“For how long?” I ask, and Spencer’s gaze softens.

“For as long as you want. We’ll always be friends, Chuck-let,” he says, gesturing at the other guys. “We’ll always be family—you included. If there’s romance forever, then we’re okay with that. If there’s not, we can rearrange things and figure it out when the time comes.”

“What are you saying?” I ask, looking back at Ranger.

“We’re saying we like our crew as it is, so let’s stick with it. No other guys, no other girls, just us.” He gives me a look and then sighs, stealing the joint from Micah as he goes to pass it to Spencer. “We’re saying that unless something changes, we want to make this our thing.”

“We’re not going to pressure you, or just wait around for you to pick. We’re here, for the long haul.” Spencer exhales and then reaches up to touch the side of my face with a gloved hand. “That’s the biggest part of your birthday present, Chuck. We’re committing to this.” He taps the ring that Church gave me. “All of us, and you, for as long as you’ll have us.”

“You’re not jealous?” I manage to whisper, slowly losing my capacity for human speech. I’m floored. Beyond floored. Pulverized. Crushed. Splatted. But in the best way possible. This is all I want, for us to … be like this. Now and forever. If things change, we’ll figure it out, but for now, at least, this is real.

Spencer shrugs his shoulder, but then he smiles at me, a real, true genuine sort of smile.

“Maybe a little, but I figure that’s normal, right? If I wasn’t jealous, would I even be human? My point is, I’m saying it’s not relevant. I’m doing this for you.” He pauses and thinks for a moment before correcting himself. “With you.”

“With you,” Church agrees, and then he pours another round of champagne. The boys clink their glasses with mine a second time. “Till death do us part,” Church toasts, and we all murmur it in reply. What that means, exactly, I’m not sure. Hopefully it doesn’t end up being quite such a literal statement before the year is over.

That’s as far as I get before my eyes swell with tears, and I have to shove a chocolate strawberry in my mouth to hold back some ridiculously girly crying. Not that there’s anything wrong with girly crying. I just … don’t want to cry right now, I want to smile.

I want to be happy.

“Before we forget,” Tobias says, rising from his seat and grabbing a pink garment box from behind the table of food. It’s tied with a white ribbon, and decorated with a bouquet of pink, purple, and red flowers. When I open the card on the top, it just says Courtesy of the Student Council.

“What is it?” I ask, and Micah gives me a hard look.

“Chuck, open it.” He grins as I untie the ribbon and pull the lid off.

Inside, there’s a gorgeous pink gown with white lace on the shoulders. Tobias pulls it out for me and stands up, so he can hold its full, glorious length out for me to see.

“We had this custom made,” Church says, looking at me and not the dress. “It was a group effort this time. I know I can be pushy with these sorts of things.”

“It’s fucking gorgeous,” I say, standing up and touching my fingers to the delicate lace, the full skirt, and the ruched bodice. “What’s it for?”

“This isn’t just your birthday present, it’s your …” Ranger pauses and grits his teeth like he’s in pain. “God, the word is too stupid for me to say. I can’t do it. Somebody else take a crack at it.”

“Promposal,” the twins say in unison, and I grin, throwing my arms around Tobias’ neck, and then giving each of the other guys a hug just like it. “So, will you go to prom with us?”

“I accept. Yes on all accounts,” I tell them, brimming with energy and excitement as I help Tobias put the dress back in the box. “Any chance I can also get a group snug under the stars?”

“A … snug?” Micah asks, tilting his head to one side.

“Snuggle, idiot,” Tobias says, shoving his twin onto the mattress. “And of course, you can. That’s what we brought all this stuff up here for.”

He crawls in on Spencer’s other side, Ranger on the far end. I’m in the middle with Micah on my right, and Church on his other side.

We take turns passing the joint back and forth, the Milky Way galaxy sparkling in the sky like a painting.

Did I just get a reverse harem ending?

Yeah, yeah, I think I just did.

I just hope that this really is the happy ending to my story, and not a blip in a horror film set on a course for disaster.

The pot makes us all a bit drowsy, but after a few ours of smoking and napping and talking about stars (and aliens, lots of alien talk up there), we force our asses up for some food. Because if there’s one emotion that can take control over drowsiness when you’re high, it’s that feeling you get when you know you have the munchies.

“It’s not fair that everything tastes so much better when you’re stoned,” I groan, pressing my back against Tobias as we cuddle in the blankets and try to gauge just how long it’s going to snow before the weather chases us off the roof and back inside the warmth of the dorm.

“It’s totally fair,” Micah groans, falling back onto the mattress. “I look forward to that part of being high. Otherwise, I’m not sure I’d even bother.”

We polish off most of the food, quickly giving into the thick white blanket of snow that’s soon covering the roof. Most of the stuff we just leave out there to get later, but everyone grabs a pillow and we head back inside.

The attic door is, thankfully, still open and we all manage to get down the ladder and tuck it away before Ranger closes the hatch behind us.

“Snacks for the room?” he suggests with a shrug, and I grin.

“Most definitely. I hate being high without constant access to food. Like, we just ate, but I’ll be ready again in ten.” I take Ranger’s hand and we head downstairs, the other four boys following behind us. We haven’t even turned the corner to the kitchen when we hear the sound of footsteps, followed by the slamming of a door.

There’s a shout and a grunting sound, like there’s some sort of fight happening outside the kitchen. The twins exchange a look and then take off, pausing near the side door and looking out at a very bizarre scene.

It’s Nathan, the night watchman, subduing Eddie, the janitor.

Eddie has a weapon of some kind—a knife, I think—that Nathan deftly wrestles from his grip, spinning Eddie around and then pinning his arm against his back before he drops him to the ground completely. Nathan very clearly has martial arts training, beyond just that little bit of karate that showed up on the background check Ranger ran.

The men are arguing, but I can’t hear what they’re saying.

What I do notice are a pair of silver cuffs that Nathan produces, handcuffing Eddie, and then leading him down the path in the direction of the main building.

“Either this weed is crazy strong, or we just saw something interesting.”

“Oh, it’s not the weed,” Church tells me, staring after the men as they disappear around a bend in the path. “But it looks like Nathan just arrested Eddie. Didn’t Jack say something about a portion of the staff being involved in the Fellowship?”