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Nothing bad had happened. I mean, there were sketchy vibes from Kunz. And Malik seemed nicer, more stable, but he still gave me dangerous vibes. Then there was Theresa, who everyone said was solid. She hadn’t seemed that way here, but she’d admitted it was the pheromones in the crowd and the energy of the fight affecting her.
That made sense. It would’ve affected me the same way if I’d been someone else—or been with people I knew and felt safe with. In all honesty, Kunz hadn’t done anything to make me question being safe. We drove to a fight, watched a fight, and now I was waiting outside of a bathroom.
We came. We watched. We were going to leave.
All good. Right?
Yes. I sucked in my breath, counted to ten, and released. I was just out of my comfort zone, and that was a trigger by itself.
Everything would be fine. All fine.
Theresa came out and flashed me a smile. She was glowing, her cheeks flushed. “Ready? The guys are at the car.”
I nodded, my neck tense.
She looped her arm with mine, and as we started forward, she asked, “So, party?”
“Um . . .”
We headed around the front. Theresa called out to a bunch of people, but she didn’t leave my side again. As we passed, a rather large crowd had congregated around a wagon. I couldn’t see who was sitting on it, but it almost seemed like celebrities.
I recognized the two girls who’d been gushing over whoever he was in front of me in the bathroom line. They were standing with some guys and a couple of other girls, but they looked transfixed by whoever was on that wagon.
“Who was that all about?” I asked after we’d gotten down the path a bit.
“That?” Theresa glanced back.
“Yeah. Some girls in front of me were going nuts over some guy being at the fight.”
Kunz and Malik were sitting on the back of the car, and they got up as we approached.
Theresa answered absentmindedly as she went to the front passenger side. “Oh. That was Scout and his fighting posse. Told you. He has celebrity status here.” She breezed inside, shutting the door, and I was left standing, the only one not in the car.
“You ready?” She opened her door again, grinning up at me.
Right. Yeah. Right. I jerked forward, getting inside.
Scout and I weren’t friends. That was obvious. Though he would’ve stepped in and helped me get home—because of his friendship with my cousins.
But I was fine. This was all fine.
34
RAMSAY
The party wasn’t super huge so much as a house that looked filled with people who had spread out into an unattached garage. There were ping pong and pool tables in the front yard. As we walked in, Kunz and Malik kept stopping to say hi to people.
Theresa tugged my hand. “Come on. This is their realm so they’ll be out here a while. Let’s go get some drinks.”
Okay. I was wrong. Inside, the house was packed. We could barely get through the door, but someone yelled Theresa’s name, and she waved, tugging me through a group of girls to where a guy was standing behind a bar. He was tall and lean, wearing a Hawaiian shirt unbuttoned with a white tank beneath. His hair was messily rumpled, but it worked on him. He leaned over. “Hey. Surprised to see you here.”
Theresa lifted a shoulder. “Kunz wanted to check out the fight.”
His eyes moved to me. “Who’s your friend?”
“This is Ramsay. She’s new.”
“Hi, Ramsay.” He held a hand over the bar. “My name’s Ben.”
“Ben knows Gem.” She gave him a questioning look. “He used to work at Mario’s. You’re still going to the university?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I haven’t seen Gem in a while. How’s she doing?”
“She’s good.”
Ben nodded his head. “Awesome. Tell her hi for me, and any friend of Gem’s is a friend of mine.” He slapped his hands on the counter. “What would you like, ladies?”
“I’ll have a beer, whatever’s on tap,” I told him.
“Whatever’s on tap. Got it.” He grabbed a glass and began pouring, then raised an eyebrow, waiting for Theresa’s order.
Her head wafted back and forth. “Uh . . . make me something you’ve been wanting to make all night and haven’t yet.”
He handed me my beer, saying to Theresa, “You sure about that? Some might say you’re being awfully brave, letting a bartender pick your poison.”
She rolled her shoulders back and smiled widely. “Let me have it, Ben. I believe in you.”
He chuckled. “All right. Sit tight and watch some magic then.”
As he worked, he asked, “So you’re here with Kunz, huh?” He looked up at Theresa when he could. “I thought that was over?”
Some of her smile faded, but she shrugged, watching what he mixed together. “He—I . . . I don’t know. He wanted to check out a new fighter, so here we are.”
