Page 82 of Five to Love Him

“Fine. Okay, fine. But there has to be another hive in this fucking city that I can call and ask for help right? Do you know one?”

We nodded. “Yes. They’re nice. We had breakfast, once by accident, and then again because we planned it.”

Leo let out a breath. “Great. You have their number?”

We wondered whether he would want to swap us for another hive. That one had a gleaming one themself, so that wouldn’t work, but perhaps Leo would keep looking, and maybe he would find a hive who was better. Perhaps the gleaming wasn’t what we’d been taught, wasn’t a mark for us specifically but signaled a human that could become a match to a hive. Perhaps while Leo still gleamed, he was like wet clay and could still find another hive to mold himself to.

“Yes. It’s in our phone.”

“Awesome.”

Leo shifted and began patting down the one who had been at work. We still had only the one phone, and he knew we took it to work usually.

“But that hive…” we started, though we couldn’t bring ourself to say more.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to need one of your thumbprints to unlock this phone, okay? I’m just trying to help.”

“Of course. We want only the best for you.”

We held out a hand, and Leo unlocked the phone. We didn’t think he’d have much trouble finding the other hive. Our contact list was short, and sure enough, he was soon pressing the phone to his ear.

“Yeah, hi, thanks for picking up. My name is Leo Hill, and I’m this hive’s gleaming one. Oh, good, glad he talked about me. Look, you’re a hive as well, right? I’m not used to them saying ‘I.’ Okay, thanks. Listen, something is wrong with my hive, and I don’t know what to do. I can’t do shit to help them. Can you…I don’t know, but can you come over, please?”

The hive would know that there was nothing that could be wrong with us, not really. He would tell Leo so, and Leo would know that we were weak, pathetic. As a hive’s gleaming one, he had gotten the short stick.

“We’re sorry,” we mumbled.

“Hive, I fucking love you, and you did nothing wrong,” Leo said, now crying himself.

That was our fault. Of course he was crying, having someone as weak as us sneaking into his life.

We had failed him. We were a failure, in every way.

thirty-seven

The other hive got there fast, knocking on my door rather than ringing the bell. I still heard and rushed downstairs.

I opened the door, and my jaw dropped. I’d expected them to come by with maybe two of them, but no, there was a group of six here, and most of them wore disguises.

“May we come inside?” one asked, and I stepped away so they could.

Once the door was closed, they took off their wigs and fake glasses and put all of it in a duffel one of them was carrying and put down by the door.

“Wow, you’re good at that.”

They shrugged. “We like getting around, and that’s a lot easier this way. Where is the hive?”

I pointed at the stairs. “Up there. I don’t know what to do.”

Some of them headed straight up, but two stayed back.

“What happened? Did you get hurt?”

I rubbed my eyes. I had to look like a real mess, and I was still wearing my thin summer sweatpants over an old tee.

“Did I get hurt? I wish. It’s…something really bad happened to him. I don’t know if I have the right to tell you.”

This hive was sandy-haired, and now that I was looking at those two sets of eyes, I felt myself calm down. Like my hive, they exuded an air of calm and competence. They weren’t as good-looking though.