Murphy and Me XXX

[Great. Now the Roman numerals look like the short-form of bad porn. Fantastic.]

It was a small party, if it could be called that, and was just me, Jo, Sasha, and Cara. For the moment, as the boys hadn't come back yet. We were finishing up Dead Poets Society and sniffling like fools. Well, I was, at any rate.

"You okay, Ollie?" Sasha asked from her position of leaning against Cara on my bed.

"Fine," I sniffled, watching Todd stumble away from the rest of them toward the pond in the snow.

Nolan was telling Keating to collect his things when a knock came at the door.

"Open." My attention was glued to the screen, Edgar crushed to my chest.

Colby pushed open the door and the boys traipsed in. Murphy handed me a take-out container that I traded for a slightly greasy plastic bag.

"Oh - two?" he smiled, biting into one as the boys on the screen stood one by one on their desks with Todd's, "Oh captain, my captain."

I opened the take-out container; a mound of sweet potato fries with little containers of honey. Oh, yay. I wanted to squee but figured that might be a tad too creepy.

Liam and Dev were looking through my DVD's, muttering to each other. They pulled a few done; I put aside sweet potato fries to deal with the movie we'd just watched. Dev and I made the most awesome movie hand off ever and then I nearly dropped what he'd handed me.

Practical Magic.

Not what I was expecting when my movie shelf also includes stuff like The Patriot and all three Lord of the Rings, but okay. I can roll with that.

I set it up to go and the eight of us played musical chairs with only one real chair. Jo and Colby sandwiched Cara and Sasha on the bed; Devn had rousted me out of the moon chair; Liam was leaning against the wall of the nook, and I was sitting comfortably against Murph who had his back against my desk. We were both mowing down our respective guilty pleasures.

"Dinner alright, boys?" Sasha asked.

Oh, shit. Not sure everybody knew everybody. Jo did, and maybe Sasha. Cara was probably clueless.

"Was fine," Dev said. "A little crowded but otherwise fine."

"Cara, have you met the boys?" Some hostess I was.

She glanced around and shook her head. "Nope. I'm assuming that you're leaning against Murphy, and that the guy who looks like his twin is somehow related."

"My twin, actually. Liam." Murph set the other egg roll aside for later. "Colby is on your left and Dev is in the chair."

She smiled at each of them and laced her fingers with Sasha's. My room was and always would be a prejudice-free, judgmental-free, LGBTQ-friendly zone. If I was going to be PDA-ing it up with Murph, Sasha and Cara were going to feel safe and secure enough to do the same.

And anyone who had any notions to the contrary was going to have my size nine-and-a-half where the sun didn't shine on their way out the door.

No one so much as batted an eye. That's when I really knew I was in extremely good company. There had been other factors as well, so this was almost like extra icing at Cinnabon. Free extra icing.

Occasionally I like free things.

"Practical Magic?" Jo said as the opening music started. She looked over at Dev. "You like chick flicks?"

Dev turned a rather pretty pink and refused to answer.

"My brother's got a girlfriend who likes to quote movies," Liam said blithely.

"My boyfriend's twin likes a certain movie with Irish twins who are badass, so I'm actually impressed we're not watching Connor tossing a toilet at the moment." Not to be outdone, of course.

Jo looked down at Colby. "How do you live with them?"

"It's an art form," he said casually. Murph threw a balled up piece of paper at him.

This was honestly nice. Watching a movie with everyone - laughing when Sally couldn't poke needles in James Angelov's eyeballs without the incredibly coincidental crack of thunder - was really nice.

"Liam," Murph said as Sally and Gilly stomped mud over where they'd buried him after killing him the second time, "I just want to let you know that if your girlfriend ever tried to kill you - after branding you with her class ring - I'd help you bury her in the yard." He said it so straight-faced that it took Liam a few seconds to realize he was joking.

"Might have more of a chance doing it for you, especially after Manda."

Every muscle that Murph possessed - between six hundred and fifty and eight hundred, to be exact - went rigid. Liam had crossed a line, one that was obviously very clear and very sharp, though there was nothing apologetic in his eyes. This was a shove from one brother to the other to talk about something quite sensitive.

Incredibly so, as Murph felt more coiled than a freakin' slinky.

I rubbed his thigh just above his knee with my fingertips, accidentally digging in when I realized something more or less monumental.

The ex now had a name.

She had a name and a presence now. Not a welcome one, if Murph's fingers on my hip were any indication. Which was fine by me, truthfully.

Colby looked between the twins. "Don't worry, Liam, we do the same for problem roommates, too."

Liam frowned. "I don't have a roommate."

He looked innocently at the screen. "Oops...I thought you were Murph....should've said twin."

