Page 32 of Out of My Flocking Mind

I’d spotted Harrison a few times during the day, but we’d only exchanged quick glances, as though he needed visual confirmation that I still breathed. His lack of trust chafed, but that was fine—I was used to that.

I’d managed to not only sell a bit of my own product, but also had handed off plenty to Trey to sell as well. The more widely I got this shit, the better the odds that the supplier would take notice and find it a problem. Did I feel bad for getting him involved?

Sure, but he’d been only too happy to do so. While he wasn’t willing to give over any information about the supplier—even if he could remember—it seemed his loyalty didn’t go all that far. The thought of having more supply sounded great to him. His supplier didn’t give him that much at once—probably due to the difficulty in making Cloud.

My newest buyer scurried off, the small baggy tucked into his pocket. Idiot. Anyone taking one look at that walk would know they’d done something wrong. I shook my head, then glanced at my watch.

Three-twenty. School had ended an hour ago, but Harrison had some stupid meeting to attend. It left me wasting time on campus, pretending to watch the kids still there for after school activities. The school had two types of kids still here—the over achievers who wanted enough extracurriculars to look good on a college application and the kids who had nowhere else to go.

It was the second group I’d spotted more of, since the first were actually in the classrooms.

Another kid milled around, one I didn’t recognize at first. At least, until she turned, and that familiar blonde hair made me laugh. Yep, it was the same girl who had tried to buy Cloud from Trey the other day. I’d ruined her attempt there, so was she looking again?

She turned her gaze my way, and the way it lingered told me I’d guessed right. When first you fail, try, try again to get the drugs.

I nodded toward the bathroom, then headed that way. Her steps followed me, first on the walkway then echoing against the tile of the bathroom. Once inside, I peeked down, beneath the doors, to make sure we were alone.

Once done, I smiled and turned back toward her. “So, you’re looking to buy?”

She nodded, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “I didn’t get to last time…”

Her uncertainty rang alarm bells, but I dismissed it. She was probably just worried about how this would go, about whether she’d get caught. However, it made me pause. “Why are you buying this?” I found myself asking even if I told myself I didn’t care.

“School is hard,” she whispered. “I’m expected to do so much, so I just need a way to relax sometimes.”

“And Cloud does that?”

“It helps, yeah. It lets me take it easy and stop worrying about school and college and everything else.”

That made me peer down toward the bag of Cloud in my pocket. I’d had plenty of stress growing up, the years before my mom married my stepdad, when things had been difficult. I was alone, in charge of taking care of myself, worrying about where my next meal would come, but it was a different stress, a different pressure.

Would this have been worse? Better? It was so easy to hate the kids who went here, to wish I’d had such first-world problems, but was it really that much better? The way her gaze moved from side to side suggested it wasn’t better at all.

I could have lectured her, drawing on one of the many lectures I’d gotten from others over my life. I could have told her how she was being silly, that she didn’t need to worry so much, that things weren’t so bad for her. What was the point, though?

So instead, I took out the bag and held it out to her.

She pulled out another roll of cash—the fact she didn’t worry about losing the last amount showed that money wasn’t an issue for her—and handed it over.

When she went to take the bag, however, something else moved inside the bathroom. At first, I wasn’t sure what it was. It was large and angry—I knew that much—but details?

Not a fucking clue. Instead, I found myself shoved face first against the tile wall with a large, hot body behind me, pinning me into place.

My first instinct was to call out to the girl and tell her to run.

Before I got the chance, however, a low, angry voice rumbled so deep through the bathroom that I felt it through the tile pressed to my cheek, “Get out of here.”

That let me exhale slowly, telling me the identity of the attacker.

“Isn’t this a fun little reunion?” I asked.

The weight moved away so fast, I nearly fell. I twisted, wincing at an ache in my chest from how hard he’d shoved me.

“What the fuck, Grey?” And I couldn’t stop myself from smirking at the annoyed sound of Galen’s voice.

Because having a conversation in the women’s restroom was probably not great—especially for Galen—we moved the conversation to an empty classroom.

Galen had his arms crossed and boy did he glare. “Why is that whenever there’s a problem, you somehow end up at the center of it?”

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