But deep down, it is a big deal. And I feel nervous. While I try to be nonchalant most of the time, having friends is a whole new territory for me. I just hope I don’t mess it up.
And I hope it’s actually real.
3
Raven
When I make it downstairs, I notice the house is pretty quiet. I figure my uncle must’ve left for work and Dixie May must’ve already left for school. But, as I’m passing the kitchen, I hear my uncle murmuring to someone on the phone.
“No, I understand,” he hisses. “No, I’ve tried that, but … Look, I told you last night that it probably wouldn’t work. Yeah, I guess I can try that, but … I don’t know … Does doing drugs interfere with that sort of stuff …? No, I have everything under control. That’s not going to happen … No one will find out … No, she doesn’t remember what happened.”
That makes me pause.
Is he talking about me and the death of my parents?
I’m not sure, and I don’t get any more info because he says goodbye and ends the call.
Still, I can’t help thinking about how the guys want me to help them figure out why my uncle, aunt, cousin, and me are off the grid. Is my uncle aware of this? Did he do it? How?
Sighing, I hurry toward the front door. As I pass the living room, I spot my aunt sitting on the sofa with her face pressed against the window.
Is she staring at the guys?
What a creeper.
I reach for the doorknob to the front door, hoping I can just sneak out without her noticing.
She lets out this wistful sigh and says, “God, to be young again and have potential lovers showing up at your door. I miss it.”
I’m not sure if she’s talking to me or not, or what the hell she’s talking about, but instead of saying something, I hurry out the front door and into the freezing cold air.
Damn, it’s cold here. It wasn’t this cold yesterday. I probably shouldn’t have worn shorts, but I’m not about to go back inside to change. So, I suck it up and march forward, only to grind to a halt again.
Dixie May is standing in front of Hunter, all decked out in a dress and high heels, her hair curled. She’s chatting animatedly and, while I can’t see her face, I’m sure she’s giving her flirty smile.
Hunter is listening to her with this weird look on his face that I can’t decipher, and Jax is staring at the dirt with his hands stuffed into his pocket.
For a second, flashbacks of all the times Dixie May humiliated me in front of people flash through my mind.
I’ll admit, I almost bolt back into the house, but Hunter spots me, and I swear relief washes over his features.
“There’s my new BFF.” He hurries away from Dixie May and toward me with a bounce in his step—the dude is so bouncy. When he reaches me, he wraps his arms around me and hugs me, startling the heck out of me. “Oh my God, please get me away from her,” he whispers in my ear.
I laugh, but the noise sounds a bit strained due to the fact that Hunter has his arms wrapped around my midsection where the cut is.
He abruptly pulls back and worry creases his features. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I lie, gripping his shoulders stiffly.
He frowns. “Are you sure?”
I nod and make myself to relax. “Yeah, just not thrilled that I have to deal with my cousin this morning.”
“That makes two of us,” Hunter agrees as Jax steps up beside us.
“Can we please get the hell out of here?” he whispers, casting a look over his shoulder at Dixie May, who’s staring at us with her jaw practically hanging to her knees. “Before her yapping melts all of my brain cells.”
When I giggle, Jax reveals the tiniest of smiles.
Hunter smiles, too. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.” Then he drapes an arm around my shoulders, which feels super weird. Not in a bad way, but in an unfamiliar way. I wish I could completely enjoy it, but that voice of doubt is whispering softly in the back of my mind. What if this is all a prank?
That doubt fades a little as Dixie May continues to stare at the three of us in shock. When we near her, she manages to collect herself, sneaking one glare at me before smiling at Hunter.
“I didn’t know you guys knew my cousin,” she says, chewing on her bottom lip.
Hunter stops in front of her and, since his arm is around me, I have to stop with him. “That’s weird,” he says. “Why did you think we were at your house then?”
Her smile fleetingly falters. “Oh, I don’t know. I just thought maybe you were …” She struggles for an answer then straightens her shoulders. “I just thought I’d come out and say what’s up. You know, introduce myself, since I didn’t get to yesterday.” She smiles sweetly at him.
