I groan and smack my head. “Yes,” I whimper.
“Tell us,” says Lauren, her hands tapping on the table in excitement. “I gotta know. My love life has been boring lately.”
Charlie cringes. “Yeah, mine too. Let us live through you!”
“Sssh!” I shush them again while looking around. I grimace, noticing several people are looking our way and before leaning in. “Seth and I may have shared the shower the other day.”
Both girls gasp. “No!” They say in unison.
I nod. “And we didn’t really… wash up.”
Lauren smacks the table several times while Charlie covers her mouth. They look at each other and squeal.
“Sssh!” I shush again. Everyone in the cafe is looking at us as if we’ve all sprouted several heads.
“Wait, so who do you like more?” Asks Lauren.
I shrug. “I don’t know. I don’t think I can answer that.”
“Well, you must like one of them the most,” says Lauren.
Charlie waggles her eyebrows at me. “Unless you like all three equally.”
I grimace. “How is that even possible?”
Charlie shrugs. “It can happen. It’s not like you have to choose these days.”
Lauren chuckles. “Oh, Charlie. Knowing you, you would keep all of them for yourself now wouldn’t you?”
Charlie glances over at me. “Which is why, Rachel, I’m going to give you the same advice I would give myself.” She flips her hair over her shoulder. “Go for all of them. Who cares?”
I open my mouth to say something but Charlie holds up her hand.
“It’s the twenty first century,” she continues. “Relationships can be whatever you want them to be.” She shrugs. “Why not just enjoy your time with them and see where it goes. And if you still can’t choose, there’s nothing wrong with having a little harem for yourself, now is there?” She waggles her eyebrows at me.
I scoff. “I don’t know if I can do that.”
Although, I find it very difficult not thinking about them in my bed. All three of them with their big arms and their toned abs, treating me like a goddess. I imagine Hunter nuzzling my neck, stroking his hands up and down my leg while Lucas lies between my legs, sucking and licking my womanhood. In my dream Seth is on my other side, cupping my breasts while hungrily kissing my mouth.
I smile wickedly while Charlie and Lauren go on about how annoyed they are with the men in their lives. It’s hard to pay attention with such wanton thoughts running through my head and I really wonder if it having such a harem is a possibility.
***
I return home from an annoyingly long day at school. And I am absolutely exhausted. I push the door open with my shoulder while I shuffle through the door. I’ve been up since six in the morning going over my pictures, attending English and math classes, discussing my theme with art students out of my friend group, studying at the library, checking my work schedule, and now all I want to do is throw myself into bed and stay there for the rest of the night.
When I look inside I see Hunter drying the now clean dishes, Lucas setting up boxes of pizza on the table with a single flower sitting in a small glass of water. The entire place is clean. Still. It’s actually a miracle it hasn’t gone back to the disaster it was before. The bros turn toward me, smiling in unison while halting whatever it is they are doing.
Just what am I looking at right now?
It’s like the bros have turned themselves into the Stepford wives. And I can’t decide yet if it’s creepy or not.
“Hey, welcome home,” says Lucas, striding over to me and handing me a pristine plate. “Want some pizza?”
“Yes,” I say tentatively, taking the plate and walking very carefully towards the table. Just what are they planning? Are they going to dump the pizza all over me? Did they do something terrible to my room? And where is Seth? A part of me wants to go to my room and see if he is waiting there with destroyed film everywhere, but then again that doesn’t make any sense. Especially when Seth slams open his door and comes running into the living room with the camera I loaned him earlier.
“Hey, Rachel!” He waves the camera with a smile. “I was wondering if you would like a look at some photos I took earlier.”
I look around the room as if somehow I have stepped into another realm where people are nice and do nice things. Did I wake up this morning in a dream? Although, that wouldn’t explain the exhausting day I had. I take a bite of pizza and nod. “Sure,” I say through mouthfuls and motion towards the couch. “I’d be happy to look.”
Seth and Lucas sit down on either side of me while Hunter grabs a cushion and sits on the floor. It’s like we are one big happy family and I’m not so sure what to think about it, especially since it was only a week ago that we were at each other’s throats. Hunter eats his pizza while Lucas throws an arm casually around my shoulder, peeking over it to get a look at the camera. Seth glances back and forth between Lucas’s arm and the camera as if he might rip it off and swat both men away from me with it.
“So, I only took a few,” begins Seth.
I gasp and swipe the grease on my jeans, taking the camera into both of my hands. “Wow,” I breathe while flicking through the display. “You really have captured the light wonderfully.” He’s taken a few simple pictures of track and field athletes and students going to and from school. Most likely without their permission, which I will have to talk to Seth about probably in the coming days. It’s not so polite to just take pictures
