The Golden Boys

Chapter Eight

Beckett hadn't come to school since last Friday and news about his disappearance traveled quickly. His family had shut themselves inside of their house and were rumored to be moving out of the state. They didn't take any press questions or answer any phone calls from concerned friends, that family purposefully isolated themselves from the world. Cersei was very upset the past couple of days as Beckett didn't reply and the Golden Boys nor Zara had to heart to tell her the truth about what had happened.

Andrei had scared Beckett away. Over the years, they'd all be accustomed to Cersei getting a new love interest, this lover not living up to certain standards or Andrei just hating the guy, and then Andrei would have a "little chat" which resulted in that guy never showing his face out in public again. Cersei never knew about these "little chats" with her brother, and they kept it that way. They all knew that Andrei always had his reasons and despite the fact that Zara was on weird terms with the boy, she trusted him.

It was Thursday morning and the Golden Boys, Cersei and Zara were all on Kenji's private jet flying to his island. Zara and Andrei sat on opposite sides of the plane, Zara with Cersei and Andrei with Damien. Zara had tried to catch his eye multiple times, throwing hopeful glances that they could talk. She didn't necessarily want to approach Andrei when Cersei and the others were present. Cersei would wonder why Andrei and Zara were on weird terms, and Zara didn't want to explain to her best friend what happened last summer.

Finally, Cersei fell asleep, Damien moved over to talk with Kenji who was playing chess, and Enzo was working on his laptop. Zara took her chance to walk over to where Andrei was seated, reading a book with his legs up on the chair across from him.

"You have a sec?" she asked.

Andrei didn't bother to look up from his book as he moved his legs from the chair. Zara sat down with her legs crossed and waited for him to close his book before she spoke. He didn't. With a frown, she reached for the book and gently lowered it from blocking his face. He looked exhausted, small bags were visible under his eyes and she noticed he had drank three cups of coffee within the first hour of the plane ride.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly, getting it out from her mouth before she no longer had the guts to do it. Zara didn't like apologizing. In fact, she hated it. "I was being childish."

"Yes, you were," Andrei replied, still reading his book.

"And I too don't understand this thing between us, but I would like to be friends."

Andrei didn't say anything for a little while until, "Anything else, Caddel?"

Zara frowned. "Do you accept my apology, Lykaios?"

"You'll have to make it up to me," he offered. She could've sworn she heard amusement in his voice followed by a small twitch of his upper lip.

"What do you have in mind?" she dared to ask.

That made Andrei close his book shut and set it down to the side. For the first time in a couple of days, he looked her in the eye.

"You're playing a dangerous game, Caddel," he warned. Now his voice was a lot gruffer.

"What game?" she asked, confused at his words.

Andrei looked at her for a long time before shaking his head. "You want to know how to make it up to me?" he responded with a smirk. "I have a few ways in mind."

"Fuck off," she snapped. "You and me, never again. And as you mentioned on Tuesday, we're going to be friends."

"What I said on Tuesday is that we need to get along without arguing," he replied. "Nothing about being friends, those were your words."