FALLEN CREST FAMILY (Fallen Crest #2)

Chapter Two

The rest of the night had been free of drama, and I was relieved. Mason stuck close to me as he always did when I would attend parties, but I knew there were a ton of his friends who wanted his attention. For the most part, the friends from their school stuck close to each other. I wasn’t part of that group. Even though I was dating Mason, they still considered me as an Academite, their term for the snotty rich kids. That was fine. I was far from the normal economic status of my classmates, but I knew that wasn’t the real reason I hadn’t been welcomed into the group. Mason and Logan’s father was one of the wealthiest men in town, but they were accepted into any circle.

I wasn’t stupid.

The girls didn’t like me because I got Mason, who had been deemed unavailable except for the few times he chose someone for s*x. Now he has a girlfriend, and they’re pissed. The girls in their tight circle cursed at me, insulted me, even pushed me against a wall a few times, but it was always done when Mason or Logan weren’t around. As for the guys, a few of them would glare at me while the others stayed away. Nate told me during one of his visits that some of the guys worried if I would change Mason.

I made a point not to.

I never argued when Mason said he was going to a party. After the third time of getting tripped or elbowed by the girls, I stopped going with him. He’d been confused, but I shrugged when he questioned me about it. I told him that I’d rather go for a long run and he dropped the conversation. It hadn’t even been a lie. I loved running, and I had never enjoyed parties. I had gone before because my two best friends and boyfriend wanted me to go. But they weren’t my friends anymore. I had no friends at my own school; no one would invite me to the parties, even the ones that weren’t Public Parties, the name coined for those thrown by anyone who went to Fallen Crest Public School. They were the best ones.

And Nate’s party exceeded everyone’s expectations.

When I had stood in line for the bathroom, a girl said she saw people from four different schools. I hadn’t been surprised. Mason and Logan ruled their school. Those at Fallen Crest Academy clamored for their attention as well, and with Nate’s contribution, I was surprised more schools hadn’t shown up. Even after Nate had been forced to move away after getting into too much trouble with Mason, he came back for visits often enough to feel as if he lived there. He came back for his and Mason’s last semester in high school. They would end it together, and then they would start again. Mason didn’t talk about college much, but I knew that he had already committed to a university where he would play football for them. Nate was going as well. They were going to be roommates, and if anyone were to ask my opinion, I had a feeling that Logan felt out of the loop. He and I had one more year in high school, but this was the point in my thoughts when I stopped thinking.

I didn’t like to think of that time when Mason would go away. Hell, I didn’t even like to think of my dilemma for next semester.

“You’re thinking,” Mason mumbled next to me as he rolled over and wrapped his arms around me. He reached over my waist and tugged me back against him. One of his legs shifted over mine, and I was securely enveloped by him.

I grinned when the tingle started. It didn’t take much anymore, just a touch and the memory of what was to come rushed through me. When I turned to face him, his eyes were sparkling down at me. A small grin curved up and his green eyes searched mine. They darkened with lust when I lifted a hand to cup the side of his cheek. I licked my lips as my throat went dry and moved even closer to him.

I couldn’t get enough of him.

“Sam,” he murmured.

“Hmmm?” I started to explore his chest. My hand slipped down and rounded his slender waist. I rubbed over his muscles—they were structured and photo-shopped to perfection. When one of my fingers slipped underneath his boxer’s waistband, he sucked in his breath. I grinned from the anticipation and addiction I had to him. I loved touching him. I loved making him groan in pleasure, and, as I pushed him to his back and settled over him, I loved looking down and seeing him helpless to my touch. It made two of us.

“f**k, woman,” he growled in a husky voice. His hands settled on my thighs as I straddled him. His fingers dug in when I dipped down and licked his neck. Then I moved farther down, and his hands dug in even farther. He had a cement hold on me when I teased the edge of his boxers, but then his phone went off and we both froze.

It rang again.

Our eyes met because we both knew who that was. We had discussed it the night before when I made the decision to turn my phone off. Since the party was at Nate’s home, or his parent’s home as Mason explained, he wanted to stay the night. It was an easy decision. The Kade mansion, where my mother had started to boycott any nights Mason slept in my bed, or his best friend’s place? There’d been no need for a discussion. We did, however, have to discuss what we were going to do when my mother would start calling. I wasn’t a fan of turning off my phone. Not many called or texted, but there’d been times when Mason or Logan had been hurt. I missed a phone call one time after Mason had been in a bad fight. I vowed never to experience that panic again. However, Mason promised that if I turned my phone off, he would deal with my mother and his father in the morning.

