A Whole New Crowd

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Mandy remained in treatment. Austin worshiped Tray. I became less of a walking zombie. People began warming back up to me. A few even said hello to me, but then I got a note to go to the counselor’s office in my last class on Friday. Tray and I had plans for more training; we had started to spar against each other in the boxing ring. As I stood up and headed for the door, the teacher called me back. “Take your books, Taryn.”
I paused at the door. Everyone lifted their heads, looking from me to the teacher. He pointed to my table. “You won’t be coming back today.”
“Well, that’s ominous.”
The room started laughing, but the teacher frowned. “This isn’t a laughing matter.”
I frowned, glanced at Tray, retrieved my books, and left. After stowing my books in my locker, I headed to the office, and when I got there, I stopped outside the door. Shelly and Kevin were already there. I could see them through the window. Shelly wiped a tear from her eye, and Kevin was bent forward, resting his elbows on his knees, a fierce scowl on his face.
This was about Mandy. They had finally found out.
As I headed inside, I flashed them a smile. “So who told you? My bet’s on the neighbor. She finally figure out we’ve been gone?”
Their heads snapped to me and varying levels of outrage stared back at me. Shelly was dressed in a yellow dress, clutching a string of pearls around her neck. At my question, she yanked on the necklace and broke it. When they fell to the floor, spreading all over, Kevin raked a hand through his hair. He cursed and knelt, tossing his tie back over his shoulder so it wouldn’t get in the way. His suit coat had been discarded. It was folded over the third chair. As he reached under it, grabbing a fistful of pearls, I saw the sweat running down his back. I went to the chair in the far corner, my back to the door. Shelly was leaning down, and the counselor had joined Kevin in his search. When she crawled to me, I saw the pearls she was reaching for. As her hand stretched out, my foot came down on the pearls and she looked up, seeing the storm in my eyes. Her hand retracted. Kneeling upright on her knees, she stood and went back to her chair.
Kevin grabbed the last of the pearls and stuffed them in his pocket; he and Shelly returned to their seats. They rolled their shoulders back and lifted their chins.
They thought they knew what was going to happen. They thought wrong. I said, “Let me start.”
Everyone looked at me. I caught the expression that came over Kevin’s face. It was arrogant and superior.
He was my first target. “I took Mandy to a treatment center.”
He said, “You had no right—”
I interrupted, “You had no right to take me in when you didn’t want me.”
He stopped, his eyebrows bunched forward, and he glanced at Shelly. She wore her own small frown, and her throat moved up and down as she swallowed. Then she asked, “What are you talking about, Taryn? Of course we wanted you.”
“You didn’t.” I nodded at Kevin. “What’d you do?”
He grew still, sitting to his highest height on the chair. “What are you talking about?”
“You owed Jace Lanser a favor. He cashed it in.” I gestured to myself. “Me.”
His eyes widened.
“Oh, dear.” Shelly paled.
The counselor shrunk down in her seat, her head jerking from me to them.
I asked again, “What’d you do? I’m assuming he covered for you with something. No one does anything for free.” I saw the guilt flare up over his face. “It must’ve been a pretty bad mistake for Jace to call this favor in. I mean, taking a daughter in for life, that’s a big-ass favor for you to agree to.”
“Honey.” Shelly reached for her husband.
He brushed her hand off and turned to the counselor. “Maybe we could have some privacy?”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Oh. Uh.” She clipped her head in a nod. “Of course. I have some work I can do in the other office.” She stood, pushed up from her chair, and paused in the middle of the room. She swept another look over them. Her lips pinched together and she said, “I will be referring you to Mr. Daniels, the other counselor, due to my own ethical obligations. Jace Lanser is a known drug dealer. Because of your association with him, I am uncomfortable continuing my work with your children so I will no longer counsel any of them.”
Kevin rolled his eyes and waved at her. “Fine, fine. Just go.”
Her eyes darkened. Then she left and the door shut a second later.
He was worked up. His cheeks were red and he was wringing his hands together in his lap. He was going to go on the offensive, but I beat him to it, “Don’t try to deny it. Jace already told me the truth.”
