Chapter 14

"For such a gloomy day you guys are looking hot," Marisol states.

It was April and the rains are pouring down outside. Everyone is talking about the Tornado that was coming up.

"They'd be perfect," one of the girls with her states.

I'm confused, "Perfect for what?"

"Can I take a picture of the cute couple for the yearbook?" Marisol asks.

"Yearbook?"

Last I knew was that Mimi Weston was in charge of the yearbook. I also knew Mimi Weston had a thing for the new and improved Richard. I'm surprised when Marisol and a whole crew of people are here. One of those people definitely is not Mimi Weston.

Marisol smiles a little bit, "Mimi took a...hiatus. Besides. I think this is going to be great in helping me kick off my career in journalism. I wanna be on the news one day."

Marisol gives me a devilish smile. It's been a few months and I had stayed clear of the Dollhouse and Serena. It was clear they were still up to their old antics. Of course, I didn't mind Marisol though. It was nice to see her come out of her shell so fully. Plus if Mimi Weston had her way she'd be taking pictures of Marisol's boyfriend butt naked.

"Well we can help you out with that," an arm folds over my shoulder.

It's Adonis, my boyfriend. He kisses me square on the lips just as Marisol snaps the photo. In that moment I hear a bunch of girls in the hallway start giggling.

"Beautiful couple," Marisol states, "Lionsdale's first gay couple. You guys will probably get your own spread in the yearbook if that's OK with you."

Adonis and I look at each other.

"What is there to say?" I ask, "We're just happy."

Marisol smiles at me at that moment, "That's the point. You guys are two sexy ass guys. All the girls want you both more because they can't have you."

I look over at Adonis, "Did you have any idea this was going on?"

He shrugs, "Not at all."

Marisol leans in, "You guys are the most popular couple in the school right now. Haven't you heard? The tickets for your gay version of West Side Story sold out."

I hadn't heard. Mrs. Lindsay definitely had us doing a lot more rehearsals. I figured it was just because the school year was over and the play was coming up soon. Now it was clear that this was a big deal.

"We've been so focused on our relationship," I admit to Marisol, "We hadn't even noticed."

Marisol shakes her head, "At least give us an interview. Some pictures. Some momentos. Anything to use in the yearbook. I think it's important to make this year memorable. And Lionsdale's first gay couple is something that should be celebrated."

I think about it. I'm not sure. A part of me wanted to do it. I was so into Adonis at this point. These last few months had been perfect. Ever since the dinner with the O'Neil's things had just changed. Adonis stopped hanging out with his old friends and I stopped hanging out with mine. We didn't talk to anyone. We sat at a table by ourselves, doing our own things. We didn't get mixed up in all the school drama and politics.

We stayed out of the limelight.

But that just made people more interested in us.

"All I care about is bae," Adonis responds almost immediately before I have a chance to answer, "Me and Yogi are good. We don't need anyone in our lives. We are done with that world."

The way Adonis says it has an emphasis on what kind of world he was talking about. The girls with Marisol had no idea what he was talking about but I knew Marisol did. He was talking about the Dollhouse world. The book of Efficacy. He was talking about the concepts that turned his group and my group into dolls in the first place.

Marisol nods, "I respect that. I'd probably get killed for saying this but keep him around Yogi. He's a real one."

With that Marisol and her friends walk away leaving me and Adonis alone.

My boyfriend leans up against my locker, "She'd get killed?"

"Killer Candy has been on the loose again. Everyone's worrying about the tornado, but she's the real storm."

"What is she saying?"

"Don't worry about it."

Even though I had stayed to myself it was hard not to realize how bad Candy had gotten. She was paranoid about Serena and her group making a comeback. Even now I can see Candy with a group of girls at her back. One of those girls was Ivy. It was in the Patience Crane guide to being a doll. The best way to keep your enemies down is to isolate them.

"Baby I can handle what your friends are doing to me."

