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Thatcher and Jonah made nonverbal greetings and continued to stand in their circle. Crossing my arms, I cast my gaze around to each of them. “Did I interrupt an important conversation or are we just going to stay the fuck out here?”
“Whoa,” Thatcher placated with raised hands. “What’s up your ass?”
“Shit,” I turned, scrubbing my face. I thought I’d let go of some of the anger, but the way my chest vibrated with it, I had done a shitty job. When I’d collected myself enough to turn back around, they were each staring at me with various concerned expressions. “I’m sorry, guys. I sat through a ridiculous meeting with my Dad’s attorney and my mother.” I paused. What was I supposed to tell them? I didn’t even have all the facts myself. “Are we going in?”
“How bad is it?” Jonah’s brow drew together in concern. None of them made any moves to head inside.
“Wait, the attorney that’s representing Trinity?” Thatcher perked up.
“That’s the one.”
Thatcher deflated. “He’s been great to Trinity. Seems like a great man. Honestly, I was surprised he’s friends with your dad at all.”
I choked on another laugh. “I know. I often wondered about that myself.” Scratching the back of my head, I pulled my thoughts together. More and more lately, my head was just scattered worrying about everything that could happen. “He only has speculation for us now, but to summarize, he believes it’s going to get ugly.”
“Damn, man. I mean, we knew that already, right?” Beck clapped me on the back. “Whatever you need, we’re here for you. Just don’t make any stupid mistakes like I did, alright?” A rueful smile twisted his lips.
Nodding my appreciation, I turned slightly to the side when a flash caught my eye. I froze.
Not to make it obvious, I turned just a hair sideways to get a better look at where the light came from. Just behind a car two spots over the top of a brunette head and camera peeked before ducking back down.
Son of a bitch.
I counted to three, then sprinted around the hoods. The woman shrieked and fell back as I gripped her arms, lifting her from the ground.
Pain screamed in my ankle. Shit. I hoped that hadn’t set me back, but I couldn’t focus on that now.
“Let me go!” The woman yelled, trying to hold the camera in front of her face.
As I lifted her higher, her hands dropped for a second, but long enough to give me a better look at her profile.
“Holy fucking shit,” I half seethed, half breathed.
I recognized this woman. She was the one who had been hovering around outside the rink. That was before my father had been arrested.
What the hell did that mean?
One thing was for certain. That shit storm George had warned us about? It had already begun.
Shopping wasn’t really my thing. If I had my way, I’d probably order everything online and have it shipped right to me. That way if I had to go to the mall I could be that invisible wall flower I played so well. Something about actually engaging in shopping made me feel like I was part of the mundane masses everyone glared at. You know, the ones that bumped into everyone else and cut people off in the Ralph Lauren aisle to get the last sacred salmon polo.
Voices echoed off of the high ceiling as youthful giggling raced along both ends of the mall. I should have felt like part of the crowd, not as an individual, but as Trinity and I passed a group of people huddling next to the Apple store, I felt very much like a bug under a microscope.
We weren’t close enough to hear what they were saying, but their open sneers and mouths half-covered as they whispered to each other was a dead giveaway they saw us just fine.
I huffed out a laugh, followed immediately by a painful cringe.
“What’s got you acting weird?” Trinity gestured to my face, which couldn’t settle on an expression. She’d definitely seen them too, because now there was a darkness to her gaze coupled with a deep groove between her eyes.
“Oh, you know, falling back on my peeping Tom tendencies. That group of people over there are every teenager’s nightmare.” I tilted my head toward the group just enough for her to know who I was talking about. When her gaze snapped to them her jaw clenched. She didn’t let her attention linger on them for long though. “For a hot second, I thought about doubling back and hiding to take some pictures of them. You know, really capture the way pettiness and hate really bring out the raging hormones in some people.”
She froze, then laughed. “Forget those bitches. They go to my school and they’re the worst kind of popular kids. Ever see Cruel Intentions?”
“Nope. But we should watch it sometime. Right after The Breakfast Club. Jonah’s been asking me to watch it all week. He thinks it would really resonate with us.” I snickered.
“Sounds good.” She shrugged and ducked into Altered State. I’d never even heard of this place, but as soon as my feet crossed over the threshold, I was in boho heaven. If someone would have snapped a picture of me right then, my eyes would have been heart shaped from all the love I had for the bright, flowy, carefree outfits.
Although I could leave the bible quotes behind.
