I shook my head as I pushed myself up into a sitting position. “You feel like lying?”
My aunt gave a light laugh and clasped her hands in her lap. “How much did you take out of the fridge?”
“All of it,” I answered honestly.
“Okay.” She hesitated. “Is it all gone?”
“Depends on your definition of gone.”
“Oh Ash.”
I dug the heels of my hands into my eyes as I drew my knees up. “I know, I self-destructed.”
“You can still win,” she said cautiously. “And even if you don’t, there’s next year and senior year. You’re only sophomores, you put so much pressure on yourself.”
“And the twins don’t?” I snapped angrily.
“Of course they do. You are all as bad as each other, you play like every game is your last.” I heard the frustration in her voice, and I waited for the lecture that I knew was coming. “But they don’t hurt themselves, Ash.”
Didn’t they? Gray fought with anyone who looked at him wrong, and Jett slept with anyone who smiled his way. My cousins self-destructed in their own way. Rolling my head on my shoulders, I opened my eyes to look at my aunt.
“It’s not a big deal, it was a one-off,” I assured her. “Why are you here?”
Aunt Sable huffed out a laugh. “Well, my sons are apparently tearing up Cardinal looking for you. Onyx suggested you may be home.” She handed me my phone, her eyebrows rising in surprise when she saw the number of missed calls.
“I didn’t think they would notice I was gone,” I admitted as we shared a look.
Aunt Sable stood, but she bent down and kissed my head. “Then you’re more off than I thought. You know they would always notice.”
Grunting in acknowledgment, I got off the bed too. “They’re just too scared they’re missing out.” I tried to keep my tone light.
“You’ll be okay? You want to come over to ours? Kerr is in his office, but I can drag him out and we can watch a movie?”
“Let me deal with your sons first,” I said as I opened the phone, and then I hesitated. How many times had they called? Then I saw the messages in our group chat.
Gray:Need you at the apartment
Jett:Did you get Gray’s message, call me
Gray:Ash, get your ass home
Jett:Ash? You okay?
Gray:Where the fuck are you?
Gray:Answer the fucking phone
Gray:I swear I will break my other hand on your face
Jett:Ash, you okay?
Gray:I will kick your fucking ass — answer the fucking phone
Jett:Need you here cousin, shits gone down
I had a separate text from Queeny.
Quinn:Before they start killing people, can you please call them or me? Please.
