“Bitch—” I grinned, rolling my neck in a sad attempt to work out the kinks. “—I’m fucking exhausted. This restaurant shit is no joke,” I admitted.
“Want to sneak out and have a smoke?” She looked so hopeful that I actually felt bad.
Kenna’s dainty nose wrinkled. “Gross, I still can’t believe you suck on those things. There are better things to suck.”
Mads spit out her drink, laughing. “Slut.”
A group of kids from the Academy sauntered in, filling up three of the tables. Ray waved for me to stay as she went over to greet them. “Since when do people from the Academy hang out here?” I asked.
“Since word got out that Brock Taylor’s girlfriend works here,” Kenna informed.
Already? How the f—
Mads’s face froze as her gaze lifted over my head, her straw halfway to her mouth. Then the tingles radiated over my skin, and I knew before he even spoke that Brock had walked into the bar.
“What are you doing?”
At the sound of that annoyed, deep voice, I closed my eyes and exhaled. Slowly, I turned my head to the side and glanced up to meet Brock’s stern expression. He had recently showered and wore dark jeans and a white shirt. My eyes devoured him at the same time I felt pulled toward him. “How did you find me?” I asked, my senses inundated by the scent of him.
“I’ll always find you, Firefly. Now answer the question,” he gritted out.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m working. Now leave before you get me in trouble.”
He did no such thing. Instead, he flipped the chair beside Kenna around and straddled it. “You skipped the game tonight.”
“It was my first night.” A scuffling of chairs sounded behind me, and I knew without looking that the Elite had arrived. Micah, Fynn, and Grayson pulled up extra chairs, wedging themselves in between us. The table was definitely not big enough for seven of us, so I got up, offering my seat to one of the guys. “Now that you’ve brought half the Academy with you, I have to get back to work.”
“Don’t leave. Not yet,” Micah pleaded, offering me a dimpled grin. “You haven’t taken my order yet.”
“You guys aren’t staying,” I insisted.
No one at the table moved a muscle.
I was too tired to argue. “Fine,” I huffed, giving in. “What do you want?”
The guys rattled off various menu items, and I scribbled them down on the little white pad. “Quaint little place you choose to work at,” Grayson said.
Shooting him a sarcastic grin, I flipped him off as I went to go put in their orders. Someone whistled as I walked away. Pretty sure it was Micah.
“Knock it off,” I heard Brock grumble before their voices got lost in the chatter of the crowd.
While I’d been sitting down for those few minutes, several other kids wandered in. This time it was a group from Public.
Ray came out of the kitchen as I punched in the order, a tray of drinks in her hand. She dropped them off at the table and greeted another as I just finished keying in the drinks and food for the Elite. Ray gave my hip a little bump with hers, and I stepped to the side, letting her use the machine. “You failed to mention that Brock Taylor is your boyfriend.”
How did she figure that out? No doubt the rumors about me were spreading through Public as well. It seemed I couldn’t escape them, no matter where I tried to hide. “I didn’t think it was important.”
“He’s an Elite.TheElite,” she emphasized, sneaking a glance over my shoulder.
“I know,” I sighed with a hint of annoyance. Sometimes I just wanted to be normal and blend in with everyone else, a near-impossible task when you were friends with the four of them.
“Besides being gorgeous, I heard he’s a dick. No offense,” she added.
“None taken. And you’re not wrong. Brock is an ass, but not to those who are close to him.”
“Figured. You don’t strike me as someone who would put up with bullshit.”
“Is the fact that I know the Elite going to be a problem?” Better to deal with it now. They were a permanent fixture in my life, not something I could remove. And nor did I want to.