Chapter Forty-Seven

Havermouth, Five Years Before

After sex, the four of them went for a swim, and then laid lazily on the balcony, the sun warm on their bare skin. There was a decadence, Aislen thought, to being wet and naked in the sunshine with three of the most gorgeous and popular boys from High School.

Heath laid on his stomach with his head cushioned on his folded hands and his face turned towards Rhett, his eyes closed. Beyond and over him, Cameron was sprawled out like a doll dropped from a height, one leg and arm on Heath’s back, his face pressed into Heath’s side, snoring slightly.

Her head was cushioned on Rhett’s bicep and, with her hand on his chest, she could feel the steady rhythm of his heart. He was almost asleep, his thoughts drifting off into fuzz whenever he slipped closer to slumber - sex, swimming, more of Cameron’s muffins and alcohol creating a cocktail that, combined with the warm sunshine and peacefulness of the location, was perfect for sleeping off.

Her position gave Aislen the opportunity to look at her naked, dark-haired lover in detail. His body was long and lean, the hair on his chest fine and sparse, trailing down his stomach to thicken at his groin. His cock lay limp and strangely innocent against his thigh, the skin baby-soft and unflawed in contrast to the masculinity of hair on his legs, as if the thing that made him man had been least touched during the transition.

It was the most intimate that she had ever been with another person, she thought, lying this way with him. It was more intimate than sex, as there was always so much going on. The simple act of lying together, the acceptance of the closeness of their bodies without lust motivating either of them, was beautiful.

He was beautiful, she added. All three of the Triquetra were, but there was something else between her and Rhett that did not exist with Heath and Cameron. If Heath and Cameron did not come attached to Rhett, she doubted that she would ever have gotten past their animosity and blatant sexual nature to spend as much time with them as she was. But she did not doubt that she and Rhett would have been drawn to one another.

They just fit together. They were both artists. They could spend time together comfortably, and there was an attraction between them that did not have the crudeness of desire that existed with Cameron and Heath… In a perfect world, she thought, things would be normal. He would be a normal boy and she would be a normal girl, and they would just find each other. It would be innocent, sweet, tender, hot and…

He stirred and pressed his lips to her forehead. “Okay?” He whispered.

She swallowed thickly and nodded. “Why is it that you guys teased me about getting rid of my pubic hair, but you all have it? Why is it okay for boys to be hairy, and not for girls? We all grow hair in most of the same places.”

Heath opened his eyes and frowned at her. “You really are a troublemaker at heart, aren’t you?” He commented with disapproval. “We’re drunk, stoned, and fucked into exhaustion, laying in the sunshine, and you’re finding things to argue over, rather than just enjoying what is.”

She flushed. “It just occurred to me because we’re all naked, and I’m the only one whose stripped off their hair. It just doesn’t seem… fair.”

“Life isn’t fair,” Heath sat up, and Cameron snorted in reaction to the movement. “Life is the very opposite of fair. If life were fair…” He caught himself.

“Whassup?” Cameron was bleary eyed. “Why are we angry?”

“Aislen’s being a bitch again,” Rhett said without opening his eyes.

“How am I being a bitch?” She demanded, sitting up in outrage. “I just wondered why you can mock me for having pubic hair when you all do.”

“You don’t have pubic hair anymore,” Rhett pointed out with a sigh. “So why does it even matter?”

“Because it fucking hurts to get waxed.”

“Look, we don’t make the rules,” Cameron drawled, draping his arm over Heath’s shoulders, and leaning against his back. “It’s just a thing. Girls are smooth, and guys hairy.”

“I’ll wax you next time,” Rhett said, rolling onto his side and pulling Aislen down so he could curl around her. “I need to practice that and shaving – it will be part of the job when I’m a tattoo artist. It’s better to have a hairless section of skin. I bet I can make you not mind the hurt,” there was a teasing inuendo to his voice.

“That’s just…” She frowned. She had been about to say that having him wax her would be weird and revealing, but considering what they did during sex, was it really? “I guess,” she surrendered.

“Problem solved,” Rhett said.

Cameron perked up. “I hear a car.”

“Yeah, me too,” Heath agreed and rose to his feet. “I guess we’re hosting a party.”

Aislen scrambled to her feet and hurried to find her clothing. Heath pulled on his jeans and walked around the balcony to the front of the house, barefoot and shirtless, to greet the new arrivals. As she fumbled her bra on, Aislen heard female laughter and grimaced.

“Shit,” Cameron grumbled, exchanging a look with Rhett. “It’s the Debutantes.”

“The Debutantes?” Aislen asked.

“Nothing,” Rhett said, nudging Cameron with a glower. “It’s just something that Cameron calls… Well, it doesn’t matter. I guess we won’t be painting today,” he added, running his hands through his hair. “We’d better get a few fucking hours in tomorrow or we will both fail.”

