Mutiny Below

Jayce

I smiled as I listened to Rockets demo the whole ride home. Now that I’d given up on avoiding him, I figured why not, and now that I wasn’t trying to act disgusted with him, I could admit that the songs were actually really good. The lyrics were catchy and it was impossible not to tap my fingers along with the music.

However, when I reached my parents two story mansion, I got a cute little text from John and the guilt practically swallowed me whole. He said he missed me and then put a sad face next to it. I bit my lip before ignoring the text and proceeding into the house.

I said hi to the kitchen staff and the cleaning staff. I knew them all by name since I’d grown up around them. After I chatted a little, I went off in search of Adam. I found him in his old room, pouring over some science textbook and taking notes. I smirked as I leaned against the doorway and watched him.

“Don’t you ever take a break?” He laughed as I finally pushed away from the doorframe and walked over to him.

“Don’t you ever knock?” He teased back and stood up to hug me. I giggled and squeezed him tight before going to take a seat on his bed.

“So, why is it you demanded I be here at the crack of fucking dawn?” I stretched out and yawned as he rolled his eyes.

“It’s almost noon, Jayce.”

“And?”

“Noon is not considered the crack of dawn.” I smiled as he skipped over the curse word.

“Not the point, dearest brother.” I was still joking, but suddenly Adam’s posture changed. He frowned as he started to pace, his eyes trained on the ground and his hands in his pockets. I arched both my eyebrows and frowned a little too. “Is there something going on?” I cautiously sat up.

Adam stopped and turned toward me, locking his eyes with mine. “That’s what I wanted to ask you. That’s why I wanted you to come early, so we can talk.”

“We always talk. You didn’t have to bring me here any earlier than I have to be.” I grumbled and he frowned deeper.

“No, Jayce. I mean we really have to talk.”

“Cue dramatic music and meaningful glances.”

“Jayce.”

“Alright!” I threw my hands up in surrender when he didn’t even crack a smile. “What do you want to talk about?”

Adam sighed and took a seat beside me on his bed. “Is everything okay in Tempe?”

“Everything’s fine.” I shrugged.

“You know you can tell me anything, Jayce. I’m your older brother.”

I swallowed hard. “I know.”

He groaned. “Then why won’t you tell me what’s wrong? I know there’s something! The past several weeks you’ve been vague and distant. Now your mood is all over the place. One minute you’re bubbly and the next you look guiltier than a murderer on trial. Why can’t you tell me what’s going on?”

I pressed my lips together firmly and stared down at the floor. I should have known Adam would notice, even if John hasn’t.

“Jayce?”

I bit my bottom lip and finally brought my eyes back up to his. He looked so sad and hurt. I pouted. “It’s not good.” I couldn’t lie to him about it.

“What’s not good about it?”

“I’m a horrible person.”

“Jayce, you are not a horrible person. You’re an amazing person.”

I rolled my eyes. “You don’t know the story.”

“Then tell me.”

“But …”

“Come on, Jayce. It’s not like I’m going to judge you or criticize you.”

I hesitated, but then I just blurted it out. “I cheated on John.” My chest felt lighter, though I hadn’t noticed the weight on it until it was gone. Adam just stared at me, wide eyed.

“Wow.”

I pursed my lips and contemplated keeping my mouth shut. Contemplated being the key word. “Technically, I’m cheating on John.”

“Wow.” He repeated and my stomach churned. “I’m going to admit that I did not see this coming.” I sighed and rested my head on his shoulder. “I thought maybe you and John were fighting again, but …”

“I know. It’s impractical for me to be cheating on John. He’s my everything. I love him.”

“Yeah.”

“But … this guy ...” I got butterflies in my stomach just thinking about Nick. “It’s different Adam. I can’t say no to him, and a part of me doesn’t want to say no.”

“Can’t say no to him or can’t say no to sex? Because there’s a big difference, you know, Jayce.”

“I know the difference, Adam.” My past reputation wasn’t exactly a secret to anyone, but the one thing I had always been was faithful. I liked sleeping around years ago, but never when I was in a relationship. I think that may have been why he was so surprised. “I’ve had guys hit on me. I’ve had guys flirt with me and try to get me to cheat. I’ve had no problem turning them down. This is different.”

“Jayce,”

I swallowed. “There’s this thing in his eyes, when he looks at me. I swear, I’ve never felt anything like that before, not even with John. It’s weird. I know it’s wrong, but I can’t stop it. A part of me,” I stopped and I could feel my eyes tearing up as my throat swelled.

Adam put his arm around me and gently rubbed my back. “It’s okay, Jayce.” He cooed in my ear and kissed my hair. He was trying to soothe me before I broke down, but I had to say the words out loud. Someone had to know.

