by Mj Fields
“You’re embarrassing yourself,” I say, putting my hand on Max’s shoulder as I step on the bleacher in front of me to hop down.
“I’m wearing Nike, right off the shelf, Nina. But how about the nine inches of pure steel under it? Not the clothes, nom nom,” he says.
“You’re so full of yourself, Max Steel,” she snaps.
“Like your mouth was,” he says smugly before leaning back, putting his elbows on the spot I just vacated.
“Everything chill, Max?” his dad asks.
“It’s fine, Mr. Steel,” I say, grabbing Nina’s elbow and forcing her to walk away from the scene she’s causing.
She jacks her arm from me. “Harrison, Miles, and Kai are right; you’re becoming their bitch.”
“The only bitch I see right now is you. A disrespectful bitch at that.” I stop just beyond the dugouts when I hear the crack of a bat and the roar of the crowd. I look around Nina and smile at all of them giving zero shits about what all the other parents’ reactions are to them, and then I look back at Justice’s cousin, Amias, who’s split yet another bat in half, like he has every game.
“See!” Nina yells, drawing my attention back to her.
“Oh, please.” I laugh. “When you were trying to get Max to come out of the janitor’s closet, and date you, instead of just —”
Slap.
Shocked, I gasp, “Are you kidding me right now?”
“You’re ruining everything!”
I look past her and at the others, who were up my ass a day ago, trying to become my next bestie and have been for two years, looking at me like she is now.
“Hey!” I look up and see Brisa, who I hadn’t even noticed until now, walking toward us. “You so much as look in her direction again, and you get me.”
Nina huffs, “Whatever, sophomore.”
Brisa steps to her. “You. Get. Me.”
“Fine, whatever.” Nina steps back.
“If my entire family wasn’t sitting over there, I’d snatch your fucking weave and slap the shit out of you with it.”
Nina gasps.
“Now get the fuck out of here.” Brisa takes another step toward them, and they all take off.
“I could have dealt with that—”
“My cousin’s tongue was down your throat a couple hours ago. You don’t deal with it alone when you’re with him.”
“Thank you, but—”
“What the hell just happened?” Truth asks as she rushes toward us.
“Queenie’s disturbed the hive.” Brisa smiles slightly. “Now the baby Bees are revolting. Nina slapped her, so I stepped in.”
“She slapped you?” Truth gasps.
“Harrison’s stirring the pot. It’s no big deal.”
“Can’t have that, can we?” Truth says as she starts to walk in the direction Nina and the others went.
“Truth,” I call after her, and she turns around. “I said some things, too; pushed a few buttons. I need to deal with this on my own.”
“Like hell you do!” Justice booms from behind me.
I look back at him, and he narrows his eyes as he grips my chin and cocks my head, getting a better look at what I assume is a handprint from Nina’s bitch-slap.
I turn back just in time to grab Truth’s elbow. “I can handle this. I need to handle this.” I look back at Justice. “I got this.”
“And what the fuck’s the plan, Queenie?” Justice sneers.
“To ignore it until this weekend, throw a party, leaving them all out.”
He narrows his eyes. “You’re not having a party this weekend.”
“You don’t get to tell me when—”
“I’m gonna be out of town Saturday until Sunday, so you’re not having a fucking party this weekend. End of.”
Annoyed that he’s telling me what to do, and curious as to where the hell he’s going, my temper flares a bit. “Yes, I am. Summer’s almost here, and I’ve yet to—”
“Friday night. Everyone leaves by midnight.” He doesn’t give me time to say a damn thing before he turns and heads back to the dugout to join his team.
Watching the game, I barely pay attention, too busy devising a perfect plan.
They want to think I’m going to ruin everything, because Justice and I are together … -ish, then I’m going to prove them right and let them grovel.