The phone rang for the third time.

He growled and cursed at the same time as he rolled out from underneath me. He picked his phone up in one swift movement as he stood from the bed and went into the bathroom. “What?”

The shower turned on, and when I crossed to the doorway, he had put the phone on the counter and was ignoring it as he stepped underneath the spray. When he shut the water off, his father’s voice was still going strong over the phone. He sounded furious, but I knew it was more from my mother. Analise was like a starving dog going after a bone when she got something in her head. And she had decided that I would not be fornicating with my stepbrother.

That didn’t go over well with Mason, who told them both to f**k off. More fights ensued, raised voices, threats, even blackmail had been mentioned once. None of it fazed Mason. He withstood all of it and I started running longer and longer each day. Then one day, after I returned from a five hour run, my mother surprised us both as she told me that we could see each other, but we were not to sleep together. Ever.

That rule wasn’t followed, but she was still trying to enforce it. God bless her determination.

“…and you will tell Samantha to return her mother’s phone call. Analise is beside herself. We had to go to the hospital for her to calm down. She couldn’t sleep last night.”

Mason rolled his eyes after he finished drying himself off with a towel. He stepped close, pressed a kiss to my forehead, and shooed me into the shower. With a quick wink and a slap on my ass, he strolled back to the room with his phone in hand.

When I was done showering, the bedroom was empty so I dressed and headed for the kitchen. Our room was in a small hallway, but I stepped out onto the second level that was in a circle. There were more bedrooms on the side as I passed them towards the stairs at the end of the circle. The entire house was set up in a large circle, with the fountain centered below. As I went down the stairs, the water was flowing freely, but I heard noises from a back corner so I veered to the left. I went through a living room and cut across the top corner to the kitchen.

A large group had congregated around the counters and the island in the middle. Nate was at the stove. One of their female friends was plastered against his side. She wore a skimpy piece of white cloth that barely covered her breasts, sans bra, and ripped jean shorts that hardly covered her cheeks. As she gazed up at Nate, seduction written all over her face, I couldn’t stop the gag from my mouth.

The sound echoed over the room, and all conversation stopped.

I didn’t see Mason or Logan. It was the group of friends who barely held back their loathing. One of the guys straightened from the counter, beer in hand, and glared at me. “You got a problem?”

Nate was in front of him within seconds. “Ethan, man, don’t start this.”

“Start what? Did you hear her?”

“Yeah.” Nate’s seductress positioned her hand to her hip. She struck a defiant pose. “Did you hear her? It was rude, Nate. It was directed at me. She thinks I’m a joke.”

“And you haven’t been rude to her?”

A shiver went down my back as I remembered the look in Nate’s eyes when I first approached. He’d been easygoing, laid-back. Then he went to a neutral stance, but now his eyes glittered with rage. An aura of authority emanated from him. The girl stepped back and everyone fell silent. It was my first glimpse of this side of Mason’s best friend. If I had ever doubted their bond before, I didn’t anymore. Change the body, the looks, and he could’ve been Mason. They held the same authority. Nate was just showing his in front of me for the first time.

His lip curved up in an ugly sneer as he stepped closer to Ethan, who had straightened from the counter. The beer spilled as his hand jerked around it, squashing the can in a crinkled ball of metal.

Nate’s voice was cold, eerily cold. “You’ve all been rude to her, and they don’t know a thing.” He waited a beat as his gaze swept the group. “Why don’t you ponder on that, huh? You think they’d stand for your attitude towards her?” Then he whipped his gaze back to Ethan, whose jaw clenched from the scrutiny. “You want your ass kicked? Keep being a b***h to her.” He stopped abruptly. His chest heaved up and down before he bit out, “She hasn’t said a word. Ponder that too, you asswipes.”

“Baby,” the girl whimpered. She held a hand out.

Nate ignored her and brushed past me. His jaw was still clenching and before he disappeared around a corner, his hand turned into a fist. But then he was gone, and I was left alone with a group that hated me.

All of them turned their hostile gazes to me.

I gulped. Oh my.