"They aren't my friends, but if you really want to know they are spreading rumors that you, Serena and Micah knew that Braden was a rapist. She's saying you guys enabled him. She's trying to blackball all of you."

"I wouldn't count Serena out," I state shaking my head, "All I know is that Candy is doing everything that we were pissed about Serena doing at this point."

"It's karma," he states, "For all of us. For years we terrorized this school by putting our foot on everyone's necks."

I see the face on Adonis.

"Do you believe it?" he asks me.

At that moment he looks over at me. It's the end of the school day and people are starting to leave, but we are at our locker clearly stuck about this.

"Of course not. We just have to ignore her. She's just trying to ruin your reputation. Kick you guys when you're down. She must realize that people don't really hate you and that people are actually starting to like us as a couple."

Candice was playing a dangerous game though. She had ruined Braden's life and Micah's life. She was trying desperately to come after Serena and my boyfriend now.

"I don't even care what other people think. I just care about what you think about me."

"I know whatever Braden is guilty of had nothing to do with you."

"Even if it isn't raping, he did horrible things. I allowed it to happen," he responds, "Isn't that just as bad?"

"Baby, stop beating yourself up about it."

We couldn't change the past. We could just work on the future. I was just scared though. If it was up to Candice, Adonis wouldn't have much of a future inside Lionsdale High or afterward. She wanted to ruin his reputation to the fact that no college would touch him and he'd be nothing. That was that kind of thing that Candice was on right now.

And it was just getting worse.

"I've made mistakes in my past," Adonis tells me, "I just want to be right with you. All the way right."

"You already are," I assure him, "If you weren't I wouldn't be introducing you to my dad."

"Wait for what?"

"I was going to ask if you wanted to meet my dad," I explain to him, "I promise he's not as crazy as the rest of the family plus he's really excited to meet the guy whose been taking up all my time."

Adonis is shocked.

"Wow. Yeah. I'd definitely love to meet your dad. When?"

"Today?"

He looks nervous. This was definitely a big step but out of no where he grabs my hand leans in and kisses me as hard as he can, "Sure."
I'm surprised he's saying yes. I'm happy though. This is good this is really good.

My heart is racing and as nervous as I am I can tell that Adonis is more nervous. I get it though. We had been dating a few months now. Things were getting serious. We'd started out on a bad foot. His friends basically made my life a living hell. I wondered if he thought my dad would judge him for that kind of stuff. I knew my dad though. He'd never forced me to be anything different from who I am, which was why it was such a big shocker when I had my surgery. Still, I knew he'd want to meet Adonis. I knew he'd want to get to know him.

We start walking out of the school but we see a crowd of people standing at the door. I'm a little confused but I'm not the only one.

"What's happening?" I hear a basketball player name Tommy ask from behind me.

At first, I'm confused as I am but then I see the storm brewing outside. It's definitely getting bigger. I can see the trees swaying left and right. A group of teachers are surrounding the doors stopping people from leaving the school. This was a fucking mess.

"The roads are closed," Mrs. Lindsay announces to the group of students.

"What does that mean?" a girl asks.

"It means you guys are stuck in the school until further notice."

~

I don't think anyone expects what's happening to be happening. We are huddled up on the gymnasium floor. A bunch of students did manage to leave before the school was shut down but a good amount were stuck in the school. What was worse was that we were stuck without electricity.

"Our first night sleeping together," Adonis states.

"Romantic," I sarcastically respond.

Luckily we did have emergency sleeping bags. Adonis is pulled up right next to mine. A part of me likes the intimacy of being close to him for the first time at night but I didn't know how I felt about 80 other students surrounding us. Between the fact that the only lights we had were flashlights and the only thing we had to eat were leftovers from lunch earlier no one was really in a good mood.

Across the room, I see Micah and Serena. They have cuddled up together. The weird thing about all of this is that not too far from them was Candice and her crew. That included Ivy, Kordell, Marisol, and Richard. Seeing some of my old friends in the same room as us makes things awkward, to say the least. I keep getting eyes from Kordell who has been steaming ever since Adonis and I made it official. I knew it was a conversation he was just waiting to have. And unfortunately today I had nowhere to hide.

