The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

“And you put out for Carter.”

Mandy stopped. “We didn’t have sex,” she said seriously. “He just stayed the night. That’s all that happened.”

The hallways were emptying, so I said quickly, “Gotta go. See you in psych.”

*

I grabbed my seat like always when seventh period rolled around an hour later. A second later someone dropped into the seat next to me, and turning, I was surprised to see Molly. Microscope girl. Huh.

“Thought you hated me,” I stated.

“I did.” She grinned, pushing her glasses up her nose. “Until I realized you were actually being kind in a very harsh way.” Leaning closer, she asked, “Did you really shove Justin Travers and Sasha Klinnleys?”

“No.” And I hadn’t.

“Oh.” She sounded disappointed.

I shrugged and then, gritting my teeth, I remembered Mandy reminding me that friends were a good thing to have.

“I just…I kicked their chair and it fell over. That’s all. I

swear,” I relented, sighing.

I saw the quick smile before she blushed and ducked her head.

Somehow I knew. I didn’t know how. I couldn’t explain it. But I knew if I turned around, Tray would be watching me.

Turning around, I saw him staring steadily at me.

“What?”

“We need to talk,” he spoke, standing up and pulling me out of the classroom with him.

“Our teacher’s going to be coming pretty soon,” I argued, but followed nonetheless. I knew what this was about: business.

He leaned against a locker in the empty hallway and regarded me. “Our teacher’s always twenty minutes late. I think we’ll be fine.”

“You don’t need to get snippy,” I huffed.

Tray rolled his eyes, his hands stuffed in his pockets. He looked at ease. A casual confidence radiated off of him.

It irritated me. “So what’d you want to talk to me about?” I asked.

Tray lifted his eyebrows and remained silent. I saw the amusement in their depths.

“What?” I asked again.

He chuckled, leaning to face me. “I didn’t realize till now how much I unnerve you.” He whistled. “You must hate that.”

I moaned, “You’re a bit too conceited.”

“You came,” he remarked, smirking.

I had to take a step back. I was there for business. Business only. The incident with Brian, then saying goodbye to Jace—it must’ve messed me up even more than I wanted to admit for me to have landed in Tray’s bed after the fight with Brian. Right now…I needed to step back. This was just my body remembering the explosive sex. There is no way a relationship with Tray would end well.

“Business,” I reminded him.

“Right.” He sighed. “Are you ready for tonight?”