“Fuck,” Aislen sighed. “I’ve barely touched my sketch book this week,” she admitted.

“We’ll see who it is, and whether they’re just here for a swim or if they’re planning on making a night of it,” Rhett replied. “We might be lucky.” They walked around the side of the house as two more cars pulled up. “Or not,” Rhett finished wryly.

Aislen saw Lillian and Diana rush out to greet the three new girls, the group squealing and growing in size as the number of cars increased with new arrivals pulling down the drive and parking where-ever there was space in the undergrowth.

Aislen sat on the edge of the balcony in a gap in the railing, her legs dangling, her feet tickled by the overgrown grasses below. She stayed out of the way and watched as, it seemed, every popular kid from school arrived.

She didn’t belong there. The realization was a sharp discomfort between her ribs. She didn’t fit in with these people, and they didn’t want her there. She didn’t fit in anywhere…

She retreated into the house and walked through the decaying rooms, looking around with interest.

It had once been beautiful, she thought, and wondered at the people who had abandoned it. What possessed a family to go ‘you know what, we’ll just walk away from this house and let it rot’…?

She couldn’t imagine being so rich as to throw away such a beautiful house as if it were trash.

There was only one bedroom being used, the one where Rhett had brought her. There was no bedding in the other rooms, and most had broken window glass or a leaking roof, or problems with the floor making it spongey underfoot…

Their school bags, and the bags of their clothes, the cooler box containing the food for the weekend, and the alcohol were all neatly stacked against the wall. The window was still open, so Aislen took her artbook and laid it out where the light was best through the dirty glass.

For about half an hour she worked on the portrait of Rhett, deciding how she wanted to do the watercolour. She began to paint, losing herself in the process and the delight of watching her imagination come to fruition.

“I don’t understand the appeal,” a girl said, her voice coming through the window where the glass was open to let in air. “She is such a petulant looking thing.”

“The way they look at her, though,” another girl sighed. “I think the council is wrong. They won’t be dissuaded from having her.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about it,” Lillian laughed. “You don’t know the Triquetra like we do. Cameron told me once that they have rules, like if they all do a human together, it’s not, you know, being unfaithful. We all know that the human girls don’t matter, they're not counted. So, that's all it is.”

“They’re not serious about her, is what Lilli means. This one is just… You know, the shiny new fuck toy. Give it another week, and their attention will be caught by the next big-breasted… Or,” Diana amended hastily. “One of you. Because you’re like… chosen for them and that’s special.”

“Talking about,” Lillian said hastily. “Where did she go?”

“I don’t know, she was here a while ago. All three of the Triquetra are by the fire… Heath’s coming over,” Diana added hastily in warning. “Hi Heath," she said guiltily. "We were just showing Patience and Erica where the bathroom is…”

“Don’t wander around the house,” Heath replied, his voice tight. “Not all the rooms are safe. Just the bathroom, and out.”

“Okay, Heath.”

“I’ll show you,” he decided. “This way.”

Aislen resumed painting, trying to block out the hurt that the overheard conversation had caused. It didn’t matter, she told herself. It was probably better if the Triquetra did just… lose interest. They were fucking up her life. Weren’t they?

What would happen if the Triquetra moved on? She hadn’t made any friends in the weeks since moving to Havermouth, and if it had been hard to make a friend before, it was just going to be harder after the Triquetra, with the reputation of being the Triquetra’s whore behind her.

Lucy had been friendly… Sort of. But she was Guy’s girlfriend, and Guy was just a creep. And Aislen wasn’t sure if she even liked Lucy…

Would Rhett still talk to her if the Triquetra moved on to someone else?

She heard the voices of Heath and the girls as they entered the house.

“Is it safe to use the bathroom?” One of the girls asked.

“It depends on how you use it, I guess,” Heath replied drolly.

“I mean, the toilet’s not going to fall through the floor, or a ghost isn’t going to leap out of the shower naked, or anything,” she laughed, uncomfortably.

“It’s fine,” Lillian assured her. “We use it all the time when we’re here. They even keep it pretty clean, for a group of boys.”

“As hangouts go, it’s pretty awesome,” a different girl spoke. “I mean, you have your own house, with a bathroom, right on the river, where everyone can come and meet up. In Dawson, we don’t really have a place, you know? We go to the beach sometimes, but in Winter, not so much. It's too cold, and there's no shelter from the rain...”

“It’s Cameron’s,” Heath replied. “His family’s heritage home. You know the way out. Use it when you're done.”

Aislen looked up from her painting as he entered the bedroom. “I’m behind on this assignment,” she told him, guiltily. “I was trying to… catch up.”

He closed the bedroom door behind him.