“Jett, don’t be so harsh. YouknowI understand.”
I frowned as I saw her face pale and her eyes lower.
“I know.” Her voice was so low I was surprised Jett could hear her. “Okay, we’ll talk later.” With a sigh, she slipped her phone into her back pocket before she turned to look at me and raised her hands in supplication. “It’s only temporary.”
I wanted to snap at her. I wanted to shake her. I wanted to hug her. I wanted a lot of things, but I also knew my friend, her troubled expression, the worry in her eyes, and the tightness around her eyes. I let it go.
“Okay,” I spoke quietly.
“Apparently, wet rooms make sense in small areas,” Ava informed me as she reached over and took a drink of my Coke.
“Okay.”
“You’re not okay though.” Ava rubbed her hands over her eyes.
“I’ll be better when you’re back here,” I told her truthfully.
“I know.” Reaching for me, she gave me a hug and then looked around again. “They’re still at practice — want to go to the house and eat all their food?”
I thought about it. Yes. I did. I wanted to invade his space the same way that he had invaded mine.
“Sure.”
“Okay, Quinn is on her way here,” Ava said as she perked up considerably.
“Yay.” She shot me a hard look, which I returned with all the innocence I could muster.
“Be nice, you don’t know what’s going on,” Ava chided me as she took her phone out of her back pocket again to check.
“Because no one tells me anything,” I reminded her more sharply than I meant to.
Ava went to speak when Quinn rapped her knuckles against the door. “Hey, bad time?” she asked us both.
“No,” we both answered, and Quinn raised her eyebrow but said nothing.
She was so beautiful. I took in her long, dark hair, dark eyes, and absolutely perfect complexion. My mom would have swooned over Quinn’s looks. All my life, she had told me my brash hair and my white face were every director’s nightmare. I remembered the first time I sang on stage. I had been six and wearing a white sundress, with my hair in braids to smother the red, as my mom would say. When I came off, she scolded me for wearing no makeup and wearing white. When someonecommented that I “shone” on stage, my mom had told them it was because I was so pale that I reflected the spotlight.
Thankfully, as I got older, the harsh red toned down to auburn, and foundation gave me the color the sun could not.
Standing beside Quinn, I looked like a gangly scarecrow, while she looked like an exotic princess.
“I think Mia needs to know it all,” Ava blurted out as she looked between the two of us. She gestured behind her. “Ash is making himself at home, he’s changed everything in my room, and tomorrow the bathroom is getting changed.”
Quinn’s eyes widened in surprise before she walked down to Ava’s bedroom and looked inside. Coming back to us, she looked at me and ran a hand over her thick hair. I noticed the small tremor and looked at her with concern.
“Where do you want me to start?”
Chapter 5: Ash
When Jett told me the girls were at the house, I’d been surprised but said nothing. Gray grunted, but with a look my way, he said nothing either. When Jett told us on the walk to the house that Quinn had told Red everything, I knew I hadn’t hidden my shock.
Gray cursed once but remained silent; however, his pace picked up as he hurried home to her.
Home to her.
Jett wasn’t slow in picking up his pace, and pretty soon they were both ahead of me on the walk home. It was Monday evening, and I was still hurting from last night’s horrible sleep. I’d received a text from Onyx earlier to tell me he had fixed my living situation. I had been hoping someone would tell me I’d been moved completely, but Jett had told me at the start of practice that I had a new bed.
The way he had said it caused me to look at him and wait for more, but he had merely frowned and said nothing further. I couldn’t help but feel that I was public enemy number one. I didn’t know why, and I was fed up with always being the last to know.
