"You can stay with me, if you want," Adam suggests. He's in the girls' room in Fox Tower, sitting on the floor in a circle, eating Chinese out of a take out container with the Palmetto State Foxes. Adam is, by no means, an exy player. Yet, the Foxes are the only people he really hangs out with at PSU. Part of his full-ride scholarship entailed a work-study position of his choice; he opted to be a tutor, and ended up being paired with various members of the team. And eventually the study sessions led to hang out sessions which lead to Adam watching their practices and going to their games.
Which lead to this: Adam being involved in the discussion of the Foxes' upcoming travel plans.
The Foxes were playing the Virginia State Hawks in two weeks, and it happened to be a holiday weekend. They could opt for their normal game schedule—drive up Friday morning, leave immediately after the game and sleep the remainder of Saturday—or they could take advantage of the long weekend and spend some time away from campus. Coach was fine getting hotel rooms for Friday night, but he wasn't took keen on staying Saturday as well, let alone Sunday. It'd be expensive, and despite having recently winning the NCAA Spring Championships, Wymack wasn't eager to spend the extra money.
As the group sat arguing about other possibilities - like driving back Saturday morning then spending the remainder of the weekend in Colombia - Adam spoke up.
All of their eyes shift to him, shocked. "What?" Dan asks, quirking an eyebrow.
"Uh, when you play Virginia State," he shrugs. "I'm from Virginia. I know I rarely ever come to your away games, but if I tag along you guys could crash at my place for the weekend. And for free."
"Your place?" Allison asks, smirking. The Foxes didn't know the details of Adam's home life, but knew the basics of it: he was just about as fucked up as they all were.
"My boyfriend's place, I mean. Our place," Adam says, the phrase sounding weird in his mouth. He doesn't want to think about how Ronan would react to him calling the Barnes our place. "We live on a farm, basically. It's a huge house, we have plenty of beds and space. And Henrietta's less than an hour drive from VSU. You could drive over after the game Friday night and stay till Sunday or even Monday, if you like."
"What about his parents?"
Adam averts his eyes, unsure of what to say. He settles on the truth, though, since he knows the Foxes won't pry. "They're dead." Silence follows, but not for that long. Matt, luckily, senses the awkwardness and breaks it up.
"And we could seriously crash there?" Matt asks, his face lighting up. He and Dan share an excited look.
Adam shrugs again. "Why not?"
"And your boyfriend's okay with this?" Dan asks.
Adam tries to keep his face as blank as possible. No, I'm not sure. He'll probably kill me, but that's okay, he wants to say. Ronan already hates having Adam over 6 hours away from him; there's no way he'll be thrilled that one of the few weekends he comes home their house will be crowded with college students. "Yeah, he'll be fine," Adam lies. He'll deal with Ronan later.
"Look's like we're spending the weekend in Henrietta!" Dan smiles and the Foxes erupt. Adam laughs as Nicky hugs him tight, blabbing on about how excited he is to finally meet his boyfriend. Renee smiles at him supportingly. Andrew stares him down, but that's not unusual. Neil gives him a casual smile.
Adam takes out his phone and decides on a simple text to send to Ronan: Hey, any chance you can dream up a couple of extra mattresses by next Friday?
xxxxxxx
The Foxes win the game, of course. The Hawks aren't a terrible team, but they don't have the same lineup as the Foxes. It's a fairly easy win, but still a tiring game. The Foxes (plus Adam) shuffle tiredly onto the bus and settle into their seats.
"Lead the way, Parrish," Wymack says once everyone's settled down. Adam quickly tells the coach how to get to Henrietta and soon they're on the road.
Ronan didn't take it as badly as Adam thought he would. He wasn't necessarily happy about this plan, but he wasn't angry. He even said he was "excited" to meet Adam's friends, which had almost made Adam choke on his soda.
After about forty minutes, the Barnes came into view.
"Shit, Parrish!" Nicky calls, standing up and peering out the window. "You weren't kidding when you said you lived on a farm."
"This entire place is your boyfriend's?"
