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“Yeah, okay. Give me twenty minutes.”He ends the call, and I text King.
Dom: My house. Bring snacks.
He sends me a thumbs up, and I try Ash one last time, but it doesn’t even ring. I toss my phone onto my bed and walk into the bathroom. Jumping in the shower, I rinse off the sweat and grime from my workout and quickly throw on some sweatpants. I don’t bother with a shirt. It's just the guys coming over.
We have been best friends and together on one sports team or another since we were ten. King shows up first with a bag of chips and a case of soda. He drops them on my desk and plops down on one of the beanbag chairs sitting in the corner.
He yawns, looking like I woke him up. “So what’s the big emergency? Where are Ash and Carter?” I shrug my shoulders and crack open the box of drinks, grabbing one. I toss him one and sit on my desk chair.
“We need to talk about Ash and come up with a plan to keep Gracie safe. Today was fucked up, man. It can’t happen again.” He sighs and nods, agreeing with me.
“What the fuck, man! Please don’t tell me that I just left Tin’s bed so we could have a girl chat,” Carter says as he strolls into the room, looking freshly fucked and smelling like old lady perfume. I don’t care if it’s expensive, still makes me sneeze.
“Shower now,” I order, and he rolls his eyes. I stand and grab him a pair of pajama pants from my dresser, then toss them at his chest. He grumbles as he slams my bathroom door. King laughs.
“I thought Ash was the bossy one,” King mumbles as he rips open the bag of chips and shoves a handful in his mouth.
“Did you want to spend the whole night smelling Tinsley?” I ask, and his nose scrunches up.
“Yeah, no. I get enough of that shit at school.”
I sit down on my bed and scroll through my music playlists. My parents are out of town, and my little brother is with our grandparents. I guess I could throw a party if I wanted, but I’d much rather just hang out with my friends.
“Dude, what’s with the girl’s conditioner in your shower?” Carter asks as he exits the bathroom with a towel around his waist.
“I like the smell of it,” I mutter as he laughs, shaking his head.
“Bro, what the fuck?” King yells as Carter drips water all over him from his wet hair. I put on some Panic at the Disco and wait for Carter to change.
“So, is there a reason we’re having a clandestine meeting at one in the morning without Ash on a school night?” King asks, and I groan, running my hand over my face.
“I called him for over an hour and sent him a shit load of texts. He’s not replying. I’m worried about him. He’s still drinking, and he’s barely sleeping. His hatred of Gracie is not good, and if we don’t snap him out of this rage haze he’s in, I’m scared we might be attending another funeral before graduation,” I say as Carter plops down on the other beanbag and steals King’s chips.
“Fuck, man, that shit's heavy,” King mutters, and I nod.
“So what’s the plan then? Because we all know that Ash won’t be changing his mind. His sister was killed. Fuck, he had to identify her body. You don’t come back from something like that,” Carter says with a sigh, and I stand up.
I pace back and forth a few times, thinking.
“There has to be something we can do. We all liked Gracie. She used to help you with schoolwork, Carter. Not to mention all the bake sales she ran for our teams to raise money. We were all friends once. I love Ash. He’s my brother, but I think we need to protect Gracie.”
King snorts. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that, Dom. I’ll just drop to my knees and apologize for assaulting and shoving her into a shed today. All while going behind Ash’s back.” He shakes his head and zones out, scrolling on his phone.
“Look. I get it. I do. But I think we need to just let shit happen for right now. We can keep an eye on Ash. Make sure he doesn’t kill the girl, but he needs revenge, and we all know Bianca and the girls are scheming, too,” Carter says as he grabs a soda, and I grunt.
“I know you’re right, but why does what we did today make me feel so sick? Gracie was a part of our group…”
King cuts me off, “Yeah, but Mia was our sister. Listen, I get it. But I know I’m not the only one wanting some damn answers. So we will keep Ash in control, but I won’t stand in his way.”
I nod and toss him one of my gaming controllers as he and Carter fight over who will be Yoshi in Mario Kart. I try Ash one more time and sigh when, once again, it goes to voicemail.
I have a really bad feeling that I know where he is. I just hope Gracie is strong enough to handle him.
ChapterEight
Jolting awake, I see I'm still in this flipping shed. It's starting to get stifling, so I assume it must be late morning. Or I could just be a sweaty mess from that nightmare.
Nightmares. I’m so sick of them. Every night the same one, over and over again. Mia and I walking up that cliff to get some fresh air away from the party and bonfire smoke. Then she turns into a monster, causing my fall.
