Happy Thursday, everyone! This chapter is just a tiny bit of filler before Lorin's birthday (although something interesting does happen towards the end) because I wanted to post the actual birthday chapter on her birthday. That chapter is going to be a doozy, seeing as it's already five pages long and I don't want to split up her birthday. All I'll say is that stuff happens. This chapter is the calm before the storm. Hopefully you lovelies enjoy! ~Shaymie
Lorin was an exhausted nervous wreck the rest of the day. She kept looking around anxiously, like she expected Reynolds to show up at school. I wish I could have stayed with her in all of her classes, but she had practically screamed for me to leave her alone and just forget about what Lee had said. A bit hypocritical considering the fact that it seemed to be all she could think about, but I knew better than to point it out when she was clearly upset about it.
Angelica called for a meeting to discuss what to do about Lorin, and said that today was as good a day as any, since she would be gone for a few hours with Darcy. They hadn't said what they were doing, only that it was an early birthday present for Lo. Which led to Darcy borrowing Laf's car after promising not to crash it (apparently she was an infamously terrible driver, and it had been a miracle that she had managed to drive us to the hospital last week) and the two of them driving off immediately after school.
"Where are your parents?" Herc asked as we all settled down in our living room. Somehow our house was the designated hangout spot for everyone. Even Madison and Jefferson were here. I shrugged. We rarely saw George and Martha anymore. They were always either at work or locked up in their offices, trying to build a case against Reynolds. Key word being trying. It was hard to make a case against him when Lo was so adamant on just leaving things alone. She refused to talk about what Reynolds and Maria had done to her. The few glimpses I had seen of George these past few weeks, he looked ready to rip his hair out, if he had any.
"We have bigger things to worry about, Herc. Like what the heck we're doing about Lorin," Peggy frowned, hugging a pillow as she curled up on the couch. Tears were welling up in her eyes. We had filled everyone in about what had happened earlier on the walk here. Peggy had been crying on and off ever since.
"We keep an eye on her," Angelica said, putting a hand on Peggy's shoulder. "We don't let her go anywhere alone. We don't know if Lee or Reynolds are going to be looking for her, so it's best to have protection with her at all times. Better safe than sorry. We shouldn't make it too obvious that we're watching her. You know how Lorin gets when we show her that we're worried about her.
"Alex, Herc, I know what you two are like. Don't go around starting trouble. I can already tell that you guys are planning to fight them or stir up some shit that we don't need right now. Lee and Reynolds are probably some of the richest assholes in town and they wouldn't hesitate to find some way to sue you or bend the system and get you arrested, or even kick the shit out of you like they did to John- no offense, John. I don't know what else we can do aside from just waiting to see what happens."
"God, you sound like Burr," I grumbled, running a hand through my hair in frustration. I couldn't stand just sitting around, waiting to see what new way Reynolds would find to get into Lorin's head. There was no telling the kind of shit he had put into her head, but I could tell that she was still terrified of him. I wanted to keep her as far from him as possible. It would be a bit harder to keep her away from Lee, considering the fact that I couldn't be everywhere at once.
"Okay, so we have our plan. Can we talk about something a bit happier now? Like a certain girl's birthday coming up, perhaps?" Eliza asked, tucking a bit of hair behind her ear. I could tell that both her and Peggy hated talking about Lorin. Thankfully Angelica understood the message and started talking about what she and Darcy had planned for Lo's birthday party. Well, now was as good a time as any to ask...
"Hamilton wants to know what to get Lorin for her birthday," Jefferson said before I could even open my mouth. I glared at him as he smirked and draped an arm over Madison. Who had even invited him? I could understand why Madison was here-he at least was bearable, and he was one of Lo's best friends. His boyfriend was the one everyone had trouble with. I couldn't understand how anyone could be so stupidly cocky and arrogant.
"You haven't gotten Lori a prese-"
"Yeah yeah, I know, I'm the world's worst boyfriend," I cut Laurens off with a groan. He quirked an eyebrow at me. "I don't want to get her something she'll hate, but I also don't want to get her nothing and look like a shitty person. What are you guys getting her?"
I felt myself getting disheartened as everyone listed off what they had gotten her: the Schuylers had gotten her Broadway tickets to some play about a nervous kid who broke his arm or something, Laf had gotten her a signed soundtrack to said play, Herc had sewn her some dresses, skirts, and a new stuffed animal, Laurens got her the few Disney movies she didn't own yet, Madison got her an assortment of gift cards, and Jefferson had bought her a laptop. Those were all way better gifts than whatever the hell I'd manage to pull out of my ass in three days.
"You'll find something to give her, Alex. It doesn't take much to make her happy, you know," Eliza said gently. I nodded and sighed. I probably was overthinking this like Jefferson had told me earlier, but I really didn't want to mess this up. And I had a feeling that Darcy would kill me if I didn't give Lo the perfect gift. I couldn't just get her any old thing and call it a present. It had to be absolutely perfect.
"Lorin will probably refuse all our presents anyway," Madison said quietly, his voice slightly muffled by his scarf. I had no doubt about that. Lo hated any and all attention on her. She hated when anybody did anything for her. It would be adorable if it wasn't so damn infuriating sometimes. She was hellbent on doing everything herself, almost like she thought she was being a bother by wanting or needing anything.
