I stared at him, one of my best friends in the whole world, and I didn’t know what to say.
It would be easy to tell him I was scared. That I couldn’t let myself believe I could make it out of The Row; because if I didn’t make it, if something happened and my shot at getting out was ripped away from me, I wasn’t sure I would fucking survive it.
Besides, what if I got to college and I wasn’t good enough? What if I couldn’t handle the pressure? The Row was lawless. People lived by their own codes and values. College wasn’t like that. Especially college football where everyone was out to prove themselves.
Laughter floated over to us, and my body grew tense as I glanced over my shoulder to find Celeste Rowe and the Mulligan kid standing in the archway.
“Oh God,” she said, her eyes darting from me to Zane and back again. “We didn’t realize you’d be here. We’ll go.”
“She with you?” I asked, stopping them in their tracks.
“N-no. We’re… we’re on a date.” She lifted her chin slightly and I frowned.
Why the fuck would I care if she was on a date?
But her gaze flicked back to Zane and realization hit me like a truck. The sister had a thing for my best friend.
Interesting.
If Zane noticed her lingering stare, he didn’t react.
“Are you guys playing pool?” Mulligan asked with a nervous smile.
“Why, any good?” Zane quirked a brow, a faint smirk tracing his mouth.
So maybe he had noticed, after all.
“I’m decent.”
“Let’s see what you’ve got then, pussy boy.” He grabbed a cue and thrust it at Mulligan.
Celeste frowned. “Miles, come on, we should lea—” But the asshole shrugged her off, joining Zane at the pool table.
“Hi, I’m Chloe.”
“Celeste.” She gave Chloe a tight smile.
“So you’re Harleigh’s half-sister?”
She nodded, keeping one eye on her date and Zane. “Did you know Harleigh, from before?”
“Yeah.” Chloe looked at me with a sad smile. “I’m Kye’s sister. We weren’t friends exactly, but I liked her.”
Fuck this.
I didn’t want to stand around and get to know the half-sister and her guy. And yet, questions teetered on the tip of my tongue—questions I had no fucking right to ask.
“We can go,” Celeste said, noticing my expression. “This probably isn’t a good idea.”
“Worried your guy will get his ass handed to him by Z?” My words were an icy cold warning, but it was hard not to resent her. To hate her for the simple fact she got to be around Harleigh day in, day out, when all I had were a bunch of hazy memories.
“N-no… that’s not…” She rolled her eyes, moving away from us to watch the pool game.
“What’s that about?” Kye asked me while Chloe went to talk to her. No doubt fishing for details about Harleigh.
“You didn’t notice the weird vibes between her and Z?”
“Z?” He burst out laughing. “You have got to be shitting me. Z would rather cut his dick off than ever touch a girl from DA.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Nah, she’s…” He glanced back at her. “Not Z’s type.”
Zane didn’t have a type. He had needs, and he chose a certain kind of girl to service those needs. But I could count on one hand the number of times I’d ever seen him actually talk to a girl beyond asking her to hook up with him. And I got it. He had abandonment issues ten times worse than I did. Sometimes I wondered how Kye had ended up part of our fucked-up little trio. He was too normal. Too laid back. Still, I loved him like a brother, grateful for his easy breezy outlook on life. Even if half the time I wanted to smack him upside the head.
The blare of someone’s cell phone pierced the air and the half-sister dug around in her purse, flustered.
“Harl— Nate, what is it?” The blood drained from her face, and my heart dropped. “Oh my God, okay. Okay… yeah. We’ll come now.”
“What’s happened?” I was in front of her immediately.
“I don’t know the details. But Harleigh is at Nate’s house, and he says she’s locked herself in the bathroom and is totally freaking out.”
“Where does he live?”
“W-what?”
“Miller,” I barked. “Where does he live?”
She murmured his address.
“Z, we gotta go.”
“What?” She grabbed my arm. “You can’t go. Harleigh doesn’t—”
I glared at her. “Do I look like I give a shit about what Harleigh wants?”
“It’s okay,” Chloe said, getting in between us. She gently pulled Celeste’s hand off my arm. “Let us help. Harleigh is… We can help.”
“Fine.” Defiance burned in her eyes. “But you can’t cause any trouble. Nate doesn’t know you’re here. He won’t—”
“Don’t really give a fuck,” I snapped, the words rough against my throat.
I needed to get to Harleigh.
The rest could go to hell.
Nix
“What the…?” I blinked up at an unfamiliar ceiling.
“Holy shit, what time is it?”
“Kye?” Sitting up, I rubbed my head. Fuck, it felt like I’d been whacked on the back of the skull with a tire iron.
Bodies littered the floor. Zane. Paul Odell. A few other guys from the team all crammed into Odell’s garage, sprawled over various pieces of threadbare furniture.
“Does anyone have the time?” Kye said.
A low groan came from beside me and Paul sat up. “It’s like nine twenty.”
“Fuck. What the hell was in those pills?” Zane barked, and I glanced over wondering if I looked as bad as he did.
Kye shrugged. “Whatever it was, it was some good shit.”
After I’d driven Harleigh home, I’d met Zane and Kye at Pat’s. They had already finished eating by the time I’d got there, so I’d gotten my order to go. We were going to head back to the party, but when Kye texted Paul to see if people were still around, he said a few of the guys had moved on to his place and invited us over.
It wasn’t usually my style to touch anything except the odd blunt or two. But when Paul had offered out the pills, attesting to their ‘awesome fucking trip’ I’d taken one, not caring what was in it. I wanted to get fucked up and forget about the dejected look on Harleigh’s face when she’d climbed out of my car.
Harleigh.
I patted my pocket and to my relief, found my cell phone. “Fuck,” I hissed when I realized it had a dead battery.
I needed to speak to her, to try to fix things after last night.
But what the fuck was I going to say?
“Hey, either of you got any charge?” I asked Zane and Kye. They both checked and shook their heads.
“I’m going to head out,” I said, clambering to my feet. Every bit of me ached and I wanted nothing more than a hot shower and some food to soak up whatever the fuck had been in those pills we’d dropped last night. But first, we had to drive back to The Row.