"Hey..." a voice states.

I knew we were going to get approached. I didn't know we were going to get approached by Micah first though. He is standing there over our heads with a smile on his face. I'm a little confused by it.

"What the hell do you want?" Adonis states.

He damn near spits the words. I look over at Adonis and I can tell there is hatred in his eyes. Not dislike. It was pure hatred.

"I just knew that you had a portable charger in your locker and was wondering if..."

"Ask someone else," Adonis responds.

"I just have to call my mom, man, let her know we're OK."

"Not my problem," Adonis states.

Adonis looks away. It's weird seeing Adonis being mean to someone he was so close to. I know why he's upset too. It was because of me. It was because of what Micah did to me.

"Micah can we have a minute?" I ask him.

Micah nods. I watch him walk away.

"Don't say it..." Adonis states as soon as Micah leaves.

"I feel bad for him."

"I hate him."

"He's hurt," I interrupt, "Me and Micah are related but you and Micah are like brothers. I don't want to come between that."

"I can never forgive him for what he did to you."

"You have to forgive him. You don't have to be best friends with him. You don't have to forget, but you have to forgive," I explain to him, "Go help him out."
Adonis is reluctant. I can tell there is so much hostility still there and it's just something that I don't want to see. He takes a deep breath, gives me a kiss and whispers something that I'm surprised about, "You're beautiful inside and out."

I'm proud of Adonis when he gets up and goes to get the charger from his locker for Micah. I'm beyond proud actually.

As soon as Adonis leaves it sort of feels like there are sharks in the water and they smell blood. It takes only seconds before I'm surrounded by the new Dollhouse. Candice, Kordell, Marisol, Richard and even fake ass wannabe Ivy are in my face within seconds.

"Are you guys always together?" Kordell asks.

"That's normal. That's kind of what people in a relationship do," I respond.

I watch Kordell literally squeeze his face as though he just tasted something disgusting in his mouth. It feels sweet to me seeing him so irritated by the fact that I was happy with someone else. I thought Kordell was a good guy. Maybe he was a good guy at some point but right now the power had gotten to his head. The power had gotten to all of their heads.

"We miss you," Marisol states.

"That is also normal. This is kind of what happens when your best friend secretly videotapes you having sex with someone else and sends it to a guy that she knows you've been crushing on since you were a kid."

"I didn't force Kordell's dick in you," Candice responds, "But if you're upset about it. I do apologize. I was only doing what's best for you."

The nerve of this girl.

"You know what's best for me?"

"Of course. We're a group, besides this dumb bitch here," Candice states looking at Ivy.

Ivy smiles and makes a light laugh. I think she thinks Candice is joking, but the rest of us know Candice isn't. Candice gives her a smile back and a slight sneer. Ivy is none the wiser. What a fucking idiot the girl is. She is literally sitting there letting Candice talk shit to her face without saying a word.

"You're so silly Candice."

"See what I mean?" Candice asks the rest of us, "This is why we need to stick together. We started this together, we need to end this together."

End what together?

"What are you saying?"

"We let you have your fun with Adonis, because you are my best friend and I love you dearly," Candice explains, "But the end of the school year is coming and we need to destroy the old dollhouse completely before the beginning of next year."

"They are pretty much done," Richard attempts to argue.

Candice shoots him a glare. A glare so cold that it probably shrinks his dick.

"They can recover over the summer. Do you want to go back to being a nobody, Richard? Because that's what you are. Look over there. Look at Serena. She's plotting. She's plotting for all of us."

Candice looks over at Serena. Serena is just sitting there. I look over at her. If Serena was plotting then she definitely wasn't doing a good job at it. Candice is beyond paranoid though. I look in her eyes and she just seems like she is about to lose it. I can't tell if she is completely serious or not. It's kind of scary to be honest. The girl looks like she is really going through it.

