I nodded, my neck so damned stiff. “Yeah.”
She picked up her glass again, gesturing outside with her phone. “I’m going to let Race know what I’m doing, and then I’ll give her a call. Are you sticking—” I gave her a pitying look. She stopped herself. “No. Your crew isn’t out there.” I stood up from the counter, nodding toward the front door. “I’m going to call the guy—” “Bren Monroe!” Tabatha Sweets had come inside. Sunday and Monica were right behind her, both with differing expressions. Sunday’s mouth hung open, but she recovered quickly, smoothing a hand down her hair. Monica looked less shocked and more snarly. She didn’t hide her sneer. I looked from them to Taz and asked, “You guys have a uniform protocol now?” All wore the same sort of wraps, but in different colors. Tabatha wore blue. Monica had red. Sunday had black, and all with bikinis underneath. The only one not wearing high heels was Taz, and they all had hair extensions with their hair down. Not one person looked like they’d gone swimming. Tabatha laughed. “We just spend a lot of time together.” She came forward as Sunday and Monica hung back by the table. She came right into the kitchen, making Taz move to the side so she could open the fridge. Refilling her glass with juice, she leaned against the spot Taz had vacated. “How are you?” I should’ve expected this. She was circling the wagons, bringing Taz in. She had her new backup. I glanced at Sunday. She’d tried approaching me in the fall. That hadn’t gone well. But Tabatha was bigger and badder. I’m not talking physically. Power. I was usually lost in the crew world, but I knew enough to know that Tabatha Sweets was the top of the top, for the Normal world. “You’re friends with Taz now, I hear.” Her fake smile fell flat. “I am. I’m trying to be anyway.” I shook my head. I was going to call a spade a spade. “No, you’re trying to get to Cross. You’ve been trying for years.” I waited for the denial. She lifted a shoulder. “If I wanted to use Taz to get to her brother, I would’ve done it freshman year.” She looked over to Taz. “I’ll be honest. Race liked you. That’s part of the reason I reached out, and yeah…” She glanced at me. “Some of it might’ve been about Cross. Can you blame me? Your brother is the best-looking guy in school,” she told Taz. “But we’re friends because I do like you.” “Are you serious?” Taz’s lips opened in surprise. “You were using me?” “I’ve been over here how many times now?” She waited. “Like thirty?” Taz said. “And how many times has your brother been here, much less talked to me?” Taz considered it. “Maybe once?” “Once. One time. And that was just seeing him walk inside, talk to you, grab something from his room, and leave again. I never talked to him. I didn’t even try, right?” “Right.” Taz was buying it. She was licking it up like cream left for a cat. She wanted to believe it, and wariness heightened my dislike for this girl. She was good, damned good. She was going to be a problem. Cockiness flared in Tabatha’s eyes as she swung her gaze my way. I stepped up to her, keeping my voice low, because she wasn’t worth the extra energy. “You’re going to want to hope Race doesn’t leave.” Now her lips parted. Confusion pulled her eyebrows together. “Because if he leaves, there goes Taz’s anchor in your group. We’ll find out then if you become that anchor instead.” “Bren, come on.” Taz stepped to Tabatha’s side. I felt that itch to pull out my knife again. It was small, but it was there. This girl was going to weasel her way into my friend’s heart. That was her weapon of choice. I only had one more thing to say. “If you hurt her, I will slice you.” I was willing to make an exception to my reformed ways. And I wanted Tabatha to see the truth, so I waited. One beat. I meant it. When her eyes widened, I added, “I’ll get you in just the right spot so it won’t completely heal. Every time the temperature changes, it’ll ache. If it starts raining, it’ll ache. When you get older, you’ll throb when you wake up in the mornings. That pain will be me. You’ll be haunted by me. You won’t get rid of me for the rest of your life. Even when you get really old, I’ll always be there. You’ll have to take pills to try to erase me, but it won’t last. I’ll always come back. That’s what I’ll do, if you hurt her.” Tabatha looked at me in shock, her eyes wide and unmoving. A pin could’ve dropped and be heard in that kitchen. No one made a sound. I moved around her and walked to the front door. She’d gotten my message. I wasn’t like the rest of them.