

“Why?”

Gabriel ignored me, pressing the phone to his ear. “Oy Luke, get
up here to Sang’s attic. Have you been back here? Come check this out.”

A moment later, there was scuffling on the other side of the
attic. I swung the flashlight around to help Luke find his way along. Gabriel
did the same, casting us into darkness. I sensed his face close to mine and I
held my breath, unsure of what he was doing. His tongue met my skin and he
licked from my jaw to my cheek. I choked out a squeal, poking him in the
stomach out of surprise. He lurched forward, laughing.

Luke popped his head up between the beam and the wall of the
platform. “What’s so funny?”

I tilted the flashlight around to hold it like a candle between
us, lighting up the area with a gentle glow. “Gabriel,” I whispered, “he...”

“Is a fucking handsome guy. He already knows, Trouble.” Gabriel
smirked. “Luke, tell me we can take out that beam right there.” Gabriel swung
his flashlight at the exposed 4x4 that split the opening. I had to go around it
to crawl into the platform.

“Hm,” Luke said. He borrowed the flashlight from my hands. He
checked out the beam and the surrounding wood. “Maybe.” He started to rise,
putting a hand on my shoulder to steady himself as he crawled onto the platform.
Luke leaned into me, and kept himself close. His chest was pressed at my back.
His breath tickled my neck.

I pressed myself against Gabriel to give Luke more room. My
insides flipped around. Being so close and in near darkness with these two left
me blushing.

Gabriel rocked back, leaning up against one of the other beams
surrounding the platform. His strong arms around my waist dragged me along.
“Yes? No? What?”

“It doesn’t look important,” Luke said. He stood, finding where
the wood disappeared further into the roof structure. He swung the beam of
light around, reaching up above his head, trying to touch the ceiling above us.
“Probably can take it out,” he said. “Not today though. It’ll take some work
and we’re running out of time.” He crouched down again, his chest again close
to my back and his face close to mine. “The space is small.”

“Good enough for her,” Gabriel said. I felt his lips moving
against my forehead. It was way too crowded with three people. “You should walk
the house and see if anyone can hear us.”

“You go,” Luke said.

“Call North.”

Luke pulled out his phone and dialed a number. “I’ll call Nathan.
North’s run off to our house to grab another door.” He paused with the phone to
his ear. He leaned his head forward, bumping his nose into my cheek. I twisted
my head to smirk at him and he was grinning. “Nathan?” he asked, looking right
at me as he talked. “Walk the house, see if you can hear me talking to you.
Well stop being busy, we need to test this attic space.” He pulled the phone
from his face a little. “Start talking so he can hear.”

I twisted my lips, rolling my eyes. “Luke,” I whispered.

Behind my head, Gabriel started singing the theme song to
Friends
.
Luke started laughing, joining in. Gabriel’s voice was golden, but Luke’s voice
was polished, too. I was giggling so hard, I pressed my forehead against
Gabriel’s shoulder, smothering myself and breathing in the scent of a light
fruity and spice musk. My shoulders shook as I laughed.

“What?” Luke stopped singing to talk on the phone. “Well I mean
how much? Where?” Luke motioned to Gabriel, spinning his finger like he wanted
him to keep going.

Gabriel started singing again, repeating the chorus as Luke
rattled questions off to Nathan.

Luke hung up. “Okay, he can hear us on the back stairs and in the
laundry room. We need to soundproof.”

“We should do that to her room, too,” Gabriel said.

“But then she couldn’t hear anyone coming,” Luke said.

“God damn it,” Gabriel said. He shifted his legs, moving me in the
process until my body was tucked neatly into his chest, his hands against my
back. “Fuck all this. Let’s just take her.”

“Gabriel,” I whispered.

A chop landed on my head again. “Shush,” Gabriel said. “Men are
talking.”

I laughed, and I poked him in the ribs. He was always picking on
me, but I secretly loved it. He was fun and amazing.

“Ow,” Gabriel said, letting go of me with one hand to rub at his
ribs, feigning hurt and grinning.

“Hey,” Nathan called from the attic door. “You’ve got Sang back
there?”

“Maybe,” Luke called back.

“Get her out of there. Dr. Green said it’s not good for her throat
to get all that dry air.”

“God damn it, Luke, why did you let her come back here?” Gabriel
shifted, pushing me off of his lap and onto Luke’s.

Luke wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me as we knelt
together on the platform. Being passed around like that was making my stomach
flip again.

Gabriel had to angle strangely around the beam to weave his way
out. He let go of the beam too soon, and fell on his back. He grunted, picked
himself up and turned around, reaching back for me. I took his hand, stepping
out next to him, crouching again under the short part of the attic space.
Gabriel crept ahead of me toward the door. I shadowed him on my hands and
knees. Luke angled himself around the beam to follow.

“Oy, Trouble,” Gabriel called from ahead of me. “Like my butt?” He
stopped and wriggled at me.

“I like Sang’s butt,” Luke said.

“Hey now,” Nathan said. “Stop talking about her butt.”

I stopped and crouched low, laughing against the floor. It was a
mistake as I sucked in a lung full of super dry dust and I started coughing
again.

Luke’s arms grabbed me around the waist and Gabriel gripped my
arms. They pushed and pulled at the same time to get me out of the attic. I
spilled out against the carpet next to Nathan and Gabriel. I coughed a few
times. Nathan put a hand on my back, massaging.

I sucked in the cooler air. “I’m okay,” I whispered.

“You keep coughing like that,” Gabriel said, “your voice will
never heal and we’ll never get to sing together.”

