Thrive (10 page)

{ 13 }

0 years : 05 months

January

LILY CALLOWAY

In just three days, our world has warped. Whether
this is a terrible change or a catastrophic one is to be seen.

“Have you checked out the bathrooms?” Daisy asks me,
plopping on my bed.

“Not yet,” I say.
I’m
on another mission.

Empty cardboard boxes litter the floorboards of my new
bedroom in a Philadelphia townhouse. I still can’t find my canopy net. Either
the movers took it for themselves or Lo tossed it when we were unpacking. I
didn’t realize I’d grown an attachment to the thing until I lost it. Pretending
to be in a jungle safari at night just won’t be the same.

I cautiously eye the door in case Brett or Ben or Savannah
(the camera trio) dart into my new room to film us.

I need to be incognito for a few minutes. I hoist my body on
the dresser that the movers just heaved in here. With a broom in hand, I do a
piss poor job, but I manage to stand on two feet.

Daisy collects her long blonde hair into a high, messy bun.
“What are you doing?”

“Checking for bugs,” I say.
The electrical, peeping Tom kind.
In the hallways, living room,
kitchen and other common areas, rafters make up the ceiling, rigged with so
many wires and cameras. Rose said we had to move to the townhouse for better
sound, but the contracts say we can’t be filmed in the bedrooms.
 

I’m not taking any chances.

The world already thinks I’m a sexual nutcase. I don’t want
them to have footage of
private
acts
between Lo and me. With the end of my broom, I poke at the wires and a
suspicious looking black box. I stand on the tips of my toes.

Oh my God.

There’s so much space between the rafters that a whole body
could crawl on top of them, army-man style, and then they can hang down like
Mission Impossible
and film us while
we’re sleeping.

“What’s wrong?”

I spin at Lo’s voice and the dresser wobbles underneath my
bare feet. While I concentrate on
not
falling,
Lo scoops me up in his arms and sets me safe on the floor.

“Are you cleaning?” Lo asks with raised brows. “Because I
have
never
seen you pick up a broom.”

“She was checking for bugs,” Daisy tells him, legs crossed
on the end of my bed.

Lo frowns. “I thought Rose already hired an exterminator.”
The townhouse is old, which made Rose upset more than anyone else. She likes
clean areas, not musty, moldy creaks and crannies filled with spider webs and
the occasional daddy-long-leg. I don’t mind it so much. Maybe because I’m so
focused on the cameras.

“Not those kind of bugs.” I point at the black box. “That’s
a camera.”

His frown morphs into a scowl and then he follows my finger.
“That looks like a battery.”

Really?
My neck
heats. “I just wanted to check.” Now I’m a compulsive,
paranoid
freak. “Crawlers may be up there, too.”

I realize that made absolutely no sense to anyone outside my
brain.

Professor Xavier would have understood it.

Lo sets his hand on my waist and draws me to his body. “I’ll
check the rafters with Ryke.”

“Crawlers are people,” I say lamely.

He just smiles. “I figured.”

I gasp. “You can read my mind now? Your superpower finally
kicked in.”

“No,” he breathes, staring down at me. “I just know you too
well.”

Oh. “Will you let me know when you get your superpower?”

He nods, and his fingers slide across the base of my neck. I
love that he touches me so much more. “I have to warn you though, I may not
have one.”

“That’s okay,” I say. “Sometimes I like the idea of just
being mortal with you.”

Lo leans in to kiss me, but a loud
clatter
tears us apart. Brett tripped over a lamp on the ground,
landing on his knees.

“Nice catch,” Lo says dryly. Brett didn’t drop his camera,
but it’s strapped to his chest with some weird device that looks like a bulletproof
vest, only plastic. I think Connor called it a steadicam.

Ryke passes by our room and stops when he notices Brett. He
helps him to his feet and then enters. “Have you checked out the bathrooms?”

Daisy asked the same thing. They must know something that we
don’t.

“Not yet,” Lo says, not as concerned as me now.

Daisy rises off my bed, and the four of us stand in more
awkward silence.

We’re all living together.

This has never ever happened.

It’s new and weird and something the production company
wanted so badly. It’s a big reason why we moved to this townhouse. The six
months filming
Princesses of Philly
just
got a lot more interesting.

