Reading the Room

Back inside, the others had begun to split up, preparing themselves, except for Kurt who approached Victoria and, with a touch of her arm, drew her attention. He smiled warmly, though inside he was worried about leaving her alone at the cabin. Even if Madison came back, if Brandon didn’t return, two girls would be an unlikely match for Shawn if he did coming looking for her. While Kurt wasn’t sure if Shawn knew about the cabin, the young blonde teen had little doubt that if he needed to find them, he could.

“Are you sure you want to stay here alone?” Kurt asked her, glancing over at Kendra, the presence of the brunette reminding him that Shawn knew Victoria had turned her back on him and defected back to her friends.

“Are you worried I’ll return to old habits if I’m left alone?” she asked, wondering if he shared her fears. The way things had gone with Madison earlier, Victoria knew that sliding back into that dark place was not just possible but easy. Choosing to be alone, to wait on Madison, was a way of fighting that fear, but that didn’t mean it didn’t terrify her right down to the bone.

“Not at all,” Kurt shook his head. “Right now, I’m more worried about him coming to find you.” He looked over again, this time at Trent, who was readying himself to leave. Kurt didn’t know Trent, but everyone else seemed to trust him. Enough to let him stick around for the Hannah plan at least. Perhaps he could also be trusted to look after Victoria. “I could stay,” he offered. “Or I could ask Trent-”

“Madison!”

Victoria leapt up from the sofa and rushed to the door when it opened, and the petite brunette shuffled through. She stopped just short of the returned girl, unsure by her catatonic look and far away gaze whether to hug her or call a doctor. Her outburst alerted the others who gathered around, comforting and curious.

“He left,” Madison said, her voice toneless. “He got in his car and left me.”

“Shush, shush,” Victoria hushed her soothingly as she finally grabbed the shorter girl in an embrace. “He’ll come back. He just needs time to think. To adjust. He’ll come back.”

“You can’t know that,” Madison breathed heavily into Victoria’s clothes.

She pulled away from Brandon’s twin, leaning slightly to look her in the eye as she cupped her face. “I’m proof that people can learn to deal with a lot. People adapt and accept.” Looking past Madison, she scanned the room for Ashley but couldn’t see her. “Some people take longer than others, but I’m sure he’ll come back to you eventually.”

“I can’t feel him anymore,” Madison said, shaking her head and tears began to form, the very act of putting the change into words causing sadness to bubble up. “Before…before this trip, it was intermittent anyway, but lately, since we’d gotten closer the connection was stronger. His feelings were more real, more powerful, like we were one in the same. And now...” her voice crackled. “It’s like static. I can’t feel anything. I’m just…numb.”

“Shush,” Victoria cooed calmingly again as she wiped away a tear. “You just need to rest. Come on, you can lie down in the master bedroom.”

She led Madison away with an arm around her shoulder, abandoning her conversation with Kurt. Madison had taken up so much of her attention that she couldn’t even remember what the blonde headed boy had been asking just before the door opened. She assumed it wasn’t important. Kurt watched them leave, wondering silently to himself what the right thing to do was.

Slipping his phone from his pocket and into the palm of his hand, Peter approached the brunette, red-head and blonde, Kendra, Chloe and Ashley. Once upon a time, he’d had Hannah on speed dial, and her number clogged up his call log. One button and they’d be talking within seconds, for hours at a time. Now, after so long without so much as a hello, he had to search through his contacts for her phone number and hope that when he called, she answered. He wondered whether she’d kept his number. Would she recognize it if it came up without his name?

“I’m going to call Hannah and set up the meet,” he told the girls, looking up and glancing from one to the next. “Once Gavin’s finished with the code, we can head into town. I think it’s best if I drive myself, to maintain the charade. But that means the rest of you will have to pile into Kendra’s car.” He looked again at the brunette. “Is that okay with you?”

“No need,” Ashley spoke up. “Since Zack went with Heather, he probably left his keys here somewhere.”

“I was in the bedroom with Gavin,” Chloe noted with a frown. “Where was he before they left?”

“I arrived shortly before him,” Trent said from behind Peter, drawing all their attention. “Then Heather dragged him off to her room to give me and Madison some quality time together.”

“We can kill two birds with one stone then,” Ashley set her hands into fists. “We’ll check on Gavin’s progress and grab the keys at same time. Come on, Chloe.”

“Right behind you,” the redhead assured her, as she followed down the hall towards Heather’s bedroom, the lake side room.

“Good idea. Fantastic,” Peter’s praise falling on deaf ears since they were already half way there, galloping away like excited horses. With an awkward smile, looking between Kendra and Trent, Peter waved his phone. “Well, I better make the call to Hannah.”