Nina and the girls will be put in timeout, so to speak, and Harrison and his assholes will get the wrath of those who aren’t invited, because they chose to follow the wrong leader in this battle for power. Now all I have to do is figure out how to buy a few thousand dollars of alcohol for the bar and hire the Baysiders to run security at the tables, the door, and the bar.
I don’t even feel bad. Harrison and the others screwed me out of probably two grand from last week—my normal cut from the card tables. Which means I have to figure out another way to come up with money for utilities and save for the freaking property taxes, on top of stocking a bar.
I see Tobias walking toward the sea of Steel. He gives me a quick wink, clearly pleased with himself for pushing me off on Justice. I push away the bitter feelings about it, because he is as close to a brother as I have had since my half-brother went back to Colombia to rebel against our father, and he obviously had no idea that Justice and I had a past.
It dawns on me how silly it would sound to anyone if I ever tried to explain our past. Four years seems like a long time, but reality is that it was just four weeks. We couldn’t even exchange numbers—my parents stood on their moral high ground about children with electronic devices, yet they didn’t notice their twelve-year-old daughter spending every moment she could with a boy on the beach, building sandcastles by day and sneaking out almost every night after that first kiss. And then … then they just left me here, with a cell phone beside my bed, a nanny, and an allowance that once came steadily, and now I can’t depend on even that.
“He got tall.” Max laughs. I look over at him, and he nods toward the batter. “Marc.”
I nod, even if I haven’t a clue as to what’s going on.
“Let’s go, Marcello!” two girls cheer from behind me, and I glance back to see it’s—as Max said—the other set of twins, cousins, the girls.
Marcello raises the bat up, points it at them, and then winks.
“Are they related?” I ask Max while catching the look on Tris’s face—anger.
“Not to him.” He shrugs. “Not by blood, anyway. But everyone here is family.”
Huh, I think as I look back at Tris, who is looking up at the twins, who are looking at her, and not with the fondness in their eyes that the rest of this family seems to have toward one another, regardless of what’s being said. They’re clearly gloating.
I look away when Tris begins to turn around, not wanting her to flip her shit on me and unleash her evil. Or maybe something far worse than evil—teenage angst.
At the bottom of the ninth, Saint Mary’s is down by five, and Seashore is taking the field. My eyes are drawn to the first baseman heading out onto the field. Justice is slowly jogging to first. His ass, that’s typically covered by the school blazer—well, except last Friday—is so freaking perfect. A bubble of perfectly proportioned muscles.
Hard, every part of him is hard, even his heart.
I feel a hand on my shoulder and look back at Cyrus.
“We’re all going to dinner after the game, Gabs. Join us?”
“Thanks for the invitation.”
He narrows his eyes slightly, as if trying to read me.
When it looks like he’s about to say something, Tara leans into him to gain his attention and says, “If you can make it, we’d love to have you.”
I smile, nod, and then turn before he calls me on the faux relationship between Justice and me that Tris exposed.
Within minutes, three batters up, the game ends with Amias jumping in the air to catch a ball hit over his head then gunning it to Justice on first, who tags the runner coming back to safety. A double play. The score ends wi
th Seashore 12, Saint Mary’s 5.
Wanting to avoid the human lie detector, which is Cyrus Steel, I stand and wave goodbye as I hurry to the line forming to exit the stands. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tris slide between the railings and jump down onto the ground, avoiding the very line I find myself stuck in. When I see the entire Steel family start to trickle down, I decide to follow her lead.
Walking through the crowd, I hear someone call out, “Gabrielle.”
I look and see Lidia, Carrie, and Demi, without Nina, walking toward me. I look around for someone, anyone else to talk to just to escape any conversation that will no doubt end in them throwing Nina under the bus to save their asses from being disassociated with me—well, more accurately, my house parties. My eyes connect with Alexa, a girl I’ve never really talked to, and she waves me over. I point to myself, and she nods.