Daisy breaks the quiet. “I’ve never lived with a guy
before,” she exclaims, just putting it out there with more confidence than I
would have. She’ll be in the same house as Lo, Connor, and Ryke. I’ve spent
most of my time living with Lo, so it’s not so different for me.

Ryke and Lo share a look that I can’t decipher, and then
Ryke says, “It should be similar to what you’re used to.”

“I doubt that.”

“Why?” he asks.

“I’m not used to six-foot-two guys sleeping two floors above
me.” Daisy chose the basement, of all rooms. She said something about coming
home late from modeling shoots and not wanting to wake up everyone. The stairs
are creaky. And she’s nice. That combo led her to the darkest room.

I’d rather have her up here.

It smelled like cat pee in the basement, and since Sadie,
Connor’s feline, is now living with us too—she could have been the culprit and
already chosen her first target.

Sadie is a born criminal.

“I’m six-foot-three,” Ryke corrects with hardened brows.

Daisy shrugs. “Same thing.”

“No,” Ryke says a single word.

Daisy tries not to smile. “I’ve also never shared a shower
with a guy before.”

Lo and I frown together. He beats me to the question. “Don’t
you have your own shower downstairs?”

Daisy’s smile fades, and she exchanges a look with Ryke.
Okay, everyone is sharing looks without me. I feel like the kid picked last for
dodge ball.

“You don’t have a shower?” I say, trying to find the answer
here.

“Um, maybe you both should come check out the bathrooms,”
Daisy says, having to step over a box and squeeze past Brett to reach the door.

We follow her.

“Is the shower gross?” I wonder.

Lo clutches my hand as we walk. “Maybe they found mold or
something.”

Good theory. “Maybe a turtle had babies in the bathtub.”

Lo considers this and then says, “And the shower is
definitely full of snakes.”

“Monkeys,” I add. “There’s a monkey nest in the cabinet.” I
picture
Jumanji
, a full out zoo
inside the bathroom with ivy and deadly plants. Killer bees come next.

“Monkeys don’t have nests,” Lo says.
Where do monkeys live then?

“You two are fucking weird,” Ryke says. Our imaginations are
vast. It doesn’t help that we love comic books more than reality.

Ryke and Daisy abruptly stop in the middle of the long
narrow hallway. I almost bump into Ryke’s chest, and when I take a step back, I
knock into Brett’s camera.

“Sorry,” I mutter. I clearly don’t do well in confined
spaces.

Voices from the main level below trickle up the staircase.

“Traveling somewhere, Scott?” Rose snaps. “Hopefully to
California where you’re actually needed.” Rose sounds more ticked off than
usual.

“Who’s Scott?” Daisy asks in a whisper.

I think she’s the only one without this info. Someone should
have told her sooner.

“The producer,” Ryke says, “for the show.”

I consider edging closer to the staircase to see if I can
catch a glimpse of him. Rose has spent plenty of nights complaining about the
misogynistic producer. She has to deal with him though, for the sake of the
reality show.

My feet stay glued to the floorboards, too anxious about the
bathrooms to move just yet.

“I’m needed here,” Scott says. “It just takes people time to
realize what’s good for them.”

Ryke crosses his arms over his chest, listening intently
with Daisy and Lo. They’re all eavesdropping while I internally freak about the
bathrooms.

I don’t actually think monkeys are in our cabinets.

I don’t discount the turtles though.

Lo whispers, “I already hate this guy.”

“Same,” Ryke says. “If he fucks with one of the girls—”

“It’s not going to happen,” Lo cuts him off. “Connor already
ran a background check on him.”

“I don’t have as much faith in Connor as you do,” Ryke
whispers.

Lo actually pats his brother’s back and says, “Then have
faith in me.” He’s known Daisy, Rose, and me almost all his life. Lo wouldn’t
let Scott harass us without a major fight.

Ryke lets out a tense breath and just nods.
  

I count five doors along this hallway. Daisy has her hand on
a brass knob to one of them. Is that the hall bathroom then?

I catch the tail end of Scott’s comment. “…showing your tits
would increase the ratings.”

My jaw unhinges.
What?!

“So would shoving my foot up your ass,”
 
Rose refutes.

