Chapter Nine: Behind Closed Doors

Uma was the first to wake up. The early morning light had begun to creep through the half closed blinds and shine directly in her face. She rolled over onto her back, and allowed her eyes to drift around the room. In the early morning sunshine, the cool Tuscany yellow walls seemed to almost glow, it seemed kind of magical almost. Even though the bed was a queen size, it was still a bit of a tight fit to have all three of them on it. It wasn't uncomfortable though, like being packed in like a can of sardines. It was warm and cozy. Being able to feel the warmth of Harry's skin against hers, his arm wrapped around her, made Uma feel safe. And sadly, although she hated to admit it to herself, Uma hadn't felt truly safe in a long time.

Carefully, she slid Harry's arm off of her and snuck out of the room and down the hall towards the bathroom. She stared at herself for a few moments in the mirror, taking in the exhaustion in her eyes and the healing bruises along her arms. Her fingers slowly traced the healing bruises, her mind drifting back to when she had gotten the bruises in the first place. She splashed some cool water on her face to help wake up and tied her dreads up into a sloppy, low ponytail. As she left the bathroom, she ran into of Gil's brothers in the hallway. They stared at each other for a moment and Uma vaguely wondered if he was the younger or older of the two.

Despite knowing Gil as almost as long as she knew Harry, she had never learned to tell his twin brothers apart. It was only in the way they acted that she could distinguish Garrett from Gavin. Gavin was the nicer of the two, and from what she had seen, the smarter of the two as well.
"Morning," he said. From the tone of his voice, and lack of expression in his voice, Uma assumed that he was probably still half asleep.
"Morning," she replied. She slipped past him, not intending to stop and have a conversation. As she came back into the room, Harry was on the floor, rifling through the backpack he had brought with him for a fresh change of clothes. Gil was throwing yesterday's clothes in the hamper and grabbing fresh clothes from his draws. At that moment, Uma wanted to slap herself as she realized that she hadn't brought anything to change into for the following day; Harry had dragged her out of her house so fast.

"Can I borrow some clothes," she asked. "Harry dragged me out so fast I didn't pack a bag."
"Sure," Gil replied. He opened a couple drawers and threw a couple clothing articles at her. "You can keep 'em if you want." The clothes he tossed to her consisted of a pair of grey boxers, a tan colored T shirt and a pair of jeans that were fraying on the tips of the pant legs.

The boxers were surprisingly comfy; she made a note to buy some for herself later on. The jeans and shirt were baggy but it didn't bother Uma too much She pulled the shirt tight against her skin and tied it into a knot so it rested on her hip. As the three of them continued to get dressed, each of them minding their own business, all of them failed to notice the bedroom door swing open.
"Whoo, threesome!" an amused voice chuckled. Glad that she was fully dressed, Uma turned to see that one of Gil's brother was standing in the doorway, looking very amused by the scene before him.

"Get out Garrett!" Gil exclaimed. Garrett leaned against the doorframe, smiling mischievously as he watched the three of them scramble around for their things. "
What? I was told to get you up. I didn't know you had company over!" He laughed. Gil pushed him out of the room and kicked the door closed. He proceeded to take off what passed for pajamas and pulled on his jeans. For some people, it might have been awkward to undress in front of one another, even if they were friends. But for the time she had known these two, she had grown comfortable with them, some might even say too comfortable. She'd seen them naked before when they had gone swimming down in the lake outside of town so it was nothing too new to her, even though they had obviously grown over the years, as had she.

When the three of them came in to the kitchen, breakfast was in full swing. The aroma of cooking meat and toast fresh from the toaster had her practically drooling. The twins were at the table, as was Gaston, who was reading the newspaper, while Louis finished cooking bacon on the stove.
"Are your friends staying for breakfast," Louis asked, seemingly unbothered by two extra mouths to feed. Uma glanced at the spread that was on the table, and felt her salivary glands activate as she stared at he food. It looked so good, much better than the lousy cereal or dry toast that she had most mornings.

