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“What the fuck is that?” Lachlan asked. “What do you mean, finish?”
“None of your business,” Jonas told him. “You just keep doing whatever shady shit it is that you’re doing.”
Glaring, Lachlan stood up and I sighed. “Jonas, stop provoking him. Lachlan, sit the fuck down, and shut up. You did start this.”
That earned me two glares. I’d love to blame KC for this schism that seemed to be ever shifting between the three of us. While blaming her might be the easy out, the simple truth was, we’dalwaysargued. Friction had always been a problem for us. Despite how close we seemed in age, we just—we were just vastly different people sometimes.
The simple truth right now was our problem boiled down to one blue-haired siren. Lachlan definitely had a thing for her. Jonas’ crush had been evident from the beginning, not counting the fact he confessed it.
And me? I had no business looking at her at all. Especially not after she saved my ass with the school when she didn’t have any reason to cut me so much as a break. I tried to thank her, and she’d shrugged it off.
I couldn’t tell if it was because she was really indifferent or just uncomfortable. Frankly, the more I got to know her, the less I understood, and it disturbed me. I’d been hard on her. Harder than I would have been with any other student.
We only had a few months left until KC and Jonas both graduated. Then… what?
"Look, Jonas,” Lachlan said with a sigh in a far more reasonable tone than he’d even attempted earlier. “I know you have questions. We all do. Right now, I—” He shot a look at me. “We want to keep RJ as far away from Ace as possible. He’s bad news and she doesn’t need the issues.”
“He hasn’t been near her.”
“Not totally true,” I said, and Jonas scowled. “Granted, I haven’t seen him since the day I asked her to not accept his date. Nevertheless, I also don’t know what else is going on, and I’ve been keeping my distance.”
“I haven’t,” Lachlan said and I rolled my eyes. “He’s on campus, I’ve seen him a couple of times, but he refuses to go near her when we’re around. So we just need to keep that up for at least another three weeks.”
Initiation.
“And you’re not competing for a spot?” I checked with Jonas again. Arms folded, he just rolled his eyes in answer. Yeah, he was not a joiner by nature.
“If she does, I will,” he said. “I’ll talk to her about it. I’ve seen the invitations, and she put a couple of them on my door when they came.”
The admission added sandpaper to the tension in the room. Lachlan scowled and cut a look at me. Did we tell Jonas the truth now? Or keep it to ourselves as we had for the past two years? He had no idea how involved in that whole nightmare he’d almost been.
I preferred it that way, especially considering how concerned I was about the fallout to his mental health. Lachlan grimaced. Yeah, he couldn’t argue the last part, so I just shook my head once.
“Let us know if anything changes,” I said rather than let Lachlan push him. If he demanded Jonas stay out of it, he’d be all in. If we kept pushing, he’d want to know why, and if we didn’t tell him… he would find out.
As disconnected as he often “appeared,” he wasn’t an idiot. Given a question he wanted to be answered? He’d find out on his own, no matter how long it took.
“Please,” I tacked on the last word. Then because we needed a change of subject, I asked, “Have you heard from any colleges?”
“Nope,” Jonas said and I frowned. “Didn’t apply to any, either.”
What…? My phone played a familiar note that had Lachlan and Jonas both standing abruptly. I didn’t even have to look at the screen to know it was Mom.
“Gonna go,” Jonas said with a half-wave, and he didn’t wait on us to say anything before he was out of the door. Just as that door closed, so did the one to Lachlan’s room.
Picking up the phone, I sighed as I stared at the screen. As much as I wanted to send it to voicemail, I hit answer. “Hey, Mom.” I even made it sound natural. Good for me.
“Ramsey, baby,” Mom said, exhaling a long breath as ice clinked in the background. There was an almost electronic hum. I’d bet they were at the studio and she’d stepped out of the recording booth to get a drink. “You answered.”
I winced. “The last couple of times I was in class, Mom. You didn’t leave a message, so I just assumed you were calling to catch up and not a big deal.” I crossed my mental fingers at that lie.
After Lachlan’s Christmas walkout and Jonas going radio silent as soon as he headed to his dad’s, I’d been stuck with trying to soothe her ruffled feathersandher temper.
Neither had been successful. I’d tried to talk to Gibs a couple of times, because if he’d seen the pictures—and I had to wonder if he had since he hadn’t said a word to either of us—he might want an explanation.
“I know you’re busy,” she said, reproach in every syllable. “I count on you to look after your brothers. You know that, right?”
“I know, Mom, and I’m doing my best.” Now would not be the time to mention that Jonas hadn’t applied to any colleges. How the fuck I’d missedthatI had no idea. However, I needed answers before I mentioned it. I went to get a drink and changed the subject. “How are you and Gibs doing?”
