Page 26 of Forever Mine

Riley shrugged. “You never know. We got the space anyway.” We did have way more kitchen cabinets than I thought we’d ever need, but between Wes’s shopping spree and Riley emptying the restaurant he worked at of dishes, maybe we’d use them all after all.

I looked between my two best friends. I thought for sure I would be the only one that was spiraling because of this. Clearly I was wrong. Time to get this under control.

“Alright, here’s what we’re gonna do. First, we’re gonna get all that food in the fridge so it don’t go bad. Then I’m gonna pull out the bottle of Irish whiskey Dakota’s dad gave me as a house-warming present, and the baggie of gummies I cashed in a favor for, and we’re celebrating our new fuckin’ place.”

Beck seemed unsure, but then Riley grinned and bounced up, completely forgetting his organization project. “Yessss.” Hegrabbed Beck’s hand and dragged him back to the kitchen. “We’ll take care of this, Jay, you go get the goods.”

Laughing, I gave him a thumbs-up. “K, slasher. Works for me.” Beck grumbled about the nickname I gave Ri and I chuckled on my way back to the room. It annoyed the fuck outta Beck, but Riley secretly liked it, so I kept calling him it.

I walked into my room, once again struck by how weird that was. I took in the space, stretching my arms out to the sides.

It wasn’t anything major. Most people would probably take it for granted. It was a square room with a small walk-in closet and one big window. There was nothing super special or fancy about it. But to me, it was everything.

Okay, enough sentimental shit. Booze and weed. That was the mission. I dug through my duffel that was still packed and thrown next to my mattress. The thing was a million years old. My grandpa gave it to me as a Christmas present before he died. It was the last Christmas present I’d ever gotten, besides the little things Beck and Riley managed to scrounge up. Somehow I’d managed to hang on to it. Even when my ma or one of her boyfriends was selling everything not nailed down, I fought fucking tooth and nail to keep this. Eventually it got too beat up for even them to consider it worth it, and I got to stop worrying about losing it. The zipper stopped working ages ago. The strap was safety-pinned on, and there was a huge hole in the side. But it was the only thing I had left of my grandpa, after Ma gave away his pocket watch as a way to pay off a dealer, and I refused to get rid of it.

The bottle of whiskey was wrapped in my work coveralls to protect it. I unrolled it, and the small baggie of gummies fell out as well. When I stepped out, Beck and Riley were cuddled on the plush sofa. Apparently, the living areas came pre-furnished so we didn’t have to worry about things like chairs, a couch, TV, whatever else. I was pretty sure that was bullshit and it wasfurnished by guilty-feeling Papa Wes, but if Ri and Beck weren’t gonna call him on it, I sure as fuck wasn’t. The couch was mad nice.

There was plenty of room for all three of us on it, especially when Ri was basically in Beck’s lap like he was now. I sat down next to them with the goods. Ri had pulled out three glasses from somewhere and had a few of his forty-seven bowls filled with some of the snack food Wes had left for us.

I opened the bottle and poured each of us some.

Once we had our drinks, I held out the glass. “To our new place.”

Beck rolled his eyes but tapped his glass to mine. “To new beginnings,” Riley added, before we all took a drink. And holy fuck, there was something to say for good whiskey. That went down smooth.

“Yo, you gotta tell Daddy Kelly thank you from us,” Riley said after his third drink and a full gummy later.

His head was in Beck’s lap with his feet draped over mine. Beck snorted but didn’t say anything else. He was preoccupied playing with Ri’s hair.

“Can you please stop calling him that; it’s weirding me the fuck out.”

“Why, he’s a Daddy ain’t he?”

“He’s a dad, yeah. Anything else, not my fuckin’ business.”

Riley just laughed and reached for his glass again. I was wondering if I should stop him, but Beck was right there. I didn’t need to be his keeper right now. “Well, either way, this shit’s delicious. Way better than the crap we usually buy.”

“It probably costs a week’s salary.”

Riley pouted. “Lame.” He swatted at Beck. “Put on a movie or somethin’. I don’t wanna just stare at the two of you all night.”

I batted my eyes at him. “Oh, come on, I’m fuckin’ glorious to look at.”

“Yeah, gloriously ugly,” Ri replied, already cracking himself up before he even finished. He wasn’t as thrilled when I grabbed a handful of popcorn and tossed it at his annoying ass.

That finally woke up Beck. “Hey, not on the fuckin’ couch.”

Ri turned around so he was facing him. “Oh, so do we have rules now?”

Beck booped his nose. “Yeah. To not live like fuckin’ animals. Might be too difficult for the two of you.” But Beck couldn’t totally hide his smile.

Still, Ri and I made eye contact, and without any words, came up with a plan. Beck, who clearly didn’t have the best tolerance when it came to the gummies and was a little slower than usual, realized too late what we were doing. By the time he started to push Ri off him, I had the bowl of popcorn and Riley had the bowl of M&Ms, and we dumped them right on his head.

“You little fuckers.” Riley all but rolled off Beck’s lap as I darted off the side of the couch and fuckin’ sprinted outta the room. Riley did some weird bear crawl type thing, trying to run after me, but didn’t get far when Beck’s tall ass just leaned over the couch and grabbed his ankle, dragging him back.

“Jay! Help!”

“Sorry, slasher, you’re on your own. Beck might actually kill me.”

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