"If you don't mind," Uma said. "I'd like to stay. Everything looks really good."
Louis smiled and gestured for Uma to take up an empty seat.

Harry snatched a couple pieces of toast off the table.
"I'd love to stay," he said, "But me Da is having a fit about me disappearing in the middle of the night. So I should go home and assure him I haven't been kidnapped."
"Why'd you leave home to come here anyway?" one of the twins asked.

"It's crowded, my sisters are more annoying than usual, my step-brother is trying to be friendly. And then my father referred to me by the name of my step-brother."
"And?" Garrett said, drawing the word out, waiting for a further explanation from Harry.
"At least you don't have a twin," Gavin said. He took a long swig of orange juice and pointed towards Louis, who has just sat down to eat. "He's been around sixteen years and he still screws up who is who. So your dad got your name wrong, big deal. It doesn't mean he forgot you; keep in mind that he's getting old."
"I take some offense to that, Gavin," Louis said, sounding slightly offended. "I'm not that old yet."

Based on location, Carlos decided to call a meeting over at Chad's house since it seemed like the median between school and most of the others' houses. However, he had forgotten to run that idea past Chad himself. Even though Chad's house was close to mansion status, he seemed very reluctant to have any of them enter his house and Carlos couldn't understand why. His own house was fairly sizeable, and if his mother was away for work long enough, he would have thrown a house party; but sadly he didn't know enough people he'd want to party with and could trust not to break anything.

The entire trip over to Chad's house was annoying, since Chad kept demanding why everyone was meeting at his place and not somewhere else.
"Why my house, Carlos?" he demanded, sounding whiny. "It was your idea, why not your house?"
"This is easier for everyone Chad," Carlos explained, trying to maintain a calm expression; he could slowly feel a headache coming on. More often than not, Chad was a nuisance, like a mosquito that wouldn't quit or a puppy that harassed you non-stop. Other times he could be an outright jerk, but as Ben had once told him, Chad wasn't that bad of a guy if you got to know him well enough. But Carlos really didn't plan on being buddy-buddy with Chad anytime soon.

Everyone, except for Herkie, had come to meet at the Charming residence by foot. Carlos had only mentioned the problem at hand to Harry and Gil that morning. Aziz had done the courtesy of informing Herkie, which Carlos was grateful for. He hated to be the bearer of bad news, especially when it concerned such personal information. Everyone had just made themselves comfortable at the dining room table, and Carlos was getting ready to call this informal "meeting" to order.

The sooner they got things out of the way, the better he would feel. He didn't want to be discussing this kind of stuff, and he was sure none of the others wanted to be discussing this other, but the situation had to be dealt with sooner or later and they should make a decision about if they were going to go to the police about their problem. However, before he could get any words out of his mouth, the sound of shattering glass came from the kitchen.

The noise startled some of the others, their heads turning towards the source of the noise, alert. Chad was the only one that got up from where he was seating and went into the kitchen. The dining room and kitchen were connected, the kitchen island/bar the only thing separating it into two separate rooms; Carlos was surprised that he hadn't notice the woman in the electric wheelchair enter the kitchen earlier. Despite his eyes being focused on the scene in the kitchen, he was sure he wasn't the only one that staring.

From where he was sitting, he could see Chad on the ground, picking up larger broken pieces of glass, while the woman, who Carlos assumed was his mother, muttered something only Chad could hear. Once the majority of the glass had been picked up, Chad dusted off his hands and headed back into the kitchen, his mother following behind him. She wheeled slowly into the room, Chad lingering close to her side.
"What a fine group of boys," she said, a small smile on her face. "Why haven't I met any of them before?" Her eyes scanned briefly over everyone in the room before falling back onto her son, waiting for an answer.

