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Helios shook his head. “I will not be weak again.”
Kellion did not answer. When Helios spoke like that, he knew there was no changing his friend’s mind.
****
It was almost elevenin the evening when MJ made it back to the club’s headquarters. She was tired and hungry, and because of both, she was irritable, too. Why in the world did Helios Andreadis have to build his club’s headquarters so far from the main campus anyway? Did he know how many calories she had to burn just to cross the football field to get here? She hated burning calories. She hated it because that meant exercise, which was synonymous to training. The latter word reminded her of all the training she had with James.
Crossing the dimly lit living room, MJ made her way directly to the kitchen. Switching the lights on, she threw her backpack on the counter and prepared to cook herself a meal. Since it was a Tuesday, most of the bikers would probably be out racing and come home at around three in the morning.
MJ said a quick prayer.
Dear God, please let them eat out because right now I’m too tired to cook, but Andrea’s gone so now I have to take over and cook for them.
It was a selfish prayer, and feeling guilty about it, MJ decided to pray again.
I’m sorry God for being selfish. If they’re hungry after the race, of course I’m going to cook for them. Please just make it easy for me to wake up later?
There. That was better. With a happy smile, she started whistling as she cooked herself some mac and cheese. The real kind, not the one that needed to be microwaved.
“Mmm...” She couldn’t help sighing in pleasure when the aroma of mac and cheese hit her nostrils. She took a seat and as she started to dig in, her mind drifted back to her talk with Hallie earlier this morning.
“Your secret crush is Helios, isn’t he?”
Hallie’s softly spoken words had an unexpectedly positive effect on MJ. She was so shocked by the other girl’s words that the urge to throw up stopped. Slowly, she opened the tap and rinsed her mouth. When she was done, she saw Hallie through the mirror, gazing at her with a look of sympathy on her face.
She whispered, “It’s really not a crush. That’s just something Kellion came up with. It’s more than that. I just...I just feel a connection with him.”
MJ allowed Hallie to lead her out of the bathroom and into one of the bedrooms. The other girl made her sit on the bed, and she did. Although she and Hallie were of the same age, Hallie was like a little general with the way she commanded people around her with such ease, using a gentle word or a look of chastisement to get everyone to do her bidding.
“I’m sorry about what you had to see this morning.”
“It’s okay. It wasn’t the first time.”
“Do you want another volunteer to trade tasks with you?”
She shook her head quickly, completely disliking the idea of yet another girl being able to enter Helios’ room.
“I’m not a girl who easily takes risks, MJ. But for you...for Helios...I will. Kellion, Yuri, Helios, and I, we’ve known each other for a long time. We’ve known each other the longest. Even when we were kids, we were all that each other had so you can say we’re a family and we’re extremely loyal to each other.” Hallie was gripping her skirt hard as she spoke.
MJ said hesitantly, “You don’t have to...”
“No. I want...I think I need to tell you. Helios wasn’t always so hard to reach. He wasn’t...as unfeeling. Once, he was like...Kellion. He was the most popular kid in school. Everyone liked him. Even though he was a bastard – a son of his father’s mistress – no one treated him differently because he was just...just like his name, you know? He shone. He was good at everything. And his older brother always came out second best. And it ate at Herod. Helios adored him as a big brother, but Herod hated him.”
Hallie took another deep breath. “Then Helios fell in love with this girl, Odessa. We all liked her. She was wonderful. Helios would do anything for her. He loved her so much. But she had all of us fooled. When it was his eighteenth birthday, she came to the party with Herod. And it was obvious for anyone to see that they were together. That they had just had sex. And if it wasn’t obvious, they took pleasure in telling everyone about it. Herod even went up on stage and...”
Hallie struggled to breathe.
MJ couldn’t breathe either.
“He told us in explicit detail what Odessa had been able to make Helios do. It wasn’t dirty! Even I knew it wasn’t bad, wasn’t dirty, wasn’t wrong! What Helios did, he did it out of love. But the way Herod spoke of it...”
Hallie looked at MJ with beseeching eyes. “You understand now, right? He’s just afraid. That’s all. He’s just afraid.”