“Yeah, well, we’re here to pick up Raven.” With his fingers, he lightly skims the side of my arm.
“Oh.” Dixie May frowns.
Insert crickets to fill up the awkward silence.
“Okay, well, bye.” Hunter throws her a dismissive wave then guides me toward the car. Jax has already climbed into the back seat, so I guess he won their rock, paper, scissors throw down.
Once we reach the car, Hunter removes his arm from my shoulders and gestures for me to climb into the back. I do so, sliding in beside Jax.
Zay is texting on his phone and doesn’t glance up at me. He’s sitting in the driver’s seat, so I’m assuming this beautiful car is his. Like yesterday, he has on a black hoodie with the hood pulled over the top of his head. His hands are resting on top of the steering wheel, so I can see that his knuckles are a bit scraped up. The wounds look fresh.
I wonder what happened.
As Hunter hops in and shuts the door, Zay puts his phone away. “That took way longer than I wanted it to.”
“Yeah, I know.” Hunter blows out the loudest exhale. “Dude, that was so damn awkward. Seriously, she wouldn’t stop talking to me, and I didn’t even say a word.”
“Even more awkward than getting chased through the parking lot by that Katy chick?” I joke, buckling my seat belt.
Jax snorts a laugh, and Zay flicks a glance at me from over his shoulder before throwing the car into reverse and backing down the driveway. Dixie May is heading back inside but keeps casting glances over her shoulder at the car, as if half-expecting the guys to come back and give her a ride.
Hunter twists around in the seat to look at me with a playful smile on his face. “That thing with Katy wasn’t awkward for me since I was the one being chased. Not doing the chasing.”
“Liar,” I mock. “You totally looked so uncomfortable.”
“I did not.” He rests his chin on the back of the seat. “I was completely calm.”
“Bullshit. You basically threw me in your car so you could escape her,” I tease, sitting back.
“He threw you in the car … huh?” Confusion creases Jax’s face. “Okay, he didn’t tell us about that part.”
“That’s because she’s exaggerating.” Hunter smirks at me while reaching for his seat belt.
“I am not. But whatever. We can pretend if it makes you feel better.” I flash him a toothy grin.
He struggles not to smile, but then he turns serious, and I think, Okay, here it is. He’s gonna ask me if I’m in or out with their whole spy, or whatever it is they are, thing.
“I have to ask you something very important,” he says. “And I need you to answer me truthfully, okay?”
“Um … okay.” I glance at Jax to see if he looks as serious as Hunter, but he’s just rolling his eyes.
Puzzled, I return my attention back to Hunter, who’s carrying my gaze intensely.
“I need to know what your favorite breakfast food is.”
I blink. “What? How is that important?”
A smile curves across his lips. “Every person should know what their BFF’s favorite breakfast food is.”
“Dude, you’re weird,” I state with a trace of a smile on my lips.
His brow cocks upward. “I think we already establi
shed that yesterday. Remember? We both agreed that we’re both weird, and that we’re perfect for each other.”
Zay lets out an exasperated sigh as he steers out onto the road. “Quit flirting with her, man, and get to the point.”
“There’s a point to this?” I question, causing Hunter to jut out his lip and Jax to chuckle.
“There’s a point. Hunter just isn’t good at making them.” Zay gives me a quick glance from over his shoulder. “What he was supposed to ask is if you’re in or not.”
“You mean, with helping you spy on my uncle and find out why we’re off the grid?” I double-check.
He nods, measuring my reaction closely.
I pause, but only for a second. To be honest, while I’ve been pretending to think on their offer, I’ve wanted to say yes since the moment it was proposed to me. “Yeah, I’m in.”
“You sure?” A challenge dances in his eyes.
