Page 141 of Crew
I nodded. It made sense, what happened in my absence. Taz was now friends--or frenemies--with Sunday Barnes and her group. She'd been alone too, in a way. She'd usually be with me, and often it had been the three of us--her, me, Cross.
Cross probably congregated with Jordan and Zellman last semester, leaving Taz by herself.
If Race got claimed by Tabatha's group, that meant... I cocked my head to the side.
"Race showed interest in you, didn't he?"
He'd been the one to bring her in, not Tabatha.
She looked down again, and her entire neck went beet red.
"I was so nervous. Tabatha had been throwing herself at him." She ran her hands down the front of her legs. Even now, it made her sweat. She laughed nervously. "I thought she was going to filet me alive."
Normally she would've. "Tabatha was nice to you?"
"Yeah. She's been super nice, actually. Sunday and Monica were starting to be bitches to me, more than normal, and Tab was the one to stop them."
Tab. Not Tabatha.
Tabatha Sweets had been after Cross for years too. She was smart. Hearing how it had all played out with his sister, a part of me wondered if she was biding her time, if maybe she was okay with missing out on Race if Taz was brought into the fold. Did she think she'd have better access to Cross? On a more personal level?
"Does Tabatha hang out here often?"
What was more personal than his home?
Taz's mouth tightened, and she shrugged. "Sometimes."
She grabbed a glass and started to walk past me.
"Hold." I shot a leg out from the counter, blocking her. "How often?"
I watched as her fingers tightened their grip on the cup. "I don't know."
"Taz." A low warning.
Another jerking shrug motion. "Maybe once or...three times a week."
"Fuck," I murmured.
"What?" She looked up at me now, holding that glass like it was shield. "She's a friend, Bren."
"She's using you."
There was no heat in my words. I wasn't pushing her to believe me, but the way I said it broke her.
She looked down. "Don't do this."
"You know she's using you."
Her head snapped back up. "I was alone! Do you get that?! I'm always alone except when you're around, and that's only some of the time. You've been gone for months. I had no one."
I could've said, "You have your brother," but I knew she didn't. I could've said she had the cheerleading squad, but she didn't, even when she was on it. We were back to the conversation we'd had at the beginning of the year. The crew had taken her brother, and that was even more obvious when I was absent.
I felt bad. I did.
"You could've gone crew." I knew that was stupid, though. That wasn't Taz.
"Right." She barked out an incredulous laugh. "Are you kidding me? Because I'm the fighting type. Yeah, I'm the girl who reaches for a knife or wades into a fight when guys are swinging fists. Are you kidding me?" She glared. "I'm not tough like that. You're one of two girls in a crew. You know I wouldn't be able to hack it. Even if I tried, something would happen. I wouldn't be able to back someone up, and that would be bad." She quieted. I heard the pain there. "No, Bren. I can't hack it, and you know that."
