Claimed by the Beast Bundle (15 page)

Chapter 12

Crystal sat her tray down at the lunch table and slid into the hard plastic seat. She had a double cheeseburger and some fries on her plate. It was the least disgusting option she’d seen and she was starving after skipping breakfast.

Beth sat down on the opposite side of the four-person table and smiled. “I missed you yesterday.”

“This again?” Crystal asked as she peeled the soggy bun off the cheeseburger. She grimaced and muttered, “Didn’t know they were serving roadkill.”

“Looks more like a cow patty to me,” Beth offered before turning to her slice of pizza. “Then again, this could be nine parts wax or plastic and I couldn’t tell.”

Crystal nodded and used her fork to pick up one of the patties. She looked at it and sniffed. She could pick up some faint traces of animal in it. Enough to satisfy her that it was edible.

“And I didn’t mean anything like what we talked about earlier,” Beth added in a hushed voice. “I just meant that I missed eating with you. Lunch, that’s all, not eating anything else, you sick-o!”

Crystal chuckled and took a bite. Beth’s eyes widened and she hurried to stare back at her pizza.

“So, uh, anyhow. Whenever I think about myself growing up, you’re always there, you know? Not living with me, but being my BFF forever. Having kids together—different husbands, not adoption—and all that stuff.”

Crystal swallowed down the burger patty and took a drink before responding. “I did too,” she admitted. “But now…things are different. It’s not that I want them to be; they just are.”

Beth nodded and looked away as Crystal took another bite of the burger.

“What’s wrong?” Crystal asked.

Beth glanced up at her and blushed. “I’m sorry. It’s just kind of scary how you’re eating that thing.”

“No bun?” Crystal asked. She glanced down at the burger. She hadn’t even considered eating the bun; it just seemed natural to push it aside. “My mom was kind of surprised when I pushed the spaghetti noodles aside and went for the meatballs last night too.”

Beth opened her mouth to respond when someone walked up beside them and asked, “Hey ladies, mind if I join you?”

Beth’s mouth slammed shut and her eyes narrowed. Crystal looked at Stephanie and felt a tickle on the back of her neck. She sniffed the air again and managed to pick up the fresh scent of Stephanie among the aromas of the lunchroom. It reminded her of being close to her yesterday and she had to fight to keep from shuddering. It did nothing to stop the flutter in her belly that warmed her.

“Why?” Crystal asked.

“After yesterday?” Stephanie asked. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” Crystal said. She turned to look at Beth and for a brief moment she saw the pain in her friend’s eyes. “I’m with Beth.”

“I see that, but there are four chairs here,” the blond said. “I just wanted to talk about yesterday, that’s all. And maybe about us.”

“Us? There is no us,” Crystal snapped. “Unless you mean the us where you teased me and built me up, and then used me and made fun of me.”

Stephanie’s cheeks flushed under her makeup. Crystal lifted her eyes to Stephanie’s hair. It looked flatter than usual and her makeup wasn’t as polished. Was Stephanie being affected by Crystal’s condition too? Could she be giving out pheromones that affected people?

“That’s kind of what I want to talk about,” she muttered. She glanced around and then pulled the chair out and sat down. “People are staring,” she explained.

“You get used to it,” Crystal retorted.

Stephanie dropped her eyes to the table a moment and then nodded. She lifted them up and saw Crystal’s plate. “You’re not eating the bun?”

“I’m low carbing.”

“Oh, cool. Is that how you’ve lost so much weight? You’re looking really good. I’m proud of you.”

“Oh, Christ,” Beth muttered.

Other than a glance from Crystal, the other two girls ignored her outburst.

“Doesn’t seem to matter what I want, you’re here,” Crystal pointed out.

Stephanie grinned. “I usually get what I want.”

“So what do you want?”

Stephanie lifted her head to stare into Crystal’s eyes and said, “You turned my world upside down yesterday. I mean, really. I’d kissed you before but like you said, I was just kind of messing around. I really was trying to apologize. I mean, look at you. Look at what you’ve done and how smart you are. It’s pretty stupid of me to think you’re a nerd or a loser when you can obviously take care of yourself.”