We spent the next few hours going between planning what exactly we were doing for the birthday party and playing Rock Band. Peggy was in the middle of a very intense guitar solo when the front door opened and Darcy walked in, her arms weighed down my shopping bags. She tossed Laf his keys and set down the she realized that she was alone, she turned back to the door, her hands on her hips.
"Lori, you're being ridiculous! It doesn't look that bad!"
"You've ruined my hair," Lorin complained, her voice trembling. She sounded close to tears. Darcy rolled her eyes and stomped over to the front door, yelling for Lo to stop being a drama queen. There was a bit of a scuffle before she managed to drag her sister into the house. I couldn't stop staring at Lorin as she stood awkwardly in the doorway, picking at her sweater. Her nails were painted light pink with glitter.
"Beautiful…" I found myself muttering. Her hair was no longer sandy brown and waist long. Darcy must have taken her to a hair salon or something, because it was now shoulder length (but still as fluffy as ever) and dyed an adorable peachy color. It sat on her shoulders in soft curls, but I couldn't tell if it was naturally curly or if she'd had it curled. Her cheeks pinked at the compliment, and she looked over at me, an apprehensive smile forming on her face.
"I-It wasn't supposed to turn out like this. I wanted it red, but somehow it ended up pink. It looks stupid… I look like a salmon." Lorin huffed and blew some curled bangs from her face. Goddamn, this girl was too precious for her own good. "I haven't had bangs or short hair since I lived with… Since my last house…"
"You look absolutely adorable," I grinned as I walked over to her, choosing not to comment on the way she had stumbled over her words. The blush on her face deepened as I wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her. I wish she would have more confidence in herself instead of just beating herself down. I had heard her say that she wished she was pretty like Darcy, but the two of them were damn near identical. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that they were twins.
"Hey lovebirds, if you're going to make out, can you do it somewhere else?" Herc asked, rolling his eyes. I pulled back from Lo and saw that she was blushing darker than I'd ever seen her. Her lips were slightly puffy and I laughed awkwardly as I rubbed the back of my head. Maybe I had been getting into the kiss a bit too much. She grinned crookedly at me as she grabbed my hand and pulled me upstairs. I noticed Laf give her a wink and raised an eyebrow.
I had thought that she would take me to her room, but she surprised me by taking me up to the attic. I had never even been in an attic before. I didn't even know this house had an attic. You learn something new every day, I guess. There were no lights in the attic, but there was a window letting in sunlight so we weren't completely in the dark.
"What are we doing up here, Lo?" I asked as she sat down on a dusty couch. She shrugged and patted the cushion next to her, sending dust flying into the air. I sat next to her and looked around. There were cardboard boxes everywhere, and it was almost impossible to breathe without getting a lungful of dust.
"I wanted to be somewhere that nobody would bother us," she said softly, the tips of her ears almost as pink as her hair. She smiled up at me and twirled a bit of hair around her finger. "My hair gets curly when it's short… I donated it earlier. The lady at the salon said that I have mermaid hair, whatever that means. And then I let Darcy talk me into dyeing it, but that didn't really turn out so well."
"It really does look good, Lo. I'm not just saying that because I'm your boyfriend or anything. That color really suits you." She flushed at the compliment and started picking lint from her sweater, her pink nails standing out in the fading evening light. We sat in relative silence for a few moments before I asked why Laf had winked at us. I didn't think it was possible for anyone's face to get so red until now.
"H-He um… He probably thinks I brought you up here to… You know… I'm pretty sure he's hidden a condom in the couch cushions or something. But that's not why we're up here! I mean, I do want to be with you but I… Um…" I cut her off with a kiss. She gasped into the kiss and tangled her hands in my hair as we fell over onto the couch, me on top of her. I peppered kisses on her face before moving down to her neck. My breath caught in my throat as she let out the sexiest moan I'd ever heard, her nails scratching my scalp. I grinned as I started to suckle on her neck, loving the noises she was making.
"Do you even know what you're doing to me, Lo?" I groaned, putting my hands on her hips and pulling her closer. She looked up at me panting, her gray eyes wide and her lips slightly parted. Damn, she was beautiful… But it wouldn't be right to do this, would it? I sat up on the couch and sighed as Lorin climbed onto my lap. "We… We can't go on like this, Lo-"
"I want you," she panted, grinding her hips into me. I bit my lip. This girl really was going to be the death of me. Our first time together couldn't be in a dingy old attic. I wanted it to be special. She pouted up at me and positioned my hands so that they were towards the bottom of her sweater, so perfectly tempting… Her skin was so soft...
"Please, Lexy? I know you want me, too…" Fuck, how could I say no to that? Between the hungry look in her eyes and the breathy way she had said my name, it felt like it would be a shame to deny her anything. I pulled off her sweater and blouse at the same time and started planting kisses on her beautifully freckled chest, while my hand started creeping up her thigh.
"You're a damn temptress, you know?" I whispered in-between kisses. Her moans and whimpers were a bit too much for me to handle. She frowned as my hand stopped just underneath her skirt, resting on her thigh. Were we really about to do this? "Lo, are you sure-"
"Condom's between the cushions," she muttered, attacking my lips as her grip in my hair tightened. There weren't any questions after that.