I hate lecturing her, but I have to do something. I know she thinks she’s safe, but she has no idea what she just got herself into. I don’t want anything to happen to her.
“Stuff?” she questions, and I almost laugh. We’re doing that thing where we pretend we’re not aware that Kendrick’s favorite hobby is punching people.
“Stuff.” I clear my throat. “Do you know what happened yesterday? I was already gone, but I heard it caused a panic.”
She zeroes in on her feet. “Cops.”
Winter’s always been a terrible liar.
Glad to see that hasn’t changed.
“I know that’s what everyone said, but it seemed like a lot more than that. Some people said they heard a gunshot.” My thoughts wander to the few posts I saw scrolling through social media.
“Cops these days.” She shrugs.
“Yeah.” I struggle to hide my frown. “I’m just saying to be careful. Haze Adams is not one to do romance and—”
She cuts me off. “Wait a minute. You were gone? With who?”
Shit.
“With… with a friend,” I stutter.
“Oh, come on. Who’s the boy?” she insists, and I scold myself for letting that last detail slip out.
“There’s no boy. Don’t try to change the subject. What were we talking about?”
“You were lecturing me about Haze.” She heaves a sigh.
“Right. All Haze wants is fun. Like what he does with Bianca. He keeps sleeping with her even though the poor girl’s head over heels in love with him. Just don’t let him fool you, too.”
I’d never forgive myself if she got her heart stomped on by Haze like Zoey and I didn’t at least try to warn her.
She holds her hands up. “Believe it or not, I’m actually not a fan of heartless douchebags. I’m one of the girls who don’t enjoy when a man doesn’t give a crap about them. Yes, we do exist.”
“Says the girl who literally just let him take her home,” I mutter under my breath.
“Okay. You know what? I didn’t sleep at his place willingly. Something happened to me, and I was in trouble. Haze helped and offered me a place to stay.”
Shocked by her honesty, I can’t gather a response.
I give in. “Some street fight trouble?”
Disbelief fills her eyes.
“You know?”
“I’ve known for a while now. I’m not blind. Neither is my mom. She knows Kendrick is involved in something she can’t control. I hear your fights at night. Kendrick needs to stop taking the world for idiots. Not to mention Blake’s behavior was so weird back when we were dating. Eventually, I put the pieces together.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“Because it’s better to pretend not to know certain things, Winter. I don’t want to get involved in his mess, and I’ve managed to do that successfully until…”
“Until me,” she finishes.
“Well, don’t get me wrong, but you literally threw yourself into the fire. What were you thinking following my brother when he goes out?”
She’s astounded. “Seriously? You heard that, too?”
“You guys are pretty loud when you argue at night.”
The following minutes are spent in utter silence. We haven’t moved one bit, still stuck in traffic.
“Look at her.” Winter motions to the lady dancing in the car next to us.
“Can’t. I’m driving,” I grumble.
“You’re sitting in an unmoving car, actually.”
I surrender, glancing over at the woman. “What?”
“I hope I can be this carefree when I’m older.”
“If and only if you live beyond the age of eighteen.” I regret my bitter words as soon as they roll off my tongue. I can’t help myself when it comes to Haze. Listening to Zoey sob over this guy for a year gave me a full-blown Haze allergy.
“Harsh.” She exhales.
Guilt coils in my throat.
“I know. I know. I’m being an asshole, I’m sorry. It’s just… Haze Adams is only as nice as he needs to be to get your trust. Promise me you’ll stay away.”
It takes her too long to agree for my liking. “I promise.”
I nod, focusing on the road and attempting to convince myself that I fixed it. That I fixed her. But deep down, I know… if Haze decides he wants Winter, homegirl is screwed.
Haze Adams always gets what he wants.
“Finally! Alex, they’re back,” Will shouts when Winter strolls into the house, dropping our shopping bags onto the tiled floor. I come in after her, immediately locking eyes with the broad-shouldered blond in my kitchen.
“Aw, did someone miss us?” Winter teases.
Tucking his hands in his sweatpants pocket, Will analyzes me. He looks like he’s debating on something. Then, as though he’s made up his mind, he cracks the ghost of a smile. It’s a two-second smile, if that, but in that last second…
Something different lingers.
Something new.
I feel like we share some sort of secret now, which is dumb seeing as we did nothing wrong—I mean, except break onto private property together. Intimidated, I sever the eye contact and pluck my phone out of my purse. I have two missed calls from an unknown number.
As if our return is the most anticipated event of the year, Alex rushes inside the room with nerve-racking anxiety flowing out of him.
“What’s up with you?” Winter asks.
“You’ve been gone for like two years, that’s what’s up,” Alex pants, eyeing our shopping bags on the floor.
I look up from my phone. “We’ve been gone for like four hours.”
“What the hell were you doing at the mall for four hours anyway?” Will mocks, making me want to slap the cocky grin off his face.
“Hunting elephants,” I deadpan. “Isn’t it obvious? We were shopping. What do you think we were doing?”
Will lifts an eyebrow. “Shopping for what? And don’t tell me shoes. You already have 2,433 pairs.”
“That’s not true,” Winter cuts in.
“Thanks, Winter,” I say, grateful for her support.
“She has 2,435.”
Alex and Will suppress a laugh. What? It’s not my fault shoes bring me more joy than the male species. Fighting the urge to roll my eyes, I pick up as many bags as humanly possible and take the stairs two at a time, eager to find out who the missed calls are from.
“Thanks, Jenny. Of course I’ll be there. Thank you again.” I hang up and drop onto my bed with a squeal.
I have a job.
Me.
I have a freaking job.
I spoke with Jenny, the store manager, for around twenty minutes, clearing up the last details. I unlock my phone to call Morgan and tell her I’ll be able to afford fixing my shitty car in the near foreseeable future, but just as I’m about to press the Call button, a new message pops onto my screen.
Unknown Number: I think you need glasses
I frown. I don’t have this number registered in my phone.
Kass: Who is this?