Page 14

Everest is slumped in his desk chair, a hand thrown over his eyes, and his disheveled sandy blond hair is glinting in the light. Silver, gold, and violent flashes of blue catch in the strands at his temples, a few flecks dusting the bruise at his neck as well. It isn’t just the glitter that has me frowning. It’s how defeated he appears. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that particular slump to his shoulders. Closing the door behind me, I cross the room in long strides.

“What the hell happened to you?” Without even looking, Everest lets out a humorless laugh. His hand drags upwards through his hair, shaking a few flecks free to land on his fitted T-shirt.

“Which part? The glitter bomb that was planted in my locker, the bone-headed jocks who dragged Meg here like they were recreating her kidnapping, the phone call with my father, or this?” Everest leans forward to roughly shove his laptop in my direction. I walk around his desk, my eyes roaming over a screenshot of some kind. Against a brightened display of a mythical land, a single line of text sits in the center of the screen.

Remember that I am also watching you, Captain Sparkle.

I merely blink, reading the words a few times over before I lean my hip on the desk. Everest has gone back to reclining in his large leather chair, staring up at the ceiling. A stagnant silence falls over us. We used to creep around Calloway Manor, seeking out an empty study or cleaning closet we could fool around in. Now we’ve got too much space and not enough words to fill the distance growing between us. Running my fingers through my shaggy hair, I briefly close my eyes.

“Everest,” I sigh. “What am I doing here?”

“I thought you should hear this from me first.” Everest finally sits upright and braces his forearms on the desk. Ahh, back to business. I can already tell I’m going to hate what he’s about to say.

“Meg and I will be co-captaining the unisex lacrosse team from now on.” My pierced eyebrow twitches, but otherwise, I have no reaction. Everest has finally gotten his way, he’s found an in to be near her without having to admit to the world it’s solely because he wants to. When I don’t answer, Everest continues. “There’ll be…public appearances, hopefully award ceremonies down the line. I wanted to prepare you for what you might see or hear.”

The sarcastic part of me wants to laugh. The bitter side of me wants to smash something. Yet, I’m overwhelmed by a sense of numbness. I used to think I had no future without Everest in it, now I wonder if I’m cut out for what it’ll take to get us there. I’ve taken beatings from Nicholas until I thought my bones would never heal properly again, yet this seems more impossible. Meg is the final hurdle we can’t manage, and she doesn’t even know how she’s shredded everything we’ve built. What’s even worse is…I don’t even care anymore.

“I hope the two of you are very happy together.” I push up from the desk and actively put more distance between us. I can walk out of here now and be done with it all. Nicholas, Meg, Hollowbrook, whatever that threat on the laptop was supposed to be. I wouldn’t have to think of any of it again, if I can only put Everest behind me.

“Wait,” he calls out, the muffled sounds of him taking chase following. My hand turns the door handle, but a hand beside my head slams the wood shut again. A ghost of breath brushes my neck, a body standing far too close to my back. My eyes close. “I miss you, Cody.”

“I saw you yesterday,” I sigh back. Everest’s chest presses firmer against my back.

“You nearly killed me yesterday,” he half-chuckles, trying to lighten the mood. Unfortunately for Everest, I’m too hollow for one half-hearted joke to glue the pieces of us back together.

“Don’t do this,” I whisper, my hand still wrapped around the door handle. “It’s not fair.” Everest’s forehead drops to my shoulder, the weight of him there rapidly stealing my waning strength. The slow exhale of his breath presses against the thin fabric of my hoodie before his lips brush the side of my neck. The touch is barely a kiss, yet I shudder anyway.

“I know,” Everest murmurs, his hand sliding from the door to my waist. The kiss that follows is warmer, firmer, pressed just beneath my ear, and my eyes close despite every furious thought screaming through my head. I hate how quickly my body remembers him. Hate the way my spine loosens, the way my pulse stutters, the way every vile thing I meant to say becomes locked in my throat.

