Always Crew - Tijan Page 0,80

the street.

Everyone was out partying. All the frat houses had their lights shining, windows open, and their own music pounding out. There were neon lights strung up all over. Girls were running around wearing bikinis, neon bracelets, and waving neon light sabers in the air like they were at a rave. Some lawn games were set up, and even though it was nearing dusk, they’d be playing long into the night. There was a reason they were all partying tonight, but I didn’t know the why. A couple girls from class texted me, letting me know so I knew this shit wasn’t just frat and sororities. And thinking of them, I shot a couple texts out to them and a few other girls.

I wasn’t hurting for company, but they weren’t Tabatha.

And even thinking that, I was feeling a burn in my chest.

When push came to shove, she clammed up. She did her own thing. She thought she could handle it on her own, and that shit hurt. Felt like a knife sliding between my ribs, you know?

But I failed her, too.

Bren was the one who hadn’t. Bren found out about the cheating and called bullshit. Yeah, yeah. I know she was all huffy and puffy that she was going to go and beat the crap out of Tabatha, or think about it, but Bren was actually softening. All her dysfunctions from the past shuttered, she was becoming functional more and more, and she was friends with Tabatha now. She cared about Tabatha. They weren’t normal girlfriends by a long stretch, that was something Tab had come to accept about Bren, but Bren would get to that, too. One day. But all that being said, she went to find out the truth because she was right.

Tabatha wasn’t a cheater.

And that was on me. I should’ve seen through it. I hadn’t. I got suckered in, let my hurt feelings control me, my wounded ego and all that crap.

“Hey!”

I turned.

A blue, glow-in-the-dark girl pushed through the crowd. Bren frowned at her, but I recognized her. She was one of the girls who texted me earlier. I gave her a nod. “What’s up?” “Hi.” She was out of breath, and I checked her out. She was wearing some weird toga sheet thing with the blue neon lights wrapped around her and looped around her neck.

Bren was eyeing the lights around her neck, and I knew what she was thinking. Dumbass chick move. In a fight, she’d get choked out, but that was Bren for you.

Cross moved in close to his girl, and I went back to eyeing this one. “Trina?”

“Yeah.” She was almost preening, blinking. Her cheeks were rosy, I saw when she got closer to me. “Did you guys just get here?” She didn’t wait for my answer. Turning, she pointed to one of the houses. “My friends and I have a little table over there. We pulled out a picnic table, and there’s a bunch of us from our psych class.” She saw Cross and paused, blinking again, startled. “You’re in that class, too.”

Cross didn’t reply, he had a hand on Bren’s hip.

The girl was studying Bren now. “Are you in our class?”

Bren started to smile, but I cleared my throat, speaking first, “You guys got booze over there?”

Bren’s smile was one of her feral ones. I didn’t know why it was coming out, but this side of B was best dealt with extreme caution. I shot Cross a look and he nodded. He got it, too.

“Oh.” Trina’s smile dimmed a little. “We don’t. I mean, we do, but not for others. My friend—”

“Bitches!”

Another girl came from the crowd, a whole group in tow. When Aspen came from the back, heading right for Bren, I remembered these girls. One was Aspen’s roommate, and the others were her floormates.

“Hey, Bren!”

Aspen went right up to Bren, the feral smile completely ignored, and she threw her tiny arms around her. Blaise’s girl was wearing the same toga-like costume, but a bikini top under it. Knowing how nuts Blaise was about his girl, I was sure she had shorts underneath as well. Not the Trina girl. It was clear she had no bra, and if I had to guess, maybe a thong? Maybe. Maybe not. And she was giving me a look saying that I’d be welcome to find out for myself.

I shot her a grin, and her cheeks pinked.

Then my phone buzzed, and I glanced to it.

It was another girl from my communications class.

Sonya: Red