Task #1: Get everyone up for breakfast.
As MJ headed upstairs, she pulled out her daily planner to check her schedule. Today was a Tuesday, which meant all four of them had morning classes. She started with the room nearest to the stairs, which belonged to Andreus Economou, the grumpiest of them all.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and said chirpily, “Good morning, Andreus!”
A pillow would have hit her smack in the face if MJ hadn’t been ready to catch it. Of course, the first few times, she had not been ready to catch it. Since even a groggy Andreus had perfect aim, MJ was grateful that the club’s treasurer only liked to throw pillows and not bricks.
Walking past the bed, she went directly to the windows and raised the blinds. “It’s time to wake up! You’ve got a class at eight!” She turned around and handily caught another pillow hurtling towards her.
Finally, she went to his private bathroom. Wetting one of the hand towels, MJ marched back to the room, pulled away the pillow Andreus had slammed over his head, and replaced it with the hand towel. Then she started rubbing his face, particularly his eyes.
“Fuck off, MJ.”
“You know I can’t do that. You’ve got classes today, and Hallie told me you have an exam first thing in the morning.”
Andreus, eyes still closed, muttered, “Hallie doesn’t know shit.”
She countered promptly, “Hallie knows a lot of shit because she taught me all the shit I know.”
It was enough to have Andreus smile. “You are too much of a nag. You know that, right?”
“It’s another kind of shit Hallie taught me.”
He threw another pillow at her. “Go on, I’m awake. I’ll just shower and head down.”
Next was Yuri, but as expected, Hallie’s older brother was already up and freshly showered. “I heard you and Andreus shouting,” Yuri said when she peeked inside his room.
She only smiled. “It’s nothing new. Do you need anything else before I go to Kellion’s room?”
There was a moment’s hesitation before Yuri said, “No. Nothing.”
That was odd. MJ puzzled over it as she went inside Kellion’s room next. His room was always the messiest, and the sight of what she had to clean up after class made her wince. “Good morning, Kellion.”
No answer.
That was also expected. Kellion hated attending his classes, more so than the rest of his friends. There was something about authority he despised, and he liked flouting it as often as he could. Whereas the trick to handling Andreus was making herself too nice for comfort, for Kellion it was the opposite.
After raising the blinds and letting sunlight blaze into the room, MJ headed back to the side of the bed. And then she started to sing. “Amazing Grace...” She sang as loudly as she could.
“Okay, I’m up, dammit,” Kellion growled when he couldn’t take any more of MJ’s God-awful voice. How a sweet-looking thing could have such a terrible voice was definitely one of the Devil’s greatest curses on mankind.
“Breakfast in thirty,” she reminded him.
Kellion didn’t answer.
She started to sing again, the national anthem this time.
“Okay, dammit,” he bellowed. “I’m up.” He cracked one eye open and muttered, “I hope Helios gives you hell.”
She gasped. “Helios will not give me hell. He’s the nicest among you all, you know!”
Kellion opened and closed his mouth several times. “Never mind.” It was too early to argue with a stubborn MJ. Helios, the nicest among them? Ha! Biggest fucking lie in the world.
A moment later, MJ was standing outside Helios’ door.
Three minutes later, she was still standing outside his door.
I can do this, I can do this, she chanted silently to herself.
Hand shaking a little, she knocked on Helios’ door.
There was a muffled answer, which she took as a sign for her to enter. “President?” She never made the mistake of calling him Helios again since her first day in the club. She didn’t have the courage to, not wanting to have Helios Andreadis look at her like she was trash, someone unfit to say his name.
Quietly slipping into Helios’ room, MJ made her way to the window without difficulty despite the darkness. After raising the blinds, she turned to greet Helios good morning but the words died in her throat.
It was going to be one of those days again then.
SWISH.
No sound of squeaking wheels, no rumbling engine, no mad laugh from James. No one hurting her, no one trying to hurt her, but it still felt the same. Sometimes, MJ felt like this hurt worse. This.
The woman in Helios’ room, in his bed...in his arms...stirred. The blanket lowered, baring one breast.
SWISH.
MJ forced herself to move. She stopped behind Helios, his back to her, his golden hair spread on the pillow like sun-kissed silk. Her hand hovered over his shoulder. It was hard to touch him during days like this. “President?”
MJ’s sweet voice, threaded with hesitation, reached him like a caress. Helios had woken up the moment she had entered the room. But he hadn’t said a word, hadn’t moved a muscle. He didn’t know why. There were so many fucking things he couldn’t understand about himself whenever she was around, and he loathed it. Sometimes, it was almost as if he loathed her, too.
Helios sensed her hesitating to touch him. It angered him, this hesitation. She had been with them more than half a month now, and yet she only displayed such reluctance with him. Why? Did she not find him attractive at all? He was the oldest member of the club, with Kellion the closest to his age at twenty-one. One-fucking-year difference! Did that matter to her so much?
Or perhaps, Helios thought grimly, it was because he was no fun. Kellion traded jokes with her. Yuri made her laugh. Even Andreus, notorious for his bad-tempered ways, could be made to laugh in her presence.
It was only him.
Only him that she did not—-
“Don’t touch me.” Helios knew the moment she was about to touch him, knew that she didn’t want to, and the knowledge enraged him. Her dislike for touching him infuriated him so much he wanted to hurt her in return.
One moment, Helios was lying on his side, then the next moment he was sitting up, the blanket falling to his waist, revealing a broad expanse of chest. His fingers encircled her wrist, and his gaze was cold as it fell on her face.
The fury on his face made her bite her lip. Hard.
Don’t look at me like I’m hurting you. How can I hurt you when you despise me? It was what he wanted to snarl at her, but he did not. To speak such words meant that he felt something for her, and that could never be.
He released her wrist. “What do you want?”
She could only look at him miserably. When he spoke so coldly like that, her vocal chords just gave up on her.
“What?”
“Ergh...urgh...argh...” She snapped her mouth shut and couldn’t help but glare at him. See? She couldn’t speak. Surely by now he should know that he could make her so nervous she just couldn’t speak in his presence?
Helios glared back. “I have no fucking clue—-”
A knock on the door cut him off before it opened, Yuri appearing at the doorway. “Hallie says breakfast is ready. You can start working on the rooms now, MJ.”
Without a word, MJ left the room, head bowed. Not caring if Yuri saw her, she then started to run towards the bathroom at the end of the hallway and locked herself inside it.
She stared at herself in the mirror. Instead of seeing her reflection, she saw Helios with a naked girl in his bed.
SWISH.
She threw up.