"And I thought my house was big . . "
"You can just park right there," Adam says, directing Wymack. He tries to ignore all of the questions and attention — Adam isn't a fan of attention. Plus, his mind is too focused on Ronan to answer any of these questions. He hasn't seen Ronan in nearly 2 months, and his chest is aching at the thought of him.
As the bus groans to a halt, the Foxes fill the aisle in anticipation. Adam leads the group off the bus. They all stop to grab their duffels from the undercarriage of the bus before following Adam towards the front door of the house.
Before he even reaches the porch steps, he hears a loud kerah. He whips around as Chainsaw lands on his shoulder, her feathers pressed against his cheek. The Foxes stare at him in confusion, surprise, and even disgust.
"Hey, girl," Adam says, petting her gently.
The Foxes' mouths are still agape. Renee walks up to Adam and tenderly lifts her hand towards the bird. Adam nods and she gently pets her. "You have a raven for a pet?" Aaron asks, incredulous. He hardly ever speaks to Adam, but something about Chainsaw must have gotten his attention.
"Uh, yeah. Her name is Chainsaw. She doesn't bite," he says, though it sounds stupid and he immediately regrets it. The Foxes' slowly drop their varied expressions and follow him up the porch steps. Chainsaw flies off of him as the door swings open in order to land on her rightful owner.
Ronan Lynch stands in the doorway, looking the same as ever. Black jeans, black t-shirt, blank ink sneaking up his back. His hair is freshly buzzed and his eyes are piercingly dark as they settle on the Palmetto State Foxes. His gaze lightens up only slightly when his eyes land on Adam. Adam grins at him somewhat wildly before running to the door and closing the distance between them. Ronan drops his angry stare and hugs his boyfriend, his arms wrapping tightly around Adam. Adam buries his face in the crook of his neck. "I missed you," he whispers.
"So did I," Ronan says, planting a gentle kiss atop his boyfriend's head. "We'll catch up later," he whispers. Adam nods and pulls away, gesturing to his friends. "This is my boyfriend, Ronan. Ronan, these are the Foxes."
"Hi!" Dan chirps, stepping forward to introduce herself. "I'm Dan Wilds, the captain—"
"Cool," Ronan groans, rolling his eyes. "Follow me."
Adam shoots Dan an apologetic look, but she doesn't seem too phased. They follow Ronan and Adam into the house, gawking at the strangeness of it all. Adam, of course, hasn't told the Foxes about his boyfriend's abilities, and doesn't intend to. He hadn't thought about the fact that half of the house was covered in dream objects when he volunteered it as the Foxes' hotel. But too late now.
"Kitchen's over here. Living room . . . Dining room," Ronan says, flicking his hands in the direction of the rooms. He leads them upstairs to the bedrooms. There are only 4 rooms - the master and the Lynch boys' old rooms - but Ronan's rearranged everything to fit roughly 4 mattresses to a room. He's outfitted each mattress with sheets, blankets, pillows and even towels. The Foxes stare in surprise at the preparation, probably wondering how so many beds ended up here. "You can divide the rooms amongst yourselves. Parrish and I will be in here," Ronan finishes, gesturing to his parents' old bedroom.
"Who's this?" Neil asks, pointing to a picture on the wall. It's a photograph from last summer, right before Adam left for college and Blue, Gansey and Henry set off on their road trip. In it, Ronan and Opal are wrestling in the grass as Adam looks on in fright.
"Oh, that's Opal," Adam says, smiling fondly. Opal, thank God, is spending the weekend at 300 Fox Way. Adam knew better than to keep her here while the Foxes were over. He misses her terribly, but he'll visit her sometime this weekend. "She's . . " Adam doesn't know how to finish the sentence. My kind-of-adopted-dream-daughter?
"My cousin," Ronan interrupts. "She stays with us when her parents are traveling for business."
Neil nods, accepting the lie without question.
"Well, I'm exhausted, so I'm going to bed," Wymack says. "Thank you for letting us stay here, boys. I'll see you in the morning." He nods at the Foxes before picking the nearest bedroom and heading inside. He flops down on one of the empty beds and is out in seconds.
"So . . . got any alcohol?" Nicky asks, directing the question towards Adam and Ronan.
For the first time that night, a hint of a grin lights up Ronan's face. "Follow me."