The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

“Yeah. She’s fine. Not dying or anything.” I made my tone light, just to appease him. I could tell that the guy truly cared about her.

“Maybe I should try to bag Tristan. I mean, she’s gotta be more interesting than Jaz, right? But then again,” Carter mused, the Mandy topic dropped just as quickly as it came up, “Jaz has to be better in bed than Tristan any day.”

I hated that I saw all three of the guys sharing a look with each other.

All three of them had been with her.

“You guys make me sick,” I announced, crossing my arms over my chest.

Tray laughed as he reached out to rub his hand down my leg. He grabbed my chair and yanked me closer, where he could comfortably rest his hand on my leg.

Bryce just grinned, staying quiet.

“No,” Carter exclaimed, “I’ll do it. I’m going to bag Tristan.”

“This should be interesting.” Bryce watched his cousin. “Tristan’s not a fan of yours.”

“I know. All the more challenging.”

“You better get ready for your ass to be handed to you,” Bryce warned. “The only guy Tristan’s actually ran to was Tray.”

“What about Brent Garretts?”

“She slept with him to piss off Amber and Casners.”

“You’re more on the up and up on the gossip than me, Bryce. I’m impressed.” I laughed, loving his look of embarrassment.

“I have lab with Amber.” As if that made perfect sense. But it actually did. I kind of felt sorry for Bryce in that moment. I could see him sitting there, helpless, as Amber launched into one of her tirades. One after another.

I caught Tray resting his eyes for a moment, before he yawned again.

“Okay,” I announced, “I’m taking the duty of girlfriend serious right now. You two, out. Now.”

“What?” Carter whined, but he stood anyway. It was just for show, which I was learning was how Carter mostly was. 75% show, 25% real.

“Yeah, yeah.” Bryce stood too and clipped his cousin on the back of his head again. But as they moved down the hallway, I heard Bryce yelp. Carter must’ve gotten his revenge. And then the door opened and shut.

“You been up all night?” I asked Tray, feeling guilty how well rested I felt.

“On and off. I got some sleep, but there was some stuff still bothering me so I couldn’t stay in bed.”

“What have you found out?” I asked the question lightly, but I felt my words die in my throat when I saw Tray grow still again. One of those frozen moments, when I knew something serious was going on.

He’d found out something serious. Probably about me, judging by the way he was looking at me. Like he was figuring out how to break the news to me, whatever he had found. And how he knew I wouldn’t like it.

“Oh god,” I murmured.

“Taryn,” he began, moving to face me squarely, “I think…I think Jace arranged your adoption.”

What?

He took a deep breath. “You moved to Rawley because you were adopted. So I searched for some local adoption agencies and found one that looked…familiar.”

I didn’t even know I was holding my breath.

“It’s called The Evanson Family Resources and it’s sponsored by one of Galverson’s aliases.”

“How do you know that?”