“And I want to be able to hit Raven without him hitting me back.”
“Hey,” Raven said.
“Done,” Marc said.
I reached out, slapping at Raven’s thigh hard. Raven lifted his hand like he was going to pop me back when Brandon snapped an arm out, taking his hand and squeezing it, yanking it back until Raven twisted himself off the coffee table to ease the pressure and then writhed onto the floor. “Let go. Shit. Okay, okay.”
“Hey,” I said to Brandon, admiring his technique. “How’d you do that?”
Brandon released Raven and smirked. “Stick around. You might learn something.”
COREY
Raven collected himself off the floor and the group started to talk all at once for a moment.
A sharp ring interrupted the din, and the group silenced, turning to Kevin.
Kevin fished out a cell phone. He took one look at the screen and pressed the button. He stood quickly, rushing to the front door. “Hey. Everything okay?” He stepped out into the hallway, shutting the door behind himself.
“Mindy’s calling again.” Corey said.
Marc nodded. “She’s doing that a lot more lately.”
“Is that bad?” I asked. “Why do you guys say that like you don’t like it?”
Marc shook me off. “It’s not bad. It’s just they’ve been getting really close. He’s been a bit distracted. No big deal. Happens, right?”
I shrugged. I wasn’t exactly sure what he was worried Kevin would get distracted from.
Marc started going over the information for me to catch me up on their plan. The location of the party was a fancy house. It was an informal party, but by informal, they also meant snooty and out of my league. They had an overview of the house, a few pictures of the place and the grounds. A photo of the target; a faded image from a security camera. The house itself looked like one of the estate properties further down the peninsula. It probably cost a million dollars.
“How am I supposed to walk into a place like that?” I asked.
“You’re going as Brandon’s girlfriend,” Marc said. “He’s got an invitation.”
I turned on Brandon. “How’d you get one of those?”
Brandon shrugged. “I’m a nice guy.”
“Okay, well, despite it being a casual party, they’re not going to let a girl like me walk in there.”
“Why not?” Marc asked.
I squinted at him, unsure how to reply. Did he want me to say out loud that I was a poor girl wearing clothes I bought on clearance five years ago? “Outside of the million other reasons why, let’s just say I don’t really fit in.”
“We’ll fix that,” Marc said. “In fact, Brandon, you want to come with me? We’ll pick up a few things.”
"I'm going," Raven said.
“You’re staying,” Marc said. “Axel’s busy. You need to stay with her.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” I said. “Where are you going?”
“We’re getting supplies and lunch. You want anything in particular?”
If he wanted my opinion and was paying, I’d tell him. “Anything but Chinese.” And bananas. And oatmeal. I wanted to mention those out loud but I got the impression he was talking about picking up fast food.
“Pizza it is.” He pointed at Corey. “Staying?”
Corey had been buried in his phone. He picked his head up. “Yeah.”
“Did you even hear me?”
“I’m staying,” Corey said.
“Okay.” Marc patted his pockets as if checking to make sure he still had his wallet and phone and keys, and did it while looking at me.
“I didn’t take it,” I said blankly.
He smirked. “I’ll be back. Don’t go anywhere, Bambi.” He reached out, patting my cheek. I karate chopped at his elbow to get him to quit. He avoided it and chopped me back lightly on the shoulder. "Too slow." He walked out with Brandon following him.
I shifted to sit back on the couch, crossing my arms over my chest.
Raven stood up, stretching his arms over his head until the bottom of his black tank shirt stretched up over his abdomen, revealing his belly button. I tried to pretend I was just looking at him in general instead of the deep hip lines as thick torso muscles bulged. There was a continuation of some tattoos but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
Raven smirked at me and walked out of the room before I had a chance to comment and defend myself. Great. I was starting to look like a complete pervert.
That left me alone on the couch with Corey. I studied him as he poked at his phone. The difference in the eyes between him and his brother was astounding. He was as tall as his brother, taller than both Raven and Marc, perhaps even Axel. The twins had wide shoulders and seemed to be lean in the torso, sturdy powerhouses. Corey’s cerulean eyes were brighter by far. His whole face was friendlier, too. Softer with smiles that lit up his eyes.
I leaned into his arm on purpose. "Texting your girlfriend?" I asked.
Corey glanced up, his blond eyebrows rising. "What? No. No girlfriend."
"What's so interesting?"
He glanced around the room and blanched as if realizing he was alone with me. "Uh, nothing. Just work."
"Where do you work?"
His lips moved like he had an answer but he wasn’t sure he wanted to respond.
I smirked. “I don’t bite.”
He laughed a little. “Are you sure?”
Did he worry I’d fight with him like I did with Raven? I tucked my hands together over my stomach and sat back, trying to look friendly. “So what are you working on?”
r /> He fiddled with his phone in his hands for a moment before turning to me. “Promise not to say anything?”
My eyebrows shifted up. “You’d trust me not to tell? You don’t even know me.”
“Doesn’t mean your promise isn’t any good.” He sat back, leaning against my arm. “I’ve put together a new phone app. I was just checking to see how the reviews were going.”
“Oh,” I said, blinking at the screen. I’d never owned a cell phone. If I ever had one on me, it belonged to a boyfriend I was dating at the time. I looked at the alien screen on Corey’s. “You create phone apps? What kind of app?”
“A video game,” he said. “A small one.”
I leaned over him, letting my arm wedge under his so I could study his phone better, checking the title of one he pointed to. “Castle Zombie Defense?”
“It’s like a castle defense game, except you have to defend it against zombies.”
“You did it? By yourself?”
He shrugged, his shoulder digging into mine a little. “I had some extra time between other projects. The hardest part was learning the 3D software. After about a week, I got the hang of it though ...”
I sat up sharply. “You learned how to do this on your own in a week?”
He blinked those cerulean eyes at me. “Well, I had to learn about video game structure. The software itself has a lot of elements already in place, so there was some coding I didn’t have to piece together myself.”
“Did you take a class?”
He shrugged. “I mean I took some, but they didn’t really dive into this sort of thing. I stopped going because it was faster if I learned it on my own. There’s one I want to take next semester, but I may just attend the more interesting lectures. It’s usually quicker just to pick up a book and learn.”
“But that’s amazing,” I said. “Why didn’t you want anyone to know?”
“I don’t want the other guys to know,” he said. “I mean I don’t care if they know but ... I don’t know. I just feel weird about mentioning it. They think I’m too involved in video games and that it’s distracting.”
“So you told me?”
He smiled a little. “Unless you want to tell me it’s a waste of time.”