Page 33 of Alphas Like Us
I snap my belt off and slide to the seat’s edge. Just so I can speak more directly to Ben. Farrow is glaring at me for unbuckling, but I’ll bequick.
“Go faster,” I tellBen.
His eyes flit to me. “Did you read thetext?”
“Not yet. Accelerate, Ben. You can pass the Kia on yourright.”
Ben presses the gas, but lets off as rain slams harder. “I can’t,Moffy.”
Charlie rubs the fog off his window. “You should pull over. I’lldrive.”
I can’t even offer since I still don’t have my license back. Not that they’d feel that safe since I have a speeding problem, but I’ve neverwrecked.
“Pull over where?” Ben shifts forward, his chest rising and fallingquickly.
“The emergency lane,” Charliesays.
“I can’t seeit.”
“Maximoff,” Farrow says through clenched teeth. Winona fists my shirt to pull me back. I end up sliding backwards on my own, and I pull my seatbelt across my chest and snapin.
I glance atFarrow.
He looks like he wants to kiss me and kill me. “Don’t do thatagain.”
“Bodyguard orders?” Iask.
“Boyfriendrulessince you love following them so much…” he trails off, checking the traffic through the rear windshield. “Shit.”
I see what he sees. “Ben,” I say, “switch to the left lane.” We’re in a middle lane, and a truck on the driver’s side is gainingspeed.
Ben flicks on his blinker. His car sensors start beeping, alerting us about an approaching vehicle. “I can’t getover.”
He’s sixteen andjustgot his license in March. All I want is to take the fuckingwheel.
Ben tries to accelerate again. “Moffy, you should read the text outloud.”
Ihesitate.
Not sure if this is a good distraction from paparazzi or a bad one. But I end up looking down at the phone in myhand.
And I read, “Colin texted,heads up, dude, Easton Mulligan is getting pills from your cuz. Thought that shit stopped, but Easton’s been bragging about it. Even saw thebottle.”
I don’t know how I read that without a singleinflection.
I don’t know how my heart is stillbeating.
My muscles burn, shoulders locked, and my impassive face carries nothing. Xander needs his meds, and he’s just giving them away so that he can make friends. Hurt claws at me, wanting to just grab him and hug him and tell him this isn’t right. Somewhere inside, I almost can’t fucking believe this. Somewhere inside, I think I’m screaming at the top of my lungs for this toreverse.
But that emotion is lost with a switch, too deep toreach.
The car is so quiet I can hear Ben’s heavybreath.
“I’ll talk to him,” I say. He can’t deal drugs. Or is it even considered dealing if he’s giving them away freely?Jesus.
“Be gentle, okay,” Ben breathes. “I can’t…I mean, Xander just…he lost his door again, right? He’s not in a goodplace.”
“Yeah,” I say, nothing in myvoice.
