Always Crew

I miss you guys so much.

Have you seen Blaise much? I talk to him.

Okay. I have a late class so I have to go.

LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

—The Best Twin

BREN

I was sitting in my truck, parked outside Cain University’s gymnasium. The windows were down. A slight breeze wafting through, mixing with a slight mingling smell of someone’s bonfire, sweat, and garbage. I glanced over. The dumpster in the corner of the lot was overfilling. My guess, it hadn’t been picked up on last week’s rotation. Or maybe over the last month. Either that or there’d been a party in the parking lot over the weekend.

Option two was more viable, now that I thought about it. Knowing the students on this campus and what they were capable of, definitely option two.

“What’s up, Brennie Bren?”

I had not even one second to swear, raise the window, or just simply have a knife ready and poised. Not that I needed it, but I wanted it, solely on the principle that Zeke Allen was annoying AF and also, that he snuck up on me. Dammit.

I had to settle with looking over at him, and hoping my glare of death suddenly had Reaper magic.

It didn’t.

His assholish smirk was still there.

I shifted in the seat, moving an inch away, again on the principle of it alone. “Still as repulsive as ever, Allen.” And he was. A professional douchebag, fraternity brother by career, and loaded up the ass with privilege and wealth. Unfortunately, we were stuck with him because he was also Cross’ brother’s best friend.

See. We were all doomed.

I added before he said anything else that would make me want to vomit, “I heard that we came close to not having you grace our presence at Cain.” And he continuously looked like he was enjoying himself. I said further, “That’s too bad. For real. Way. Way. Way. Too bad.”

He moved in, positioning to rest a hand on my door, over the opened window, and he laughed. “There you go, being funny. And no one said Bren Monroe has a funny personality. Personality, yes. You know the kind…dull, gloomy, dark, death, but comedic, I never would’ve believed if I hadn’t heard it with my own ears. Tell me the truth, Bren. You lie at night thinking of ways to brighten my day, don’t you? Don’t be shy. You can share your feelings for me. I know you have dirty thoughts about me when you’re in the shower.”

I was gritting my teeth, and I hated to admit this, but he was starting to boil my blood.

In the murdering way.

I shot back, “You know what’s actually funny? You don’t say any of this shit when your boy’s standing in front of you.”

That smirk immediately vanished.

Got you.

He didn’t like me talking about his best friend. Then, point taken, that’s all I was going to talk about. I positioned myself a bit more, facing him, tilting my head to the side. “You’re nice and quiet whenever Blaise is around. Why is that? Hmm? Oh, and I didn’t just hear about how you might not have come to Cain, that your daddy got mad at you.” I waited a beat. He didn’t like knowing that I knew any of these things. I had to add, “And guess who told us all that information?”

“There you go, trying to be a comedian. I lied before.” He snapped forward, baring his teeth. “You ain’t no comedian.” His eyes widened and he leaned back. “Wait a minute. What do you do? I was going to say don’t quit your day job, but you don’t have one of those anymore. You ain’t a college student. You got no career. I’m at a loss. I mean, how do I even know how to insult you if you aren’t doing anything productive with yourself?”

“Zeke!” A bark came from just in front of the truck.

We both turned.

Zeke cursed under his breath, stepping back.

Like two marauding golden twins, Blaise and Cross were heading right for us. Blaise had his soccer bag in one hand, still dressed in his uniform. He must’ve had a game. Cross was eyeing him from the side, angling his body so it looked as if he hadn’t come with Blaise, more like both of them converging on the truck at the same time. Cross had been working out, lifting weights with Jordan, but I didn’t see our other crew member coming with him.

Blaise and Cross weren’t actual twins. The twins were Cross and Tasmin, his sister, and she was going to college about four hours away from us at Grant West University. But even though none of them knew about the other growing up, the results were the same. Cross and Blaise, though different moms, looked eerily similar.

They were coming in both hot and ready to handle whatever was going on.