The Original Crowd (18 page)

The screen looked like it belonged in a movie theater.

Grant, Bryce, Carter, and Tray were lounging on the couch, beer bottles opened in front of them, the Spurs game on the screen.

Grant saw me first. “Hey, Taryn.”

Everyone else looked over at me.

“Hi,” I said awkwardly, feeling out of place.

Tray stood up and approached me. “Hey.”

“Sorry,” I said softly. “I…don’t know why I’m here, really.”

He frowned, studying me and then grabbed my hand and pulled me upstairs. Leading me into the kitchen, he opened the fridge. “Want something to drink?”

“I’m sorry. I...I shouldn’t be here.” I moved to leave, but Tray was there, pressing me against the counter.

“Hey,” he said quietly, tipping my head back to meet his eyes, “you want a pop?”

“Uh…” I faltered, feeling my cellphone buzzing, I pulled it out and saw Grayley’s name flash on the screen. When I didn’t answer it, Tray’s eyes shot to my face, seeing the hesitation. I don’t know what else he saw because he steered me to a stool and took my phone out of my hands. Watching me, he pocketed my phone and then grabbed a Diet Coke from the fridge and poured it into a glass.

Grabbing my hand, he led me downstairs. He let go when we reached the media room and wandered over to the couch. I followed uncertainly and curled up on the couch beside him, a little space between the guys and me. Tray put my Diet Coke on the table in front of me and grinned, grabbing his beer as Bryce cursed at the screen.

I watched the game with the guys.

Devon showed up an hour after I did and he paused, only for a few seconds when he saw me, then sat on the other couch after helping himself to some mysterious supply of beer bottles in another room.

The guys didn’t talk about girls. It was kind of nice. When I hung out with Geezer, Grayley, and whoever else chose to show up, they always talked about girls. They treated me as one of the guys half the time. Notice how I said half the time.

These guys watched the game, drank, and laughed about who got into what fight at Carter’s party.

It was a nice…break.

I didn’t partake in the conversation. For one, I didn’t watch the Spurs enough to have any form of opinion. And two, I was content to curl up quietly beside Tray. When Tray didn’t press me, the rest followed suit. Listening to their conversation, I could hear how Tray was the leader. Of course, I’d always known that. But…there was this steel respect each of them had for him.

Sometimes Tray didn’t even speak up in the conversation, but the other guys were constantly asking what he thought about so and so. What he’d do, etc. If someone ventured onto a conversation Tray didn’t want covered, he’d look over and the topic would instantly be dropped.

It was nice. Brian would’ve growled, cursed, threatened and finally the topic would’ve been changed. Hell, sometimes he would’ve just hauled off and thrown the person into the wall or off their chair.

Tray respected the guys back.

Another hour later I finally realized what I was hearing. It wasn’t just respect. But loyalty.

These guys were loyal to each other. To Tray, first and foremost.

Brian hadn’t been stable enough to even demand loyalty. Well, he’d demanded it, but he’d forced it. It hadn’t been given out of free will.

Tray did that. He got loyalty because it was freely given away. He was loyal back.

Brian was anything, but loyal.

I must’ve dozed off or stopped listening because I blinked, startled when Tray spoke up, “It’s Mandy, Taryn.”

Looking up, I saw Tray regarding me, waiting for my decision. The rest of the guys were watching too, with questions in their eyes as they saw Tray holding my phone.

“Uh—”

I saw Carter and Devon glance at each other, but neither spoke.

Then again, apparently it was the rule for these guys. No talk about girls—too much drama. I don’t know if that was really the case, but I could see it being the reason.

I shook my head and stood up, wandering upstairs and into the pool-house. I curled up in Tray’s bed and closed my eyes, falling asleep within seconds.

I woke up sometime later when I felt Tray slip in beside me and wrap his arms around me, pulling me against his chest.

I didn’t say anything, but he knew I was awake. I felt his hand rub against my stomach, slowly, and I closed my eyes, feeling the warmth spread at his touch. Falling to my back, I felt his hand wander down, slipping underneath my pants and inside my underwear.

Feeling his hand down there, I gasped when his lips found my neck.

Arching into his hand, I reached for him and met his lips.

As he brought me to the edge, I groaned against his mouth, feeling his tongue sweep inside and then I spilled over, gasping.

Tray laughed softly against my mouth when he rolled me underneath him, both of us still fully clothed.

I wrapped my legs around his waist and let my head fall against the pillow. Tray laid there, his mouth now moving to my neck, one hand resting underneath my shirt entwined under my arm, by my shoulder. The other resting on one of my legs, caressing it lazily.

Tray let his full weight rest on me, which I liked and swept a hand down his back, and we stayed like that, neither pushing to go any further.

After a little while, Tray lifted his head and moved to the side, half his body resting on top of mine.

He murmured, “I get a distinct impression that you’re hiding out here.”

“Your distinct impression would be correct.”

He chuckled softly. “Because I actually came in to tell you that Mandy’s here.”

“What?” I cried out, sitting up.

“Relax. The door’s locked.”

“I don’t want to talk to her. Not yet. She thinks I’m staying at a friend’s in Pedlam tonight.”

“You told her that?”

“No. I told our mother that.”

Tray chuckled, sitting up. “Mandy’s not one to narc.”

“Is it awkward in there?” I couldn’t help asking, biting my lip as I met his sardonic gaze.

“Between her, Dev, and Carter?” He chuckled again. “It’s a roll in the fucking hay.”

“Fuck.” I sighed, as Tray got up from the bed and moved into the bathroom. A moment later, he came back out and murmured, “Come on. Otherwise Mandy’s gonna come in here and I don’t want Mandy in my bedroom.”

I laughed, couldn’t help it. But I let him grab my hand and hoist me out of the bed. The guy was strong, holy hell.