"It's done. Thorn's plan was to stop my mother from marrying Adonis's father. That has been accomplished."

"That was Thorn's plan. Have you seen Thorn lately?" Candice asks.

"I actually saw Thorn earlier," Marisol states out of nowhere.

"That's not the fucking point Marisol. He abandoned us. My plan is to get rid of Serena and her gang. That includes your boyfriend Adonis."

"They are no threat to you. Adonis doesn't care about this shit."

"Adonis is way too rich and the most handsome boy in this school," Candice states.

"Really?" Kordell asks with this annoyed grimace.

"No offense. If he's not one of us then he's a threat to us. The only way they aren't a threat is if they are behind expelled, behind bars or worse..."

I pause. What the fuck was she insinuating?

"Worse?" I ask.

I look at how uncomfortable Richard and Marisol are. They have this worried look in their eyes. I couldn't be the only one to think Candice was losing it with her obsession to destroy the old Dollhouse. This girl was really just on the brink of suggesting some really foul shit.

"Lionsdale is a jungle, Yogi. It's survival of the fittest," Candice explains.

Here was this girl who was literally playing the victim. She was a girl who was getting popular based on the idea of getting raped. She was never raped. She was never a victim. This was all some grand scheme to make people feel sorry for her, get their attention and become the most popular girl in school. And she was obsessed with the attention. She was beyond obsessed with it.

"Get the hell away from me," I state.

"Don't make us enemies Yogi," Candice threatens me, "You won't win."

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" I scream out.

"Is there a problem here?" Adonis asks.

He's returned. He's given Micah his charger and he's back. I see how protective he is when he steps to them. Kordell is in his face in a minute. I knew Kordell was just waiting for this moment.

"Who you raising your voice at boy?" Kordell asks him.

I grab Adonis and pull him away, "It's not worth it."

~

We are in the locker room before we know it. Adonis is pacing back and forth. I just told him what Candice stated.

"We have to do something," I state.

"I know," he responds, "We can't ignore it anymore."

Adonis looks stressed. Candice was literally making blanket statements at this points. The bullied had become the bullies. The new Dollhouse wasn't going to stop until Serena and Adonis were destroyed, in some way that they couldn't return from. They didn't just want them to bow down. They wanted them completely gone.

And I couldn't allow that to happen.

"I'm sorry."

"This isn't your fault. It's mine," he responds, "Listen. I have to relax. This stress isn't going to help me think of a plan. I'm going to the showers."

"OK I'll wait here."

"No."

"No?"

"Come with me?"

Holy shit. My heart is beating fast at that point. Did he just ask me to go in the showers with him? I am still stuck on the question when he begins to undress. I watch him take off his shirt. I stare at his broad chest and his tight abs. Then I watch him take off his pants slowly peeling them off until I see him in the sexiest white Calvin Klein underwear. Slowly he peels those off too and reveals what is underneath. It's fucking beautiful, to say the least.

I just stare at him and his package. He's staring at me stare at him.

Then he turns and starts walking away.

I watch Adonis's muscular ass the whole time. At his point, I'm ripping my clothes off with the desperation of a fat kid at a donut convention. I run to the public gym showers with him at that moment and see him already under steaming water. The water cascades over Adonis's sexy body at that moment.

"You've been a ride or die since we've made this official," he states, grabbing me and pulling me under the warm shower with him, "I think it's time we take this to the next level, don't you think?"

"You want to fuck?"

"No. I want to make love."

I'm panting as he grabs me up to him and starts kissing me. It's the sexiest thing in the world as his tongue is in my mouth and his hands are playing through my hair. He squeezes my body, as though trying to claim it as his own. We are so close you would think we were merging into one another.

He turns me around at that moment and leans me up against the shower.

We were making love. Literally. We were forming the building blocks of love. Each time he touched me he put another block up. We were making it. We were designing it. Each time he licks me he adds another line to the blueprint of love. We were constructing our love through our touching.

"FUCK!" I moan.