I have no idea how she or the guys she’s standing with feel about me, all of them in this past spring’s musical, none invited to the “leads” party in an effort to push Truth farther down the popularity pole, which was a total bitch move on my part, but I couldn’t chance it. Regardless, I walk over to them, deciding I’d rather deal with the possibility of awkward than bitchy.
“Hi,” I say as I walk up to them.
“We kind of saw what went down a few minutes ago and thought …” Alexa shrugs.
“Although I’m sure I don’t deserve your saving, I appreciate it.”
The guys all chuckle.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know your names,” I admit embarrassingly.
They all introduce themselves as Baker, Abi, and James.
“I live a couple houses down from you,” Abi informs me.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t—”
Abi shrugs. “No big deal. Not like you could look out the window of your compound into the neighbor’s backyard.”
“Having a small get-together Friday night. Feel free to come. Just don’t park at—”
“Even though we’ve never been, we know the drill.” Alexa smiles.
“Things are changing a bit. I’m extending an open invitation to you all for the summer get-together, as long as you’re chill.”
“They’re chill,” Brisa says from beside me.
“Perfect. Just keep it to yourselves. The guest list just changed a bit, and I don’t want any issues leading up to the party.”
I notice Justice’s family coming closer and decide to get out of there.
“See you then, Alexa, Abi, James, and Baker,” I repeat their names, hoping it somehow helps me remember them next time.
As I make my way to the parking lot, hurrying toward my car and unlocking the door, I hear a familiar voice and pause.
“Is that so? Is that freaking so!”
I look beyond my car and see Tris with the boy who was just on the field, Marcello.
His arms are crossed over his chest as he looks down at her and says, “Spare me the childhood fantasies we told ourselves when we first started playing our scandalous little games. We’ve both moved on from that phase in our lives.”
“I haven’t moved on—”
“Enough,” he snarls. “Our tryst was fun while it lasted, but I’ve moved on, too.”
“With my cousin!”
He holds up two fingers. “Twins.”
As he turns to walk away, she yells at him, “I hope you rot in hell!”
When he turns back around, the look on his face is frightening. “If there is such a place, I hope you burn there first.”
She turns toward me, and before I have a chance to duck behind the car, she spots me.
“God, why are you always around!”
I stand here, not knowing what to say or how to even respond, as she rushes toward me.
Her hands fisted, she pushes them against my chest so my back hits the car. “Such a bitch!” And then she cracks. A tear falls, and she fists my sweater, and my heart breaks with hers.
Not thinking, I hug her and, fortunately, she allows it.
When I look up and see Justice and Max walking toward us, I hold up a hand, showing them they should stop. Justice doesn’t, but Max grabs his shirt.
“Justice and Max are behind us. Don’t turn around; just get in my car, and I’ll tell them you’re riding with me.”
“I’m not going to dinner with them,” she manages to sniff and hiss at the same time.
“If I am, you certainly are,” I almost hiss back, almost, because she’s a bit scary.
She hurries to my car and gets in as I hurry toward Justice and Max.
“The hell did you do to Tris?” Justice asks accusingly.
“JT.” Max laughs.
I shake my head and toss them a lie, “She got her period, and she’s supposed to go to dinner with all of you. I’m going to take her home and meet you there.”
“Who the hell invited you?”
That comment stings worse than Nina’s slap.
Max chuckles, “Your dad after Tris told them all that you two were into some rough shit.”
Justice’s eyebrows jump up. “What?”
“I wouldn’t be going if he didn’t insist.”
Searing hazel eyes not leaving mine, he says, “Max, a minute alone please.”
Chuckling, Max walks away.
He steps closer and drops his tone. “You couldn’t leave it the fuck alone, could you? Had to manipulate not only Truth, but now Tris, to bring my parents into this disgusting little lie of yours? Get them to invite you to dinner? You’ll pay for that, too, Queenie.”
“I’m not sure you have any more punishments you can dish out. You’ve already threatened to choke me with your dick and ruin my ass.” I turn then look back at him. “You’re running out of holes, Justice.”