When Tray cut down into the basement, I grabbed a Diet Coke out of his fridge before reluctantly wandering down the stairs.

I gritted my teeth, prepared for whatever Mandy was going to throw my way when I entered the room.

But all she said was, sitting on the farthest corner from Devon’s couch, “Your friend Grayley’s called the house, like three times.”

“I figured he would,” I remarked, sitting on a lounger and placing the Diet Coke on the stand beside it.

“You’re avoiding his calls?” she asked in surprise. “Way you guys acted last night, it was as if he was your brother or something.”

I sighed. “Leave it alone, Mandy.”

“Why?” she asked sharply. God. She was pissed and probably not because of me, but she’d chosen me as her whipping lamb.

“Because some shit’s going on that you have no idea about and I don’t want to deal with it right now,” I snapped, running a hand over my face.

“Like what?” she asked, pouting.

Anything I would’ve shot back at her was interrupted when Jasmine and Amber called out, from the top of the stairs, “Hey, hey. We’re coming down.”

I sat back, unable to suppress a grimace as their giggling got louder.

“Oh!” They blinked in surprise, seeing that everyone was already there. “Hey, guys,” Amber murmured, sitting down hesitantly, between Mandy and Devon. Jasmine wavered, not saying anything, as she looked around for a place to sit. She finally chose the floor, in front of Grant.

And they hadn’t been alone. I suppressed another grimace when Sasha popped her head out from the doorway, a Coke in hand.

Sasha called out, sickeningly sweet, “Hey ya’ll.” She perched on the corner of the couch by Bryce’s arm.

Carter let out a laugh, the sound breaking the frozen silence that had taken hold of the room.

I glanced at Tray and saw him watching the game, my phone was beside him and flashing. I must’ve had a dozen calls by now.

“Tray, I didn’t see you at Carter’s last night,” Amber spoke up nervously.

“I was there,” Tray murmured lazily.

“He left early,” Mandy said flatly.

Carter laughed again.

“So,” Grant spoke up, “Sasha, I heard you and Travers broke up last night.”

“Hmm mmm.” She giggled, taking a sip of her Coke.

“Ask Sasha who she hooked up with last night.” Amber giggled, as if it were hysterical.

No one asked, but Sasha piped in, “This guy from Pedlam who’s freaking hot!”

“Who?” Devon asked, probably just to be polite. And probably grateful the attention wasn’t on him.

“Uh…Trent…Standley?”

“Trent Gardner,” I supplied.

Sasha looked over at me in surprise. “How do you know? Were you even there?”

“He’s a friend of mine,” I said coolly.

“Oh!” She smiled, flashing a Cheshire smile. “I need to make a point of getting to know him. Again.”

“Good luck,” I said dryly. “At least you knew his first name. Can’t say the same for him.”

That wiped the grin off her face. “You’re such a bitch.”

This was a distraction I could handle.

I grinned back and it seemed everyone else braced themselves for what I would say next. “At least I can count the number of guys I’ve been with on one hand—with a couple of fingers left over. Can you?”

Mandy groaned, burying her head in her hands.

I swore I heard the rest of the group take a deep breath.

“Are you calling me a slut?” Sasha demanded sharply.

“You gotta expect it when you swing shit my way,” I merely retorted, curling my feet underneath me, getting more comfortable.

Sasha rolled her eyes and—surprisingly—stayed quiet.

Carter swore, “Fucking hell. He could’ve made that shot.” Referring to the game.

“Fuck that,” Bryce added, taking a drink of his beer.

Just then the buzzer rang, Spurs losing by four points. Tray switched the channel to some music videos.

No one knew what to say, so the guys complained about the game some more.

Jasmine stood up and went into a room. A second later, she returned with a beer in hand and perched on the arm of the couch by Devon, where she started talking to Sasha. Amber stood up and circled to stand by them. Mandy was watching Carter, glancing to Devon every now and then.

Looking over, I saw Tray gazing at my phone.

He looked up at me and held it out to me, “The guy’s called you like seventeen times.”

I sighed and took the phone, standing up and moved up the stairs.

I dialed Grayley’s number and heard him exclaim, “About fucking time, Taryn!”

“Sorry. I just—didn’t want to deal with anything—Brian related.”

“You did a good job on him.”

“So you know.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“What do you want? I’m not sorry. Is that what you want? Brian put Geezer in the hospital.”

“Is it helping?” Grayley asked, quietly.

“Is what helping?” I didn’t want to play mind games with him. He always thought he knew me better than I knew myself. “Stop it, Grayley.”

“Is it helping you? Remembering all the shit-poor stuff he does so that you can get over him?”

“What?” I choked out in disbelief. I couldn’t believe he was playing this card. “Are you kidding me?”

“No, Taryn, I’m not. If you want to hate Brian, you can hate him. Just don’t use Geezer as your excuse, because he doesn’t deserve to be used like that. And if you think he doesn’t know what you’re doing, you’re pretty dumb.”

I wanted to scream. Grayley was fucking right (somewhat), but…fuck him. I wasn’t going to admit it.

“I’m not using Geezer as an excuse. Trust me. I’m hating Brian all on my own. And what I did to him…that was all me. Yeah—Geezer was
a
reason, but he wasn’t the only reason. And I’m
not
using him.” I repeated.

“Whatever you keep telling yourself,” he said smoothly.

“Why are you on my ass about this?” I asked, irritated.

“Because Geezer’s now blaming himself for the entire break-up between you and Brian. And it’s not right. He thinks it’s all his fault.”

“Geezer went to Brian about his dad.”

“And who sent him there? You. Through Jace.”

“Grayley—what are you on? Are you pissed that you weren’t the one to take Brian down? I don’t get you.”