Especially his half brother.
I was enamored with one boy and terrified of the other. I lived my life like a human ping pong ball bouncing back and forth between them. One was my savior, the other an enemy I couldn’t escape. One tried to protect me with everything he had, while the other used my one and only weakness—my mother—to manipulate me and make me behave exactly the way he wanted.
If my life were a fairytale, when the second son promised me a life beyond everything I knew, I would have believed him. I would have waited and trusted that there was going to be a happily ever after for at least one of us.
But my life was more like a horror story. The golden child always got his way, and not only did I throw away my life and any chance at happiness, I also betrayed the only boy who ever made me feel like I belonged.
In the end, I was more of a villain than the perfect, wicked boy I hated with every fiber of my being ever was.
Ollie
“But… you’re a girl.”
It wasn’t the second or even third time the very cute boy who answered the door had muttered the exact same phrase. I had knocked and announced I was the new roommate moving in today. He looked adorably dumbfounded, and the other boy standing in the entrance to the living room with his arms over his wide, muscular chest looked very annoyed.
I’d expected pretty much this exact reaction since I’d gone out of my way to make sure the current residents of the house didn’t know my gender when I filled out the rental application a few weeks ago. The ad clearly stated a male roommate was preferred, and it was common knowledge on campus that this particular house had a ‘no girls allowed’ rule. Apparently, it was how the boys who had all lived together in this house since they finished freshman year kept the peace and managed to remain friends rather than rivals all these years. One of the roommates had graduated an entire year early, leaving the other three boys behind, and left a vacant room in the converted Victorian a couple blocks away from campus. It was a highly coveted rental, so surely I wasn’t the only female applicant hoping for a chance to get past their gender preference, but my reasons for pushing so hard to get picked had little to do with the location, and everything to do with one of the current occupants.
I sighed and cast a dramatic look down the length of my body.
“I am a girl. No matter how many times you say it, or how hard he glares at me,” I hooked my thumb in the direction of the glowering football player hovering behind him, “that isn’t going to change. The fact that I already signed the lease and put down a deposit, as well as the first and last month’s rent, won’t change either. I know the rental ad said you would prefer a male roommate, but the actual homeowner picked me as the best applicant and already took my money. This is a done deal.”
Thank goodness.
The elderly landlord picked me, but only after I’d tracked him down and begged and pleaded with him to let me move into the house regardless of any objections the boys might raise. Luckily, he was a kind, decent man who wasn’t immune to big ol’ crocodile tears. He was also the father to several daughters, and a grandpa to a couple adorable little girls. I don’t think the no-girls-allowed rule was ever his in the first place. I gave him the CliffsNotes version of why I had… no, why I needed to move into the Victorian, and promised I’d be the best tenant he’d ever had. The biggest selling point: I reminded him that the three boys currently occupying the property were going to be leaving soon after graduation, but I still had three years left of school, if not longer. I was undecided on my future plans and pretty much everything else in my life. The only thing I knew for certain was that I was exactly where I needed to be at the moment.
The big, unsmiling jock grunted and narrowed his eyes at me from behind the smaller guy in the doorway. It was a struggle to keep up a calm, cool front when the guy’s stock in trade was being good at intimidation, both on and off the field.
“The old man must be going senile if he approved you. I’ll call him right now and get this straightened out.”
I lifted a dirty blond eyebrow back at the big guy and plastered on a fake, sickeningly sweet smile. I’d had a lot of practice playing nice with someone who wanted me to cower and walk away from confrontations. “Go right ahead. When you get off the phone with Mr. Peters, you can help me haul the heavy boxes on the porch up to my new room. I’ll wait.”
All I had going for me at the moment was false bravado… and a signed lease.
However, if I didn’t put up an unbreakable façade, I knew I would cave and let these two send me running with my tail between my legs. And that just wouldn’t do. I’d put everything on the line in order to stand exactly where I was right now. I was sick of scheming and sacrificing. Of lying and evading.
When things changed this summer and I finally found an inch of freedom, I took every risk imaginable to stand on this very doorstep. I hired a private investigator to track down these boys and get every bit of information on the three of him he could. I changed schools. I emptied secret bank accounts. I left behind the only home I’d ever known and escaped the crushing hold that nearly killed me. I hadn’t put those things in motion without suffering a huge, tragic loss. Instead of spending my time grieving, I decided to take back control of my life. To do that, I needed to be here.
These two gatekeepers weren’t even the ones I was worried about.
Oh no.
The biggest obstacle wasn’t home yet, and I knew once he finally showed up, I was going to have the real fight on my hands. So, refusing to cave under the weight of the football player’s glower was nothing more than practice. The big guy growled at me again and stormed off with his cell pressed against his ear. Once he was gone, I wanted to let out a sigh of relief, but I couldn’t. Curious gray-green eyes were peering at me like I was some kind of scientific experiment, and he was ready to dissect me on the spot.
Harlen Danvers definitely had the brawn part of this friendship group covered. He was big and imposing in all the right ways. It was well known on campus and in college football circles that he took no shit from anyone. He was loyal to a fault and would gladly break the knees of anyone who crossed his friends. That went double for the young man standing in front of me.
If ever there was someone suited to the term ‘pretty boy,’ it was Vernon Banks. He also happened to be an actual genius. He was younger than I was, but just about to graduate from college. Vernon had the ‘brains’ in the friendship the three remaining boys in this house shared. He was so smart it was scary. He was also undeniably beautiful.
He was about an inch taller than I was, which would put him around five nine, give or take a few centimeters. He had lovely golden skin, and wide, dark eyes that lifted just slightly at the outside corners, hinting at a touch of Asian heritage somewhere in his lineage. He had thick, well-groomed eyebrows, one decorated with a silver barbell. His naturally dark hair was bleached a startling white, giving him an anime vibe that I knew the girls on campus went bananas over. They all wanted him to help them with their homework or to help them get naked. However, Vernon was known to be shy and reserved around the opposite sex and strangers in general. He was far more interested in video games and grades than dating.
Which was the exact opposite of the boy standing behind him. From what I knew, Harlen Danvers was a ladies’ man through and through. He hadn’t had a steady girlfriend since he started school here, but he never lacked for company. He wasn’t the most talkative type. However, he didn’t need words when his perfect smile was enough to have half the campus fall to their knees for him. Harlen was tall, way taller than me, and he carried his bulk well. He had dirty blond hair, which had a slight wave. He kept it longish, but it was a good look for him. It kept him from looking like a stereotypical college athlete. He had pale blue eyes that were responsible for making a hundred different girls hand over their hearts to him without question. He had a smattering of freckles across his nose, which were only visible if you got up close and personal. He was ridiculously good looking, but not pretty in the way Vernon was. They made a dynamic duo, and when the third Musketeer was around—oof—no one was safe from the impact of the three.