Forgotten Rules (Rules 4)

Who won? Where the hell has everybody vanished to?

I haven’t seen my cousin, my brother, or any of the guys at school all week. Ended up texting Winter about it. No reply. Then I messaged Will, Alex, Kendrick, even Blake—yes, I was that desperate. Nothing. Not even a Read receipt. Or a thumbs-up to let me know they’re alive.

It doesn’t exactly help that I moved out of my house right as everything was going on. The day Will crawled out of my bed, Morgan invited me to sleep over. I got out of work, packed a bag, and drove straight to her place.

Then the strangest thing happened.

My mom, who’s always limited my stay at Morgan’s to a few days tops, called, allowing me to stay longer. Although, if I’m being honest, her tone suggested I didn’t have much of a choice. I didn’t argue because I know how much Morgan hates being alone when her parents are away, but… Why did my mom want me out of the way?

What are they not telling me?

Mom said Winter is bedridden with the flu, which is why she hasn’t been at school, but I don’t buy it. What are the odds of everyone evaporating at the exact same time? A big fat zero. I’ve been considering driving back to my house and seeing for myself.

“Still thinking about him?” Ethan’s voice echoes in my brain.

I blink at him. “Who?”

“You know damn well who. You’re thinking about this Will guy. Still no news?”

“None.” I nibble on my bottom lip.

I’m not nearly as mad as I am worried. What if something happened to him?

“Dick move.” Ethan presses Pause on the comedy I stopped watching two minutes in.

“I’m sure he has a good reason,” Morgan chimes in, her knowledge of my brother’s secret painting her a much clearer picture. I recently told her all about my brother and his friends’ illegal habits. I couldn’t keep it to myself anymore. Especially seeing as the guys consecutively fell off the face of the earth.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass what his reason is. If he wanted to, he would’ve. Period,” Ethan objects. “Is he your boyfriend or not? Homeboy needs to figure his shit out.”

My heart tightens in my rib cage.

He does have a point.

On a brighter note, the last few days brought me and Morgan the missing piece to our trio: Ethan. He filled Zoey’s shoes better than she ever could. I invited Ethan over to Morgan’s house after her parents flew out of town. We watched movies until 3:00 a.m., hit it off, and the rest is history. There isn’t one day where we haven’t hung out this week.

The microwave beeps in the distance.

“It’s the popcorn, I got it.” I spring to my feet, dropping my phone on the couch.

Morgan jumps out of her seat. “I’ll come with. I’m thirsty.”

“For water or for Alex?” Ethan teases.

Morgan’s cheeks burn bright red.

“Shut up!” She picks a pillow off the couch, lobbing it square into Ethan’s smug grin. “I didn’t tell you that so you could use it against me every five seconds.”

Ethan holds his hands up. “What are friends for?”

Morgan recently admitted to having a crush on Alex. And I don’t mean a “drooling over him from afar” crush. She’s been tutoring him in math for a while now. They’ve been texting. Flirting. Crossing lines—big, important lines, if you know what I mean. I couldn’t believe how much I’d missed, and apologized for being so engulfed in my own drama.

I have reasons to believe they’re on the outs right now. The first being the distant sadness in Morgan’s eyes. She refused to go into details, but I did manage to squeeze a few not-so-fun facts out of her.

Apparently, Alex is seeing someone. A friend of Zoey’s. Mia some

thing. Regardless of everything that happened between them. And I thought Alex was the nice one…

I’ve tried keeping the boy talk to a minimum, but I can’t help it. This is Morgan. As in the girl who’s never had a crush on a guy that isn’t fictional before.