The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Bit spit out, sounding irritated.

“What?”

“It’s just…this is how it always is.”

“What do you mean?” Seriously. I was clueless.

“They always get into a fight and one of them spends the entire party crying, locked in a room. We pick up the pieces—”

“Lori,” Honey interrupted hastily, looking at me uncomfortably.

“No,” Bit—Lori—cried out. “It’s so unfair. And then one of them shows up, after the party’s almost over, and tomorrow it’ll be like nothing ever happened. They’ll all be giddy and—”

Ah. Now I got it. These two girls were nice, but the problem is that they were too nice. They were social-climbers, just like Stephanie’s wannabes

I could, kind of, sympathize. Bit liked Bryce. I knew that, I could tell from the card game. And Honey—she was just nice and almost—too wholesome. These girls didn’t have enough bitch in them to climb that last rung on the ladder.

So they were nice to whichever ‘it’ girl was down and out. They were kind of—like Band-Aids. They were there to cover the wound, but the ‘it’ girl needed to show up to make things really alright. These two didn’t cut it, because…they weren’t one of the social elite.

I was pissed off at myself because I was feeling sympathy for these two—because they couldn’t get popular.

How trivial and annoying is that.

So, I said flatly, “Try being mean.”

“What?” Bit asked, confused. I’d checked out of their conversation a few seconds ago.

I shrugged, moving down the hallway. “You’re too nice. Be mean.”

I caught sight of Tray outside. He was sitting at the table with the rest. Trent was there with Sasha on his lap—still. I think the girl had to have a new lap to sit on whenever she sat down. She was probably worried her own would get bruised or flattened.

I know it’s irrational, but I didn’t like her. I could think whatever I wanted.

Jasmine and Devon had left. Thank God.

I caught Tray’s eyes for a second. His were unreadable, but I veered to his pool-house where I curled up in his bed, slipping underneath the covers. A second later I was asleep.

Blissfully.

I woke up later and checked the time. It was ten in the morning. I had a good six hours of sleep. Rolling over, I saw Tray asleep beside me, his head was turned my way and he had one hand on my leg.

How had I not noticed that?

I tried to get up without waking him to no avail. Tray’s eyes opened to small slits when he saw me moving across him.

He grabbed me and pulled me on top of him. “Hey.” He nuzzled my neck.

“Hi,” I whispered, inhaling his scent. The guy smelled good, even after a night of drinking. How screwed up is that?

“Where are you going?”

“Shower, breakfast, and then home.” I listed my destinations off.

“Okay.” He yawned, letting me go.

He flipped onto his stomach when I came back from the shower.