“Keep talking and maybe I won’t help after all.” Jace was family. No one talked bad about my family.
Mandy hushed me. “Taryn, don’t talk to him like that.”
I ignored her. Everyone was waiting. No one spoke back to Tray Motherfucking Evans, but I just did. He didn’t shoot back and I could feel the confusion from everyone. My classmate leaned over and whispered, “You are officially my idol. No girl who’s slept with him has gotten away with talking to him like that, and he sought you out.”
She was so excited about the last fact. I sighed. This would be the number one rumor going through school for the rest of the day. I caught sight of Mandy’s warning glare and rolled my eyes. Another day that I had saved her from the gossip mill. When she waved her finger in the air, I flipped her my middle finger. No one was going to tell me how to think, speak, or feel. If she kept trying, she’d learn like everyone else did that they could kiss my ass. When she gasped again, I was tempted to make it a double deuce and flip my other middle finger too.
“Okay, class,” the teacher started, and I ignored my sister for the rest of the class and the rest of the day. I ignored everyone else while I was at it, not that it was a sacrifice. As the day went on, Jennica pulled her friends to the side. All of them gave me varying looks of hatred. Mandy ignored me with her sudden new group of friends and all the other girls took cues from the reigning crowd.
I was a social leper. The only person who didn’t understand it was my table mate. When I went to another class, she saw me in the hallway and waved. Two other girls were with her. One gasped and the other grabbed her hand, pulling it down.
The next day was the same. Mandy still adopted the same philosophy to act like nothing happened in her world. She barely talked to me at home and that same guy slept over. I wanted to ask what the deal was with him, but since she wouldn’t even say hello to me, I assumed it would’ve been a lost cause to ask. The only thing different about the day was that Samuel and Tray were missing. People noticed. Towards the end of the day, I started thinking people had forgotten about me, but nope. Jennica and her friends stopped talking the second I entered the hallway. Their hatred was still going strong.
I shrugged. It was peaceful to me, but couldn’t help myself. As I passed by, Jennica stared at me the whole time. I pretended to scratch my ear with my middle finger again. I was fully aware how immature it was, but I enjoyed it and she had heeded my warning. No one talked about Mandy and Devon. No one seemed to notice that they weren’t standing next to each other, holding hands, cuddling, or talking even. My sisterly duty had been fulfilled. At the end of that day, as I headed to my car and saw Tray leaning against my car, I wondered if my friend duty needed to be fulfilled also.
Then I paused and asked him, “Are we friends?”
His arms were crossed over his chest and in that moment, I was reminded about his ‘god-like’ status around the school. Square jaw, his striking hazel eyes directed on me, and those perfect lips curled up in a small smirk. He really was gorgeous.
He smirked. “Only if you want us to be, Matthews.”
He had pissed me off. He had comforted me in a way no one knew how to do, and he knew how to read me. No one knew how to read me like he did.
My nostrils flared. “I think we are friends.”
He flashed me a grin. “Does that mean you’re going to help me?”
“I think it means that I have to.” I snorted. “I’m sentimental like that. I tend to help friends and family whether they want it or not.” My eyes narrowed. “But is that all you want?”
The loaded question held between us. His eyes darkened back to that amber color, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. My chest tightened and my pulse started racing. I had a strong feeling we were going to be more than friends. When that happened, I’d deal with it. I was starting not to be able to control myself when it came to Tray Motherfucking Evans.
His eyes fell to my lips and stayed there. “I think,” he flashed me another heart melting grin, “that the whole ball is in your court.”
“Shit.” I shook my head. “The innuendos I could make with that one word. You couldn’t have used a different word?”
“Sorry.” He wasn’t. He was laughing.
“Ball. You used the word ball.” I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t hold back the grin. “A set of balls. A pair of balls. A bowling ball and a pin. Ball. Just one? I think it could get lonely. I think you should add onto it. Maybe say the whole donkey’s pair is in your court.”
He barked out a laugh. “That makes no sense.”
> I shrugged. I was trying to slow my hormones so I joked some more. Tray stopped listening and grabbed my hand. I stopped talking. He pulled me in front of him and I stood there, feeling all girly. I had never felt like this with Brian. None of it made sense to me. He rested his arms on my shoulders, his head bent so we were eye level, and I stood in front of him. He didn’t wrap those arms around me. He didn’t pull me against his chest. My hands lifted and held onto his biceps, and I stared back at him.
Then he smirked again. “Thank you for helping me.”
Yep. A tingly sensation had started in my gut, but it kicked up a notch now. I wanted to curse my hormones and since I couldn’t say a smart-ass comment, I nodded.
*
This was my moment. This was my element. Standing on top the roof of my old school with the black night as my backdrop and the wind rushing behind me, I closed my eyes for a moment to savor the feeling. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I didn’t know what it was, or how I could describe it, but even the hairs on my fingers were vibrating. I felt alive.
I got the blueprints for the new school from Grayley. He hadn’t been happy about getting them or handing them over. He hadn’t been his usual carefree easygoing way so I pressed him. “What’s wrong? Tell me or I’ll find some computer nerd to hack your email.”
His eyes got big, but then he scowled. “You would, wouldn’t you?”
“Spill it, Gray.”
When he told me that his dad had returned to town, my senses went haywire. Grayley’s father wasn’t a good guy. He got out of prison for transporting drugs over the border six months ago. Gray hadn’t been worried. His dad chose to remain in the south, but I could see the concern and knowing the reason behind it, I asked, “You want me to talk to Jace?”