“You have no idea,” Crystal said.

Beth proved she couldn’t take anymore by leaning forward and saying, “Wait a minute, aren’t you some holy roller with a daddy who sleeps with a Bible under his pillow?”

Stephanie glanced at her and shrugged. “Crystal opened my eyes,” she said before turning back to look at Crystal. “And—I’m sorry, have you always had those gold flecks in your eyes? They’re so pretty!”

Crystal’s eyes widened and she leaned back. Her mom had complimented her eyes too. She turned to Beth and saw Beth glaring at her. Beth nodded just enough so that Crystal knew the glare wasn’t for her.

“Sorry, I got distracted,” Stephanie apologized. “Anyhow, I just wanted to say we should hang out. You too, Beth. You’re a good friend. I can see that now. Before I thought you were just bitchy and mean. I get it, though—Crystal’s your friend, and I was kind of a hag.”

Beth gasped and stiffened, and then her eyes narrowed all over again. Crystal had to fight to keep from laughing at her friend’s mood swings. It was an easy fight considering Stephanie was still there irritating her.

“Great, maybe we can do that sometime,” Crystal said. “I’ve got a rough month ahead of me, so let’s try next month.”

“What? Oh, um, okay,” Stephanie said. She looked as confused as she sounded. “This isn’t, like, a period thing, is it?”

“Oh my God!” Crystal and Beth groaned at the same time.

Stephanie jerked back and then laughed. “Sorry, I just wondered.”

“School and some chores at home,” Crystal explained.

Stephanie nodded and stood up. “Cool. Well, um, thanks for listening. I meant it, all of it. Even the part about you, Beth.”

Beth smiled too-sweetly at her.

“There you are!” Chad’s voice bellowed across the lunchroom. “You ruined my car, you bitch!”

All three of them, and everyone else in the lunchroom, turned to see Chad storm over to their table and point his finger at Crystal. “You’re going to pay to fix my car!”

Beth stared at Crystal, with her jaw trying to reach the table.

Crystal felt the heat from the night before sweep through her again and realized she’d been wrong when she thought her earlier confrontation with Beth was similar. This was different. This was dangerous. “Only thing wrong with your car is the driver.”

“What about when you punched the dash and broke it? Or how you keyed the side?”

Crystal stood up and glared at him. Her hands were curled into fists and she felt her fingernails digging into her palms. “You slammed me into the dash when I wouldn’t let you rape me,” she growled loud enough for everyone to hear. “And I didn’t key your car. I don’t even have car keys!”

Chad realized they were the center of attention and glanced around. “I was giving you a ride home,” he hissed back.

“Yeah, your home.”

“Those scratches and the dent weren’t there before you slammed the door!”

Crystal hesitated. She hadn’t scratched it, but she’d slammed it shut. His Mustang had a metal door, though; she couldn’t dent that with her hand. She shook her head at him and took the offensive. She pointed her finger at him and said, “You’re lucky I didn’t press charges or break my fingers.”

His eyes rounded as he looked at her hand. “Wait, I thought—”

Beth stood up. “Come on, Crys, let’s get out of here.”

Crystal glared at him and nodded. She turned and walked past him, leaving her tray on the table. He reached out and grabbed her arm. “Wait a minute, I wasn’t—”

A flash of heat unlike anything before burst through Crystal. She spun around and swung her arm, slapping Chad across the face hard enough that he staggered back into the table and fell on top of it. It tipped under his weight and dumped them both to the ground, complete with trays of uneaten food raining down on him.

Crystal stood amid the thunderous silence of the lunchroom. Her chest heaved as she fought to control her breathing and slow her hammering heart. Everywhere she looked, she saw red until she blinked her eyes and the colors faded back to normal.

“She’s been working out,” Beth said before she grabbed Crystal’s hand and pulled on it.

