Page 66 of Star-crossed Betas

When we arrive at the car park in Horton in Ribblesdale, it's only nine-thirty in the morning, but it's still almost full. Cee grabs a rucksack from the back seat, and we wander past a tree decorated with hundreds of old hiking boots.

The first section of the hike is a pretty gradual incline, and there aren't too many people around.

“How're you settling into the new place?” Cee asks.

“Good, actually. The upstairs flat is empty, so it's nice and quiet,” he replies. I hope when someone eventually moves in above him, they're not too loud because I imagine it would cause him a lot of stress otherwise. “How's Magnus?”

“Still a legend. Fee, show him the photo you took yesterday.” I chuckle at the memory and dig my phone out of my pocket to show Archie. Cee had returned from a run in his wolf form and was sunbathing in the garden. Magnus climbed on top of him and took a nap on his back. Archie laughs softly at the photo.

“I now totally understand why you used to sit still for hours when he was asleep on you. He looked so cosy on me that Iended up staying in the garden until I was on the brink of starvation,” Cee says in his usual hyperbolic way.

When we reach the section of the hike that's quite steep with a bit of scrambling involved, there's a slight bottleneck where the slower humans are taking a while, so we wait to one side and tuck into Archie's brownies.

“Oh damn. These are incredible,” I exclaim. “You missed your calling as a baker, I swear.” Archie smiles and then tucks the box back into his bag so we can carry on.

Despite the sunny day, the peak of Pen-y-ghent is incredibly windy. Cee keeps having to swipe his dark hair out of his eyes. Removing the rucksack from his shoulder, he digs out two beers and pops the caps on them both before handing one to Archie.

“I'm fine, you brought those for you both, I'm good,” Archie says, trying to pass the beer back.

“It's tradition, and I can share one with Fee. It's also lukewarm and tastes like piss, so I wouldn't thank me either,” Cee replies. He takes a large sip, winces and then passes the beer over to me.

“Wow, that's really bad.” Archie laughs. “Why is this a tradition?”

“Well, years ago, when we used to meet up in secret, it was almost always in the middle of the night. During the summer, we started doing all these local hikes in the dark, and I'd steal a couple of my brother Sammy's cheap beers to have at the top. In hindsight, rich boy over here should probably have been in charge of the beverages, but alas, tradition now dictates that piss water beer is to be drunk at the peak,” Cee explains, and Archie nods with a smile twitching the corner of his lips. I hand the bottle back to Cee, who downs the rest before shuddering in disgust.

“Um, do you guys mind if we take a picture? I never really got to have friends to do things like this with…before,” Archie asks,his gaze down on the ground. My heart breaks a little for him. It took a lot for him to ask that question, and I'm so proud of him.

“Of course! New tradition, pisswater beers and a selfie at the top?” I grab my phone to take the photo, the wind has all of our hair flying in every direction and our cheeks rosy pink, but we all have big grins on our faces and joy dancing in our eyes. The first photo of our little Yorkshire Pack.

Twenty-five

September 2022

Connor Kelly

My face is sweating. I haven’t exerted myself—at all—so why is my face betraying me like this?

I’m so self-conscious of the fact I gave a pretty abysmal impression when I had dinner with Fee’s family a few months ago that I’m a hot mess right now.

It’s Fee’s twenty-sixth birthday today, so Archie, Alice, Jade and his brothers are coming over for dinner tonight. In a rare moment of kiss-assery, I offered to cook, and now I’m on the verge of breaking out in hives in case I fuck it all up.

“What time is everyone gettin’ here?” I ask Fee for the tenth time today.

“Half six, the same time as when you last asked.” I think his patience is wearing thin.

“Right. Sorry. Why is the house so fuckin’ hot?” I say, tugging my collar away from my neck.

“It’s not hot. You’re just getting yourself worked up over nothing.” I glare at him, but he rolls his eyes in response. “It’s my birthday. You aren’t allowed to scowl at me.” I plaster a fake smile onto my face and crinkle my eyes sarcastically.

“Better?” I ask. He walks towards me from the bedroom doorway, where he’s been watching me try on every combination of clothing I own. His palms cup my face, and he kisses me briefly.

“Why are you so nervous anyway? You’ve already met them.”

“I was too busy actin’ like a bitter hag to really care what they thought of me. Now I have this horrible bitchy voice in my head tellin’ me they’ll hate me forever, and then eventually you’ll be like, ‘hmm, maybe they have a point,’and then you’ll also hate me forever. And then how awkward will it be to be married and livin' together when you hate me?” I take a deep breath after speaking at a hundred miles per hour. Fee only laughs at me.

“I’m not saying they’ll hate you because I really don’t think they will. But even if they do, I don’t need their approval. I love you, Alice loves you; anyone who spends any lengthy amount of time with you loves you, too.”

“Ahh, so you’re saying nobody likes me right away. I grow on people. Like a tumour.”

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