Trent went back to leaving, pausing as his hair stood up on the back of his neck like he was being watched. In fact, he was being watched. He turned and saw Kendra, her eyes roaming over his young, fit body, pursing her lips with intrigue as she took in his broad shoulders and strong muscles. He grinned, thanking the lord for this cabin. Though maybe his thanks should have been directed a little further south, because the amount of action he was getting in this place was utterly unholy.

“Like what you see?” Trent asked, emboldened by today’s events, as if his ego really needed any stroking.

“I’m sure I could find a good use for that body,” Kendra teased, making a show of licking her lips. “I’m a little busy now, but why don’t you gimme your number, and I’ll be in touch if I find the right job for you,” she said, emphasizing ‘job’ with a flash of her eyes.

The black teen readily agreed, swapping numbers with the woman who was only a few years older than he. It was a pity they couldn’t do anything now…or could they? The others weren’t ready to leave just yet, but before Trent could suggest a quickie in the bathroom, Madison burst through the door and both turned to hear what had happened.

Gavin sat at the side of the bed, one leg bent underneath him, the other off the edge, foot on the floor. He’d set the laptop in front of him, his arms stretched down, hands flying over the keys, producing a string of fully structured code in a matter of seconds. The kind of rapid keystrokes people parody by slapping a keyboard with loose wrists was exactly what Gavin was doing. Yet, while he looked at the screen, his mind was elsewhere.

Heather had left open a document on her laptop. A proposal, to the board of directors at Ravers Enterprises. Nothing suspicious there so far, though definitely not for Gavin’s eyes. The document suggested renovating the amusement park in town, which Gavin actually thought was a great idea. He wasn’t much into rides or crowds, but lots of amusement parks also had arcades and games. No, the part that confused and worried him was that the proprietor of the deal, and first name investor wasn’t Robert Ravers or even Heather. It was Zack.

But that didn’t make any sense to Gavin. The only reason for that would be if Zack were the head of Ravers Enterprises. Perhaps Robert had offered to make Zack his successor but he’d only have done that if Zack were really his son. But why would Heather agree to that? And wouldn’t Robert only do that if he were sure Zack were truly his blood? Had Gavin been too busy getting fucked in the ass to know the paternity results had come back?

It was as all these questions flooded his mind that Ashley and Chloe entered the bedroom, the blonde cheerleader immediately beginning to search the tops of the dresser and the bedside tables.

“Have you seen Zack’s keys?” she asked upon not finding them.

“No,” Gavin replied, still typing, and countered with a question of his own, “Have the results from Zack’s paternity test come back yet?”

Both girls stopped and looked at him. Then Chloe turned to Ashley. She’d been stuck in the room for almost the entirety of Zack’s return, just as Gavin had been.

“I don’t think so,” Ashley confirmed, bewildered. “If he told anyone, he only told Heather.”

Chloe turned back to Gavin, asking, “what’s this about?”

“There’s a development plan on this laptop that was meant for the board of directors at Ravers Enterprises. Except it had Zack as the lead name,” Gavin explained, his hands paused, hovering over the keyboard. “That’s impossible though, right? There’s no way they’d do that, unless Zack really was Robert’s son, but there’s no way Zack wouldn’t have told us if he found out.”

“What?” Chloe’s jaw dropped. “Zack is going to inherit Ravers Enterprises instead of Heather? But if the proposal is on her laptop that means not only is she okay with it but that it’s going to happen soon?”

“So, this is what she meant…” Ashley hummed to herself, as she crossed the room. Glancing up at the other two, she elaborated, “Last night, Heather and I were arguing about the right way to handle this situation with the video. It was Zack’s idea to do damage control. He left this morning to convince his mother to tell his father about the affair, whereas Heather was working on something all night. Her typing kept me awake, which is why I ended up sleeping on the sofa.”

Gavin felt warm and flushed, remembering that because Ashley had slept on the sofa last night, she’d been there when he couldn’t sleep and went to get a drink of water. Just thinking about sleepily shuffling into the living room and catching a glimpse of the cute blonde touching herself made his cock throb in his trousers. Thinking about her ass swaying in front of his face, just begging to be eaten made his cock grow, pressing harshly against the denim. Remembering how they’d fallen from the sofa into a sixty-nine on the floor had his cock uncomfortably rock hard.

“This must have been what she was working on; a means of protecting the company from the fallout of her ****, if it ever came to light,” Ashley continued, unaware of Gavin’s stiffening cock. “Such a scandal would be irreparably damaging to both Heather and Robert, but Zack would be outside the fallout zone. A bastard son is by definition outside the family. But Heather also knew that she could trust Zack, so-OW!”