“A part of me wants to leave John for him.”

It hurt to admit it and Adam held me closer to his side as I did, completely, break down. Tears flowed and sobs racked through my body as I soaked through his shirt. I felt ridiculous. I didn’t really have a reason to cry. I’d gotten myself into this mess. Self pity wasn’t going to help any.

Adam finally cleared his throat after my sobs died down some. “I’m sorry, Jayce.” I quickly jerked away from him to connect my puffy red eyes with his.

“What?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Wh-why are you sorry?”

He frowned. “If you say there’s something about this guy that’s different, then I believe you, and I’m sorry that you found him after John.”

“I don’t deserve sympathy.”

“Jayce, it’s not your fault.”

“It’s totally my fault! I cheated on my boyfriend with one of his closest friends!”

“This guy is a friend of John’s?” Adam’s eyes widened again and I nodded meekly. “Jayce,” he shook his head and I groaned.

“I know. It’s a mess. I’m a mess. I’m awful.”

“Things like this happen sometimes. You know, you find ‘Mr. Right’ after ‘Mr. Perfect’.”

I glanced at him sideways. “That makes no sense.”

“John is Mr. Perfect. He treats you right, he loves you. He’s great for you. But, apparently this other guy is Mr. Right. He makes everything right even if it’s obviously wrong.” Adam explained his theory and I frowned. He described the two boys flawlessly. “Now you just have to pick between Mr. Perfect and Mr. Right.”

“That does not help.”

“I know.”

“I should break things off with Mr. Right.”

“Is that really what you want?”

I bit my bottom lip and avoided Adam’s stare. “John’s been good to me, and for me.”

“He is Mr. Perfect.”

“Shut up, Adam.”

“I’m just saying.”

“I’m going to get food.” I stood up hurriedly; ready to be done with this conversation.

“Wait!” Adam yelled as I started out of his room. “We haven’t made an official decision!”

“We?” I couldn’t help but smile of my shoulder as he quickly caught up with me and threw his arm around my shoulder.

“You can make the decision; I just want to be the first to know what it is.” He smirked and I rolled my eyes.

“Well, I’ll let you know when I find out.”

“Sweet.”

“You are such a horrible older brother.”

“That’s hurtful, Jayce.”

“Seriously? You should be yelling at me right now. I’ve done something unforgiveable.”

Adam shrugged as he went toward the fridge. “You’d be surprised at how compassionate people are. Especially when love is involved.”

“Is that your clever way of saying you’ve already forgiven me?”

“That’s my clever way of saying John’s not going to hate you.”

I scoffed and took an apple from the fruit bowl. “Yeah, right.” I muttered under my breath. The subject was finally dropped after that. My mind kept reeling back to John and Nick and the complete different responses I had to each of them.

Adam and I played a few games of pool. I helped him study from another test coming up. Andrea appeared around four and the three of us went out for a walk. Andrea was a little less snobbish and the relief was clearly radiating from Adam. He was always so worried about her turning out like our parents.

Dinner came at six, sharp. I wore my rebel dress with my head held high. Adam shook his head when he saw me in it, but he escorted me to the table nonetheless. My mother, of course, scorned at my dress the entire night, sneaking in snide comments about it here and there. I ignored them for the most part and continuously asked my father about work.

By the time nine rolled around, I was dead tired. I stayed up another hour with Adam and Andrea, just catching up and reminiscing some. Then I was knocked out in my bed. Until 3:37 a.m. because my phone started ringing then.

I was half asleep when I answered. “Hello?” I sat up, my head tilted as I kept my eyes closed.

“You know, I don’t know my way around Phoenix for shit.”

It took several moments for my brain to process whose voice it was. “Nick?”

“Jayce.”

I scrunched my eyebrows and rubbed at my eyes. “You’re in Phoenix?” He chuckled, apparently finding my sleepy confusion amusing.

“Yes.”

“Why?” I finally opened my eyes and glanced over at the clock. I groaned when I saw how early it was.

“Because I wanted to see you.”

I tried not to smile, but it was impossible. “How did you get here?”

“John let me borrow his car.”

“He gave you his car to see his girlfriend?”

“Technically he let me use it to take Nat out.”

“Awe.”

“I told her about you.”

“What?” The adrenaline kicked into my system faster than expected. My eyes were wide open and sleep was at the back of my mind.

“She asked and I couldn’t lie to her. She’s my sister, Jayce.”

I frowned. I hated how much we had in common. It made it really hard to talk some sense into myself. I let out a sigh and then started picking at my blanket. “Well, I guess we were in the same boat then.”

“We were?”