I turn back to get in my car when I hear him threaten, “I’ll put one in your fucking heart.”
I look back briefly. “That’s assuming I have one.”
Anymore, I think.
Bayside
Justice
After a quick shower in the locker room, I head to meet everyone for a last-minute dinner that I don’t want to attend for more reasons than one. To begin with, Tobias and I have shit to sort, and I wanted to hit the hospital to offer a hand loading up the dozens of baby gifts and floral arrangements so neither Bella, nor Kiki, and their new little guys or husbands, have to deal with it all. I was also hoping to run into Quinn to discuss a few things before letting Queenie in on the new fucking rules of her parties. And now I’m going to have to be face-to-face with her, a-fucking-gain, before necessary.
Worse than that, my family knows she and I are a thing, but not the truth behind the fact that it’s all smoke and mirrors, all high school bullshit. Bullshit I never got sucked into until moving here. Until her.
Before walking into Rosa’s, I send Tobias a text to tell him where I’m at and ask if he’s coming.
With Truth heading to the dance and him still working at Frank’s jewelry shop, I never know if he’ll be around. Not to mention that last time he was over, Dad caught him and Truth in her bed, just chilling, but still pissed him off.
“Rules!” he shouted then stormed up the stairs.
Tobias avoided most of the game, showing up at the end, so who the fuck knows if the only person who knows this is bullshit —him— will be there so he can see the fact that even my crew is feeding into this shit, see it’s fucking with my life, therefore making it easier to convince him of the changes I want to make in this bullshit game.
When I walk in, I see her leaning in and talking to Tris, an empty seat next to her, no doubt for me.
I have to fight the urge to walk right past them, which I can’t, because Mom’s on the opposite side of the empty chair, clearly saved for me.
I lean down and kiss the top of her head before sitting my ass in the chair.
“Good game, JT,” Abe calls down the train of connected tables so we can all sit together.
“Thanks, Abe.” I smile.
�
�You sure you don’t want to stick with ball instead of art?” he asks.
I shake my head. “Not a chance.”
“You still heading into the city Saturday to cover for Tags?” Uncle Jase asks.
The fuck, I think. Now she knows why I won’t be around this weekend, and I was loving the fact that she thought I was going to sow my wild oats. Maybe she doesn’t know it’s for work.
“No place I’d rather be.” I grab my water and lift it before taking a drink.
“You sure about that?” Uncle X nods toward Gabrielle.
“She knows the drill.” I set down my glass and, as I’m sitting back, I get kicked in the ankle under the table from both directions—Mom and Gabrielle.
Jesus Christ, here we go.
I look at Mom, who scowls.
“Not being rude, Mom, she knows,” I whisper.
I glance up at Dad, who’s studying me, and then look over at Queenie. “Wasn’t being a dick.”
She smiles, fake as fuck. “Of course you weren’t.”
I look past her at Tris, who is glaring at me, and I straight-up want to flip the table, literally, like she’s done figuratively.
“Gabs going to be joining us in Italy?” Uncle Zandor asks.
“Thought we were sticking close for the …” I stop before I say boys.
“The boys?” Dad asks.
I glance over at Gabrielle.
“She knows.” Jase laughs. “Inner circle’s got each other’s back, right, Gabs?”
She smiles and gives him a thumbs-up. “Of course.”
Good thing they come home tonight. No doubt Queenie will blow it up on The Sound app.
“Inner circle, my ass,” I mumble and get another kick to the ankle from Queenie.
“So, is she coming?” Zandor asks.
“I’m—”
“You’re heading south of the equator, right, Gabrielle?” I cut her off really quick before the two-week break from this shit becomes two weeks stuck with her.
Max, Patrick, and Amias chuckle, and one says, “South. Border. She’s going dow—”
“Enough,” Dad says without much conviction.
She looks at me, confused.
“Colombia?” I ask.