Four Of A Kind - Chapter 230: [4.48] Rock, Paper, Scissors, Valentine

Sabrina leaned in closer. The space between us collapsed to nothing. Her breath ghosted across my lips, warm and deliberate.

“That’s something you can have,” she whispered. “And even more once you become mine.”

My brain stuttered to a complete halt.

Every coherent thought I’d ever had just evaporated. Gone. Deleted. Factory reset.

“I’ll promise you a sweet reward…”

She pulled back. Smiled. That knowing, devastating smile that made my chest tighten.

Then she turned.

Walked away.

Just like that.

Left me standing there like an idiot.

I stood frozen. Probably looked like someone had hit me with a taser and left the voltage running. My legs refused to move. My hands hung uselessly at my sides.

Sabrina. Valentine. Was. So. Fucking. Troublesome.

Somehow my phone was in my hand. I had no memory of pulling it out. No idea what I’d planned to do with it. Just holding it like a lifeline while my brain tried to reboot from whatever the hell just happened.

“Angelo!”

Felix’s voice snapped me back to reality.

I blinked. Looked around. The gym was mostly empty now. A few stragglers packed up props, carrying boxes and fake weapons toward the storage closet. Marin stood near the stage, directing two freshman toward the remaining decorations with the authority of someone half her size compensating with pure energy.

The festival chaos had settled into cleanup mode.

I walked back inside. My legs worked again, which was progress. Found Felix stacking chairs in rows near the back wall. Started helping because standing still felt dangerous. Like if I stopped moving, my brain would catch up to what just happened and I’d spiral.

“You good, bleh bleh bleh?” Felix watched me carefully. His eyes tracked my movements like he was diagnosing something. “You’ve been weird all day, bleh bleh bleh.”

“Define weird,” I said.

“Zombie mode, bleh bleh bleh.” He grabbed another chair, stacked it with a loud clang. “Like someone scooped out your brain and replaced it with cotton candy, bleh bleh bleh. All fluffy and useless, bleh bleh bleh.”

“That’s… disturbingly specific.”

“I’m an observant friend, bleh bleh bleh.” He grinned, that knowing smile that meant he’d pieced together way too much. “Also you’ve been checking your phone every thirty seconds, bleh bleh bleh.”

“Work stuff.”

“Right, bleh bleh bleh. Work, bleh bleh bleh.” His grin widened. He was enjoying this. “The kind of work that leaves marks on your neck, bleh bleh bleh?”

I slapped my hand over the spot reflexively.

Felix wheezed with laughter. Doubled over, clutching his stomach. “Gotcha, bleh bleh bleh!”

“You’re the worst.”

“I know, bleh bleh bleh!”

He kept laughing. I kept stacking chairs. Pretended my face wasn’t burning.

Twenty minutes crawled by. We finished the chairs. Swept up some confetti that had somehow migrated from the stage to the back corner. Felix kept making comments I ignored.

“Gotta go,” I said.

Felix waved me off, still grinning. “Have fun with your ’work,’ bleh bleh bleh.”

I flipped him off as I left.

The afternoon sun had mellowed into that golden hour where everything looked like a movie scene. Warm light painted the campus in amber tones, softening the edges of buildings and making the trees glow. The kind of lighting photographers paid for and normal people just walked through without noticing.

I noticed.

The black Range Rover sat in the lot, sleek and expensive against the backdrop of ordinary student cars. All four Valentine sisters stood around it, still in full costume. White thigh-highs, black maid dresses, capes fluttering slightly in the breeze.

They looked ridiculous.

They looked incredible.

Harlow spotted me first. Her face lit up like someone had plugged her into a power outlet. She was holding Iris’s hand, their fingers interlaced. “Assistant-kun! We were just looking for you!”

Cassidy leaned against the car door. Arms crossed. Smirk playing at her lips. “Nice fangs, scholarship boy.”

I’d completely forgotten about the stupid plastic teeth.

Reached up. Found them still clipped to my canines. Pulled them out, pocketed them in my vest.

“Better?” I asked.

“Marginally.” Her smirk widened. “Still look like you got hit by a truck.”

“Accurate.”

Vivienne checked her watch. The gesture was automatic, ingrained. “We should leave soon. Traffic will be terrible by five.”

Sabrina said nothing. Just watched me with those knowing eyes. The same eyes that had looked at me minutes ago, close enough to kiss, before she walked away and scrambled my entire nervous system.

We walked toward the Range Rover as a group. Six people moving toward one vehicle.

Five seats.

The math hit me before we reached the car.

“Someone has to sit on someone’s lap,” I said.

The words hung in the air.

Iris would do it. Obviously. She was the smallest, the youngest, and we’d done it before on crowded trains when seats ran out. Simple solution. Easy.

“No.” Iris’s voice cut through my assumption like scissors through paper. “I don’t wanna.”

I blinked. Looked at her. “What?”

“I’m not sitting in your lap, Zay. That’s weird. I’m fourteen.” She said it with the confidence of someone who’d thought this through. “I’ll sit normally.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“Why don’t you choose someone?” Her smile turned wicked. Mischievous. The kind of smile that meant trouble. “Or they can rock paper scissors for it.”

Oh no.

“Rock paper scissors!” Harlow’s eyes lit up. She bounced on her heels. “Yes! Perfect! That’s so fair!”

Cassidy cracked her knuckles. The sound was loud in the parking lot. “I’m in.”

Vivienne hesitated. Her expression shifted, calculated something. “That’s… childish.”

“You got a better idea?” Cassidy raised an eyebrow. Challenge clear in her tone. “Or are you scared you’ll lose?”

“I’m not scared of anything.”

“Prove it.”

Vivienne’s jaw tightened. Her eyes narrowed. “Fine. But if I win, Sabrina drives.”

“Deal.”

They formed a circle. Four identical girls with wine-red hair and purple eyes. All wearing vampire maid costumes with varying degrees of skin showing. The capes fluttered in the breeze. The thigh-highs caught the golden light.

This was my life now.

“Quadruplet RPS Game,” Harlow announced with the gravitas of a sports commentator.

“Winner gets lap privileges!”