The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

I kissed him. A full-out wet, tear-soaked kiss.

I poured everything into it. Everything I couldn’t say.

And that night we made love, for the first time.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Once you cry it out, and let it all go, you’re supposed to feel better, right? I did feel a little better, but something else was brewing. The feeling from yesterday was still with me and it didn’t have anything to do with my break down. I just knew something else was going on—I could feel it and it was painful. I didn’t know how to fix it.

Tray was asleep beside me, his arms folded around me, his words still in my ears.

I sighed, shivering slightly, but not from the cold. Tray had warmed me, inside and out.

But I shivered nonetheless, because I knew something had gone wrong. Deadly wrong. I knew that it would irrevocably change my life.

I knew it was a dream when I noticed I was with Brian in the woods by the school. He was in front of me, looking at me like he missed me. Why would he miss me? I just saw him the other day. He was trying to tell me something, but I couldn’t figure out what he was trying to say. It seemed so surreal. I turned around, and I was back in the hotel bed with Tray. Brian was looking between Tray and me. He looked into my eyes and I saw how much he loved me. He was trying to give me a message. If I could just hear what he was trying to tell me…

“Brian,” I whispered, tears in my eyes.

He smiled, a tender, ethereal smile. An immortal smile.

“Brian,” I murmured again, confused and scared.

He gave me a smile. Tears were running down my cheeks.

Oh, God. His eyes gave away everything. He was telling me goodbye.

He turned and walked away. Brian was gone.

I jolted awake, tears running down my face. Somehow I knew that my dream was real. I found my phone laying on the bedside table. I had shut it off last night, because I knew Mandy would be calling me at all hours. I didn’t think anyone else would need to get a hold of me.

I powered my phone on and saw that I had twenty missed calls since yesterday afternoon—all from Geezer. I really didn’t want to call him back. I knew what he was going to tell me, and I didn’t want to hear it.

I jumped when my phone rang. I didn’t want to answer it, so I just stared at it. Tray woke up immediately. He took one look at me, saw I was awake, and then reached for the phone.

Seconds later, it started ringing again. He answered, “Yeah?”

A moment later, he looked at me and held it out for me to take.

I pressed it to my ear and murmured hoarsely, “Yeah?”

“Taryn.”

It was Geezer, but it didn’t sound like him.

“Geezer?” I sat up. I needed to know for sure. I had to hear it.

“Oh God, Taryn.” He broke down, crying uncontrollably.

“Geezer, what is it?” I was so fucking scared of what he was about to tell me.

“It’s Brian.”

Brian was gone.

“Oh God—” I broke out, the dam crashed and came tumbling down again.

“He,” Geezer paused, trying to get out the rest, “he…Taryn—”