Fallen Crest High

chapter TWENTY SIX





Becky wrinkled up her nose and peered over her glass. "Look at them." I ducked closer and bumped heads with her. Both of us giggled, but Becky waved a hand over her face. "I'm serious. Look!"

"Oh." She was serious so I did. "Who am I looking at? There's so many."

"Adam!" She pointed again. "I can't believe him. I thought he was in love with Tanya, but look at him."

I scanned all of the packed decks and finally spotted him. He was squished at a table with the Academy Elite. When he ran his hands down the legs of…I peered across…Cassandra, I sat up straight. "When did that happen?"

She slumped next to me and crossed her arms in a huff. "They've been like that for the past hour. I can't take it anymore."

Then it clicked. "You're jealous!"

She clamped her hand over my mouth. "You don't have to screech it, but yes. Duh. You know I like him."

I waved a hand over my face. "I'm a bit drunk."

"I know. Me too."

And after we looked at each other, we convulsed together in another gigglefest. We'd been doing that a lot in the past hour. Then she pulled away and sounded out a dramatic sigh. "I'm serious, Sam. He bounced right from Tanya to her. I can't believe it. I hate that girl."

When I glanced back over there, I caught the glower Adam was sending our way and I patted Becky's hand. "I wouldn't worry too much about it. His ego's bruised. She's his band aid so he doesn't feel so wounded."

"Why couldn't I be his band aid?"

I shot her a grin. "Could you be anymore whiney about that? And besides, he values you. He couldn't use you in that way."

She sniffled. "He does?"

I rolled my eyes. "You know he does. Stop the pity party. We're supposed to be having fun."

"So says you. You don't have the Academy SnubTeam breathing down their noses on you. They'd love if I curled in a ball and vanished into thin air. And Cassandra keeps throwing those snooty looks over here."

I sighed and rested against the couch we'd both procured long ago. It was set in a back corner of a side deck and gave us privacy where no one could hear us or see us, but we had a grand view of all the action around us. When the couch had emptied, Becky and I made a mad dash for it and had been drinking ever since.

She'd been sore over Adam, but as I reached for my drink, I couldn't stop from glancing at the deck above ours. Mason sat in a back corner with Marissa on one side, Nate on her other side, and Logan with Tanya over his lap across from them. There were a few others, but everyone knew that was the top tier of the social scene. When Mason grazed the top of Marissa's knees, my hand clenched around my drink and I threw it all back. It should've burned my throat, but I had ceased feeling awhile ago.

It had seemed like a good idea then.

"Sam." Becky waved a hand in front of my face.

"What?" I snapped to attention.

She looked annoyed. "What are we going to do about Adam?"

What was I going to do about Mason?

"Huh?"

I caught myself. Had I said those words out loud? But I shook my head. "Why is Cassandra so mean to you?"

"I know!" She lifted her arms up and down. She pushed out her bottom lip in a pout. "I haven't done anything to her. I've always been nice to her and who am I to them anyway? Besides being good friends with Adam…and now you…and you're close with the Kades…" Her face brightened. "Do you think I'm a threat to her? Because of you and Adam, you know… No, that doesn't make sense. I'm the same boring Becky like always."

I patted her leg. I'd been doing that for the last hour. "It'll all work out. I know it. I think you and Adam will get together."

"You think so?"

I swung my arm wide in a grand gesture. Some of my drink spilled over, but neither of us cared. "Yes, I do. It might not be in high school."

Her face fell.

"But I think it'll happen. Adam's too caught up in social stuff. He can't appreciate you now because he's not mature enough."

Becky nodded. "For being drunk, we're very clear headed right now."

I nodded too. "I know and I'm talking very articulate."

"More than you usually do. You don't usually talk at all; well you do, but not really."

My face clouded. "Maybe I should shut up?"

"No." Her hand grabbed onto mine. "You need to talk more. You have very good points for me to hear. I never thought of Adam as being immature, but I can see why you think that."

She hiccupped, so did I, and we both fell back giggling again.

Then we became aware of someone who had come onto our deck. I gasped and Becky cooed.

Mason frowned down at us for a moment before he spoke. Then he tossed his phone on my lap. "Call your mom. She's going crazy. She thinks we kidnapped you."