Lo clenches his teeth.

“I’m going down there,” Ryke whispers.

“No,” Daisy says, grabbing Ryke by the forearm. She stops
him before he heads down the hallway. “We need to show Lo and Lily the
bathrooms. And Rose won’t appreciate you coming to her defense.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “Rose can handle anything.”

Ryke reluctantly redirects his course of action, and he
rests his hand on the small of Daisy’s back, silently telling her to open the
bathroom door.

This is it.

The old wood creaks as she opens it wide. We all slowly walk
in, and my mouth just drops further. No turtles or monkeys or even mold.

The
two
showers
are huge. Too large, in fact. As if they’re made for communal purposes. Oh my
God. What if they’re made specifically for orgies? What if production believes
that I’ll hook up with
multiple
people
in them?

“What is this?” Lo asks with a deep glare.

“We’re all sharing one bathroom,” Ryke announces, leaning
against one of the four sinks.

“Rose would have said something…” I trail off.

Daisy says, “I don’t think Rose knew before today.”

“Lily…” Lo places a hand on my shoulder, concern cloaking
his gorgeous face. I must look petrified. At least, that’s exactly how I feel.

My privacy has been slowly stripped for months, and now it’s
almost all disappeared.

“I don’t like this,” I mutter under my breath.

My immediate thought isn’t
damn, we can’t fuck in the shower.
It’s my third or fourth thought,
which (I think) is progress. My first thought is how embarrassing it’ll be if
Ryke or Connor walks in on me showering. Oh no…what if a cameraman sees me
naked? What if he catches it on film?

“They can’t film in the bathrooms. It’s in the contract,” Lo
reminds me.

“Are you sure you can’t read my mind?” I whisper, the humor
lost in my voice.

He hugs me close. There is nowhere safer than in Loren
Hale’s arms.

“Do you jack off in the shower?” Daisy asks casually to
Ryke, a smile to her voice. It instantly causes Lo to tense. She’s become
almost too open around his brother.

Ryke doesn’t miss a beat. “I don’t have to jack off,
sweetheart.”

“Wow, the pent up frustration must hurt then,” she says with
sarcasm. “No wonder you’re so moody.”

“Fucking hilarious.” And then he undoes her bun, sliding her
hairband on his wrist and messing her long locks with a rough hand. Her blonde
strands stick out wildly. When he finishes touching her, a small smile peeks on
the corner of her lips.

“Out of curiosity,” she says, not fixing her unkempt hair,
“where do you pick up girls?”

Ryke glances at his brother, just recognizing that we’re in
the room with him. I know what it feels like to be so magnetized by someone
that you forget about your surroundings.

My lips part at a sudden realization.

Ryke may be actually falling for my sister.

A girl who turns seventeen next month.

It’s a feeling, but one I sense deep in my bones like I did
Connor and Rose.

I can’t tell Lo about my suspicions. Nothing good will come
of that.

“You’re always curious,” Ryke answers vaguely. Still, he has
trouble censoring himself. “I meet people at the gym or really anywhere I
fucking go out.”

“Have you dated a fan?” she asks.

Lo interjects, “Yeah he has. Twice so far. And they were his
age.”

Ryke stares at the ground, not saying a word. I can’t read
his dark expression either.

“Cool,” Daisy says, nodding a couple times. “I bet they were
sweet. I’ve considered dating a fan, but most of mine are too old.”

“Like twenty-three?” Lo wonders, his voice biting. I wince.
That’s Ryke’s age.

“No, more like thirty-five.”

I’m pretty sure Daisy is picking up all the hints. She’s
just dismissing them with ease.

I hold onto Lo’s arm. He’s at such a good place with Ryke. I
don’t want that to change because of my little sister. Maybe, one day, it’ll
have to, but not now.

“You should consider dating someone around your age, Dais,”
Ryke says pointblank.

“I have,” she says, heading towards the door. “It hasn’t
been anything special.” With this, she leaves. My eyes meet the camera lens
that remains pointed at
me.
Jeez.

“She likes you way too much,” Lo says.

“Look, I’m trying to shut her down without hurting her
fucking feelings,” Ryke retorts. “But she’s my friend. I’m not going to push
her away completely.”