“I’m sorry,” Everest breathes, his fingers curling into my hoodie as if he’s afraid the next time I walk out of that door, I’ll be gone for good. Tugging, he turns me slowly until my back is against the door. He’s right there, his body pressed against the front of mine without making it feel like a cage. His green eyes search my face for the damage he caused, and I wish he wouldn’t. I wish he’d just stop caring and make this whole shitshow so much easier to digest.

“I’m sorry that wanting her has ruined everything we built,” he confesses. I inhale sharply. That confession should make me shove him away, but it doesn’t. Instead, it burns through my chest as the first real apology I’ve ever had. I’ve directed my anger towards Meg because it was easier to hate her, easier to blame her for taking Everest’s attention away from me. Even now, when the truth has never been clearer, I can’t stop loving him enough to stay angry at him.

“What do you expect me to do?” I almost whimper, bone-tired from constantly wondering what the answer to that question is. Everest’s knuckles skim along the side of my jaw, careful in a way his words have never been, and his thumb pauses beneath my lip before he leans in to kiss the corner of my mouth.

“What we’ve always done,” he replies, lowering his mouth to the edge of my jaw now. “Take each day as it comes and never give up on each other.” His lips are soft, but the hand at my waist tightens, revealing just how desperate he is for the answer to be that simple.

“I’m not going to wait around until there’s nothing left of you to give me,” I breathe, but my fingers betray me, sliding into the front of his shirt, holding him there when I should be pushing him back. Yet Everest flinches like I’ve hit him, his eyes flashing with a mix of panic and realization.

“I don’t even know if there’s anything left now, Cody. I’m splintered, torn in so many directions, forced to become so many versions of myself, I don’t know who I am anymore. The old me can’t stop loving you, but the man I’ve been forced to become to protect you has fallen for her. It’s…fucked, I know.”

For one fleeting second, a twisted satisfaction inside of me sparks beneath the ache his words conjure. I want him to suffer as much as I want him to find peace. Then he cups the back of my neck, his thumb stroking over the sensitive skin behind my ear, and the satisfaction fizzles out.

“I don’t want to hear about her anymore.” I stare directly into Everest’s green eyes, our noses bumping. “Tell me you love me again.” There’s only a moment of hesitation before Everest’s barriers come crashing down. It’s almost as beautiful as he is, the act he’s been forced to adopt falling away. Finally, the man I know him to be is bared wide open.

“I love you, Cody.” Those four simple words break the fragile restraint I was clinging to. Fisting his shirt, I drag him into me, crashing my mouth against his. Everest groans into me, a quietly wrecked sound, one hand sliding into my hair while the other clamps around my waist and pulls me flush against him. There’s nothing gentle about it now.

The kiss is a clash of teeth, breath, anger, and years of yearning we’ve been forced to keep hidden in the dark. I bite his bottom lip roughly, needing to taste the apology he keeps trying to press against my mouth, and a shudder travels straight through both of us.

Pushing against his chest, I move Everest back towards his desk, not breaking contact between our lips for a single second. Our hands move with practiced ease, muscle memory guiding palms from necks to hemlines, fingertips brushing abdomens and shedding clothes.

“Say it again,” I breathe against his mouth as our t-shirts are tossed aside.

“I love you,” Everest replies immediately, kissing the corner of my mouth, my jaw, the spot beneath my ear that he knows makes me moan softly. I lean him back against the desk, pressing my bare chest over his torso. “I love you, Cody. I’ll always love you.”

My fingers hook through his belt loops as I drag his groin closer, the weight and heat of him an intoxicating mix. He arches into me, months of distance forgotten in an instant. His hands are everywhere, touching with the same conflict as his words, possessive one second and reverent the next.

Breaking apart for barely a moment, my chest heaves as I stare down at him. The man no one else really sees. Everest Calloway can command a field, silence a room, and rule this academy with a single look, but here, with his lips bruised and hands dragging over my back, he’s just Everest. Plain, lustful, yearning Everest. His hips roll upward as his mouth drops to my jaw again, heat coiling low in my stomach.