A Whole New Crowd (A Whole New Crowd #1)(5)

Grabbing a soda, I headed to the media room. It wasn’t long until I heard voices coming from the kitchen, and I groaned. Mandy’s friends’ voices. The gods of the gods.
I muttered, “Kill me now.”
“She’s down here.” Mandy bounced down the stairs and plopped next to me. Devon came in behind her and stood at the end of our couch, frowning at her. She beamed at me. “Hey!”
“Hey.” I frowned.
“Tray said you said no. A big fat no actually.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t going to deal with this from her. “No, Mandy.”
“Why not? This would be so easy for you.”
“What’s going on?” Jennica Kent asked, laughing as she sat on the couch opposite us. Tray and a few others came into the room. The only one missing was Amber Sethlers. She and Jennica were the two females at the top of the food chain.
I knew some about the others, Grant, Samuel, and I couldn’t name the third guy. There were enough rumors swirling about every one of them. One hated the other. They had all slept with each other at some point. I never cared. They were rumors. I could barely keep track of the ones about me. This was the social circle at the top, and they were in my media room, well, Mandy’s media room.
I wanted to run. I never mixed with Populars well.
“Leave her alone, Mandy. The girl said no.”
I glanced at Tray in surprise. I didn’t believe that he had backed down. “I’m not doing it. Wherever you want me to break into, I’m not doing it.”
“We’re not asking anymore.”
“Okay.” Mandy nodded. “We’ll figure something else out then.”
She bit her lip and glanced around the room to the others. The guys didn’t care about the conversation. Devon had taken the remote and turned the channel to a basketball game. Jennica was watching Tray, who was staring at me. The longer he did, the redder her face got. I didn’t look at him. I wasn’t going to step back into that dark hole. He was like a vortex, a very hot and lethal vortex, but I couldn’t stop myself from enjoying how upset she was becoming. Then she shot me a nasty look and I turned away, biting my lip. What was I doing? I needed to fit in, strip off my rebel ways, and assimilate into this pack.
I was screwed.
I glanced at Mandy. I should leave, but her hand went to my arm. Even though she hadn’t said anything, I felt that she wanted me to stay. Oh hell. I knew she wanted me to be friends with her friends, but I couldn’t. I belonged in the criminal crowd, not this one. This was a whole new crowd.
But…she was my sister and I was trying a new way. Going against my instincts, I tried to watch the game.
Mandy squeezed my arm.


CHAPTER TWO

As I headed to my car on Friday, I felt someone fall in line beside me. I knew who it was before I looked. Tray Evans. Since I hung out that evening with the group, he hadn’t been around that much. He hadn’t cared about pushing his agenda on me. In fact, he hadn’t cared much about me at all. This was the first time since that day that he had even sought me out, but I had gotten used to his presence. There was a pull from him. If he was in a room, people knew it. They were aware of him and everyone migrated towards him. I couldn’t deny that I didn’t feel the same pull.
It was annoying.
I didn’t have time to ask what he wanted. He grabbed my arm and pulled me from the sidewalk. We went into a group of trees, and with foliage surrounding us, we were cut off from everyone else. No one would know we were in there.
“Hey!” I pulled my arm from his hold.
He crowded me. “You lied.”
“What?”
“I’ve been watching you, and I know you lied to me.” He stood so close that I could feel the heat radiating off his body. “You said you don’t want to steal anymore, but you lied. You get an adrenalin rush every time you take something. You’re addicted to it. I’ve seen it in your eyes over the week. You miss it, and you were lying to me when you said you wouldn’t do it anymore.” He moved even closer. “You want to do it. I can tell.”
He was right, but I pushed him back. “So what? I won’t live that life anymore.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Right.”
“I’m asking you to do one thing. One thing, Taryn.”
He said my name. It was the second time this week and it had the same effect on my body. I gritted my teeth. I was starting to hate the power he already had over me. “What is it? What’s going to screw Pedlam so much?”
He smirked, then hid it when he saw my anger. “We need to get in their school. They’ve got all this new security, some serious stuff, and we need you to get us inside. That’s it. We just want to get in and do some damage. It won’t be anything that will get us in trouble or you sent to juvie again.” He softened his tone. “I promise.”
And I was pure and innocent.
I snorted in disbelief. “I’m not stupid and there’s a difference between helping you break in somewhere and lifting something for you. There’s a big difference.”
He flashed me a smile. Oh, whoa. I was suddenly burning up, and, judging from the look in his eyes, he noticed my reaction because the amber was back in his eyes.
“I know you’re not stupid.” He moved closer to wrap a hand around my neck. He bent forward slightly, his mouth just to the side of mine. He was almost kissing me. Without thinking, I closed my eyes and leaned into him, bringing our bodies in contact. His other hand slid from my arm and down my back, ending just on the small of my back. He applied enough pressure, tipping my hips against his.