Hex

Chapter 14

"When are you guys going home?" Zane asked. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and I had big plans of staying in our apartment with some ice cream and a couple bottles of wine.

"Probably early tomorrow morning," Bishop answered, shrugging. The three of us and Danny were seated in the kitchen. Valeria had flown out to see her aunt in Florida at the beginning of the week.

     "I might leave tonight, my mom's all on me. What about you, Vienna?" Zane asked.

     "Oh, you know. I'm not going, um, home, per-say. Just gonna hang out here," I said, awkwardly. I avoided all eye contact. It was my first holiday without my family, and I wanted to remember that fact as little as possible.

     "You're staying here by yourself? What about your aunt?" Danny asked.

     "Well, they always go to my big family Thanksgiving, which I am no longer invited to, so. But I'll be fine though, no need to worry about little old me," I forced a giggle and then sipped my water.

     "Yeah, there's no way that's happening," Bishop said. He came and stood behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders. "You're coming home with us."

     "Oh, no that's okay. I'm not gonna crash your family's Thanksgiving," I protested, shaking my head. "I'll be fine here. Have some peace and quiet, you know, relax."

     "He's right, we're not leaving you here. Finn always comes too, it'll be a whole party," Danny insisted.

     "Please, Vi? My parents would love it, I promise. My mom would have my neck if I let you stay here," Bishop said, looking at me with the sweetest expression on his face. My heart practically melted, so I slowly shook my head yes, almost against my will.

     "Okay, okay, but only if you call them and make sure it's okay first." I hated the idea of intruding, especially on Bishop's parents, whom I had never met.

Sure enough, Bishop pulled out his phone and called his mom, and sure enough, she was all for it. From the sound of it, it seemed like Bishop had really talked me up to her before.

     "Soooo, you'll come?" Danny asked me, after Bishop had hung up the phone.

     "Yeah, I guess so. Thanks, you two, for inviting me," I said, giving in to them. I jumped up and headed behind the counter, immediately searching through all of our cabinets.

     "What are you looking for?" Zane asked, watching me curiously.

     "I can't show up empty-handed! I gotta whip something up."

     "Can you even cook?" Danny asked.

     "Well, no, not really. Our holidays were usually catered. But I've watched the Food Network before. How hard can it be?"

     Zane and Bishop looked at each other. Zane whispered something, Bishop nodded, and they quickly shook hands, before returning their eyes to me. Both of them were hiding smiles.

     "Whatever bet you idiots just made, forget it. I'm gonna make some," I looked at the ingredients I had in front of me, "fantastic cookies, so suck it." I turned around in a huff and got out a bowl, now too annoyed and proud to even look up a recipe.

     I mixed some ingredients in the bowl, going off vibes only, no measurements, and then formed them into almost cookie-shaped lumps. As we waited for the cookies to bake, I asked a question I had been wondering for a while at this point.

     "So, how did you guys all meet anyways?"

     "Well," Danny started, and I was already rolling my eyes. "I came out of the womb, and then ten minutes later, this doofus almost dropped me."

     "Not what I meant." I looked at Bishop, patiently waiting for the story.

     "Well, let's see. I've known Finn forever. We met when I was in first grade, I think. Finn was mad about something, so he came up behind me at lunchtime and slapped my peanut butter and fluff out of my hand. I picked it up and ate it anyways, and we've been friends ever since," Bishop explained, shrugging his shoulders like this was incredibly simple.

     "I guess Finn realized that being best friends with the most easygoing person to ever exist might balance him out a little," Danny said. "The one kid he couldn't scare away."

     "One of his better decisions," Zane chimed in, laughing.

     "Okay, what about you and Zane?"

     "We met freshman year, in the dorms," Zane said.

     "Yeah, he got kicked out of some girl's room, and she stole all of his clothes, so I found him running naked through our hall and let him come into my room and borrow some clothes," Bishop added. "Actually, borrow might be the wrong word. I never did see those clothes again."

     "And ya never will," Zane remarked, winking at him and blowing a kiss.

     Bishop caught the kiss and pressed it to his heart jokingly. "You idiots blow each other kisses, and I'm the gay one, makes no sense," Danny said.

     My eyes widened, and I snapped my head to look at him, but the other two didn't react. "You guys didn't tell her?" Danny asked, catching my confused gaze.

     "Not our secret to tell," Bishop remarked, shrugging.

     "Honestly, I probably would've, but I forgot she didn't know about it, until just now," Zane said.

     "Really? I thought for sure one of you had let it slip by now," he said, before turning to look at me again. "I'm gay. It's, uh, hardly a secret anymore, but, like, my family doesn't know yet or anything. So just like, don't mention it."

     "Safe with me, buddy," I said, smiling, as the oven dinged. I whirled around and pulled out my cookies. They were almost completely blackened at the top and even darker at the bottom. Smoke poured out of the oven, and I quickly shut it and turned it off, hoping the boys wouldn't notice.

     "Hm, smells a little burnt there, Vi," Danny remarked, trying to peer around my body to see the cookies.

"No, nope, not at all. They're supposed to smell like that, I think. We just need to wait for them to, you know, set or whatever."

"Does she mean let them cool?" Zane asked, leaning towards Bishop.

Bishop grinned his stupidly cute smile, as he looked at me. I quickly dropped my eyes, a blush spreading across my cheeks. I turned back to my cookies and pried them off of the sheet. I piled the burnt rocks onto a paper plate, before proudly presenting it to the boys.

They all burst out laughing. "I am not eating that," Danny said, scrunching his nose at my dessert.

"Well, we gotta try it, dude, so we know who won," Bishop said, looking at Zane.

"Alright fine, but get me a bucket," Zane joked, faking gagging.

"Oh, shut your mouths and try my fucking cookies," I grumbled.

They each exchanged wary glances, before begrudgingly grabbing one. They took small bites and chewed for a moment. Then Zane spit his right back onto the table. "Vienna, are you trying to fucking kill us?" He sputtered, aggressively wiping his mouth.

Bishop was forcing himself to still chew it, looking like he was trying hard to keep it down. "Oh, just spit it out," I spat out, rolling my eyes.

He spit it into his hand. "Ugh, thank you," he said, grimacing. He reached into his wallet and handed Zane some money. "He wins. I had some obviously misplaced faith in you."

I frowned and dumped my cookies into the trash can. "Fuck all of you."