Maybe it should scare me away. I mean, Katy told me all that stuff about the guys yesterday, about how scary they are, and how Zay is into some really weird sexual stuff and never kisses anyone on the lips, not that that should matter to me … But anyway, her warning should make me cautious, yet it doesn’t. Besides, after witnessing Katy chase after Hunter yesterday, I don’t think I’m going to take to heart anything she told me. Plus, I want to know why my family and I are off the grid, too, which means I need to help the guys get to the truth. I also want to know why Hunter is off the grid, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to ask that. That would mean telling him why I looked into him in the first place. And how weird would that sound? Hey, I had a dream last night that I think you were in, but I couldn’t quite tell because we were kids. Then I got weird and searched your name online.
Yeah, I’m so not doing that yet.
“Yep, I’m in,” I tell Zay with confidence. “Although, I still don’t get why Hunter asked me what my favorite breakfast food is.”
“Because we’re picking up breakfast on our way to school.” Jax props his boot-clad foot onto his knee. “That was just Hunter’s weird way of asking if you want anything.”
“Hey, at least I asked,” Hunter points out while giving Zay the side-eye. “This guy over here would’ve just assumed she didn’t.”
“Technically, you’re assuming she even wants to go,” Zay says. “And by her agreeing to help us, she’s agreeing to pick up breakfast with us because we need to talk about some things before we get started on this.”
While they’re bantering, I check the time on my phone. “Honestly, as lovely as breakfast sounds”—not that I can afford to eat anywhere—“doesn’t school start in like fifteen minutes?”
Hunter’s lips kick up into a smirk. “Afraid you’re going to be tardy, pretty Raven?”
Great, he’s given me a nickname. And while it’s a nice nickname, it’s completely unfitting.
“No,” I reply. “But unlike you, I can’t charm the receptionist into giving me a pass. And pretty Raven? Seriously?”
“What?” He gives me an innocent look. “I think it’s fitting.”
“No, it’s not. So, if you’ve gotta call me something besides Raven, think of something better.”
“Hmm …” He rubs his lips together as he pulls the knit cap off his head, strands of blond hair sticking up everywhere. “I’ll try, but once I get something stuck in my head, it’s usually stuck there. Hence the term stuck.”
When I playfully narrow my eyes at him, he grins then turns around in the seat. “And I can get you out of being tardy.”
“How?”
“You just leave that to me,” he replies vaguely. “I just need to know if you’re okay with getting some breakfast at the cost of being a little bit late for school.”
I lift a shoulder. “I’m cool with being late as long as I don’t get detention.”
He gives me a thumbs-up. Then he starts texting on his phone.
Zay seems pretty content on driving in total silence, something that’s a little weird. Why can’t he turn on the radio or something? Talk about awkward.
“You never did say what your favorite breakfast food was.” Jax leans over and quietly says to me so abruptly that I jolt in the seat. “You okay?” he asks with a crease between his brow.
“Yeah. I’m just being a spaz; that’s all.” I rewind over what he asked me … Oh yeah, my favorite breakfast food … “It’s French toast. I haven’t had it in forever, though.” Since my parents died. Not that my aunt doesn’t cook French toast. I’m just usually not invited to family meals and have to cook my own food. So, you know, frozen pizzas and crap like that.
He smiles. “That’s my favorite, too. And this place we’re going to has the best French toast ever.”
I smile back, but on the inside, something dawns on me again. I have no money. The story of my life.
I’d love to get a job and everything, but I can’t drive, and my aunt and uncle won’t taxi me around. And since there’s no public transportation here, I’m pretty much screwed on the job thing.
“I’ll definitely have to try it, then.” Sometime, when I have money.
Smiling, Jax opens his mouth to say something else, but my phone pings, causing him to pause. Confused, because who the heck would be texting me so early, or at all, I dig out my phone from my pocket.
Jax looks at my phone with his brows raised. “That’s your phone?”
I nod. “I know it’s super outdated.”
“Outdated is a total understatement,” Hunter says while texting on his phone. He saw my phone yesterday when he tried to help me track down that unknown number, so why didn’t he say anything then? “You seriously need a new one.”