I held my breath, waiting. Did I attack? Hell no. But should I wait to be attacked? I knew they would and then heard a whispered snarl, “You b***h!”

There it was.

It was Nate’s seductress. She stood in front of me, brazen with nearly nothing on, and tossed her long brown hair over her shoulder. Something shifted in me. I had come to remember a few of their names. Kate was the ring leader. I was pretty certain she had a ‘benefits’ relationship with Mason before he went steady with me, and this girl was her best friend forever…Parker, if I remembered correctly?

I opened my mouth, ready for some retort. I wasn’t sure what I was about to say, but it was coming. I only hoped it made sense, or that it didn’t get me in more trouble. I’d grown tired of the female catty showdowns, and this was certainly one of them.

But then Ethan flung his beer can into the sink and grunted. “Leave her alone, Parks.”

Her mouth fell open on a gasp and she rounded to him. Her boobs flopped side to side from the motion. “Are you kidding me?!”

He sighed as he ran a hand over his tired face. “Come on. Nate’s right, man. Leave her alone. Kade likes her, leave her be. She ain’t going anywhere, and I’m getting tired of this. I don’t want to get my ass handed to me by them, and you know it’s gonna happen. You’re going to say something in front of them and everything will go to hell for us.”

“But—”

He stepped away from the counter as he crossed his arms over his chest. The sleeveless, ripped shirt exposed the biceps that now bulged from the motion. His chest grew in size as well. “It ain’t happening, not on my watch. Get going. Go tell all the little girlies. I know they’ll have a hay day with this one.”

Her mouth hung open, no sound came from it. Then one of the guys let loose a snicker and she exploded, “Shut the hell up, Strauss! This ain’t got a goddamn thing to do with you.”

His snicker doubled in volume. A slap to his thigh was heard as he chuckled, “It sure fun to watch you getting your rear end handed to you.”

If she could’ve killed me, she would’ve in that moment. The blood drained from her face, and she crossed her arms over her chest. Her lips were stiff as she promised, “I will make you pay for this. The guys might be okay with you, but the girls won’t be and we’re no picnic, honey. You better watch out from now on.”

As she stormed away, I knew her shoulder was going to slam into mine. With gritted teeth, I reacted before I thought about the consequences and I shoulder-checked her instead. She bounced back into a counter, and gasped again. The loathing had always been there, but now white-hot hatred came at me. A low growl emitted from her throat before she rushed from the room.

Again, there was silence in the room.

My heart dropped to my gut as I waited for the next showdown. There were a handful of girls spread out among the other guys.

I wasn’t stupid. I had learned that Mason and Logan’s friends from Fallen Crest Public were the rough and tumble sort of kids. They weren’t from money. They didn’t give a damn about whose daddy paid for their trip overseas or the secret trysts of which daddy was with which mommy, or even who was cheating with whose secretary. These were the kids that partied hard, played harder, and turned into a single unit against an outsider. They were tight-knit. They were closed-mouthed. And they weren’t stupid, even though I knew those from my school would mislabel them as that. They were far from stupid and I knew something pivotal had just happened.

Ethan, the fourth in command after Mason, Logan, and Nate, had turned against one of the girls. I also knew that meant there would be a divide. The girls would hate me, while the guys were now okay. And judging by the relieved shoulders and carefree laughter in the room, the guys might’ve been hoping for this for awhile. Then again, who would willingly want to go against Mason and Logan?

But I still had a fight on my hands. The girls were going to be the toughest, and since they had divorced from the guys’ support, I figured they would be worse than normal. This was going to be hell.

Kate was the leader. Parker was her sidekick, but there was another twosome that made up the core group of their four. Natalie and Jasmine. They weren’t in the kitchen that morning, but I knew they were somewhere. They were going to be coming for me, somehow, someplace.

Ethan went to the refrigerator and grabbed another beer. As he leaned against a counter, crossed one faded jean-clad leg over the other, and folded his arms across his chest again, he smirked at me. “You need to learn how to kick some ass because you’re going to need it. Those girls don’t care two hoots if Mason and Logan don’t like it. Those girls are vicious. They stick together like a pack of jacked-up wolves. You best get some bite to you.”

Oh great. I didn’t think running long distances was going to help me with that, but I couldn’t be surprised. I had known this would come. This was a group that you had to fight your way in to prove you deserved your spot amongst them.

There was a reason why Mason and Logan were friends with them.