I'm doing this because his tongue is in my ass. He's licking slowly, massaging my hole with his tongue and spreading my cheeks so far apart that I feel the water raining down on them each time he comes up for a breath. He doesn't take long breaths though. Within a matter of seconds he's diving back in and I'm pounding on the wall of the shower.

He was building me up. Like a home. He was making our love and building it strong. He was building me up for his dick.
Soon when he's done licking me I can feel his dick press against my hole.

"Push out," he tells me in this deep sexy voice.

I push my hole out accepting him into me at that moment. His dick gets into me and I moan so loud I'm He was building this love with his dick so that he could live in me. Our love would be made of bricks. He wanted to dwell in me. Deep inside of me. My asshole had become a hearth of comfort for him. It had become a den of affection. panting. He's fucking me in those next few minutes thrusting inside of me with deep, slow and yet aggressive thrusts. My heart is thumping at this point. I'm feeling amazing as he pins me down with his hands. He thrust seems like he's aiming for a different part of my prostate. Each thrust is slow and seemed so well spelled out.

He's nibbling at the back of my neck. He's kissing me. His tongue is just as deep in my mouth as his dick is in my ass. He's squeezing my dick, jerking me off.

The house was finished.

"Argh..." we moan together.

We are ready to collapse on one another but for some reason, I swear I have this sneaking suspicion that we weren't alone. I turn at that moment.

"Who's there?"

"Did you see someone?" he asks.

"No...I thought I did but..."

He laughs, "You're getting paranoid like your friends. Wash yourself off man. I'm about to run and get some of that good soap out my locker."

He leaves me at that moment.

Just as he leaves though I see this look in his eyes. This angry look. He looks pissed about something. I don't think he realizes that I notice but I definitely do. Maybe that's why I keep the water running at that point so that he could think I was still showering but I follow him.

It takes me a second to find him. He's hiding for some reason.

Why would Adonis be hiding?

I see his shadow in the corner of the dark locker room. He's talking in the dark with someone.

"You were watching us," Adonis states.

"People said you guys were down here," the person responds, "I didn't mean to interrupt."

It's a deep voice. A guy. It's familiar but in the darkness, my mind is going blank trying to figure out who it is.

"I'm not really believing that," he responds.

"If I wanted Yogi I would have pursued him already."

"So you don't like him? Because I see how you look at him..."

"I respect you."

"That's not what I asked," Adonis responds, "Besides I know you respect me. I made you. I saved you when everyone else abandoned you. Don't fucking forget what you owe me."

"Where's this hostility coming from?"

"You knew my friends jumped my boyfriend and you didn't fucking tell me," Adonis responds with this anger.

"I didn't think it was relevant. You wanted me to the be the middle man in this and that's my job. Everything you wanted I did."

"I didn't want him changed so much. You told me the surgery was minor..."

What. The. Fuck.

"I didn't see you complaining when you were just making love to him..." the person responds.

"Thorn don't fuck with me..."

Thorn.

Adonis was talking to Thorn.

I step out at that moment. I use my phone as a flashlight. Adonis turns completely shocked that I am here wrapped in a towel seeing him talking to Thorn.

The look on Adonis's face says it all. I was wrong about Uncle Brett.

"It was you...you were the benefactor," I realize.

All of a sudden I remember all the times Adonis said he regretted not doing anything about Serena and his other friends. But he had done something. He had attempted to replace them with a new Dollhouse. Just not too long ago he said Candice and the others were not my faults, they were his. Adonis didn't want my mother and his father getting married. Adonis wanted to be with me. He wanted a reason to come out of the closet. I was that reason.

A part of me knows it makes sense. It makes sense why Thorn was so intent on focusing on my relationship with Adonis. It made sense why even though Thorn seemed so attracted to me, he was so hesitant to cross that line.

A part of me still doesn't want to believe it though.

I hoped our whole relationship wasn't built on manipulation.

I want Adonis to tell me it wasn't true. I'm praying.

"I wanted to tell you..."

Fuck. It was true. He was the benefactor.