"They...they're new friends, mom," Chad said. Carlos could practically see how uncomfortable Chad felt, he wasn't sure if the others could sense it too. Mrs. Charming smiled, her eyes seeming to sparkle in happiness. She glanced towards her son.
"Sorry for interrupting," she said quietly. With a flick of her wrist on the joystick, she backed her wheelchair up and turned to leave to another part of the house. Once she was down the hall and out of sight, Chad cleared his throat and took his seat at the table.

"I didn't know your mother was...sick." Jay said quietly. The room had grown quiet and Carlos could feel an uncomfortable tension in the room beginning to build.
"She has ALS," Chad said, flatly, matter-of-factly. For a moment , the room was so silent they could hear a pin drop, their conversation killed by the sudden appearance of Mrs. Charming. "So, can we hurry up this discussion so you can all get your asses out of here quicker?"
"There's the Chad we know," Jay exclaimed, half jokingly. The rest of the boys leaned back into the table; if the table had been smaller they might have been able to put their heads together to have some sense of secrecy.

"So, I think the main issue is if we're going to the police about this or not." Carlos said.
"The police want proof," Harry said. "For all they know, and for what they'll likely suspect, is that we put those pictures on there ourselves."
"Why would they think that," Aziz asked. "What kind of person would willingly expose themselves like that for the world to see?"
"A bunch of teenagers wanting attention, obviously," Harry said.
"Chad and Herkie's dads both work in the police force," Carlos said. "I don't think it'd go over well with them in particular if they found out their sons were posting nude pictures of themselves on a porn site."

"I don't think it'd go well if anyone's parents thought that that was true," GIl said.
"So, all of you got emails from an unknown source..." Carlos said, coming out as more of a question than a statement. If this was true, than that could be useful in proving to the cops that they weren't teenagers seeking attention from whoever would listen. It could be one step closer to finding out who had sent the email; by going to the police, they would have more ability and equipment to find the source IP address of the emails.
"Was I the only one that opened it," Jay asked. Carlos sense the awkwardness in his voice, as though he was embarrassed.
"I thought it looked like a scam," Aziz said, "So I just deleted it."
"Mine went to junk mail," Harry and Gil said in unison.
"Mine's still in the trash bin," Herkie said, "I thought it was one of the guys pulling a prank or something, but I did see it. Didn't know it was on a porn site though."

"Okay, so, personally, I think we should go to the police." Chad said, breaking the conversation away from where everyone had the suspicious email stored. He eyed Carlos carefully before continuing. "I mean I understand that you might want to keep the issue private, but I think the police are more equipped to handle this type of situation." Carlos couldn't find any reason to argue against that since what Chad said did make perfect, logical sense. Carlos smiled to himself, he'd never thought Chad to be the kind to make any sort of logical sense at all.

Carlos cleared his throat, calling attention back onto himself.
"Okay, so let's vote. All in favor of going to the police?" There was a moment where no one raised their hand, but first one hand went up than another, and then everyone's was up. Secretly, Carlos was disappointed; so much for getting to play detective.

(page break)

With the meeting adjourned and the vote cast, no one saw any real reason to stay any longer. That and Chad more or less threw them all out onto the sidewalk. Jay and Aziz waited at the end of the driveway for Carlos while Gil and Harry went off together and Herkie strapped on his helmet as he climbed onto the motorcycle parked out front. Before stepping off the porch, Carlos turned back to Chad, who seemed ready to shut the door in his face.

"Hey, Chad, I'm sorry about forcing everyone on you like that. I didn't know that you'd be uncomfortable about having people over."
"It's not me that's uncomfortable. It's my mom; she doesn't want people to see her like that." Chad sighed. He pinched the bridge of the his nose in annoyance. "Look, thanks for the apology, but next time, ask me first."
"Well, I guess you never do know what's going on behind closed doors," Jay said. "I just assumed Chad's mom took off or something."

The sun was saying its final goodnight to the world as it finally sank below the horizon. The orange fire in the sky faded to the beginnings a of navy blue hue. And, if she squinted, she could see some of the stars come to life as the sky continued to darkened. She couldn't recall the last time she had stopped and taken the time to actually watch the sunset; she'd forgotten how beautiful mother nature could be sometimes. Sometimes, she wished she had more time to come out here and sit on the little fort platform and watch the sky; it was so peaceful and felt foreign to her.

