Page 46 of Beasts

“I had very explicit intentions.”

“Oliver, that guitar itself is quite expensive. Fixing it would have cost a fortune.”

“Pretend it's an early Christmas present, then.” It's easy to say that my dad has already given all of it his vote of approval, especially with the dorky smile that he has spread across his face. Meanwhile, I think about to go into shock. Seth puts a hand on my shoulder, I suppose he might know how I’m feeling right now. I hear three similar voices behind us and I’m now slowly dying inside. Maybe if I just close my eyes I can pretend they don’t exist.

“Oh shit.” I can tell when Hendrik speaks, but that voice sounded so guilty I have to turn around. He and his brothers are tightly holding onto mismatched papers, and he’s even trying with great difficulty to hide it behind his back.

“What are those?” Nolan asks aloud, referring to the possible hundreds of papers in their hands.

“No idea what you’re talking about.” Niles says, refusing along with his brothers to come any closer. As I squint I can see they look a little like ‘lost pet’ posters but the person on them is wearing a shirt similar to one I have. Oh, god. It is one I have.

“Can I see that?” I question, stepping towards them, but they back off from me as I do.

“No!” All three of them shout at me, but unfortunately for them my sudden movement made them drop a few. As I go down to pick up the piece of paper, my mothers hands snatch it from me quickly. I’m mortified. The paper has a large print headline; ‘Looking for a good time? Call me!’ and beneath it was my picture – or specifically the picture the girls at the sorority took while I was taking off my clothes.

“What the hell is this?” My mother seethes.

“Where the fuck did you lot even get these?” I’m stunned to hear Oliver’s voice, also holding a piece that had dropped on the ground.

“Hey we didn’t do it! They were all over the college!” All over? Richard is rather defensive and I’m sure he means well but I can’t believe those girls did this. “We think we got all of them though and it’s only Sunday so we don’t think too many people saw them.”

“Why didn’t you chuck them?”

“Duh,” Niles interjects, “, if we threw them into a bin they could have blown out or been found by someone.”

Hendrik then smirks, “So we thought we’d come back and burn them.”

“Who did this?” Mom exclaims. I don’t want to answer her, but I have to.

“The girls took this photo of me while I was changing at the sorority. They said if I live with them that I have to do as they say, and they took that as blackmail, that’s why I left.” As much as I felt mortified earlier, my mother looked like she just died inside.

“They took this of you?”

“Yes.” The triplets don’t say anything, but they hold on tight to the papers and start heading inside. Oliver, to my surprise, takes the piece of paper from my mother and places it on top of the one he’s holding and begins to tear them up.

“Oi,” He shouts at the twins, “, the fireplace is fake dumbasses, try the pit out the back.” There’s a pit out the back? He walks off after them with Valentine, Reyes and Kane not far behind. Nolan comes to my side and places a hand on my arm,

“Hey, I’ll speak with the college administrators tomorrow about the Omega Zeta Kappa's.”

“If you do that, it’ll get worse. They still have that photo.” I say, but before either of my parents can interject, Seth perks up.

“Not if I have anything to say about it.” He then turns back towards the house, calling after Reyes. What is a psychic and a medium going to do about an entire sorority?

“I apologize Mr. and Mrs. Weaver. If I had known they took that kind of photo I would have retrieved it a lot earlier.” Nolan, you’re a kiss-ass. My mother just puts her hand up, I assume trying to get a grip on this situation.

“No. This is an unusual predicament, and honestly I’m not quite sure how to react right now.”

“Honey,” Dad interrupts her train of thought by wrapping an arm around her, “, your daughter left a hostile situation and looked for somewhere safer.” He turns to me with a smile and a level head, “Are you safe in this house?” I live in a house with demons. Most of them have considered killing me at some stage, Nolan almost did on one of my earlier nights here. Oliver scared me half to death and then saved me from being hit by a car. I witnessed a merman almost drown one of his roommates and soon after I slept with a vampire that could have killed me at any time. And yet…

“I feel like I’m home here.”

Returning to the house with Seth, I feel completely lethargic and very full.

“We definitely shouldn't have asked for dessert.” He chuckles, turning off the car. As I hop out, I lean over the top of the car and speak to him, he faces me promptly.

“Dessert was absolutely in order though. My parents just sprung a surprise visit on me, found out I was living in a frat house, found out that the sorority house I was living in took a picture of me half naked and plastered all over the college. Somehow, Nolan convinced my parents that staying at the house was actually a good idea and they ended up inviting both of us to dinner. Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad that you were there tonight with me, but I'm totally confused. My parents should have been scathing, but they weren't. The fact that I'm still standing here right now definitely deserved dessert.” He locks the car, and we start heading up the driveway into the house, but I stop him before we enter. “Hey, why didn't you straight up tell me that we were actually cousins?”

“To be honest, I just wanted to see this whole thing unfold. If I had said it to you at any other point in time, you would have asked a lot of questions.”

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