“That’s probably a good thing,” I choked out. “I can’t sing.”

I escaped the boys for a moment to find water from the bathroom
across the hallway. Silas was still working in the bathroom. He was cursing at
the pipes in the wall, smacking a wrench against one. I stood quietly to watch
him work, lost in the smoothness of his strong muscles in his arms and the
curve of his firm jaw. He sensed me and turned, his dark eyes focusing on my
face. “Need something?”

I picked up a tiny paper cup from the counter, taking a sip of
water from the sink. I held the cup to him. “Did you want some?” I knew I was
whispering and he probably couldn’t hear me but he seemed to understand.

His smile returned. He reached out from the tub and I stepped in
to hand the cup to him. Our fingers touched. A spark ignited in my stomach. His
eyes held mine. “Thank you,” he said.

The moment was too intense for me and I turned from him, walking
slowly back to my room. Why were my feelings so confusing? I felt the same
flicker of excitement and fear whenever I touched any of them or any of them
touched me. I couldn’t understand how anyone got used to those feelings. Part
of me was afraid Silas would freak out on me again. Part of me wanted him to. I
missed his arms. I missed Kota who was only downstairs. I wanted to crawl into
their laps and remain forever. I didn’t want to be here in this house any more.
I didn’t want them to leave me. How incredibly lonely I felt in that moment and
they were all right there in front of me. I didn’t have the guts to ask for
what I wanted.

I sucked in a breath, giving myself some control before I
reentered my bedroom. Gabriel was on my bed, spread out on his back. Luke and
Nathan were spilled out on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. I sank onto
the foot of my bed next to Gabriel’s legs. He shifted slightly to give me more
room, bending his knees until his feet were hanging off of the bed. I sat cross
legged near him. I wanted to hide in the attic with him again and sit in his
lap. I couldn’t find the words or the right way to touch him. I couldn’t reach
out to him.

“What’s going on?” I asked. They were quiet enough that I thought
someone could hear.

 Gabriel turned his crystal eyes to me. He heard. “Hm?”

“What are they talking about downstairs?”

“We’re trying to listen,” Luke said. He put a finger to his lips
as he gazed up at me from the floor. He pressed his ear to the carpet.

I slid off the bed, crawling between Luke and Nathan. I put my ear
to the carpet, too, and held my breath to hear better.

Kota and Mr. Blackbourne talked over each other. Victor and Dr.
Green occasionally cut in. I couldn’t really understand what anyone was saying
because of distance and how everyone was talking at once.

I caught one phrase from Kota, “Sang isn’t ever going to know.”

My hand fluttered up to my mouth, and I shoved my lower lip
into my teeth. More Academy secrets?

I realized as I was listening that I was staring at Nathan’s chest
while on my side. I looked up, catching his blue eyes gazing back at me. He
caught my hand at my mouth and brought it to his chest, warming it. He pressed
his palm over the back of my hand as he looked at me. “Don’t listen anymore,”
he said softly.

“But is it about me?” I asked. “Did I do something wrong?”

Nathan’s face darkened and he reached out to me, pulling me across
the floor to him. His arm wrapped around my waist, his fingers spread across my
lower back. He held up his head with his other arm as he looked down at me.
“We’re listening to conversations not meant for us. They’ll tell us when they
want us to know.”

I swallowed. The secrets hung in the air like spider webs. They
tickled across my skin but I couldn’t collect them to examine them.

“Sang should know,” Luke said. He rolled across the floor, bumping
into me, pressing me back up against Nathan and smashing me between them. I
smirked, trying to roll back into him and push him back. He kept coming,
grinning.

“We’re not making that decision,” Nathan said.

Luke shoved me into Nathan again.

Nathan grunted, pushing at my back so I rolled against Luke.

“Hey, what the hell?” North called to us from the doorway.

I sat up on my knees to look at him, confused. Nathan propped
himself up on his elbows.

“I leave for a minute and you’re all fucking around with Sang on
the floor.”

Luke sat up. “We were just...”

“I don’t care,” North growled at him. “Stop it. Mr. Blackbourne’s
going to come up here and kick the shit out of you and then we’ll all get it.”
He pointed a finger at Nathan. “You come with me and help me haul this shit up.
The rest of you find her homework and help her with it.”

There was a collection of groans. I blushed.

North caught my look and he pursed his lips. “Sang, keep these
boys in line, will you?” He disappeared down the hallway. Nathan jumped up,
following him down the hall.

Luke fell on his back against the carpet again. “Nag.”

“I don’t feel like doing homework,” I whispered.

Gabriel slid off of my bed, dropping in a heap on the floor. The
glint from the light above caught in the three black rings in his ear, and
sparked to life the green stones in his lobes.

“Let’s pretend we’re doing it,” he said.

My heart tripped. “Okay.”

Gabriel smirked and shook his head.

Luke picked up my textbooks off of the bookshelf. I grabbed my
book bag sitting on top of my trunk against the wall. I sorted through the
books, pulling notebooks out of my bag. Of all the things to worry about right
now, homework and school were far from my mind. Still, with the work spread out
in front of me, I thought if we were going to waste time anyway, I might as
well actually do the work. I found a pencil and a sheet of geometry problems.

Gabriel randomly opened a notebook, thumbing through it. “What’s
this?” Gabriel asked, holding on to some folded notes.

I blinked at him, sitting up again from the floor. “I thought my
mom got all those,” I whispered.

Gabriel unfolded the notes, his lips moving as he read it over.
“Goddamn. They’re nasty.”