A Whole New Crowd(39)

“Promise?”
“I may be an *, but I’m an * you can trust.” He smirked as he reached behind him and then placed a cold bottle in my hand. “I promise.” He took my other hand and led me back downstairs.
Maybe it wasn’t a great decision, but I gave in. The fight was always in me to survive and for once, I didn’t want to fight. I wanted to be watched over. If he volunteered for that position, so be it. Brian never watched over me. I watched over him, and Jace had rarely been around.
When he sat on the couch, I curled up next to him and enjoyed my place among his group of friends. As the afternoon passed by, I heard and saw the respect they had for Tray. They listened when he spoke. Everyone turned to him and no one ignored him. They genuinely liked him.
People had never genuinely liked Brian or Jace. Jace was feared. He was respected, but I didn’t know if anyone in his life liked him. It was the opposite for Brian. He was tolerated. He was a hothead. No one knew when he would explode, and so he earned a reputation as being unpredictable. He was met with caution wherever he went.
It was an alien feeling, watching this different world unfold before me.
I liked it.



CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Fuck.”
“You shit.”
“Asshole.”
One of the guys playing grinned and flipped his last card on the table. He shot his arms up in victory. “Pres-i-dente!”
We were playing Assholes and Presidents. I was neutral, which pissed me off, and this other f*cker, Aaron, slammed his last card on the deck and shouted, “Vice-President! Vice-President. Oh yeah! Oh yeah!”
I spotted my turn and slipped in my last pair of sixes. “Neutral.” Then got flicked off by another player and laughed.
I’d been recruited into the game when Samuel grabbed me and pulled me to the empty chair beside him. The last two hours had gone by quickly. The place was overflowing with people now. Tray was outside manning a keg that Dylan brought over while Mandy showed up with friends that I still didn’t know. They were at the pool. When she started glancing at Devon, who was manning the keg with Tray, I saw the hope in her eyes and knew where it was going. Mandy was like so many girls, crying about a guy hours earlier and then trying to get his attention. Jennica was there as well, but she kept inside with the other girls from their group.
I didn’t want to be there when their love triangle hit the fan. It was inevitable, but Tray said to have fun so I was going to try.
“Take that!” Samuel hollered as he threw his last card on the pile, bringing me back to the present.
A guy rolled his eyes. “You’re neutral, dumb-ass.”
Samuel shrugged. “Just wait. I’ll be Prez pretty soon and then you’ll be my beer bitch.” Downing the rest of his drink, he turned to me. “How about it, Taryn? Another shot?”
“Right and give you the chance to drug my drink?” I stood, but winked at him. “I’m not a complete idiot. I’ll get my own drink.”
“I said a shot. Not a drink. There’s a big difference.” Samuel followed behind me as I started through the crowd.
I just laughed and went around a large group, half-stumbling to the keg. Samuel caught my arm and righted me a few times on the way. I turned to tell him thanks and saw that he wasn’t looking at me. He’d been watching Tray, who could see us through the crowd. Samuel chuckled beside me. “I told him I’d watch over you. The guy needs to relax and delegate sometimes.” Then he winked back at me. When we drew closer, he hollered over my shoulder “I need two shots.”
I winced and elbowed him. “Back up. I need to be able to hear, you know.”
Samuel grinned and ignored me as he reached for the two shots. One was pushed into my hand and I frowned. Was I—never mind—I’d tossed it down my throat and grinned at Tray. “That was good. What was it?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Does it matter?” Then poured another one.
“Sweet.” Samuel took his and gestured to him. “I love this man.” He was talking to me, but grinned widely at Tray. “I love you, man.”
Tray chuckled. “Good to know because you need to go downstairs and grab a few more bottles for me.”
“On it.” He turned to go, but bounced back. Brian was there with a glower on his face, glaring down at him.
“Brian.” I started for him, but Tray pulled me back. It didn’t matter. My first instinct was to go to him. Always. Even now, Brian was furious, but I saw the little boy in him. He was hurting. It would never matter how violent he might be. That’s all I would see.
He transferred that look of hate to me. His nostrils flared. “I was told to stay away from you.” He laughed, cursing at the same time. “You told me that. Jace told me. Gray told me. That’s all anyone says now: leave Taryn alone.”