CROSS (A Gentry Boys Novella)(7)

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I’d been careful about using it all day since there was no way to recharge at the moment. I smiled when I saw the text was from Roe.

“Kicked Anton to the curb. Hallelujah chorus.”

That girl went through boyfriends like they were paper towels. She had shitty taste. The ones she picked were all macho pigs who treated her like she owed them money. I was glad to hear that her latest mistake was history.

I texted back. “The chorus echoes all the way down here in sandy Siberia. Miss you.”

The reply came back in seconds. “Want some company? I could take a drive down this week.”

“YES! Imagine emojis galore.”

“You know I hate emojis. Thursday afternoon okay?”

“Perfect and you’re staying the night. No arguments.”

“Awesome. Dad’s away on business and stepmonster won’t even notice.”

I was still smiling as I pushed the phone into my back pocket. Roe was my oldest friend, my best friend, other than Conway of course. She moved away from Emblem after the seventh grade when her father hit the jackpot on some Phoenix real estate he’d bought up cheaply during the housing crisis. I didn’t understand or care about the dollars and cents behind it, but I’d heard an awful lot of Emblem folks grumbling about how Jefferson Tory was no better than a bottom feeder. It was probably just jealousy. When I’d asked my own dad about it he’d taken a minute to chew and swallow before answering that no man should be ashamed of self-preservation. Anyway, I sure didn’t begrudge Roe’s family their newfound wealth, but I did mind very much when they picked up and moved fifty miles away to Scottsdale. She’d been enrolled in some kind of swank prep school up there until some recent scandal involving one of her teachers. Whatever had happened was bad and she didn’t like talking about it. Now that she had a car she drove down here whenever she could, but I hadn’t seen her since school let out weeks ago.

A sudden eruption of shouting startled me, but in all the chaos I couldn’t make out what had happened. One of the boys dangling from the bridge must have fallen. If it was Conway he would look for me right away. As I turned back to the sight of the eerily dark landscape I listened for the sound of his footsteps, eager to feel his strong arms around me.

“Plotting a little world domination?”

Shit. Stone.

I tensed, not especially excited to be confronted in the darkness by Con’s wild brother. “Maybe,” I shot back. “But since I’m so dangerous you should reconsider coming too close.”

He chuckled and lit a cigarette. “I’ll take my chances.”

There was no wind but a sudden chill rolled through me like a cold fingertip up the spine. I crossed my arms over my body, a defensive pose.

“Those will kill you,” I said.

Stone wasn’t doing anything wrong. He was just standing three feet away, smoking his stupid cigarette, nowhere near close enough to touch me. Yet it made me uneasy. He made me uneasy. I shouldn’t feel that way. I’d known him my whole life. Never for a minute did I believe he’d hurt me. But he seemed dangerous just the same.

He laughed through his nose and I could see enough of his outline to catch the scornful shrug. “Something will kill us all.”

I tossed my hair, sniffed. “Doesn’t excuse self destruction.”

God, listen to me. I was such a hypocrite. Such a f*cking hypocrite! Stone didn’t know that though. Conway didn’t even know.

He was quiet for a moment. Then I saw the point of light from the cigarette fall from his hands to the ground. I heard the crunch that his shoe made in the dust as he squashed the flame.

“You’re right,” he said. “I quit.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

I didn’t believe him at all. I still didn’t know what he wanted. Stone didn’t usually seek me out for a chat. Generally Con’s brother and I exercised a sort of mutual wary tolerance. It wasn’t friendship, not even close.

“You doubt me,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

“Of course. You can be a real walking dick.”

He snorted. “That’s a ridiculous insult, Erin. Dicks don’t have legs.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I don’t.”

I whirled on him. “That must be why your eyes were fastened to my chest this morning.”

As soon as I said it I wished I hadn’t. After all, hadn’t I also zeroed in on his crotch as he stretched in the yard? He’d seen me staring. Stone knew everything about girls and my quick flash of shameful lust probably wasn’t lost on him.

He laughed out loud. “So that’s what this latest bug up the ass is about? No worries, honey. That’s not a line I’d ever cross, but if you stick your tits out the window a guy’s kind of obliged to check them out.”

I would ignore him. That was the only way to deal with Stone. He loved attention more than he loved anything else. But my mouth wasn’t listening.

“You’re such a pig,” I spat.

“So be it. Pigs are loveable creatures.”

I just hissed and took a few deliberate steps away from him. That should be enough to send him in the other direction.

But instead of giving up and walking back to the group to answer Courtney’s whiney complaints that he should come back over there and pay some attention to her, he decided to get on my nerves some more.