A Whole New Crowd (A Whole New Crowd #1)(39)

Then I remembered—Tray ran this school. He was one of those at the top too. Oh hell.
*

I didn’t have long before I started feeling some of the repercussions. Jennica glared at me when I left first period. Grant and Samuel glared too. They cast a glance at the girls to make sure they had noticed. When they were positive they’d been noticed, they dropped the glares and went back to their conversation.
When I walked up to my locker before my last class, a girl was writing ‘whore’ in permanent maker.
I grabbed the pen from her hand and threw it. “Fetch.”
She started to retort, but I opened my locker, grabbed my book, and left before she got one word out.
I felt attention everywhere I went. People were watching me. I wasn’t dumb. I knew they were going to wait and see what happened, but when I got to my last class, I stopped in the doorway and wanted to groan. I always thought I had study hall during this period, so I decided to go to health instead. I was surprised when I saw who else was in this class. Tray.
He was at a table by himself, lounging back in his chair. As I stared at him, unsure what to do, conversations hushed around the room, and he looked up. His eyes were narrowed when they landed on me. I groaned on the inside. The anger was there, but it was banked.
The teacher saw me too. “Miss Matthews, you’ve finally decided to grace us with your presence. I see someone took it upon themselves to let you know that we are, in fact, not study hall and that you are, in fact, supposed to be here.”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Good. Take a seat. I see an empty one by Mr. Helms.”
I glanced at Helms and saw a look of disgust pass over him. He stood. “I’ll sit with Tray.”
He was gathering his books when Tray stopped him. “She can sit with me.”
Oh joy.
Helms froze. He looked at Tray, read something on his face, and sat back down.
I met Tray’s eyes again. Yeah…no. “I can sit on the floor.”
“Oh no.” Tray kicked out the empty chair beside him. “Sit with me. Really.”
As soon as I sat down, the class started, but I couldn’t pay attention to the teacher. I doubted anyone was. His entire body was rigid. I stole a few glances his way, but was met with a cold, even stare back. I could feel the tension in his body. Jace’s warning to stay away from Tray came to me again. Shit. I should always listen to Jace. He never lied to me.
I heard the teacher ask for two volunteers to go to the counselor’s office. I had barely registered his words when Tray spoke up, “We’ll go.”
I never got time to decide if I wanted to go. He grabbed my arm and hauled me out. We were in the hallway before the teacher could say thanks.
I wrenched my arm away. “Ouch.”
That’s when I was met with the full force of Tray’s fury because he grabbed my arm again and yanked me into the empty gymnasium.
“This isn’t the way to the counselor’s office.”
“Do you really want to go to the counselor’s office?” Tray snapped, hauling me into the equipment closet. The heavy door heavy slammed shut behind him.
He had a point there, but taking in his tight jaw and set shoulders, I said, “I would today.”
He ignored me and rolled his eyes. “What the f*ck do you think you’re doing?!”
“Excuse me?”
“You know what. The entire f*cking school is going off about you and Amber. You said that we hurt people, that we don’t give a shit about them.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. This could get technical. “She doesn’t.”
“You lumped her in a group at the top. I’m the top. Anything you said about her, you said about me too.”
That was the problem. I sighed. “Okay, listen. I can see the confusion.”
“Stop messing around, Taryn. You called out my group of friends, and they’re pissed.”
I snorted. “Yeah, I’m sure. The guys didn’t look that pissed. I was calling out the girls, and you know it. Everyone knows it.”
He stepped close, curbed a hand around my neck and leaned close. He didn’t touch me otherwise, but I felt the heat from him. Even though I was in trouble, I wanted to touch him. I wanted to lift my hands and press them to his chest. I wanted to feel him tremble under their touch and then I wanted him to close the distance, put his mouth on mine, and press me against the wall.
“Taryn!”
I jerked back to the present. “What? Yes. I didn’t mean you. I’m sorry.”
He groaned, raking a hand through his hair. “What the hell am I supposed to do? Everyone’s looking at me to reprimand you.”
Not really. I gave him a tentative smile. “You know, you could just make it clear that this is a girl thing. Amber would have to fight her own battle and you’re in the clear.” I nodded. “That could happen. We’d be covered and I can handle her.”
He cursed and shot back, “When did you decide to be the school’s personal savior and call out everyone at the top? The girl thing won’t fly and you know it. You’re pissed because your sister is letting Amber and Jennica walk all over her. You’re trying to fix her problem, like you’ve always done. You set the alarms to save Mandy from gossip, and now you’re covering your own ass by going after all of us.”
“I didn’t mean you.”
“Tough shit. I’m at the top. You said ‘people like you.’ That means me, my crowd, my people.”
“I’m not going after you. This has nothing to do with you.”
“Yes, it does,” he retorted fiercely. “This is my school; you’re messing with my friends.”