Always Crew

He called after me, “Parties are usually a hardship for you, Bren.”

True. I glanced back, grinning and seeing him shooting me a grin. “We owe you.”

He grunted. “Fuck yeah, you do. The animalistic sex was a bit much.”

Cross was walking by him, and without saying a word, his hand flashed out. He smacked Jordan on the back of his head but kept going.

Jordan called after us, half-laughing, “Don’t go another round in there, and you’re driving, by the way. I’m starting to drink right now.”

JORDAN

I loved going out with my crew.

It would’ve been better if Z was here, but it was what it was. Bren and Cross didn’t get it. Well, Cross did, but Bren was fucking clueless. Both had no idea the effect they had on people. They were noticed. Watched. Observed. Bren and Cross walked down the street, and it was just known that they were there. It didn’t matter if people didn’t know them. If they didn’t, people got curious. Bren was beautiful. Cross was badass. There was something they gave off, something in the air. People felt it, tuned into it, and woke.

These were my people. Mine.

I loved walking with them. I loved having their backs. I loved knowing they’d have my backs.

No one fucking got it. None.

These people were my family. I would die for them, and they’d do the same.

It was nothing but pride I felt when I walked beside them down the street.

Everyone was out partying. All the frat houses had their lights shining, windows open, and their own music pounding out. There were neon lights strung up all over. Girls were running around wearing bikinis, neon bracelets, and waving neon light sabers in the air like they were at a rave. Some lawn games were set up, and even though it was nearing dusk, they’d be playing long into the night. There was a reason they were all partying tonight, but I didn’t know the why. A couple girls from class texted me, letting me know so I knew this shit wasn’t just frat and sororities. And thinking of them, I shot a couple texts out to them and a few other girls.

I wasn’t hurting for company, but they weren’t Tabatha.

And even thinking that, I was feeling a burn in my chest.

When push came to shove, she clammed up. She did her own thing. She thought she could handle it on her own, and that shit hurt. Felt like a knife sliding between my ribs, you know?

But I failed her, too.

Bren was the one who hadn’t. Bren found out about the cheating and called bullshit. Yeah, yeah. I know she was all huffy and puffy that she was going to go and beat the crap out of Tabatha, or think about it, but Bren was actually softening. All her dysfunctions from the past shuttered, she was becoming functional more and more, and she was friends with Tabatha now. She cared about Tabatha. They weren’t normal girlfriends by a long stretch, that was something Tab had come to accept about Bren, but Bren would get to that, too. One day. But all that being said, she went to find out the truth because she was right.

Tabatha wasn’t a cheater.

And that was on me. I should’ve seen through it. I hadn’t. I got suckered in, let my hurt feelings control me, my wounded ego and all that crap.

“Hey!”

I turned.

A blue, glow-in-the-dark girl pushed through the crowd. Bren frowned at her, but I recognized her. She was one of the girls who texted me earlier. I gave her a nod. “What’s up?” “Hi.” She was out of breath, and I checked her out. She was wearing some weird toga sheet thing with the blue neon lights wrapped around her and looped around her neck.

Bren was eyeing the lights around her neck, and I knew what she was thinking. Dumbass chick move. In a fight, she’d get choked out, but that was Bren for you.

Cross moved in close to his girl, and I went back to eyeing this one. “Trina?”

“Yeah.” She was almost preening, blinking. Her cheeks were rosy, I saw when she got closer to me. “Did you guys just get here?” She didn’t wait for my answer. Turning, she pointed to one of the houses. “My friends and I have a little table over there. We pulled out a picnic table, and there’s a bunch of us from our psych class.” She saw Cross and paused, blinking again, startled. “You’re in that class, too.”

Cross didn’t reply, he had a hand on Bren’s hip.

The girl was studying Bren now. “Are you in our class?”

Bren started to smile, but I cleared my throat, speaking first, “You guys got booze over there?”

Bren’s smile was one of her feral ones. I didn’t know why it was coming out, but this side of B was best dealt with extreme caution. I shot Cross a look and he nodded. He got it, too.