All eyes turned back tome.
“You’re training tomorrow,” Knix reminded me. “It’s yourpenalty.”
“I want to go to the camp,” Iclarified.
The silenceechoed.
“No.” Surprisingly, Bellamy was the first to reply. “No way.” Marv continued to stare at me. The rest of the guys were quiet. “You’re not going,” Bellamysaid.
“I’ll talk to Alex tomorrow,” Knixrepeated.
Bellamy’s gaze whipped to him. “You can’t beserious.”
“I was already going to go see him,” Knixreplied.
“But you’re going to really consider her for this? She’s still new; she hasn’t completedtraining–”
“We’ll see what Alex says,” Knix interrupted sternly. There was a rumbling of discontent in the room and though I wanted to reaffirm that, whether they liked it or not, Ididwant to go. I also didn’t want to strike up more of thatdiscontent.
It seemed that I didn’t have to, however, because in the next moments Marv was shaking his head. “No,” he stated firmly, “there is no way in hell she’sgoing.”
“Marv…” Knix attempted some sort of reassurance, but I could tell he wasn’t quite sure how to take Marv’sattitude.
Marv stared at me, blue eyes tight and angry. “No,” he repeated. Then he quietly turned and left the room. I sucked back a breath and found the anger from earlier crawling back upagain.
How dare he?I scowled. “When you’re all done deciding what I can and can’t do,” I said through gritted teeth, “I’ll be in my room.” With that, I turned and left aswell.
My hands shook as I passed through the rest of the living room and around the corner. I squeezed the knob of my bedroom door and threw it open, relishing in the crashing sound it made against the wall before I walked in and slammed it closed. I was sure the echoing noise could be heard throughout the living room as well as the rest of thehouse.
I collapsed on my bed and stared at the ceiling. My room in the guys' house was supposed to be a sanctuary. It was supposed to bemyplace. It was the one area in the house where if I wanted the guys to leave me alone, they would. Usually, I didn't mind that Marv slept in my room. Or that Bellamy and Texas regularly waltzed in without knocking. It seemed Knix really was the only one that knocked. Maybe he felt like heshould?
Right now, though, it felt like my room was a prison. My anger swelled, and the walls closed in on me. I didn't have enough room to pace. I could hear the grinding of my teeth bouncing off the walls. I wanted to rip something to pieces. I wantedto–
"Harlow?" As if sensing my inner turmoil, Texas hesitantly tapped on my door and opened it. I huffed a frustrated breath as he came in. At least it was Texas and not Marv or Bellamy. "Hey," he said. I sat up and stared at the wall. What was I supposed to say? I was mad at him. I was mad at all ofthem.
Wasn'tI?
Well, okay, I wasn't really that mad at Marv. He was just worried about me. He didn't want me going to this camp because he didn't want something bad to happen to me. Neither did Bellamy, so I wasn't really mad at him either. But I was definitely mad at Knix because of this stupid penalty. Though, itwasa pretty lenient penalty. He could have taken my phone away since I didn't technically pay for it – they did. I needed to do something about that. He didn't make me do anything stupid like give him my itinerary for every day. So, really, Knix could have been worse. I guessed I wasn't as mad at him as I thought. But Texas told Knix about what happened at the dance club – the drinking anyway. It wasn't any of his business. He was the one that had started the whole ball rolling, telling the others which led to Knix getting mad and Marv and Bellamy getting upset. I was, for sure, mad at him. Except… when Texas sat next to me on the bed, he took a deep breath and reached for myhand.
"I'm sorry about tonight," he said. I leaned my head back and groaned. Damn it, why was it so hard to be mad at any ofthem?
Finally, I sighed and straightened. "It's fine," I said. "You were just looking out for me." God, I hated being mature about it. For just a moment, I wished I could hold onto my anger, but the moment he touched my hand, I knew I was a goner. Texas wasn't a mean or malicious person. Even if he was a trickster, he was a good person. He meantwell.
"I know you're still mad," hesaid.
"I'm not–" He looked at me. "Okay… I'm kind of, sort of, still mad… ish," I finishedawkwardly.
He smiled. "Do you know what my grandma once toldme?"
I shook my head. This was the first time he had ever mentioned his family. I wondered if his grandmother was still alive. I didn't feel comfortable asking, so all I said was, "No."
"Well," he said. "She and my grandfather were married for over forty-fiveyears."
My eyes widened. Forty-five years sounded like an awfully long time. "They must have loved each other very much," Imused.
Texas laughed. "I guess so, but not many people sawthat."
"What do you mean?" Iasked.