A Coalition Story

Tying Up Loose Ends-To An Extent

A few months had passed since the disaster that was winter and spring, and Ravyn wasn't sure she'd ever been happier. She had her Ace by her side every night. Alice had a room in their apartment and was out of a toxic household and away from Lev and the crappy people in the Coalition (or as far away as she could get). Cal had finally committed to Torin and they had their own apartment below Ravyn and Ace's, including a room for Alice for when she wanted to spend time with them. Every other week, Ravyn and Ace met up with Nathaniel and Mallory for dinner. Which always included her niece Nathalie, thankfully for everyone. Ravyn had never been great with kids, but everything felt somewhat natural when she was with her precious niece. It didn't hurt that Ace and Nate got along swimmingly. Cal and Torin sometimes even joined them for dinner, and Alice usually attended, too.
Now, though, the little family (because that's what they had become to each other) sat gathered in Ravyn and Ace's comfortable living room. And, of course, they were playing never have I ever. Alice was drinking champagne, but the two couples were downing tequila.
"Never have I ever slept with more than two people," Ravyn announced, knowing that she could get all three boys to drink to that one.
"Are we talking at the same time or in total?" Cal asked.
"Excalibur! Don't tell me you had a threesome!" Ravyn shrieked. Alice had (wisely) covered her ears. Cal, just as wisely, didn't reply with words. Instead, he downed another shot.
"Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to, love," Ace chuckled, taking another shot. Torin took one, too, a wry smile on his face.
"Alice, you're good now," Ravyn sighed, giving the girl a thumbs up.
"My turn. Never have I ever had an addiction." Cal's taunting tone earned a glare from his cousin, but her husband didn't seem to care, and took two shots.
"One for each," he muttered quietly. Ravyn glared at Cal again, who actually was laughing for once in his life. While it was joyful for her to see her best friend so happy and relaxed for the first time in years, Ravyn still was glad he didn't laugh often. Somehow, even though his laugh was perfectly normal, it was annoying.
Sighing, she took a shot herself.
"What were you addicted to, Ray?"
"Bad choices, bad boys, bad ideas, just generally things that were bad for me." A somber mood settled over the room. Technically, it was Ravyn's bad ideas that had caused a lot of the messes they'd been in recently.
"Okay, never have I ever crashed my motorcycle," Torin announced, breaking the silence that Ravyn was beginning to think was only uncomfortable for her.
"Why are you guys targeting me?" Atticus groaned, taking what was probably his fifth shot of the night. Luckily, they weren't doing full shots, and Ace held his alcohol remarkably well. But even then, Ravyn knew he was drunk. He had already leaned his head against her shoulder, breathing in her perfume. It wasn't that he was opposed to PDA or anything, actually he loved it, but Ravyn knew he tried to keep it to a minimum when Alice was around. That and Ace rarely rested his head on her shoulder. Usually it was the other way around.
"It's because you're a fun drunk," Ravyn commented, leaning her head atop Ace's. He was a cute drunk, too. He was normally just sexy, but something about drunken Ace could be really cute. As long as the drinking was for fun and not for coping. Sadly, his drinking binges usually came because of his father, but since moving out and getting married, those were now few and far between.
"Okay. Never have I ever," Alice paused, looking around the group. There was a lot she hadn't done that they had, but it wasn't like she wanted to target any of them. Or get them all drunk at once. Considering how she had barely had any champagne, well, she was going to be taking care of someone that night. She just hoped it wasn't one of the boys. They were heavy.
"Never have I ever been in love." She would have to settle for getting them all drunk. No need to target Ace any more.
"Keep it that way," Cal retorted, eyeing his boyfriend with a hungry gaze. Chuckles filled the room as the two couples downed more shots.
"Oh, we plan on keeping it that way for a long time," Atticus spoke up, lifting his head from his wife's shoulder. There was a devious twinkle in his eye, but his sister didn't look too pleased with that.
"You're not going to keep me from dating forever, Atticus," she reminded him.
"No, but the rest of us can," Cal pointed out. Her head fell into her hands.
"Don't worry, Alice. These guys' protectiveness pays off in the end. Especially Cal's. He never approved of any guy I looked twice at until Ace. Even then, I think it was reluctant, but still. Torin didn't like anyone else, either."
"Neither did I."
