The Original Crowd (11 page)

I never cared about getting in trouble before I came to Rawley. I’ve walked down this hallway so many times before—they were all the same, with the same destination. In the old days, Brian would’ve gotten kicked out beside me, and he’d already be dragging me out to the parking lot by now. I could picture his grin and almost hear his laugh.

But this time, I cared. I cared that Mandy was probably going to get some slack for this, because of something I’d done. And it bothered me.

Turning the corner, walking towards the office at the end of the hall, I saw Mandy standing with six other cheerleaders in the hallway. They were coloring a poster for the game tomorrow night, or at least that was my guess since it said, “Pedlam Sucks.”

Mandy was nudged by a girl that was standing beside her when she saw me.

“Taryn? What are you doing here?”

“I’ll go to Carter’s party.”

“You will?” I felt guiltier seeing the smile that stretched across her face.

“Yeah.”

“Wait. What are you doing here?”

“I…uh…I’m sorry.”

Mandy paled. “What did you do, Taryn?”

“Uh—” I brushed her off, turning and walking back towards my locker.

“Miss Matthews!” The principal had come to look for me. I stopped and looked around, seeing him just behind Mandy, frowning fiercely. His tie flung across his shoulder, as if he’d dashed out of his office.

I didn’t say anything. What could I say? So I met Mandy’s gaze as I walked steadily past her and through the office door the principal was holding open.

“Miss Matthews, take a seat.”

He shut the door and walked around to sit behind his massive mahogany desk. His black leather chair creaked slightly as it tipped backwards under his weight.

“Señora Graham tells me that you assaulted a student,” he said coldly.

“It wasn’t assault.”

“Mr. Travers and Miss Klinnleys have bruises proving otherwise.”

“It happened like thirty seconds ago,” I pointed out. “The bruises aren’t from me. And it wasn’t assault, I moved a chair.”

“Two students were harmed from your actions. Under my classification, that can be considered a form of assault.”

“I didn’t even touch ‘em,” I said calmly.

I sighed, settling back in my chair.

“You have quite a history, don’t you, Miss Matthews? I think you should learn what
appropriate
boundaries are and how to implement them in your life.”

I smirked, folding my arms. “You have nothing on me. I pushed a chair. That’s it.”

“There were two students
in
that chair.”

“Exactly,” I deadpanned. “Two students. In one chair. If anything, you should be hauling my teacher in here and not me. Shouldn’t she be supervising such inappropriate behavior? Since when was it school policy that we could sit on laps here? At least in our classrooms.”

As he stuttered, I knew it was over. The breakdown was right and I did point out a much more serious issue than my supposed assault. I saw the decision made in his eyes before he even opened his mouth.

“You may go, Miss Matthews, but if I find you sitting across from me again, you won’t like the ramifications. You can quote me on that one, Miss Matthews.”

Mandy was waiting for me in the hallway and pounced on me as I walked by. “What did you do?!” she hissed.

“It won’t happen again, okay?”

Mandy latched onto my arm and pulled me into the bathroom. Checking it, making sure it was empty, she asked, “Are you doing this on purpose?”

“What are you talking about?” I gingerly retracted her hand from my arm.

“All of this. For like attention or something? Are you doing it on purpose? You know, taking attention away from me and Devon?”

“This last incident? No.”

“What about you and Tray on Tuesday?”

“No.”

“Oh.” She was appeased, slightly, but I saw the wheels turning in her head. She’d put two and two together eventually. I hadn’t actually answered her question, but it was an evade that I was quite proud of. And she knew it wasn’t out of my character to do something.

“Has Jasmine left you alone?” I asked softly, stepping closer as a few girls trailed inside.

“Yeah, but Carter said you threatened her.”

“Oh God. Carter again.” I moaned, moving to leave.

Mandy followed me. “Are you really coming to the party?”

“I thought Justin Travers was having a party? Why aren’t you going to his?”

“Because Jasmine and Devon will be there.”

“So your crowd is just going to split, huh?” I noted, walking to my locker as more student filed out of their classes. The bell had rung when I was in the principal’s office and I hadn’t even noticed. I didn’t even think I’d been gone that long.

Mandy trailed behind me. “Well…I guess. Until me and Devon are okay, I guess. Jasmine and I will—breathe each other’s air if we have to, eventually. Jasmine and Amber had to do it after the whole fiasco over Tray.”

“What fiasco?”

“He dumped Jasmine for Amber. Or…well…
I
think he just dumped Jasmine and Amber happened to be there, you know.”

“So who else is going to be at this party?”

“Pretty much everyone else. A lot will go to Justin’s party because Carter’s is more exclusive, you know. A lot of people will
want
to go to Carter’s and they’ll probably crash, but the only people who I know won’t come are Jas and Dev.”

“If they do, then what?”

She shrugged. “Then Carter’ll kick ‘em out.”

I shook my head.

“What?”

“You. You’re so sneaky, I almost have to give you credit for it.”

“What are you talking about?” Mandy asked, her eyes wide in an attempt to look innocent.

“I threatened Jasmine and now Carter’s making sure they don’t come to his party. Your back is covered no matter where you go. How’d you work that out?”

She grinned and bumped me with her hip. “Got myself a cool adopted sister, that’s what.”

“And you put out for Carter.”

Mandy stopped. “We didn’t have sex,” she said seriously. “He just stayed the night. That’s all that happened.”

The hallways were emptying, so I said quickly, “Gotta go. See you in psych.”