“I told Adam.” There was a long pause where I guessed he was calling me a hypocrite in his head. “Everything.”

“Everything?”

“I think the only thing I left out was your name.”

“I didn’t tell Nat yours either.” He chuckled again and the sound made me shiver. How stupid that he could turn me on over the phone and without even trying. “So, now that we’ve got that off our chests, are you going to come save me from being murdered in Arizona’s capitol?”

I rolled my eyes. “I guess. Where are you?”

“Like I know?” His sarcasm made me giggle as I climbed out of bed and searched for my dress in the dark. I didn’t feel like turning the light on and looking for actual clothes, but I knew I’d tossed the dress somewhere over to the right before crawling into my bed.

“Okay, well what do you see around you?”

“Um, I pulled over in a Starbucks parking lot.”

“That’s a big help because, you know, there’s like 80 Starbucks in town, not including the ones close to city limits.” I threw the sarcasm back at him as I finally found the dress and tugged it on.

“Yeah, I see one down the block now. If I walk down to the light and read you the street names, would that help?”

“Greatly.” I picked my sandals and wallet up, tiptoeing out of the room without running a brush through my hair. I didn’t care enough about looking good at 3:37 in the morning to attempt much of anything except dressing myself.

Nick gave me the street names when I was entering the garage. He actually wasn’t that far, but just to scare him some, I told him to get back in the car and lock the doors. Then I hung up and grabbed the keys to the family’s black BMW.

About five minutes later, I pulled into the brightly lit yet completely vacant parking lot. I smirked as Nick climbed out of John’s car, glancing around nervously before getting into the passenger seat. “Hey.”

Without any kind of return greeting, Nick leaned over and cupped my face in his hands, pulling me toward him as he pushed his lips against mine. The kiss was more forceful than I was used to, but it left me breathless nonetheless. He rested his forehead on mine for a moment and then whispered. “I missed you.”

This was so wrong. My stomach churned and I pulled away from him, turning my gaze forward as I forced myself to not say the same three words back to him. “So, is there a particular reason you drove into Phoenix this morning?”

“Yeah, actually, there is.” I winced at his tone. He was upset by my subject change. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you.” I winced again as I pulled out of the parking lot. “I was thinking maybe we could go somewhere, just the two of us.” He reached over and grabbed my hand.

My heartbeat stuttered as his touch but my mind was still fighting it. “Well, it’s three a.m.”

Nick chuckled. “I’m sure something’s open in Phoenix. What’s the night life like around here?”

I glanced over at him unbelievably. I didn’t know how he could act so nonchalant about this. But there he sat, looking as careless as ever, a small smile quirking up the corners of his mouth. I couldn’t help but smile too as I stared at him.

“You know that dance you did last night at the bowling alley was really sexy.” My cheeks burned as I giggled lightly and Nick raised my hand in his to kiss it softly. “Maybe you could show it to me again?”

“Not a chance.” I smirked as I knew exactly where I was going to take him.

“Aw, why not?” He whined and I rolled my eyes.

“Because I’ve got something else planned.”

“You do?”

“Mhmm.”

I could see him grinning from the corner of my eye as we both fell silent for the rest of the drive. I pulled into another brightly lit but completely deserted parking lot. Nick gave me a look before climbing out of the car and walking over toward me.

“Golf club?” He took my hand and laced our fingers as we started for the main building.

“It’s called country club, smarty pants.” I teased as I pulled away from him and sifted through the keys attached to the black BMW’s. I found the right one and then unlocked the door.

“Should I ask how you got a key to the country club doors, or should I just shut my mouth and follow?” I laughed as I took his hand again and dragged him inside.

“My parents are big funders of the club so they got their own special keys. I stole my dad’s when I was thirteen and I’ve been sneaking in here ever since.”

“Never been caught?”

“Oh, I’ve been caught. After the first five times, the staff installed cameras, but after they caught me on film the first time, my parents demanded the cameras be taken down and they made a few extra donations to make sure things stayed quiet.”

“You were a trouble maker.”

I snorted and glanced at him. “You have no idea.” Once we reached the kitchen area, I let go of his hand as I continued toward the freezer.

“Have I told you how amazing you look in that dress?” I giggled and glanced at him. He was biting his bottom lip and ogling over my legs. I rolled my eyes. Typical boy.

“Don’t even think about it.”

“Think about what?” He asked innocently as he dragged his eyes back up my body and locked them with mine.

“This dress is not coming off at any point tonight.”

“Technically it’s morning.” He smirked.

“Technically I finally received mother nature’s gift after you so considerately forgot to use a condom last time, and there’s no way you’re getting into my panties this morning.”

Nick laughed. “Alright. I get the picture. No sex.”

