I stopped when I caught sight of myself in the mirror and had to take a second to stare at my reflection.
I looked different than I had a month ago. I now had dark circles under my eyes and my tan had faded immensely. My skin would darken again and quickly if I spent a few days outside in the sunshine. Something I needed to consider doing because my face looked unhealthy without the tan.
My shoulder length, ash blonde hair looked a frightening mess from having slept on it and not shampooing it for a few days and also not having brushed it since yesterday morning. Not a pretty look for me. And I had gone downstairs and faced Quinton and Mr. Cole like that. I’m surprised neither of them had run from me or, at the very least, laughed at me.
My green eyes were dull and lacking in any kind of emotion. It scared me, and I remembered why I had been avoiding looking in the mirror.
I dumped my clean clothes on the closed toilet seat, stripped out of my day-old pajamas and got into the shower. I didn’t linger under the hot spray of water. I did my thing and was out in less than ten minutes. I also didn’t linger in the bathroom. I quickly dried off with an oversized bath towel and dressed in the clothes I had picked out. I wrapped a towel around my wet hair so my hair wouldn’t soak through my t-shirt and make me uncomfortable.
I left the bathroom with an armful of dirty clothes and my used towel, I planned on dumping them in the dirty laundry basket in my mostly empty, gigantic closet.
The clothes slid from my fingers, falling to the carpet as I stood in the open doorway taking in my bedroom.
A smile spread across my face as I bent over and picked up the clothing I had dropped. My smile grew bigger as I moved across the room to the closet. I dropped it all in the basket and walked back into my room.
Addison and Abel, the Salt and Pepper twins were both sprawled out on my bed. My mood immediately lifted at the sight.
The watched me step out of the closet with an intensity I was only used to coming from Addison. Abel was the sweeter of the two. Not that Addison couldn’t be sweet or that Abel couldn’t be intense or serious because they could be. I just wasn’t used to getting intense vibes off of both of them at the same time. They usually balanced each other out, one light – one dark. Unless, of course, they were being playful.
The light and dark that balanced out their personalities could also be applied to their looks. They were twins and, for the most part, they were identical. But there was a reason I called them the Salt and Pepper twins.
They were the same height and that height was tall. At least six foot two, that tall. They were the same build. Muscular, with broad shoulders, wide hips and thick, tree trunk like thighs. They were huge, but not fat. Extremely muscular, but not to the point where it was overboard and made them scary looking.
Addison was my Salt twin. He had hair so blonde it was close to being considered white. His eyes were pale and light blue.
Abel was my Pepper twin. His eyes were a bright, vibrant green that practically glowed. His hair was black, so black you could sometimes see shades of blue in it.
And they were both absolutely lovely to look at. High cheekbones, firm, strong jawlines, kissable lips. Lovely.
They even dressed similar and I was convinced they shared clothes. Today, they wore white, long-sleeved Henley’s. Dark blue jeans. Black belts with silver buckles. And they were both barefoot.
“So,” Abel drawled. “Quint tells us you saw our dicks at the full moon ritual. And you didn’t want to stick around so you could play with them? You disappoint me, pretty girl.”
His deep, rough, gravelly voice washed over me like a comforting blanket and not even the embarrassment brought on by his words could kill the smile on my face.
“I’m heartbroken,” Addison said from beside his brother on my bed, in the same voice.
“Me too, twin,” Abel said. “Maybe if she came a little closer she could kiss the hurt away and make it all better?” His voice sounded hopeful, but it did nothing to remove the seriousness in his eyes.
“Mmm…” Addison murmured non-committedly. “I don’t think so, twin. From the way things are looking from where I’m sitting, it’s our girl Ariel who could use some TLC.”
“Yeah, what gives, pretty girl?” Abel asked me. “You look like you haven’t slept in a week and you’ve lost even more weight. Weight you couldn’t afford to lose in the first place. We talked about this already.”
I fidgeted under their scrutiny, twisting my fingers together in front of me.
“Apparently, you don’t listen very well,” Addison rumbled harshly. “We wanted you to gain some weight, not lose more of it. Is it too much to ask that you take care of yourself? I realize you have been going through a lot, and I sympathize with you, I really do, but it’s no excuse for your appearance. Asking you to take care of yourself, to eat, to sleep, to try and be healthy, that’s not asking for too much. It’s something every person should just do on their own. You can be sad, you can be angry even, but you still need to eat.”
He shook his head angrily and ran his hand through his white hair.
He was angry with me and I was glad for it. Abel didn’t seem much happier with me than his brother at the moment.
I remember Abel telling me that the only family he and Addison had left after the death of their parents was Tyson, Quint and the rest of the guys. And now they had me and Addison very much thought of me as family. He had from the very beginning. He also had serious abandonment issues since their parent’s death and he was extremely worried I would just up and disappear on them. Something I had actually gone and done to them.
If it were them who had disappeared on me I wouldn’t have been angry, I would have been hurt. I had a feeling Addison was hiding his hurt behind his anger, so I wouldn’t see that I hurt him.
“Have you not been eating?” Abel demanded to know.
I unwrapped the towel from my hair and let it drop to the floor. I couldn’t have a serious conversation with my hair wrapped up in a towel on top of my head. It seemed ridiculous and I had already filled my quota of conversations with bad hair for the next month or two. Probably even longer than that.