Boys Like You by Jaye Pratt

 

Time seems to fly by. We get into a comfortable routine, between school and movie marathons, everything seems easy. Beth did have to take me in for a sketch artist to do a drawing of me; they didn’t want to directly show a picture of me since I had changed my hair. So that is now out there for the world to see. We pushed it back for as long as we could but Lissa and Deacon convinced Beth it was time. We haven’t heard anything yet and every time Beth’s phone rings or there is a knock at the door, I get jumpy. My anxiety is a lot worse with all this waiting. Why hasn’t anyone come forward?

“Honey, you home?” Rocky calls out. I wait a few minutes, and as predicted, he walks through my bedroom door. I have taken up residence on the couch. Turns out I get nasty headaches, stomach cramps that make me feel like my uterus is being pulled out through my ass, and PMS. “I come bearing gifts.” He drops a shopping bag in front of me, lifts my legs and sits on the couch, putting my legs over his lap.

“You brought chocolate?” He nods, I look at him, he is in black Adidas sweats and a plain white t-shirt that clings to his body like a second skin.

“I did, I made my dad stop at the shop on the way over. The guys should be here soon.”

The guys, things have started to get interesting, they all seem to touch me, just subtle ways, holding my hand, or resting an arm next to mine or a leg. After my kiss with Maximus I thought it would be weird for them, but it hasn’t been. I know I like them and have been working through that with my therapist, she knew it was bothering me that I feel so protective of them, she asked if I liked one more than the others and I can honestly say I don’t, I could list a million reasons why each is so special to me. We are working through figuring out if I feel this way because they saved me, and it is possible I have attached myself to them, but the sexual tension is hard to resist. I have been working up the courage to talk to them all together, usually I seem to be very straight forward, but this is more than touching and accidental hard ons. Talking with Lena, she thinks it’s best to wait, but why? Even if I get my memories back I will still like all the guys. I want there to be more between us but what rational person likes multiple people. Google tells me it’s more normal than I thought and apparently there are books.

Rory and Maximus are next to arrive. Rory’s mum didn’t go to rehab. He opened up to the guys and I. She went to a psych ward about six months ago and was released just after the guys met me. She went back again and he went to visit her yesterday. It’s about a three-hour drive from here. I offered to go but he went weird and the guys assured me he would ask if he needed me. I just wish there was something I could do.

Rory and Maximus walk in and Rory holds out a bunch of red roses.

“You didn’t have to buy me flowers.” I pull my feet from Rocky and place them on the floor. I take the flowers and inhale deeply. They smell amazing. I stand to give him a hug, and he wraps his arms around me until my feet lift from the ground.

“I’m so sorry I was moody again, this shit with my mum has my head all messed up,” he whispers into my hair.

“Nothing to apologise for, if anyone is moody it’s me.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Levi agrees as he and Mercer join us.

“Before you kill Levi, we bring food.” Mercer places the three bags on the floor, pushing the coffee table out of the way. “Chinese.”

“You’re lucky I love Chinese, Levi.” He laughs and helps Mercer set up. Rory lets go of my waist and we all sit in a circle around the food.

There’s something for everyone; satay chicken for Levi, beef and black bean for Rory, Mongolian lamb for Mercer, sweet and sour pork for Rocky that looks more vegetables than meat, and Maximus has something with duck. He tried to make me taste it last time but it was a hard no from me.

“Your fried rice has the special sauce,” Levi says, handing me my fried rice and honey chicken.

“You’re so gross, Levi.” I laugh and throw my chopsticks at him. They fly past his head.

“If I tell you I have prawn crackers, will you forgive me?” I tap my temple as if I’m thinking.

“Actually, I think this fried rice needs more special sauce.” All the guys look at me, wide-eyed.

“You can’t be serious.” He knows I’m joking or he thinks he does, but I hold my composure.

“Don’t be shy now.” A glint in his eye has me regretting this. He stands and drops his pants, leaving him standing there in his boxers. “Okay, you win. I wave the white flag.” He retrieves his pants and sits back beside me. The other guys laugh.

“Don’t start a game you can’t finish.” I can feel the smugness on his face.

“You haven’t won this game, just you wait. Maybe I want to see this so-called monster and it’s all a ploy. The whispers are quite legendary but I’m not convinced.”