“Oh, honey.” Shelly reached out to me. Her hand was trembling. It was so thin and frail. “I don’t know where you get these ideas, but that isn’t true. We wanted you. We did.” She glanced to her husband for support.
There was none. His eyebrows were still furrowed together and his lips were pressed in a flat line.
“Kevin?”
He ignored her and said to me, “What did he say?”
She sucked in a dramatic breath.
“That you owed him a favor. What was it? Someone overdosed on your pills?”
He looked away. Bull’s-eye.
“Oh my god.” Shelly started rocking back and forth. She wrapped her arms around herself.
“The person died.”
Holy shit. I hadn’t expected him to confess.
He closed his eyes, cursed, and looked at the ground. His hand raked through his hair again. He grabbed a fistful of it and he remained like that as he took a moment. Inhaling, then exhaling, his voice dropped low, “I messed up. They sent a girl to me. She was on other meds, and she was asking for a different painkiller. I didn’t read the file. I was sent an email. It was in code, but it said the patient’s name and what I was supposed to give her. I swear,” he raised his haunted eyes to me, “I had no idea what would happen.”
I sat there in shock.
A disgusted and wrangled sound came from him. “I’ve been holding onto that for so long.” He looked at Shelly. “I’m so sorry, honey. I am.”
Her hands were pressed to her mouth. It was hanging open and her eyebrows remained arched high. She shook her head in a tight motion and whimpered, then jerked to her feet. “No. No, you can’t do this.”
“Honey?”
“You can’t—” She stopped, look at me, and another whimper slipped out. She pressed her hands even tighter to her mouth. “I am so sorry, Taryn. You’re right. We never should’ve adopted you. Our family is not good enough for you. I am so sorry.” She bit back her next words, glared at her husband, took her purse and left.
He started to go after her.
But I needed more. I didn’t know what for, but I knew I needed him to tell me more. “Wait!”
He sat back down. “Taryn, I have to go after my wife. She’s going to divorce me if I don’t. I know how she gets when she's in these moods.”
“But—”I needed more information. “What did Jace do?” I swallowed over a knot and pushed it down. I was so close to having the information I had been craving. “To make everything go away, what did he do?” I waited, but he kept looking at the door. He was going to go. I only had a few more minutes. “Please.”
The indecision cleared away. He leaned back in his seat. “I don’t know. I can’t tell you much.” He laughed. “I shouldn’t be telling you anything, but I know he asked out of love. He told me how violent and dangerous his little brother was. I’m glad we were able to get you away from him, if anything else.”
My stomach dropped. The darkness was forming again in me. “Brian could be violent, but he wasn’t to me.”
“What?”
I shook my head. “Jace lied to you. He said something to make you feel better about taking me in. Brian never would’ve hurt me and in the end, if you hadn’t adopted me…” Grief crashed down on me. “He might still be alive.”
If I had turned the adoption down, Brian would still be alive. I wouldn’t have left. He wouldn’t have gone asking questions.
It wasn’t only Jace’s fault. I had to accept my part. I shook my head, my voice hoarse when I spoke next. “I shouldn’t have believed it. The whole thing, this whole family thing, was too good to be true. I knew it in my gut. I should’ve listened to it more.”
“Taryn,” he started.
I heard the sympathy in his voice and shot my hand up. I glared at him. “Don’t start. His death is on you too.”
He frowned. “Death?”
“Brian. The guy that you were supposedly saving me from.” I didn’t only hate Jace. I hated Kevin too. “He’s dead. He wanted to talk to the social worker who set up my adoption. Word got to his boss that one of his workers was trying to find a government employee. What do you think they did?”
“He’s dead?” Blood drained from his face and beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
Finally. He was getting it. I gritted my teeth together. “You f*cked with my life. Someone I care about is dead because of that. His death is on your shoulders too.” I had to leave. I couldn’t stay there any longer. The thought of being in the same room with him was suffocating me. Going to the desk, I turned one last time. “Austin and I have been staying at Tray Evans’ house. He’s enjoyed it. He likes Tray. And leave Mandy in treatment. She needs to get better, and she’s trying. I know she’s really trying. Don’t mess up her life.”
I swept out of there just as the last bell rang.
“Taryn!” Shelly was waiting for me outside the office. She lifted an arm, but the doors burst open and the hallway flooded with people.
