Chapter Fifty-Five

Havermouth, Five Years Before

Through the bedroom window, Aislen could see that Rhett had the fire going again and that Cameron was lighting the barbeque. They laughed between them as they made coffee and began to cook bacon and eggs. Heath passed the window on his way to join them and made a lewd gesture that Aislen was sure referred to her.

She swallowed hard, a raw feeling of shame lodged in her esophagus, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. She looked down at her painting of Rhett and art supplies. She wanted to tear it into pieces, a rage building within her so fierce that it wanted physical expression.

Instead, she got dressed and sat down to continue working on it, ignoring her hunger and her craving for coffee, and opened one of the bottles of water in the room. She didn’t want to go out with the Triquetra. She continued to add shading and details to the painting, slowly building dimension to Rhett’s hair, the expression in his eyes, the charming flash of his smile.

A knock against the window glass lifted her eyes. Rhett stood there, holding a plate of food and a coffee mug. “Don’t be sulky,” he called through the glass. “Come and eat.”

She sighed and rose, stretching out cramped limbs, before making her way back through the house, and out into the day, blinking in the bright light. She made her way around the balcony.

“Come on,” he urged. “You’ll feel better after you’ve had some coffee.”

“They treat me like shit,” she complained under her breath.

His expression was rueful. “Come on, Aislen, sometimes it’s justified, isn’t it? You can be a bit of a bitch to them. To all of us, really, but I’m a little more tolerant of your attitude. Come on, come sit, eat, and then come for a swim and freshen up. We’ll paint and do homework until lunch, and then Cameron will take you for a drive into town for supplies.”

He handed the coffee to her, and she cupped it in her two hands. He slung his arm over her shoulder and led her down the stairs. “You really need to ease up on them,” he said under his breath. “They are trying.”

“Trying my patience,” she muttered back.

He sighed heavily. “Just sit, smile nicely, and keep your tongue under control.”

She sat on a stump, and he handed her the plate. She drank the coffee and ate the breakfast, watching them interact. With each other, they were… loving. It was very different to how they were at school, she thought, and frowned as she reflected on this. Did anyone else know that they weren’t just a close group of friends, but were also lovers? She wondered. Or was that something that they kept secret?

With their reputation as scoundrels and rapists at the school, however, they must have shared other girls between them, and fucked each other at the same time, as they did with her…

“Do other people know that you fuck each other?” She asked them. She was delighted with the way all three froze, looking up from their food at her with a range of expressions that left her without any doubt that they kept that secret. “Or do you just fuck each other around me?”

Cameron and Rhett both looked at Heath, who held her eyes. Of the three, his expression gave the least away. “We are in a small town, Aislen,” he said coolly. “Tolerances aren’t the same here as they are elsewhere.”

“So, no. No one else knows, other than us, around this campfire,” he said with malicious enjoyment.

“We are discrete,” Heath replied. “And will remain that way.”

“So, you don’t want me letting that tidbit slip out at school,” she commented, taking the point off a triangle of toast and chewing it around a grin.

Rhett’s reaction was the strongest, his expression darkening into fury. “Are you threatening us?” He stood. “Fuck you, Aislen.”

“Calm down, Rhett,” Heath said, catching Rhett by the wrist. Heath did not look away from Aislen. “Aislen is not going to tell anyone. She doesn’t have anyone to tell. She’s just pressing our buttons because she likes the reaction, it makes her feel powerful. We are discrete about our relationship, Aislen,” Heath continued. “Because in Havermouth, people are very intolerant of what they consider to be deviant sexual behaviour.”

“Three guys fucking one girl at the same time are a bunch of studs, but if they also fuck each other, they’re deviant?” She paraphrased. “God, people are fucked up. Girls can’t ever win, can they? We’re always prudes or sluts. There is no such thing as an acceptable level of sexual behaviour for us. I mean, no one’s out there going, you go girl, three guys, wow, you must be good in bed. You’re not my… my… harem,” she enjoyed that word, grinning around it. “No, you’re not my harem. I’m the Triquetra’s slut though. That’s really not very fair, is it?”

“Fuck me,” Rhett complained.

Heath sighed heavily, shaking his head. “Sometimes I’m absolutely fucking certain that you just look for reasons to argue about anything,” he poked at his food in disgust, as if it were Aislen on the plate and not the bacon. “How you can turn a conversation about someone else and make it about you every single time, I don’t know.”

“You wouldn’t say anything, would you?” Cameron looked at her, and his expression was vulnerable.

"You know, we have parents and families too. They sort of know, or suspect, but there’s a kind of unspoken agreement that it stays unspoken, and if you start spreading this around town, it’s going to fuck them up.”

“I think what we need,” Heath said, standing and setting his plate to the side, “is an equalizer.”

“A what?” Aislen felt sudden dread. “What does that mean?”

“Bring her inside,” Heath said to Rhett and Cameron. “And strip her.”

Aislen threw both coffee and plate at them and sprung from the trunk, sprinting towards the house in pure panic. She heard their laughter behind her, and their footsteps as they gave chase. Rhett caught her on the balcony and Cameron tossed her, kicking, and screaming, over his shoulder.

Heath opened the door, all three laughing as she continued to fight frantically, the Triquetra easily overpowering her. In the bedroom, Cameron and Rhett tossed her onto the mattress and then began to strip her clothing from her, whilst Heath riffled through the possessions stashed against the wall.

“Get off me, you idiots!” She shrieked, fighting for possession of her underwear and hearing them rip. Her hair was crazed by the fight, her eyes wild.

“Ready,” Heath said, Rhett and Cameron peeling off her as there was a flash.

Aislen blinked, her vision haloed with blue spots, and as it cleared, she saw that he held an old-fashioned polaroid camera.

He took a second shot and laughed. “Perfect. Let’s get a shot of her taking some cock. That ought to seal the deal.”

“Seal the deal?” Aislen demanded, furious with the manhandling, with the photographs, and with their laughing faces.

Heath shrugged. “Share our secret, and we’ll have something of our own to share.”

“Fuck you, Heath Gale,” she snarled at him. “That’s fucking low.”

“So is threatening to out us to Havermouth,” he pointed out. “Now we’re even. Rhett didn’t get a fuck this morning, and we all know how you love his cock, so spread them and let me get a good shot.”

“Oh my god,” she gasped.

“Aislen,” Rhett stroked his fingers through her hair. “We won’t show anyone. It’s just…”

“Insurance,” Cameron supplied.

“Insurance,” Rhett agreed nuzzling under her chin and pressing his lips against her pressure point whilst he released his jeans button. “Don’t worry about it,” he took her hand and put it on his cock. “Kiss me,” he brushed his lips against hers, and she felt the anger shift into desire, her body giving.

“I… I really don’t want those photos shown to anyone,” she said, turning her head slightly.

“And we really don’t want our secret out,” Rhett replied, with a little gesture of his head and shoulder. “It’s not a big deal. We won’t show, and you won’t tell. Everyone’s happy.”