Mad Boys (Blue Ivy Prep, #2)(78)
I couldn’t tell if it was because she was really indifferent or just uncomfortable. Frankly, the more I got to know her, the less I understood, and it disturbed me. I’d been hard on her. Harder than I would have been with any other student.
We only had a few months left until KC and Jonas both graduated. Then… what?
"Look, Jonas,” Lachlan said with a sigh in a far more reasonable tone than he’d even attempted earlier. “I know you have questions. We all do. Right now, I—” He shot a look at me. “We want to keep RJ as far away from Ace as possible. He’s bad news and she doesn’t need the issues.”
“He hasn’t been near her.”
“Not totally true,” I said, and Jonas scowled. “Granted, I haven’t seen him since the day I asked her to not accept his date. Nevertheless, I also don’t know what else is going on, and I’ve been keeping my distance.”
“I haven’t,” Lachlan said and I rolled my eyes. “He’s on campus, I’ve seen him a couple of times, but he refuses to go near her when we’re around. So we just need to keep that up for at least another three weeks.”
Initiation.
“And you’re not competing for a spot?” I checked with Jonas again. Arms folded, he just rolled his eyes in answer. Yeah, he was not a joiner by nature.
“If she does, I will,” he said. “I’ll talk to her about it. I’ve seen the invitations, and she put a couple of them on my door when they came.”
The admission added sandpaper to the tension in the room. Lachlan scowled and cut a look at me. Did we tell Jonas the truth now? Or keep it to ourselves as we had for the past two years? He had no idea how involved in that whole nightmare he’d almost been.
I preferred it that way, especially considering how concerned I was about the fallout to his mental health. Lachlan grimaced. Yeah, he couldn’t argue the last part, so I just shook my head once.
“Let us know if anything changes,” I said rather than let Lachlan push him. If he demanded Jonas stay out of it, he’d be all in. If we kept pushing, he’d want to know why, and if we didn’t tell him… he would find out.
As disconnected as he often “appeared,” he wasn’t an idiot. Given a question he wanted to be answered? He’d find out on his own, no matter how long it took.
“Please,” I tacked on the last word. Then because we needed a change of subject, I asked, “Have you heard from any colleges?”
“Nope,” Jonas said and I frowned. “Didn’t apply to any, either.”
What…? My phone played a familiar note that had Lachlan and Jonas both standing abruptly. I didn’t even have to look at the screen to know it was Mom.
“Gonna go,” Jonas said with a half-wave, and he didn’t wait on us to say anything before he was out of the door. Just as that door closed, so did the one to Lachlan’s room.
Picking up the phone, I sighed as I stared at the screen. As much as I wanted to send it to voicemail, I hit answer. “Hey, Mom.” I even made it sound natural. Good for me.
“Ramsey, baby,” Mom said, exhaling a long breath as ice clinked in the background. There was an almost electronic hum. I’d bet they were at the studio and she’d stepped out of the recording booth to get a drink. “You answered.”
I winced. “The last couple of times I was in class, Mom. You didn’t leave a message, so I just assumed you were calling to catch up and not a big deal.” I crossed my mental fingers at that lie.
After Lachlan’s Christmas walkout and Jonas going radio silent as soon as he headed to his dad’s, I’d been stuck with trying to soothe her ruffled feathers and her temper.
Neither had been successful. I’d tried to talk to Gibs a couple of times, because if he’d seen the pictures—and I had to wonder if he had since he hadn’t said a word to either of us—he might want an explanation.
“I know you’re busy,” she said, reproach in every syllable. “I count on you to look after your brothers. You know that, right?”
“I know, Mom, and I’m doing my best.” Now would not be the time to mention that Jonas hadn’t applied to any colleges. How the fuck I’d missed that I had no idea. However, I needed answers before I mentioned it. I went to get a drink and changed the subject. “How are you and Gibs doing?”
“Much better,” she said. “I think he finally broke through the block. We just finished recording a new song, and it’s probably the best thing he’s ever done.” The absolute gush in her voice brightened her right up. “I’ve been so worried, and he’s been so frustrated. But the song is just… honestly, Ramsey, wait until you hear it. This is so much more like his classic stuff, only stronger, you know?”
“Sounds great,” I said. “I know he was distracted over the holidays.” Yeah, that was a word for it. Mom guarded every single interaction to keep us from making it worse. Considering how annoyed she’d been about…
“Well, something has to be good. There’s another series about you boys in the Tattler.” The scolding note was back. “A detailed expose about all three of you, and it looks like they tried to interview your fathers.”
That was news to me.
“Mom, you gotta stop reading the gossip sites. You know nothing good comes from them.” I needed to take my own advice. We all did. The more I got to know KC, the more I recognized just how much bullshit was out there.