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Damn, I didn’t even think of that. I would feel terrible if I offered her that experience only to let her down. My eyes go wide as I look at Spencer, but he doesn’t look back at me. Instead, he heads toward the basement door.
“Did you just do something nice for her, Spence?” I ask. I mean to tease him, but it just comes out as a genuine question because Spencer isn’t one to care how you feel. He gives facts and hard truths, never one to tiptoe around anyone's feelings. He’s not outwardly mean per se, but this almost sounds like he was genuinely looking out for her.
“I’ll be in the gym if you guys feel like doing something with your day instead of standing around gossiping like a bunch of school girls.” He shouts back to us as he heads down the stairs, leaving the door open and completely ignoring my question.
I turn to look at Rick, who is still nursing his beer.
“You heard that, right? Like I wasn’t just hallucinating?” I ask him, gesturing to where Spencer just disappeared down the stairs.
He shrugs before dumping the remainder of his beer and throws his bottle in the bin as well.
“I did, and I think he’s right.”
“I didn’t say he was wrong! I was just concerned that I might have smacked my head at some point. Since when does Spencer care about someone he just met? You both seemed to hate her yesterday!” I’m losing my mind. That's what this is. It’s the only thing that makes sense.
“We didn’t hate her, Zander. We were just concerned about how she was here and her intentions. Her showing up here didn’t seem like a coincidence, but apparently, it just worked out.” He says as he begins to follow after Spencer. He reaches the basement door and turns to face me, serious again.
“I think after today, we can all agree that she’s had a shitty hand in life, Zan. Froggie wants us to look out for her, so that’s what we're going to do.” He tells me as he starts down the stairs.
I race to the door and watch as he takes a few steps down before calling after him.
“So we're just helping because Froggie said so. She’s just another mission now?”
He freezes mid-step but doesn’t say anything.
After a moment, he continues walking as if I’d said nothing.
“You guys are both assholes. You know that!” I shout after him as he disappears down the hallway, headed to the gym.
I slam the door shut as my frustration grows. Unfortunately, it does nothing to calm me down. Usually, when I feel like this, I would join the guys in the gym and spar until I stop feeling, but seeing as they are the source of my anger at the moment, that’s the last place I want to be. Even if pounding on them does sound fantastic.
I abandon my beer on the counter. I know Clair will give me shit if I don’t clean it up, but I’ll come back for it later. Right now, I just need to find a distraction.
* * *
I endedup in my room. Throwing my knife at the target I made a few years ago on the back of the door. I was hoping keeping my hands moving would help, but even as I hit bulls-eye after bulls-eye, I can still feel my anger simmering right below the surface.
The longer I’ve thought about it, the more upset I’ve gotten. I mean, I get it. She is the mission, and what Froggie says goes. But that’s not really why I’m upset. I’m mad that they are going to act like that’s all this is, like she’s not a person who has a shot at life.
I’ve seen the way both of them look at her, and not just on the first night when she was just a pretty girl who needed saving.
At the mall and club, they had moments. Hell, her and Rick made breakfast together, and all of those moments happened before we knew shewasthe mission. Before, we knew just how fucked her life was.
I throw the knife again and let out a frustrated groan as I give up on it. I don’t even bother going to retrieve it. I leave it buried in the door and head out of my room.
The problem is, I don’t know what else to do with myself. I stand in the hallway for a moment and contemplate going to the gym anyway. We usually fight it out, but it’s not often that they are both the reason for my anger. Maybe I’ll go for a ride. I shoot that thought down, remembering my bike isn’t here.
Fuck it.
I start making my way down the hall to head for the basement. I only make it a couple of steps before the sound of soft music fills the hall. It takes me a minute to understand that it’s coming from Jade’s room.
I had forgotten that her room was right across from mine.
I stand outside her door for a moment, maybe going to see her is a better idea than going down to the basement. I can see how she’s doing after everything today, and maybe even mention school and see how she feels about it.
I step to the door, knocking lightly so as not to scare her, and wait to see if she will let me in. After a minute and no response, I wonder if maybe she’s asleep. I put my ear up to the door, it’s faint, but there are sounds of movement coming from inside.
I take a quick step back and knock a little louder. Maybe she just didn’t hear it the first time.