Crystal went with her, stunned at her behavior. This was what Gwen had made her promise not to do. She stared down at her hand as Beth tugged her past Stephanie, out of the still stunned lunchroom crowd.

Chapter 13

“That was awesome!” Stephanie said as soon as Crystal emerged from the afterschool detention room.

“Jesus!” Crystal blurted even though she wasn’t surprised to see her leaning against the wall and waiting with Beth. It wasn’t that she’d expected Stephanie to be there; rather that she’d smelled her blend of honeysuckle shampoo and perfume. She didn’t know the name of Stephanie’s perfume; she just knew it made her want to sneeze.

“It wasn’t awesome. It was—” Beth argued.

“No, it was awesome,” Stephanie said. “He needed someone to put him in his place.”

“His dad’s a lawyer!” Beth argued.

Crystal held her hands up. “Stop! Please. I need to get out of here.”

“Come on,” Beth said.

“Um, can I get a ride too?” Stephanie asked.

Beth and Crystal turned to stare at her. “You have a car,” Beth pointed out.

“I didn’t drive today.”

“How’d you get here?” Crystal wondered. She didn’t see Stephanie as the type to walk. Aerobics, Pilates, yoga, and cheerleading sure, but walking was for lesser people than the queen.

“A friend dropped me off.”

Crystal raised an eyebrow and then let it drop. She looked at Beth and saw her friend roll her eyes. “Fine, whatever.”

They walked through the school and out to the parking lot before anybody said anything else. Once they were outside, Beth was the first to speak. “Did he say anything to you in there?”

Crystal snorted and remembered how he’d come into the room and turned away from her immediately. He wasn’t quick enough to hide the four red scratches from where her fingernails had got him, though. “Not supposed to talk in detention. But he wouldn’t even look at me.”

“You knocked him on his ass,” Stephanie gloated. “It was awesome! Maybe he’ll learn not to mess with girls anymore.”

“Mess with girls?” Crystal asked.

“Didn’t you know?”

Crystal and Beth exchanged a confused look.

“Yeah, Chad uses his nice car and house to trick girls into thinking he’s all that. Then he screws them and dumps them.”

“What?” Beth breathed. “How?”

“Well, maybe saying he dumps them isn’t right,” Stephanie conceded. “I mean, it’s not like he’s in a relationship with them in the first place.”

“I thought you and he were a thing last year?” Crystal asked. “You mentioned something about it earlier this year.”

Stephanie smirked. “Yeah, a thing. He figured out his nice stuff didn’t knock my panties off so he had to work harder until he lost interest. I found out what he was doing behind my back and we split up.”

“I don’t remember any drama,” Beth said.

“No, we agreed not to make a fuss out of it,” she said.

“Jesus,” Beth muttered. “Rich protecting the rich!”

Crystal opened her mouth to protest but Stephanie spoke first. “Pretty much,” she agreed. “But that just goes to show that we protect each other. Even if we don’t like each other.”

“That’s messed up,” Beth stated.

Crystal agreed but kept her thoughts to herself. They reached Beth’s car and without thinking, Crystal went around to the passenger side and opened the door. She stopped, remembering Stephanie, and turned to look at her.

Stephanie smiled and opened the back door. “You can have shotgun. I don’t want you to punch me.”

“Oh my God!” Crystal sputtered amid a rush of blood to her face. “I slapped him, I didn’t—”

“You knocked him on his pompous ass,” Stephanie declared. “Slap or punch, he was down.”

Beth opened her door and slid into the driver’s seat. She waited for the other two and then turned to look at Stephanie. “I don’t get it—if you think he’s such a douchebag, why are you nice to him most of the time?”

“And why tell us how you really feel?” Crystal added.

Stephanie slid over to the middle of the seats and put her hands up on the backs of them so she could lean forward. “Because of you. You pushed him out and now you’re in.”

Beth started her car and glanced in her mirror. “Out and in?”

