Page 19 of Resilience

––––––––

~oOo~

––––––––

Lark didn’t come into the cabin to get her suitcase. Sam went up and got it from the kitchen, where he’d set it when she’d first arrived. As he’d figured, Hunter and Athena were in the bedroom Athena had claimed, doing exactly what he’d figured they were doing.

Nobody was louder than a Deaf person.

He snagged the suitcase and headed right back out of the cabin.

Crying again, Lark let him hug her goodbye, and then she was gone. Away from the cabin and out of his life. Another one bites the dust.

He immediately shut down any thoughts about love, or whether he was in love with his best friend, or whether he’d ever have a real relationship. It was something he was going to have to think about, but not now. Not this weekend. Not while he’d now be alone for the rest of the weekend while Hunter and Athena snuggled under the stars, under the sun, under the trees, in the water, in bed.

Happy fucking birthday.

Shoulders drooping, he went back inside to see if there was anything more that needed doing before the party.

Just as the screen door closed behind him, from the bedroom came a strained roar that could only have signaled Hunter reaching the goal. For all the things Sam and Athena had shared over the years, until now he hadn’t been forced to share the sounds of her fucking.

Honest to God, nobody was louder than a Deaf person.

Athena barreled through the world slamming and stomping, but her actual mouth was quiet most of the time. She never made any intentional sound; she barely made noise even when she laughed. Sam had been around enough of her school friends to know that not all Deaf people were completely soundless, in fact most of her friends spoke, to varying degrees. But it was rare for sounds other than coughs or sneezes to come out of Athena’s mouth. And even those sounded different.

Unless, apparently, she was fucking. Most of the grunts and gasps he now heard had a masculine depth of tone, but there were plenty of feminine noises as well. Not to mention the squeaky bedsprings and the headboard slamming against the wall.

If Lark had stayed, maybe those sounds would have calmed her. Maybe they’d have laughed about the PornHub situation happening on the other side of the wall. Or maybe not. Maybe it would have changed nothing, because it was his feelings Lark was focused on, not Athena’s.

Was he in love with Athena? He couldn’t be. He couldn’t be.

Apparently she and Hunter were going for round two already, or Hunter hadn’t gotten the job done yet, or something, because they were still grunting and groaning and gasping like they were on stage and projecting to the folks at the back.

Unable either to shut down or deal with the new, terrifying thoughts swirling around in his skull and the sound of the subject of those thoughts being thoroughly plowed by her asshole boyfriend, Sam went back outside. He’d go down and make sure the boat was in good shape. Or he’d find something else to do out of earshot of the cabin.

––––––––

~oOo~

––––––––

By four that afternoon, pretty much all their guests had arrived. They fell out in two main groups, their club family (and any partners or dates they brought), and Athena’s school friends. Altogether they had close to twenty-five guests. The only no-show was Lark.

From the family, it was mostly ‘cousins’: James Mathews, who’d just started grad school and came alone; Anne Becker, who’d come back from Mizzou for the weekend (surprisingly leaving her twin sister, Emily, behind); brother and sister Quentin and Delilah Fitzgerald; Jake and his old lady, Petra. Duncan came up on his own; Chris brought his girlfriend, whose name Sam was going to have to ask again; and Monty drove up in his billion-year-old minivan, carting five of the younger sweetbutts—and two kegs.

Sam’s brother, Mason, had wanted to come, too, and he’d tried to make a case that being eighteen was legal enough. But after last year’s birthday debacle, the last thing Sam needed was his little brother around as a witness to report to their folks. Mason was cool, as little brothers went, but he was a little brother. He was pouting about being left out, but he’d get over it.

In addition to Hunter, five of Athena’s friends came; three brought dates and two came up together but not together. Luckily, Cherie wasn’t among them. Sam and Cherie had dated for a few months. The especially ugly ending of that relationship had threatened to get in the way of Athena’s work—Cherie was also a tutor at their school.

That relationship had been before he’d decided to prospect for the club. The trouble between them had been entirely about Athena. Another girl who couldn’t believe their close friendship was entirely platonic.

None of his girlfriends had believed it.

And now Sam was wondering if they’d all been right.

No, he was not wondering that. At all. He wasn’t thinking about it. At all. It was their birthday party, and that was all he was thinking about.

It was a noticeably smaller group than last year, and definitely more couples, but it was still chaotic within an hour or so of getting a full house. Everybody was outside, either down on the beach, over in the side yard playing volleyball or horseshoes, or in the water. Jay had taken the boat out with several people, and others were on zipping around on the jet skis, dodging all the other boaters and skiers on the lake today. Duncan had gotten the big speakers going, and Dirty Honey was currently blasting over the yard.

---