Murph relaxed slightly - namely, he wasn't going to accidentally leave bruises. Though I might turn colors there tomorrow if he didn't really chill soon.

Jo chuckled and very slowly - molasses in January slowly - the tension leaked from the room.

He crept the hand not easily seen by the rest of the room up the back of my t-shirt to rub circles in the area I so lovingly (not) called my back fat. As it seemed to relax him - and felt good - I didn't care. Course, if he crossed a line I'd let him know, most likely with a well-placed elbow, and settled more against him.

Even though Practical Magic was pretty old (1998) the special effects when Angelov comes out of Gilly? Flippin' awesome. And Sally? Totally feel you with wanting something you shouldn't and then wondering when it's going to fall apart. Story of my life, pretty much.

Until now. But that was only going to last four months, max.

Stop it.

I almost missed our favorite lines.

"Midnight margaritas!" Jo, Cara, Sasha, and I squealed with Gilly and Sally.

"We are so doing that when we live in the town houses and can drink," Cara said, jamming her shoulders in time with the music.

"You'd wind up in Odell's Pond," Sasha snorted, "though we could sit on our porch and pass a bottle of tequila."

"I don't do tequila," Jo and I said together. I was more of a beer or wine drinker than hard liquor, though SoCo and lime shots were lovely.

"So we'll give you a bottle of white zinfandel and let you have at it," Sasha continued. "The adults'll drink liquor and you can sip on that." We shared a knowing, if somewhat pained, smile.

Sasha had hit bottom and then the bottle when Cara had broken up with her last semester. How she'd gotten a hold of Jose was still a mystery, but when Mel had called me to say Sasha was sitting on the quad at eleven-thirty and pretty much sobbing into copious amounts of alcohol, I really hadn't thought twice about running barefoot in soccer shorts and a sweatshirt from my room on J2 to the large grassy space outside the colleges administrative building. It had taken a lot of convincing to get her to come with me, and she threw up by the college store on the way back to Jackson.

Don't ask how they'd fixed things, since between puking twice more and the absolute bitch of a hangover the next morning, Sasha wasn't in the mood to say anything to anyone. Even me. In a rate moment of brilliance, I hadn't pushed. Looking back now, I'm glad I'd let her do her thing.

Dev gave a full body shudder that almost dumped him out of the chair when Kylie and Antonia pushed Gilly - tied to an armchair - across the floor with a swath of toads in her wake.

I'd like to say we all didn't turn and openly stare like landed trout. Despite evidence to the contrary, I try very hard not ot feed myself utter fantastical bullshit, even if it tastes better than reality.

"Are you afraid of frogs?" Colby asked, clearly skeptical.

Dev colored. "Like Murph's afraid of heights."

Any trace of a smile vanished from Colby's face. "Oh. Sorry, Dev."

He shrugged. "Not your fault. I blame living next to a swamp and three sisters."

I had one sister that pushed my sanity. How he dealt with three was beyond me.

Murph's fingers slipped around more toward my belly and he flinched when, at the end, the Owens women jumped off the roof and flew. Probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been so close to him.

I tried to play the good hostess and probably railed miserably because, after making brunch plans with everyone, they cleared out.

For the first time since I'd met Murph, it was awkward between us. Pink elephant named Manda awkward. He sat on my bed, wedged into the corner where two walls met, idly turning Edgar over in his hands. I stayed leaning against the door, content to watch. And not say anything.

"Amanda Morrison is my ex-girlfriend," he said, rubbing his forehead before giving me that look that said he'd really like to have me physically near. The elephant and I eyed each other as I crossed the room, climbing onto the foot of the bed to put my back against the dresser. He looked at me, open and vulnerable to the point where it was beginning to scare me. "And I'm not ready to talk about it."

Understandable. Very understandable.

Because if he wasn't ready to talk about Manda, then I was nowhere near prepared to talk about Bobby. That was a whole lotta mess to handle in one try and...no. Not right now.

"I - "

"You don't have to tell me," he said softly. "When you're ready, you're ready. When I'm ready - "

"I'll know." I would, too. And wouldn't that be an interesting conversation.

Edgar was put gently to the side, Murph's head lolling back against the wall. "I do trust you."

Oh, Murph. If I gave him an arrhythmia, he was going to give me a stroke. "I know." Before I could stop and analyze it, I slid forward between his knees and planted my shoulder against his chest, curling in on myself and toward him, solid and warm. He slipped an ankle between mine where they were pressed together and rested his other thigh on mine. Now utterly caged and content, the pink elephant didn't seem quite so large. Might even have been shrinking. Temporarily, of course.

"Chroi," he murmured into my hair. "What you are to me. And what you do."

"I trust you, too, Murph," I whispered, breathing against his chest. Even if it's only because I think I love you.