Ravyn glared at Ace. "Well of course you didn't. You've been completely smitten by me for the last two years."
"Two years and seven months." She rolled her eyes, but that didn't stop her from stealing a kiss that tasted of tequila. She was glad he knew how long they'd known each other. It was cute. He was cute.
"Okay, they're kissing. Time to head out, Excalibur." Torin held a hand out, helping his boyfriend up.
"You joining us, Al? These two are loud when they're drunk." Cal's blatant innuendo made Alice blush. She did not need to think of her brother having sex with her best friend.
"Yeah, let me go grab my bag."
While Alice was in her room gathering her belongings, Cal decided to check his phone. Social media, well, the Coalition's incredibly private social media platform, was a good time waster. Torin wrapped his arms around his tree of a boyfriend's waist, head resting on Cal's shoulders.
The tree swore loudly, earning everybody's attention, even the lovebirds'.
"What's going on, babe?" Torin asked worriedly. Cal rubbed his temple.
"Megaera is now social-media-official with the devil himself." Ravyn shot to her feet, nearly knocking Atticus over. He knew her well, and he could usually predict her sudden movements, but he hadn't seen this news coming.
"What? How could she? She knows what he's like. I've told her the stories, I know Alice has reached out to her to talk about it. Meg knows what he's like!"
Cal shook his head.
"I don't know whether to be furious with Lev or with my sister or both."
"What's going on out here?" Alice asked, stepping back into the main room. The four friends shared a look.
"Meg and Lev are dating." Ravyn was the first to speak, her gentle voice that only Alice had earned coming out again. Not even baby Nathalie got that gentle voice from her. Alice was the only one worthy of Ravyn's ultimate kindness.
Alice's bag fell from her hands. "She's dating him?"
Atticus stood from the couch, walking over to Alice and wrapping an arm around her. "Apparently so."
"We have to get her out of there," she stated, looking to the people that had become her older siblings and closest friends.
"There's no saving Meg," Cal objected. "She knows what he's like. I've told her, Ravyn's told her, you've told her," he pointed to Alice. "She's fully aware of what she's doing, and I suspect she's doing this to get back at me and at Ravyn and even at you. She probably thinks we've all abandoned her, even though she pushed us away, and she's angry. This is her way of rebelling."
"And Lev's form of revenge," Ravyn whispered quietly. He had a good tactic, that was for sure. If he couldn't have Ravyn or Alice, then he'd go after the next person that would hurt them the most: Meg. Too bad Meg wanted to hurt them, too. Nobody was going to end up happy here.
"Exactly. With Meg, the more you push for her not to do something, the more she does it. The only way to save her is to take out Lev once and for all, which we're still working on, or not react whatsoever. Approval wouldn't work either. She'd know it was fake, and even if she didn't, she'd like the approval," Cal grumbled. He leaned back against Torin, relishing in his comforting touch.
"So she's screwed until we do something," Alice breathed out. They may not have talked in months, but Meg had been her closest friend for the year before that. How could she leave her hanging?
"We'll work on extracting Lev, Ally, but it'll be harder now that he's connected to Meg. Cal would be the number one suspect if he ever went missing, and Torin the number two." Atticus didn't realize his sister was crying immediately, but at the first sight of tears, he enveloped her into a bear hug.
"Hey, we'll get her," he insisted sweetly, placing a kiss on the top of her head.
"Hey, I'm thinking a movie night with ice cream sounds perfect," Ravyn interrupted, pulling Ace away from his sister and pulling Alice into a hug. The shock of Ravyn's open affection showed on everybody's faces. She wasn't affectionate with anyone ever except for Atticus. Usually she resorted to punching people (namely Cal). She'd hugged Torin a few times after his many break ups with Cal, but never in front of so many watching eyes.
"Yeah, that sounds good," Alice sniffled.
"We can work on the plan more in the morning. After the hangover fades," Cal said, doing his best to comfort Alice. Torin squeezed him a little tighter, proud of his boyfriend for the kind gesture.
"Okay, everyone meet back here in ten minutes. We're having a slumber party." Ravyn shot a look over Alice's head to her boys. The four of them may have been buzzed at best, but they were going to distract Alice until she had forgotten all about this. She was the most precious of them all, something they all agreed on, and she deserved protecting.