Ashley lifted her foot, and sat on the edge of the bed, massaging her sole. Looking down, she saw the culprit glittering in the light. It was Chloe who bent down to pick them up though, holding Zack’s keys high to inspect them, making sure they were the right ones. They were definitely Zack’s car keys.

“I wonder how these ended up on the floor,” Chloe mused, not really expecting an answer.

“Must have fallen out of his jeans,” Gavin concluded anyway.

Chloe hummed in vague agreement. It was true, the only way that could have happened is if they slipped out of Zack’s pockets. However, Chloe couldn’t see any other way for that to happen unless Zack had physically removed them. But why would Zack have taken off his jeans to discuss taking over Ravers Enterprises…

“Well, now that we have the keys, we can go as soon as you’re done,” Ashley noted, standing again.

“Oh, right, yeah,” Gavin jolted back into action, staring at the screen and typing faster than either Chloe or Ashley could keep up with. “I’ll be done in five.”

In the living room, Peter returned to Kendra’s side, placing the phone back in his pocket as he announced his success. “The meeting has been arranged, but boy was that conversation awkward.”

“You think she suspected what was really going on?” Kendra asked, giving Peter her full attention since Victoria spirited Madison away to the master bedroom.

“No, it’s just…after what happened between us, I don’t think she ever imagined we'd speak again. But I simply told her that I was in town for a couple of days and was trying to catch up and clear the air,” Peter said, folding his arms. “She said she was busy but did agree to the meeting. I don’t think she’d consent to having a sit-down discussion if she knew it was a trick or a trap.”

“Unless she wanted to chew you out in person,” Kendra remarked, pivoting her head thoughtfully.

“That does sound like her,” Peter agreed with a chuckle, the added, “Are you really not going to tell me why you’re here in this cabin with all these teenagers?”

“It’s really not that interesting,” Kendra replied with a shrug. “But I’ll tell you, if you tell me what happened between you and Hannah.”

Peter shook his head. “Why do you care about what happened? You two were barely friends.”

“The same is true about us,” Kendra noted coolly. “I was only there because you couldn’t get rid of Shawn, who liked hanging around you, even if you didn’t like him.”

“I tolerated him, but we liked you,” Peter corrected her. “Maybe it came across that we didn’t want you around too because we tried to ignore Shawn as much as possible.”

Kendra shook her head. “The three of you were so close. I don’t think anyone else could have penetrated that friendship bubble, which is why I was so surprised to hear Taylor is estranged from both of you.”

“Even I don’t know the why of that one,” Peter said, scratching his head. “But if you’re here, that means you’re not with Shawn anymore, and that can’t be a bad thing.”

“We’re not estranged,” Kendra insisted grumpily. Shawn had been her whole life for years. His decisions had been her moral and ethical guide. Part of her still wanted to be able to go back to that, even if she knew in her brain it was impossible to recapture what had already gone. “There’s just…uh…trust issues between us right now.”

“You should have done it years ago,” Peter encouraged her. “Maybe living without you will help him learn his lesson.”

Kendra bit her lip. “Shawn doesn’t learn lessons. He teaches them.”

With Victoria comforting Madison, and Kendra’s number on his phone, Trent finally made his way to the door. He a little sad to go. This cabin had been very good to him. But he wasn’t up for all this drama, **** and espionage, like this was Mission: Impossible or some shit. Trent would rather be James Bond, driving nice cars and banging hot chicks. That was the best spy work.

As he crossed the room to the front door, he was intercepted by Kurt, who said, “Listen, you don’t know me, but I want to ask a favor of you?”

Trent was wary. The last favor he was asked wound up with him fucking another guy. “What is it?” Trent asked, pulling his neck back and watching the blonde, college aged teen carefully.

“Victoria recently had some trouble with a guy named Shawn Lewis. He’s got a problem with letting things go. I don’t really like the idea of leaving Victoria here with just Madison. He might come sniffing around, you know,” Kurt tried to explain as concisely as he could. Trent didn’t need to know about her descent into darkness. “I know you were planning on leaving, but would you mind hanging around? Just to keep an eye on them?”

“I dunno,” Trent rubbed his neck. On the one hand, being left alone with two gorgeous girls, protecting them, seemed like the perfect recipe for some prime threeway fucking. But they were all weepy and depressed and shit. It was doable but no guy likes a girl who cries while riding their dick. “I’ve never heard of this Shawn guy. Is he as bad as you say he is?”

“He’s the worst.”

Frowning thoughtfully, Trent asked, “What makes you think he’s going to do anything at all? Did he actually threaten her or tell her he’d find her?”

“No, just call it a hunch,” Kurt admitted. “Like you know when there’s a storm coming, and you can feel the electricity in the air? I can just feel it in my bones. Something is coming, and I’m afraid it has nothing to do with Hannah.”