Becky peeled her head back in laughter and I struggled to keep from joining her.

He shook his head at us. "Are you drunk?"

More laughter peeled from beside me and I nodded as I bit my lip.

"Hell, you're probably having more fun than most of us." He sank down next to me and ran a hand through his hair.

I watched the movement and wanted to do the same. A wave of need rushed over me, but I breathed out and remembered we were in public. I tried fanning myself.

When Becky had stopped giggling so much, she sat up with glazed eyes and squinted at him. "Who's your girlfriend?"

I jumped next to him.

She frowned at me.

Mason sat stiffly beside me. He didn't look at her.

"Hello!" She reached over me and waved a hand in front of his face.

He looked away and took a breath. I felt the movement when his arm brushed against mine.

She fell back and heaved a sigh. "I can't believe it. I'm your best friend, he's going to be your brother, and he ignores me too. Everyone ignores me. I'm more beneath people than I realized."

I looked at her. "You're not beneath me."

She gave me a tight smile, but spoke to Mason, "I know you can hear me and I know you're not being cruel to me because of Sam, but who's the girlfriend? I've never seen her before. She seems nice."

Mason jerked his gaze to mine. "Can you call your mom? Find me later to give me my phone."

He tore out of there and Becky shook her head as she watched him leave. "I must be really drunk because I know I shouldn't have talked to him like that, but I don't really care right now."

I shrugged and dialed my mom's number. "He's an jerk. You can talk to him however you want to."

Becky gave me a blinding smile. "Thanks, Sam."

I gave her one back. "Anytime." And then my mom's hysterical voice sounded in my ear and I cursed when I pulled it away. That was going to hurt. As I rubbed my ear, I moved away. Music, laughter, and the general shrieking sounds of a party were going to make this phone call last longer than I wanted.

When I found a semi-quiet corner, I lifted the phone again. "Hi, mom."

"Samantha!" She heaved out. "You're okay. I've been so worried. You have no idea. I thought about calling the cops."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because of what they did to me. I can't believe you didn't help me, but then I thought maybe you couldn't. Maybe you were too scared of them."

Alarms went off in my head and I sat back on my heels. "Are you kidding me right now?"

She got quiet. "Samantha, you were there. You saw what they did to me."

I sighed into the phone. "Mom, are you drunk again?"

A shadow moved over me and I spun around, my heart stopped for a second, but my shoulders dropped when I recognized Mason. He grinned and moved forward to curve a hand around my waist. As he bent close to listen in, he brushed against me and his breath caressed my cheek.

"Sam, are you there?"

I choked out, my throat full with desire, "I can't deal with this, mom. I'm fine. We went away to Nate's cabin. I told you about it last night, but you were so crazy and drunk. I suppose I'm not surprised you didn't remember." I waited a beat.

Mason's hand started to rub circles on my hip.

I bit out, my voice rushed, "You haven't been saying any of this crazy stuff to anybody else?"

There was silence on the other end.

"I can't believe you, mom. What have you done this time?"

"Sam, stop lying to me."

"Okay." I remembered when I had walked into my old house and saw her with tears in her eyes and two empty bottles of wine beside her. It was when she had told me we were leaving. "That's what I'm doing. I'm lying. I'm always lying to you. I'm the crazy one in this family. I'm the one who was married to David and left him for James. Yes, I'm the one lying right now."

"You don't have to be so mean to me."

"Oh, mom. Stop drinking. I don't want to hear what else you've cooked up. I'm fine. We're all fine. Stop saying crazy stories like that, unless you're trying to do something. Are you trying to do something?"

"Why would I make that up?"

"I don't know. Why do you ever do anything? For more money? I have no idea." And I ended the call.

Mason stood still next to me and then he swept me up in his arms. "That was great."

I tried to stop myself from smiling against his neck. "Why?"

"You knew my dad was listening?"

When he set me back on my feet, I gave him a small grin. "I didn't, but it'd something she would've done."

He laughed again and slid his phone in his pocket.

I took a deep breath. "Why'd you ignore my friend before?"

His jaw tightened and he pressed his lips together before he looked away.

