I flick my gaze between the two of them and then carefully and quietly try to back away to give them some space. Instead, they both flash matching grins at me.
“Oh, no you don’t, Chuck Carson,” they say, grabbing me by the arms and dragging me forward. I end up with a kiss on both cheeks and matching feral grins. “You’re not getting away that easily.”
They drag me by the arms over to a utility closet on the far side of the courtyard, toss me inside, and then close the door. I get a mad sense of déjà vu from that day in the Jaw Flapper when they first discovered my secret. The pair of them standing over me, resting their forearms on the wall behind my head.
“Are you guys okay?” I ask skeptically, and Tobias pauses, glancing over at his brother. There's a bit of tension between them, but it fizzles out pretty quick.
“Losing Amber was awful. Thinking Spencer was dead just about killed me. Life is too short, too weird, and too shitty to stay pissed at my brother for wanting to woo our girlfriend.” Tobias puts his forehead against mine and closes his eyes. It's too cute a move and statement for me to resist biting my lower lip in a flirtatious sort of way. “Where are those candles, by the way?” There's a bit of a teasing note in Tobias' voice when he says that, making me think he already knows. He cracks his green eyes and grins, a glitter of mischief in his gaze.
“Funny you should ask,” Micah begins, taking his arm off the wall and pulling the lighter from his pocket. He flicks the wheel and proceeds to move around the room, lighting a dozen red candles placed in various locales: on top of an old wheelbarrow, on a rusty metal shelf, on the head of a weird concrete statue that looks a bit like a gremlin. “What a coincidence, don't you think, Chuck?”
“I think there's a murderer on campus,” I grumble, but the set-up is cute anyway.
“Exactly,” Tobias says, pushing up off the wall and standing in front of me in a black and red yukata. “Like I said, life is short.” He moves over to a futon on the floor in the corner and flops down on it, grabbing a bottle of saké, and a plate of rice balls that are perched on a small red table next to it. “So let's not waste any of it, shall we?”
With a grin, I bounce over and join the twins, grabbing a rice ball in two hands and biting into it. It's wrapped in seaweed and stuffed with salted plums. Yeah, I was skeptical, too, when I first heard about it, but I have to admit: this shit is next level.
“My dad caught me and Micah coming out of the bathroom this morning,” I say with a small grimace, swigging some of the saké with my right hand. Meanwhile, Micah is downing some plum wine and snacking on edamame that they must've stolen from the dining room. “Pretty sure he thinks we were …” I trail off and make that cringe-y face that Monica always teases me about, the one she bought me an emoji umbrella for.
“Were you?” Tobias asks casually, looking down at the rice ball—it's called onigiri in Japan, y’all—and studying it a little more intensely than one might normally look at their food. “Fucking, I mean.”
I choke on my food as Micah smiles softly.
“We weren't, but we almost, sort of did,” he starts, exhaling. “Is that a problem?”
Tobias lifts his head up and shakes it slowly.
“No. Not a problem. I think … we both need to be okay with spending time with Charlotte alone.” He glances my way, swimming in my oversized robe, my glasses sliding down my nose, my hair all mussed up, and the tip of a new rice ball tucked between my lips. I just stare back at him, and I'm not sure what to say to that.
“You said you two shared. How many girls have you shared, exactly?” The twins exchange a look and then shrug in unison.
“Not many,” they reply, and then they both cringe at the same time.
“We've only, uh, ever shared one girl. As in, we've only ever slept with one girl at the same time … once.” Tobias looks sheepish as hell, swiping his hand over his red-orange hair. “We just decided that we'd share girls after the thing with Amber. We work better as a unit.”
“Not better,” I say, dropping my hands and the onigiri into my lap. “You're great as a unit, but I like you both individually, too.” I pause for a moment, and then cock my head to one side, finally processing what they've been saying. “One girl. You mean … us, the Pirates of the Caribbean …”