“Hey, it works,” I point out. “That’s all that really matters.”
“We need to get her a new one,” Jax states. “If she’s going to help us out, that one isn’t going to fly in some circumstances.”
I gape at him. “What circumstances would this phone not work in? It gets texts and calls. What else does it need to do? It’s a phone.”
He offers me a sympathetic look that I don’t quite fully understand. “We need to be able to make sure we can send files to and from each other safely without anyone being able to hack into our phones and see them. It requires a phone that can hold a pretty large program, and I’m guessing that”—he gestures at the phone—“doesn’t have much storage space.”
He’s completely right, but still …
“I get it. Well, sort of … I’m still kind of confused what I’m going to be doing for you guys … Anyway, this is the only phone I have, and I can’t afford a new one right now, so …” I shrug, like what’re you gonna do?
“No one’s asking you to buy yourself a new phone,” Zay says as he makes a turn onto the main road that leads to the center of town where all the shops, food places, and stores are. “We’ll buy you one.”
I shake my head. “No, you won’t.”
Zay throws me a hard look that would probably scare a lot of people. I’m not one of those people, though. “That wasn’t a request,” he tells me firmly. “You work for us now, so we will get you a new phone.”
My lips part in protest, because I don’t want anyone to buy me anything. It makes me feel like I’m a charity case or something. Before I can say anything, though, Hunter speaks first.
“She did this to me yesterday at lunch, too,” he tells Zay as he sets his phone down on his lap. “I bought her lunch, and she made this big deal about it.”
“I didn’t ask you to buy me lunch,” I protest, hugging myself. I can feel it—the embarrassment and discomfort stirring inside me.
“He didn’t mean anything by it,” Jax tells me, as if sensing what’s going on inside my head. “He was making a joke. Just a bad one.”
“My jokes aren’t bad,” Hunter insists, turning around in the seat. He has a smile on his face, but when he looks at my expression, the smile plummets. “Aw, shit. I didn’t mean anything by that. I promise I was just joking. And it was defin
itely a very bad joke.”
Zay peers over his shoulder at me, and I suddenly feel like the freak everyone thinks I am.
Here they are, being super nice to me, and I’m getting all defensive over dumb things.
“It’s fine.” I lower my gaze and start picking at my chipped fingernail polish. “I just don’t like feeling like a charity case, and when people buy me stuff, I kind of feel that way. But I’m totally overreacting.” I sigh softly. “Sorry.”
When they say nothing, I want to shrink inside myself. Awesome. My first day with real friends and I’ve already messed it up.
I feel fingers brush my jawline, causing me to jolt a little and glance up.
Hunter withdraws his hand from my face and offers me the kindest smile ever. “You don’t need to apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I’m being weird,” I point out, “about silly things.”
He dazzles me with a grin. “If anyone is an expert on being weird, it’s me. And I think you know that by now, since you called me weird yesterday at least ten times.”
“True.” I exhale quietly, telling myself to calm down.
“We’re all pretty weird,” Jax adds, drawing my attention to him. A faint smile touches his lips. “Zay’s the worst. Seriously, he’s a freak.”
“For sure,” Hunter agrees with a grin.
When I look at Hunter, he winks at me, causing me to smile.
Zay doesn’t seem as amused. “Great, here we go. Let’s make fun of Zay to impress the new girl. Story of my damn life.”
I elevate a brow at Hunter. “Do you guys spend a lot of time trying to impress new girls?”
“Nope.” Hunter grows serious then. Well, serious for him. “To be completely honest, you’re the first person we’ve ever brought into our group.”
While Katy had mentioned the guys never let anyone into their group, this still surprises me, mostly because I just assumed Katy was being batshit crazy.
My brows pull together. “You’ve never hung out with anyone else? Ever?”
He shakes his head. “Not really. I mean, we go to parties and shit like that, and chat with people, but that’s it.”
The Rules of Being Friends (A Pact Between the Forgotten Series Book 2) Page 2
