Page 16 of The Hallows Queen

“Please prepare before we meet. I don’t want to have to hold your hand,” she quips, turning to sit back down, then she puts her focus back on the papers she was originally working on.

I turn and look at Headmistress Rothchild, who’s trying not to laugh, and blow out a breath.Damn.

Sweat licks at my lower back from the sheer intensity of the woman I just interacted with, so I wordlessly follow the Headmistress back into the hall. Once the door is closed, she turns to look at me. “She’s intense.”

I choke on a laugh. “Just a little.”

Chapter5

Hayden

“Haaaaapppy biiiiiiirthdayyyy to yoooooouuuu… Happy biiirthdaaaay to Hayyyyyydennn.”

God, this is fucking cringe.

I’m a good sport, though, a big-ass goofy grin spread across my face to please my best friend. She’s been planning this for a while, I can tell. Everyone has a stupid fucking birthday hat on their heads and she’s coming toward me with my favorite dessert – cheesecake. There are also dozens of liquor bottles lining the kitchen counter, and she filled my tin with fresh weed.

Logan puts the cheesecake down on the kitchen island I’m seated at, a bright smile lighting up her face. Her black hair is a mess on top of her head, her face is makeup free, and her feet are bare, making it feel like she’s the woman of the house, like this is her kitchen to take care of us in.

My two other best friends, Levi and Carson, are behind her, singing along and laughing, letting her have this. We don’t usually do the wholebirthday cakething, but everything changed when Logan joined the group. She has mom energy, and we’re the lucky boys she gets to take care of, I guess.

Levi and I didn’t realize that when Carson fell in love, we would get a new mommy, but it works. She’s almost as crazy as I am, and she’s given me another best friend I didn’t know I needed. There’s just something different about being close with a woman who I don’t want to fuck – a platonic weirdness I’ve never experienced before, but it’s nice having someone to talk to outside of Carson and Levi. Some things are better absorbed by Logan.

Logan snaps her fingers, getting my attention. “Make a wish!”

I chuckle, leaning forward to blow out the candles stuck on top of the cheesecake.

She even had ‘Happy Birthday Hayden’written on top of the cake with some sort of red glaze, and the care behind the gesture makes me smile.

However, I can’t think of a single thing to wish for as I lean a little closer to the flames.

I wish I was high already. I wish I could stop feeling altogether. I wish I could take an easy breath.

I close my eyes, breathing in through my nose, and settle on something I really do want.

I wish we could be like this forever – a family.

They all cheer, which is equally as cringy as the singing, and Logan claps her hands and jumps up and down. Carson puts his hands on her shoulders to try to calm her, and Levi shouts obscenities into my ear.

I laugh, my shoulders shaking. As I sit up straight, Logan circles the island and throws her arms around my neck to hug me. She whispers in my ear, “What’d you wish for?”

I snort, shaking my head. “If I tell you, it won’t come true.”

She pulls away and narrows her eyes at me playfully.

“I hope he wished that we would never have to hear you two fucking again.” Levi laughs, his grin wide like a shithead as he points between Carson and Logan. “I mean, that’s what I would wish for.”

Carson rolls his eyes in the way that exudes superiority, and Logan blows a raspberry between her lips before giving Levi a dirty look. “Says the dude who fucked me first.”

Levi and I boom with laughter, but Carson’s face curls in disgust before he wraps a hand around her neck. She waves him off carelessly, used to his possessiveness by now. “Chill out, Caveman.”

Levi points a finger at Logan. “If you ever need me to rock your world again, you know where I’m at, mami.”

Carson steps toward him, and he raises his hands in surrender while he laughs. Logan slaps him on the back, and then grabs him by the hips. “Deep breaths.”

It’s soeasybetween them. Logan is the chaos to Carson’s calm; she tests him and pushes his buttons like no one ever has before, and they never stamp out the individual fires inside of themselves. They work together. Maybe they weren’t made for each other, but they mold to each other so flawlessly that it’s hard to even notice.

Last year, when Carson started dating his stepsister, I was dead set on not letting her in. Even as she started to creep inside of the small circle we’d formed between the three of us, I didn’t let her close. Girls come and go, so I wasn’t going to risk learning to rely on someone, just for them to leave. The only two people on this earth I’d ever trusted were Carson and Levi, and that’s the way I liked it.

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