Page 33 of Disorderly

“On the stairs, Katy” I picked up the putty knife from where it landed. I’d need it to scoop up the giant clumps from the floor and stairs before it dried. As for the walls, I’d work as quick as I could so that we wouldn’t have to sand all the walls and repaint. But that was easier to do than to re-do the flooring on the stairs and floor.

As I knelt to scrape up the spackle from the floor to put back into the broken container, I heard Katy’s footsteps on the stairs. “What are you doing? And why is there pink stuff all over the place?”

I grinned up at her. “Well, you see, I was doing some repair work, minding my own business, when I heard the beautiful voice of an angel call out, startling me. My hands flew out and the container went boom, spreading the pink goop everywhere.”

Her gaze darted from the floor to the walls and then to the ceiling where her eyes widened. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know, didn’t realize.” She wrung her hands as she looked at me, pleading. “I need to help clean it up. How do I do it?”

“You don’t need to, but I could use your help. Can you grab another putty knife from the garage and some damp paper towels?” With a nod, she spun, leaving me to continue. It was only then that I realized she arrived home early from the dance. And stopped in to see me. Now the mess didn’t bother me. Not when he came about from her coming to see me.

Within minutes she returned with the supplies and began to help me with the clean up. We talked about nothing, keeping the topics light, but it was enough. Enough just to be spending time with her. It might have been cliché, but I really could have been just as happy watching paint dry so long as she was with me.

With the two of us working together, it didn’t take long for us to clean the walls and the floor. The ceiling though, that was another matter. “Katy, I think if I lift you up, maybe have you on my shoulders, we’ll be able to reach the few spots.”

She raised her eyebrows and stared at me with a look that conveyed how she thought I was crazy. “I’m too heavy. I’ll hurt you and then you’ll end up falling down the stairs which will really hurt.”

I tilt my head to the side and pretend to examine her as if I’m giving weight to her argument. The one thing I don’t do is to let her know how disappointed her lack of faith in me, in my strength affects me. I mean, I know I’m nowhere near as muscular as Jason or Peter, but I’ve got muscles. They’re just long and leaner, more like a swimmer that a weightlifter. But they’re strong. Strong enough to lift her with ease since she doesn’t weigh much. “You won’t hurt me. I’ve got this with ease. Or are you chicken?”

Her gaze narrows at my challenge. “Fine. Let’s do this, but if I hurt you, I’m not nursing you better.”

I hide my grin as I step past her, climbing to the top of the stairs. “Climb up onto the kitchen counter and then onto my shoulders.”

After a few grumbles, she does what I asked. And in under ten minutes she’s back on the ground while the few spots on the ceiling were clean.

“Thanks for the help.” I clink my glass of lemonade against hers as we relax on the couch.

“It was my fault.” I wave off her statement. If we really wanted to assign blame, it was mine because I wouldn’t have been fixing the wall if I hadn’t punched it in the first place. A fact that I was sure she suspected since I watched her studying the way I’d spread the spackling compound over the cracks before she’d arrived. She’d been too polite to question it. But I wasn’t the same. I wanted to know why she’d left the dance early when I knew she’d been talked into staying until the end by her friends.

“Didn’t like the dance?”

She chuckled. “Not really, but we did collect a lot of donations.” I nodded. “Peter asked me to stop by to tell you that he’ll be later than planned. We had a little incident at the dance, forcing it to end early. And I really wasn’t up to an after-party when I hadn’t planned on going in the first place.”

“What happened?” I knew the school was still dealing with the fallout of a student’s arrest before school started for the year. I wasn’t privy to all the details, but Peter had been called into numerous staff meetings where they discussed caring for the affected students and tried to figure out how none of them had noticed the bullying and blackmailing going on underneath their noses for the past few years. Other meetings were updates from the police, but those ones, I knew even less about.

“Jake and Josh brought their friend from Winnipeg. She’s supposed to be Josh’s girlfriend, but the rumour mill says that they’re all together.” She shrugged. “And someone highjacked the video screen, playing some private videos between the three of them in a bedroom. So the police were called.”

I hated that this happened to them. I’d met Josh and Jake when their fathers came in for our last meeting. They’d wanted to set up their own account for their winnings and business dealings. They’d confided in me that they shared a girlfriend and were wanting to possibly add her to things in the future. I’d told them that I wouldn’t have an issue with it, but that they’d want to speak to a good lawyer to get everything set up correctly.

But at the same time, I couldn’t resist the opening that this gave me. One of the concerns I had about my relationship with Peter—and Jason—going public was what it meant for my feelings for Katy. Sometimes I thought that her crush was something more. That it wasn’t just some little girl’s feelings for the older boys who treated her like a sibling. And if she should ever return my feelings, I didn’t know how I’d ever choose between her and the guys. That is if she wasn’t into a closed poly relationship with us.

“And does that bother you?” She scrunched her nose as she tried to figure out what I was talking about. “That Josh and Jake are sharing a girlfriend,” I clarified.

“Are they?” I nodded. She knew they’d stopped by for a meeting as they’d been leaving when she came in the previous week. She shrugged at my answer. “It doesn’t bother me. I mean, if they’re okay with it then why should it bother me.” She turned on the couch to face me, folding her left leg between us. I turn to mimic her position. “The three of you are in a relationship of sorts and it doesn’t bother me.”

“Are you sure?” I leaned in, wanting to watch her for any hesitation, concern, or disgust before she could hope to hide those emotions.

“Of course, I’m sure. I keep telling you guys that I love you and that will never change.”

“And we love you, too,” I told her. It wasn’t something new. We’ve told her that before. But this time it meant something more from me. This time it wasn’t a familiar love. It wasn’t the love of siblings.

A soft gasp left her lips as her pupils dilated. But when she licked her lips, I lost control. I leaned further into her. Or maybe she leaned into me. I’m not sure which, but what I did know was that my lips were on hers, kissing her. Not a simple brush the lips kiss. And not a chaste, pressing of the lips one either. Instead our lips smashed together, nearly bashing teeth. All my pent-up passion for her was unleashed, transmitting through the meeting of our lips.

I groaned at the plushness of her lips. And it’s that feeling that has me softening my kiss. A different way than I kiss Peter or Jarrod which tended to be more of a battle of wills. Yet despite my consuming need for her that matches my need for them, it’s gentler, sweeter. Like her taste. And just as addictive. I never want it to end. I want to do this forever.

My lips don’t stay still. They travel along the skin of her cheeks, her neck, wanting more. But when I heard the door begin to open, I jerked away, swiftly adjusting how I sat so that it looked like we were watching tv together. Something we’d done hundreds of times before. I struggled to regain control of my breathing as kissing her left me breathless. But I needed to. I needed to be able to speak calmly and unaffected when I greet Peter. He can’t know about this. Can’t know that I broke our pact.

Fuck! What have I done?

Chapter Twenty-Three

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