Lochlan obliged. For that night and then for last night, too. He always does, if offered. It's a way to keep an eye on me, a way to keep an eye on Caleb's teeth. What was going to be a chasm of a summer is now a bridge (literally, thank you) and as I duck out to get another bottle of champagne, I don't even wonder if they'll argue while I'm absent or embrace. At this point they will talk about me, and my ears will burn.
It's okay, I need the light from them anyway. I'm venturing back downstairs in the dark for a drink and suddenly, out of the blue, I'm afraid.
But it's okay. By the time I close the outer door to Caleb's rooms I am swept off my feet into Ben's arms.
It's late, Bumblebee. Where's Lochlan?
I point to the door. I'm just getting champagne.
Alone?
I have to go or I'll never leave my room, you know?
I'll come with you. My relief swings away from the tower and lets go, landing softly on Ben. Never was there a bigger champion of my brain or heart, which is funny, as he used to cause some of the biggest heartache of my young life. Always leaving. Always fighting. Always staying on the outside. Always tough and silent and difficult. Always inebriated and looking for someone else to hurt so he wouldn't be alone.
We get the champagne (just one bottle, it's late and I already have had enough) and go back upstairs. There was no one up. Ben stops at the door and tells me he's going to bed, maybe I can come and snooze in the morning for a bit.
Come with me.
You've got your hands full, Bee-
I can manage. You know this. Please, Ben.
Seems that word is magic and the night shifts again, only Caleb does not have room for Ben as well in spite of an easy welcome and so we move the festivities back to our room and Ben takes over easily, wrapping his hand around the back of my head, pulling my bones up out of the night into his world, the only time his skin is ever warm. He takes what he didn't think he would be offered tonight and I am left a shuddering, drunken, overtouched mess by sunrise, definitely not needing that second bottle but glad to see it not go to waste as Lochlan passes it to Caleb and they toast the morning.
What a view.
What a moment.
What a life, I think and I start to giggle but then everything hurts and I fall asleep clutching Ben's hands, Lochlan's arms around me, Caleb disappearing back to his own room, taking the champagne with him.