I ducked my head and disappeared from her sight. Whatever they did from here on out, it had nothing to do with me. I was no longer a part of their family.
*

Austin moved back in with them, and I learned from his text messages that all things were good in their household. For some reason, that sickened me. Shelly had tried contacting me, but Tray became my guard dog. She showed up at the house a few times, and he would ask her to leave. She would call and send text messages, but I never answered. I should’ve. That would've been the adult thing to do, but I wasn’t ready to listen to any justifications or promises filled with empty words.
A week later, I shut my locker and started for the parking lot, but stopped. Jennica stood by her locker. She was a beautiful girl with almond eyes, dark black hair, and an olive complexion, but at that moment her eyes were strained. Her lips were pressed tight and she had a heated look in her eyes.
I waited and lifted an eyebrow.
“Mandy dumped Devon last night.”
My other eyebrow shot up, but I kept my shock hidden.
“I’m sure you’re ecstatic about that.”
I gestured to my face. “You can’t see it, but I’m doing somersaults on the inside.”
She grunted and flicked a strand of hair out of the way. “She dumped me too.”
Now I really was doing somersaults on the inside. “Really?”
“And Amber.” Jennica’s lips pressed together again and she looked away. It was the last day of the week. The hallway was emptying. “She’s done with us. She told us last night.” She crossed her arms over her chest. Her chin went down and she fixed me with a stare. “So congratulations. You got what you wanted.”
I sighed and shook my head. “Having my sister lose her friends is not what I wanted.”
Jennica paused.
I continued, “I want my sister to have good friends, friends who are true to her, who care about her, who treat her right. That’s what I wanted and if you’re the friend who’s going to change and do that, I’m all for it.” I shook my head. “But I highly doubt you know how to be a true friend, so yes, I am glad that she ended her friendship with you. Would you want your sister to be friends with someone like you?”
She frowned, biting her lip.
I put my bag over my shoulder. Tray was waiting for me and I nodded to him. “I have to go.”
“Wait.”
I started past her, but stopped and turned.
She rolled her eyes. “Look, I know I’m a shitty friend, but I do care about Mandy. Just let her know that. Please?”
“I will.”
“Taryn.”
I glanced back again.
“Can you let me know how she’s doing? I know I have no right, but...” Her head went back down and she looked away.
I nodded. “You care about her.” I was beginning to see that.
She nodded. “Thanks.” The corners of her mouth curved up in a small grin. She looked grateful.
“You do care about her, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do. I don’t show it, but I do.”
I shook my head. “Then why the hell do you treat her how you do?”
She frowned, then lifted a shoulder up. “I don’t know. It’s the cool thing to do.”
“It’s not.” Disappointment flooded me. “Treating people like you do is the farthest thing from being cool. Stop lying to yourself. If you want a good friend, be a good friend. That’s all there is to it.”
She rolled her eyes and scoffed, “Yeah, right. What do I do when someone treats me how I treat people? Better to be the bitch on top than to be the bitch who gets kicked around. Come on, Taryn. You’re lying to yourself if you think people are going to be the good friend that you think. Do you not know people? They’re all a*sholes. They lie. They think they’re better than others. They manipulate. There’s no good friends out there.”
“Yeah.” I clapped for her. I was drawing attention to us, but I ignored them. “People do shitty things. Welcome to the real world. It happens, but you keep doing what you want done to you and someday, it’ll happen.”
She looked away.
I shook my head. “Keep doing what you’re doing. I’m sure you’ll land a wealthy husband who will cheat on you your whole marriage…with the women you meet for lunch. That’s where you’re headed.”
“Taryn,” Tray said from close behind me. I felt his hand on my shoulder and turned, taking it in my hand, I held it.
I gripped it hard as I said to her, “I’ll give you updates on Mandy, but to answer your initial question, yes. I’m happy. She’s clearing out people who have treated her horribly. That’s a good sign.”
I left before she could say anything more. I didn’t want to hear it because it didn’t matter. Mandy was getting better. Somehow, that helped me. All the anger and darkness I felt for Jace shifted and hope blossomed inside of me. I didn’t know if it would stay long, but it felt good having it back there. That meant some things were changing. Some things could change.