The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

“We don’t. Not that much, but we like to try every now and then,” Bryce said truthfully.

“Whatever. I surf!” Carter declared.

“Yeah and, until recently, you had been going to a boarding school thirty minutes from the coast. We don’t live on the coast, it’s a good three hour drive. At least,” Tray slipped in.

“Come on!” Carter tried again, looking exasperated.

“I’m not going so you might as well as stop wasting your time,” Tray murmured, focused on the computer.

I took a sip from his coffee. Holy crap it was strong. Yep, he’d been up all night.

Carter grumbled, muttering something under his breath.

Bryce was watching him, amused.

Carter must’ve accepted defeat because he turned on me. “Taryn, since we’re up, how about you make the morning worth it? Maybe a lap dance, or you could just get naked.”

“I already hauled your ass on the floor the last time you suggested this. Want another round?” I delivered smoothly, grinning over Tray’s mug.

“Man,” he whined, settling further in his chair, “I thought moving here would be more fun than this. This blows so far. Tray won’t go surfing. His girl won’t strip for us.”

Bryce grinned, before hitting Carter on the back of his head. “Cheer up, cousin. You bagged Jasmine on your first day of school. That’s gotta be a record.”

“Oh yeah.” Carter grinned. “Good memories.”

“Does that count? It’s easy to score with a girl you scored the entire weekend with,” Tray remarked, shooting his foot out and kicking Carter off his chair.

“Hey,” Carter

yelped, glaring at him as he crawled back up, “it counts. The weekend was just a weekend. My first day at school was my first day at school.”

“You should go for Tristan.” I couldn’t help but speak up. “She’d be more of a challenge, wouldn’t she?”

“That tight-ass?” Carter laughed. “Hell no. She’s rolled so tight a pencil wouldn’t get in there.”

Bad imagery.

“She slept with Brent Garretts, didn’t she?” Bryce asked. “You should go for her, Carter.”

“That’d be entertaining for all of us,” Tray added as he reached to take his coffee-mug from my hands.

“I don’t know. She’s kind of—”

“What? Scary?” I laughed, seeing him blanch.

“Yeah. And she’s got this scary thing about Tray still. Plus, her and Mandy are best friends.”

“Speaking of Mandy,” Bryce spoke up, “Taryn, where is Mandy? I called Devon to ask about her, but he won’t answer his phone.”

Fuck. I’d forgotten about Devon. Well, if Mandy wanted him to know, then she could tell him herself.

“I can’t say anything,” I said firmly.

“So, it’s serious?” Carter asked, suddenly somber.

“I really can’t say anything. Sorry.”

“But she’s, like, alive, right?”