Her, Harry and Gil had created the fort when they twelve and had completed it as they were entering their teen years. As they got older, they went out to the fort less and less, but every once and awhile, Uma would still make her way up the small wood steps, hoping the wooden slats of the floor would take her weight. When they had made it, it hadn't be much to behold, but it was beautiful to them. Even now, nearly five years later, Uma still thought the little slum shed had its own touch of charm. There was evidence that other kids had played here, as shown by numerous carvings of hearts and initials and some spray painted graffiti and that some animals had come across the little hut as well.

She nearly jumped out of her skin as she heard the creak and groan of the wooden planks as someone came up the small little stairs and poked their head in, their face shrouded in shadows by the hoodie they wore. She felt her body tense, ready to fight or flee if needed, depending on who it was.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't know anyone was in here."
The voice she recognized easily; Mal. Uma smirked and turned her attention back to the sky, which was becoming more pigmented in dark navy by the minute. Mal came to sit on the platform that Uma sat on, careful not to touch her.

"What are you doing in my fort?" Uma demanded, half threateningly.
"You made this place," Mal asked, sounding surprised. "I always wondered who had put this here. I remember finding it with Evie and Carlos..." Mal's voice trailed off. She turned her eyes to Uma, a small smile climbing onto her face. "It's really cool." Uma smiled in return, feeling proud at the comment. Besides her, Harry and Gil, she hadn't ever heard anyone call their little architect loner anything positive. Even if it was Mal telling her, who she didn't even know that much about, it still felt nice to have someone else than a close friend appreciate her work.

They sat in silence for awhile, watching as the sky faded to the pure darkness of night. Out here, away from the center of town and a lot of the lights, they were able to see the stars sprinkled across the black canvas. Along with the sky turning from navy to black, the temperature had dropped slightly. It hadn't dropped by much she guessed, but it had dropped enough for her to feel cold. She had begun to shiver slightly, her arms covered in goose bumps from the cool night air.

"Hey, Mal, have you ever been to that 50's diner on the outskirts of town. They have good milkshakes. And it's not all that far from here." She wasn't sure why she was asking Mal to come join her for a late night snack, but she supposed that it was because she was delaying going home and getting ready of the lonely feeling she had. After school, Harry and Gil had disappeared on her even though she had gotten a text from Harry about some "meeting" that Carlos had called. She was sure that this meeting wouldn't take all night, but she hadn't heard from either of her friends since five o'clock, so she assumed that they had returned home for the night.

It intrigued Uma, but even if she wasn't personally invited to this meeting, she knew that it didn't take much prying between the two of them to find out what was discussed during this meeting. She thought it was a bit strange that Mal wasn't in this meeting either since she was very close with Carlos, but perhaps it was a "men" meeting and neither of them qualified because they lacked the correct genitalia.

"Sure," Mal said. She pulled herself into a standing position and offered a hand to Uma. Grateful, Uma took it and pulled herself to her feet. It was strange to be spending time with someone other than Harry or Gil, but it couldn't hurt to have another possible friend in her life; especially a gal pal.

A/N: Okay, so I had a lot of difficulty writing this chapter, as well as trying to post this chapter; my laptop decided it wanted to update while I was writing and I ended up losing most of what I wrote. I hope there's not too many errors in this, but I have edited this twice because once wasn't good enough. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed; please let me know what you thought of this chapter. It's much appreciated and thank you to those that have already reviewed this story-I love reading all your comments! Hopefully, I will have the next chapter up sooner so there isn't such a big wait gap.

PS: Also, I think in the first chapter I made a note about Gil's brothers' names and I finally gave them here. I, personally think that naming twins the same thing is just very poor choice in character naming, and although the nicknames of Bronze and Junior are a bit better, I wanted to give them actual names, and why not make them start with G too.