Stephanie nodded. “You know, from the circle. Now that somebody took him down from the outside, he’s screwed. Nobody’s going to help him because nobody really likes him. He just had too much dirt on us.”

“Dirt?” Crystal asked.

“Stupid things we’ve all done. Secrets. You know.”

“Jesus, it’s like my dad bitching about politics,” Beth said.

Stephanie laughed. “It is, and it’s everywhere. If you don’t learn how to play the game, you end up nobody in life.”

Beth pulled out and started driving while Crystal considered Stephanie’s words. “I don’t know—there’s more to life than being popular.”

Beth snorted. “This from the girl who was tripping over herself to get attention?”

“What?”

“Look at you! You look awesome today. You’d never have worn those clothes before—um, you know.”

Stephanie looked at both girls and frowned. “Before what?”

“Before I lost the weight,” Crystal said. “It’s okay, I was fat. You can say it.”

Beth’s shoulders dropped and she flashed Crystal a quick grin. “You weren’t fat. Just…healthy.”

Stephanie laughed. “Healthy enough for a couple of us.”

Crystal forced a smile on her face and tried to come up with something else to talk about. Beth beat her to it.

“So you wanted to be popular but now you don’t?”

“I don’t know. Not if it means I have to fight everybody.”

Stephanie laughed. “It’s a fight, but it’s fun. And no, most of the time you won’t break a nail.”

Beth glanced at the prom queen in her mirror and asked, “Why should we trust you? How do we know you won’t just screw us over yourself?”

Crystal turned to look at Stephanie and saw the blond’s eyes dart to her mouth. Stephanie licked her own lips and then pulled her eyes back up to Crystal’s. She reached behind her neck and undid the clasp on her necklace. She pulled it out from where the chain dangled in her cleavage and offered it to Crystal. She smiled and said, “Because you’re with me now, and like I said, I take care of my people. Here, take this as proof.”

Crystal caught Beth giving her a warning glance and knew better than to say anything. She reached out and lifted her open palm underneath the cross. As soon as her hand touched it, she felt something was wrong with it. Her hand itched and she wanted to scratch it.

Crystal pulled her hand back and saw Stephanie’s furrowed brow. “Is that silver?”

“Yes, why?”

“I’m allergic to silver,” Crystal said. “Sorry.”

Stephanie tilted her head. “I’ve never heard of anyone being allergic to silver. Cheap plated jewelry, sure, but this is real.”

Crystal shrugged. “I didn’t make the rules.”

Stephanie laughed and turned to Beth. “Are you allergic too?”

“Hell no,” Beth said before snatching the necklace. She grinned and, as soon as she stopped at the next corner, she slipped it around her neck. “Thanks!”

Crystal bit off a laugh at her friend. Beth loved jewelry, the more expensive the better. Most of hers was costume jewelry she picked up every time she dragged Crystal to a strip mall or a flea market.

Crystal turned back around to face the front of the car and watched the perfectly trimmed hedges pass by as Beth turned in to Stephanie’s driveway. Beth pulled the car up in front of the circle drive and put it in park.

They turned to face Stephanie again. She smiled at them both and then her eyes refocused on something behind them. “This was fun,” Stephanie said. “Give me a call sometime if you want to hang out and mess around.”

“Mess around?” Crystal asked.

Stephanie glanced at her mouth again and said, “Yeah, you know, whatever you guys want to do.”

Crystal nodded while Beth’s eyes grew round. Stephanie smiled again and winked before she turned and opened her door. She climbed out and waved as she bounced across the driveway and up to her house.

“What the eff?” Beth groaned.

Crystal shook her head and was about to share a similar statement when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned and looked closer. Was that what Stephanie had seen, too? Parked on the far side of the four-car garage, she could make out the tail end of a motorcycle.

Her eyes narrowed. “We need to go.”

“What? Where. And why?”

“Just go,” Crystal said. “I’ll give you directions. I need to see my friends.”

“You mean the, um, the bikers?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I think one of them is here.”