The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

As his mouth became more exploratory, I sighed. “Maybe we should…the others—”

Tray tucked me underneath him and whispered, “They’re not going anywhere.” I ceased thinking.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Content, I laid there. Tray shifted slightly in the bed and I moaned, “No.”

He laughed, but moved to stand up.

I lounged back, pulling the bed sheets to cover me. “We had sex—with your friends just outside.”

“Who cares?” he murmured, his voice muffled as he pulled a shirt over his head. “Thought you didn’t care about stuff like that.”

“I don’t, that’s the problem. I feel like I should.”

He laughed huskily and I grinned, realizing how nice it sounded.

“I gotta head out, it’s almost ten.”

Fuck, we’d been in here for two hours.

“Rickets’ House tonight, huh?” I murmured, more to myself.

Tray asked, “You don’t want to go?”

“No, it’s just—”

“Gentley will be nice. I’m tired of his shit. If he’s not, he’ll deal with our crew.”

“Then his steroid supply will be cut off.”

Tray snorted. “Like that matters to him. Gentley will just go somewhere else.”

“You know,” I mused, “I don’t get it. You’re selling steroids to piss your dad off, but your dad’s not here anymore.”

He shrugged, looking a little sheepish. “I started dealing them when I was pretty young, when my dad would have actually gotten pissed about shit like that.”

“And you realized how nice the money is?”

“Sort of. It’s good to know who’s on it, makes making bets a bit easier, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh my God. You sell steroids and then you bet on whoever is taking them?”

He grinned. “Sometimes. I don’t really need the money, but it passes the time.”

“You get a rush from it?” I asked, sitting up, moving to sit beside him.

“I don’t know, he murmured. . “I stopped thinking about it a while ago. I just do it, you know?”

“I, on the other hand,” I announced, rolling my eyes, “am actually trying not to do anything illegal.”

He laughed. “And I pulled you right back in.”

“Yeah.” I realized it was true, but I said, “I would’ve stolen something else anyway, eventually. It’s the rush. Nothing else like it.”

“What about diving? You looked obsessed today.”

I smiled, remembering the feeling. Holy fuck, I’d go back, this second, if it was on the table. “Yeah,” I commented. “I get it there too.”