I added in a quiet voice, "And who is the girlfriend with you?"

He swung his gaze back and gave me a hard look. "Are you kidding me? You know that's Marissa."

"I don't. You've never introduced her."

"What are you doing right now?"

"Nothing." I started to move away, but he caught my arm and pulled me back.

"Come on, Sam. Don't be all jealous and insecure. Marissa is a good friend of mine. I'm protective of her."

He used to be protective of me too. I swallowed back that pain. "You're right. I'm sorry about that."

"Sorry about what?" He studied me intently. "What are we talking about?"

"We had a good time. It's not anything more than that. Just, please don't admit anything to Logan. I think he already knows and if he knows for sure, can you imagine all the teasing I'm going to get from him?"

Mason gave me a disgusted look. "Are you serious? I'm protective of Marissa because I'm the reason she had to switch schools a couple years ago."

I fell silent, but I didn't pull my arm away.

"She's a nice person, she's genuine. Some girls didn't like that we were friends and they tore her to pieces. Catty stuff always happens to her whenever she's around me. She doesn't have any female friends. That's why I didn't want to introduce her to you or anyone else. You have friends, Sam. She doesn't. If she met you, you would've introduced her to your friends, and that's when that crap usually happens. I nipped it from the beginning."

I remembered Tate's words. "Was it Tate that tore her to pieces?"

"She was the ring leader, yeah. And she'd do it again. If Marissa isn't with me, she's with Nate. It's that bad. Tate blames her for why I hate her so much."

I nodded. "Okay."

"Okay…what?" He seemed to be measuring me. I felt him trying to get inside me. "Are you okay now? I'm not going to apologize for your friend. She freaks me out. I'm not going to lie. I don't like her, but I'll tolerate her for you."

A chuckle escaped me. He felt the tension leave me and pulled me against him. "Yeah, I can see that."

He pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Are you going to get wasted tonight?"

"Seems like." I gave him a sloppy grin and he pressed a kiss to it. I sighed as his lips left mine. "It seems like it's my night with Becky tonight, she's down in the dumps because of Adam."

"The quarterback who wants to bang you?"

I shook my head. He knew exactly who Adam was. "Yes, she likes him."

He grimaced. "She could have better taste in men."

"You want her to go after you instead?"

His eyes got wide. "You should encourage those two to date."

I laughed and pressed against him some more. His hands dropped down and started to caress the inside of my thigh. He cupped the side of my face and started to bend down when someone burst through the foliage that had granted us our privacy.

We whirled around and froze.

Logan stared at us with his mouth hanging open. Then he snapped his fingers and threw his arms around in the air. "I knew it! I knew it! Oh hell yeah! I knew it!"

Mason tackled him and hissed, "Shut up about it!"

Logan pushed him off, laughing. "I won't say anything, but man—I knew it."

Mason shoved him back. "What are you doing here?"

He gestured to me. "The mom thing. I knew she was going to call her. Did you?"

I nodded.

"She covered us and made it seem like her mom made the whole thing up."

"Really?" Logan glanced at me with wide eyes.

I shrugged. "If your dad really loves her, he'll forgive her."

He choked out a laugh. "And if he doesn't and you guys are sent packing?"

I knew my eyes had a chill in them when both moved back a step. "I'm pretty sure I can move back in with David until college."

"And your mom?"

Ice went down my veins. "And I'm sure she'll find some other guy to mooch from."

"Man, you really loathe your mom, huh?" Logan whistled under his breath. "I'm just happy that we got dad off our backs."

Mason gave him a sharp look. "He send you something?"

"Yeah, an apology text."

He rolled his eyes and took Logan's phone. "Guess that's supposed to make up for the other ones, huh?"

"Whatever. We're covered. And I've got my own piece to pound tonight." Logan gave us a salute. "See you later, siblings. Have fun with your incest relations."

Mason punched him, but Logan dodged it and ducked from our hidden spot.

I grinned at him when Mason turned back. "Becky's going to come looking for me."

He grinned back and touched my shoulder. "Have fun getting drunk again. Don't screw the quarterback."

"Ha ha!" I flipped him the middle finger as he left, but couldn't wipe the grin off my face when I heard his laughter.