“If you look at his, you have to look at mine. I miss all the good shit. Maximus gets a kiss and —”

“Little spoon,” Is all I need to say to make him stop.

“Fine, but if anyone gets naked, so do I.”

“Great, now I’m thinking about you all naked, which isn’t fair because that is a lot of hotness.”

“I think we make her horny,” Mercer adds.

“Don’t you start.” I chastise him. I look around at them all. “I would never have sex with any of you.”

“And why not? What’s wrong with us?” Rocky looks butt hurt. This conversation has gone off track, but maybe it’s the perfect time to bring up what’s been on my mind.

“Nothing’s wrong with you, I mean I could never choose. You all mean so much to me, I couldn’t pick one over the others.”

They all nod at what I have to say.

“You know, there is a solution,” Rocky says, entertaining the idea.

“If you say rock, paper, scissors, I will hurt you.” From the look in his eyes, Mercer means it too. He looks about ready to kill Rocky for opening his mouth.

“I think everyone is jumping the gun, you’re entertaining the idea of what exactly. This is somewhat the issue I have been talking about with my therapist.”

“You have spoken with your therapist about us.” Rory asks, I nod. “Why exactly? We can get back to this sex stuff later.”

“I have actually been talking to my therapist about this because I’ve been confused about my feelings for you all. I can list so many things about you all that I LOVE.” I emphasise the word love. “But she’s concerned that my feelings are because you all saved me. Like maybe I’m holding onto you all as a safety net.” A nervous giggle slips out. “Listen to me going on as if you’re all infatuated with me. I don’t even know if you like me that way.”

“Trust me, we do. We kinda talked about it together but didn’t know how to bring it up with you. Rocky had an idea, but it’s crazy.”

“Shut up, Levi, it isn’t crazy, it makes total sense.”

“Okay, hit me with it, it can’t be any crazier than having feelings for you all.”

“I thought that for now we just keep doing what we are doing, getting to know each other. Everything you are comfortable with up to having sex is on the table. We see what happens when we graduate or when you get your memory back. If after that you like just one of us, we can deal with that, or if you still feel the same about us all, we can deal with that too.”

I decide to throw it all out there while we are talking about it. “And what if I want to have sex?”

“Then you need to talk to Maximus, you said yourself a first time is special.” Levi looks at Maximus and he nods for him to continue, “There are some events from Maximus’ past and he deserves his first time to be special, the rest of us used sex as a way to channel the anger from our pasts and place it somewhere, Maximus is different, intimacy is somewhat a trigger for him, so if it gets to that please be careful, Maximus freaked out over his reaction to a kiss.”

“And what if someone feels weird about all this?” I ask.

“We talk about it,” Mercer says. “We all have so many needs, and you seem to get them without even trying.”

“So, is this like an exclusive thing between us until we figure it out, or can we see other people?” They all look at me like I have lost my mind.

“How could you even ask us that?” Levi asks.

“You said yourself, you all use sex as a way to cope, so I didn’t expect you all to be exclusive. I just wanted it to be said out loud, so we were all on the same page.”

“Over my dead body is anyone else dating you.” If I thought Levi was mad, he has nothing on Mercer. I’m confused how this will work if half are exclusive and half not.

“Someone please clear this up. It won’t work unless we are all on the same page. I have no interest in dating anyone else while we figure this out.”

“None of us want to date anyone else either, JD.”

“And what do we tell people?” Because someone is bound to notice.

“Anyone in our direct family; if they ask we tell the truth, we never lie to each other ever. As for everyone else, it’s none of their business. If anyone gives you shit just let us know and we will all deal with it.”

“Levi, you’re so smart.” He winks at me. “Maximus, are you on board with this?” He nods.

“Do we need rules? Like a kiss? Do I have to hide that from the others?”

“How about we see how it goes? I mean I’m cool with seeing you with the others, but maybe we need a code word, so if it is too much, we all know.” Levi is always being the logical one.

“We actually have a safe word already. We haven’t used it much since getting older, but we all know what it means.”

“What is it?”

“Jumanji.”

“I like it. So at any point, you say the word, and I can back away. Maximus, if you walk in and can’t say Jumanji, just clap at us” Well that wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be.