*

I grabbed my seat like always when seventh period rolled around an hour later. A second later someone dropped into the seat next to me, and turning, I was surprised to see Molly. Microscope girl. Huh.

“Thought you hated me,” I stated.

“I did.” She grinned, pushing her glasses up her nose. “Until I realized you were actually being kind in a very harsh way.” Leaning closer, she asked, “Did you really shove Justin Travers and Sasha Klinnleys?”

“No.” And I hadn’t.

“Oh.” She sounded disappointed.

I shrugged and then, gritting my teeth, I remembered Mandy reminding me that friends were a good thing to have.

“I just…I kicked their chair and it fell over. That’s all. I swear,” I relented, sighing.

I saw the quick smile before she blushed and ducked her head.

Somehow I knew. I didn’t know how. I couldn’t explain it. But I knew if I turned around, Tray would be watching me.

Turning around, I saw him staring steadily at me.

“What?”

“We need to talk,” he spoke, standing up and pulling me out of the classroom with him.

“Our teacher’s going to be coming pretty soon,” I argued, but followed nonetheless. I knew what this was about: business.

He leaned against a locker in the empty hallway and regarded me. “Our teacher’s always twenty minutes late. I think we’ll be fine.”

“You don’t need to get snippy,” I huffed.

Tray rolled his eyes, his hands stuffed in his pockets. He looked at ease. A casual confidence radiated off of him.

It irritated me. “So what’d you want to talk to me about?” I asked.

Tray lifted his eyebrows and remained silent. I saw the amusement in their depths.

“What?” I asked again.

He chuckled, leaning to face me. “I didn’t realize till now how much I unnerve you.” He whistled. “You must hate that.”

I moaned, “You’re a bit too conceited.”

“You came,” he remarked, smirking.

I had to take a step back. I was there for business. Business only. The incident with Brian, then saying goodbye to Jace—it must’ve messed me up even more than I wanted to admit for me to have landed in Tray’s bed after the fight with Brian. Right now…I needed to step back. This was just my body remembering the explosive sex. There is no way a relationship with Tray would end well.

“Business,” I reminded him.

“Right.” He sighed. “Are you ready for tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“When do we get in?”

“After I have my guy look at the device.”

“Not before? When will that be?”

“How many guys you got coming for this?”

“Enough to get our shit done,” he deadpanned.

I studied him for a moment. I didn’t know what they really wanted; the PRS-500 could unlock more doors than they even knew existed. I was loathe to give that power to them—there was no way they’d get their hands on it without Geezer working his magic on it first.

“What are you guys going to do again? I don’t remember.”

He gave me a faint grin. “Good try. No bulls-eye.”

“You’re just expecting me to give this to you? To give you free-entry into a school that I used to go to? Where my friends go?”

“And your ex?” he asked smoothly.

“This isn’t about him.”

Tray shifted closer to me, his eyes melting to amber as he whispered, “I kinda like it when he comes into the picture.”

I held firm.

As he drew closer, his head bent towards my neck, I felt his lips lightly caressing there, and he breathed, “I’d like another go round.”

“Mr. Evans! Miss Matthews!”

Looking up, a bit more dazed than I wanted to admit, I saw our psych teacher hurrying down the hallway, shooing us with her hands. “Get inside. Now,” she cried.

As we walked inside, the entire class immediately hushed, watching both of us make our way to our seats.

Molly was in awe. I could tell from the worshipful glaze over her face. Mandy was frowning. Jasmine was glaring. Bryce was just amused, with his head tipped back, a small smile spread on his face.

Molly leaned close and whispered, “I heard that Carter Sethlers is in town.”

“Yeah. I guess.”

“I heard he’s with your sister.”

“I don’t know,” I whispered back.

“And I heard that he’s having a party tomorrow night.” The girl was relentless.

“So?” I asked, scooting my chair aside. Did the girl have a clue what personal boundaries were?

“Can I come?”

“You hit me up to set you up with Justin Travers and now you’re trying to get me to take you to Carter’s party? What kind of science nerd are you?”

She giggled, clamping a hand quickly over her mouth, petrified as some of the students glanced over. “Please,” she whispered around her hand.

“Why? Why do you want to do this stuff? Be around these people?”

She gave me a dumb-founded stare. “Because I’m a nerd. I’m socially challenged.”

“I’m not exactly known as the nice girl from the popular crowd. You know, one of those types that’s popular and incredibly sweet so everyone tries to be friends with her because they think she can make them popular. That’s not me.”

“Exactly,” Molly pointed out.

“What happened to you being pissed at me?” I moaned.

“You were right about Justin. I’ll always think he’s the hottest thing here, but…I don’t know.” She shrugged, ducking her head, flushing. “I just…I’d like to tell my mom that I went to one party this year. One of those that she’ll freak out about and forbid me to go to.”

“And there are reasons why you should be forbidden from going to those types of parties.” I reasoned.

“You could watch out for me.”

I was about to say I wasn’t going, but remembered I had already told Mandy I would—out of guilt. Damn.

“And what if I’m too busy? What if I’m going to hook up with a guy?”

Molly looked indignant as she pushed her glasses back on her nose. “You don’t strike me as that type of girl.”

“Look, I’ll let you know tomorrow.” I glanced away, uncomfortable.

Mandy wants me to have friends. I can have friends. Just not…her friends.

After the bell rang, I made my way to my locker, evading most of the hallway rush. I probably would’ve made it to my car without speaking to anyone, if that one guy hadn’t stopped me outside on the front lawn. The guy who’d told me I was inhumane.

“Hey, bitch,” he called out, loping across the lawn towards me.