“Damn right, no sex.” I glared at him, which made him laugh harder. I rolled my eyes again and leaned forward into the freezer to grab the cartoon of ice cream from the very back. “Now if you grab two spoons from that draw by your ass, I’ll let you have some of my yummy mango sherbet.”

“What if I rub them on my ass?” He smirked and grabbed the spoons. I shook my head, trying to contain my giggles as I hopped up onto the main counter.

“You are an ass.” Nick hopped up onto the counter beside me, handing me a spoon and then kissing my cheek. I glanced at him before trying to open the cartoon.

“So, wearing the rebel dress and sneaking into the country club to eat ice cream. Is this the dark side of your personality?”

“Later we’ll do some breaking and stealing, but for now, yes. Mango sherbet is the best thing I’ve ever tasted and the chef here makes it homemade every morning.”

“Wait, breaking and stealing?”

I grinned devilishly at his shocked expression. “I was a very misunderstood teenager. All my angst had to go somewhere.”

“I think I underestimated you.”

I threw my head back and laughed hard. It took a few minutes to compose myself, and once I did I found Nick scooping my sherbet into his mouth. “I will admit that I was very bad, but,” I shrugged, “that was a different part of my life.”

“Exactly how bad is bad?”

“Well, through my all night partying, constant skipping, and other mischievous activities, the lead detectives downtown got to know me on a first and last name basis.”

“Ouch.”

“My parents made sure everything got wiped away though. Couldn’t have their family name be tied to anything remotely scandalous.”

“I still don’t understand you.”

“The feelings mutual.”

We fell silent as we continued to eat the rest of my sherbet. Every now and then his spoon would hit mine and we’d giggle. It was strange, but easy. After we left the kitchen, I led the way to the club’s bar. Nick gave me another one of those looks before I hopped over the bar and bent down the liquor cabinet.

“Do you have another key for this?”

“Actually this is the breaking part.”

“You’re breaking into the mini bar?” Nick laughed as I stood back up, two bottles of Jack Daniels in each of my hands.

“This part used to be so much more fun when I was under 21.” He shook his head and took the bottles from me as I had to scoot across the bar again. My dress drifted up and once again, I noticed Nick’s gaze linger on my legs. “Come on, Santino. You’re not going to want to miss this.” I took one bottle from him and smirked as I started walking away, swaying my hips a little more than necessary.

Nick’s arm wrapped around my waist before I got three steps ahead. He spun me around toward him and pressed our bodies together before closing the gap between our lips. I closed my eyes and let the one hand that wasn’t clutching my alcohol run up to his hair. My pulse increased as the kiss quickly heated up. He traced his tongue along my bottom lip and that was when I finally had to pull away.

Breathing heavily, I stepped out of his arms and stared at him. “Come on.” I nodded my head toward the back door and turned around. I tried calming my heart as I took another set of keys from a hook. I unlocked the back door and stepped out. Nick stepped out seconds later.

“Is that …”

“A golf cart.” I nodded and then got in, sliding over to the steering wheel. I put the keys in and started it, looking over at Nick questionably when he didn’t get in. “Santino?”

He snapped out of whatever he was in and got into the golf cart. I took off and he held onto both bottles of Jack Daniels. “Where are we going exactly?”

“You’ll see.” I smiled as I drove.

It took about twenty minutes to get to the right spot. The spot I’d spent several nights drinking and crying myself to sleep. It was near the lake the club had put in two years after my parents joined. I stopped the golf cart about thirty feet away and then got out.

I took a seat near a tree with my bottle. I undid the cap and took a quick sip before Nick came to sit between me and the tree.

“I’m going to guess and say you come here often.” I smiled a little, looking out at the water.

“I used to. This was kind of my secret hiding place when I didn’t want to go home.”

Nick sat his bottle of alcohol down on the grass and adjusted himself so that he was leaning against the tree trunk. Then he pulled me to him, putting my back against his chest and his arms around me. I bit my bottom lip and looked at the skyline.

“I’m—,” I swallowed hard and then tried again. “I’m really glad you came.”

He squeezed me to him. “Me too.” He leaned down and kissed my temple, burying his face in my neck afterward. I giggled a little and pushed his head back up.

“Keep your eyes open and look over there.” I pointed and a few minutes later, just as I knew it would, the sun started to peak out over the horizon. I’d never shared this with another person, not even Adam, but laying there in Nick’s arms made me feel whole. It was perfect.

“God, that’s beautiful.”

“Yeah.”

I bit my bottom lip and laced my fingers with his. As much as I knew I shouldn’t, I let myself forget about John. I let go of the guilt and the shame and everything else. I sat there with Nick and just enjoyed the Arizona sunrise.