Page 27 of Crew Princess
My chest constricted, just the slightest bit. “Ever get the feeling you’re sitting in a car that’s not moving, and everything is traveling past you instead?”
Cross was quiet, studying me.
For a split second, I was back in my old house. I could hear my mom throwing up from the cancer treatments. I could hear my dad’s drunken yells. I could hear Channing cursing at him before the inevitable sound of something or someone being slammed into a wall, then feet stampeding, racing for the door, and that door slamming into silence.
Channing was the first to leave. Always.
My dad wasn’t long after him, heading to the bar, and then silence. Maybe an occasional puke sound from my mom’s bathroom before she crawled into bed, turned the light off, and went to sleep as if nothing were happening—as if our lives weren’t coming apart.
Only after complete silence had transcended would I get up from the corner I’d been curled in.
I would pad down the hallway in my bare feet and make a ball at the end of my mom’s bed, a blanket pulled around me. I’d stay there until my dad would tumble down the hallway, returning from the bar. Sometimes he’d trip over me and not know. Then I’d go back to my room, get in my bed, and wish Cross would come stay with me.
“Bren?” Cross ran his thumb over the back of my hand.
I blinked, startling and coming back to the present. “Sorry. I…uh…” Yeah. My throat had swollen. “We gotta tell Jordan what Alex said about Drake.”
“I know. We’ll find the time.”
I nodded, still eyeing Tabatha’s house. This whole party scene was not my usual thing. But my old derision for the Normals wasn’t there, not as much anymore. It was more a flicker.
Thingshadchanged.
“You want to talk about something?” Cross asked.
I shook my head. “Not at all.”
He rested his head against his headrest. “You want to drink on our hill?”
Yes. But I wasn’t ready. I hadn’t been back in so long. I didn’t want to feel the memories.
“No. Let’s go to a Normal party.” I grinned. “Words I bet you never thought you’d hear me say.”
“No, not really.” He smiled fondly, staring back at me. He cupped my cheek. “We can skip—the party, the street dance. J and Z have their girls. They’ll be fine. There’s no crew war now.”
I knew what he was offering: an entire day for me to wallow. We’d go to that hill, drink a bottle of whiskey, and I’d look for a ghost I was never going to see again.
I shook my head. “I feel like something’s coming, something big. We need to be with the guys until it hits.”
“Okay.” He leaned over, kissing me softly.
We walked side by side up to the house.
Tabatha greeted us at the door with a warm smile and glazed eyes. She was happy. She threw her arms around Cross, who stiffened and shoved her away. “The fuck?”
She blinked a few times, that sloppy grin turning sloppier. “Oh. Sorry.” Turning to me, her eyes brightened. She reached out. “Bre—”
“Don’t even think about it.”
Her arms dropped, and she laughed. “You’re so funny. I like you. I used to hate you, then I was just scared of you, but I like you now. I don’t think you’d ever hurt me.”
She was nearing dangerous territory.
“You’re just all bark and no bi—”
Jordan stepped up behind her, his hand on her hip as he pulled her back to his chest. “Babe.” He dropped his head down, nuzzling her neck a second.
“Hmmm, honey?”
