She wasn’t looking at me. I turned my head.

“Hi, Kara.” Ditching Girl gave her half-hearted waved. As her arm lifted, the leather bracelets around her wrist slid down. They didn’t go far. Her entire arm was covered with them. They had an inch until her elbow stopped them. As her wrist was bared, I saw a small tattoo of interloping circles.

“That’s wonderful.” Kara’s delight doubled when she saw me next to her. “You two should be friends.”

“Huh?” Beth glanced at me. “Why?”

“Um. Just…” She bit her lip. “Just cause. I think it’d be really great. Is Hannah coming over tonight? You could invite her to pizza?”

Whoa. The turn of events had me dizzy. Who was Hannah and why was she pushing this friendship? Though, I had to admit, this girl was the first in a while that I hadn’t minded sitting beside. That didn’t mean I wanted to be friends with her.

Still. I was curious. “Who’s Hannah?”

“No one.” Beth threw me a scowl.

Kara jumped next to her side, but realized all the girls were still waiting in the hallway. She motioned towards the doors. “Go ahead, girls. The pizza will be here shortly. I reserved the downstairs lobby until ten tonight anyway.”

A few grumbled as they headed down. I stayed behind. Something was going on and I knew it had to do with me and Hell Bitch from before.

Kara turned back, biting her lip, and wringing her hands together. The clipboard had been left behind in the room. She seemed to be eyeing me up and down, measuring for something, but she switched to Beth. “Call Hannah. Be friends with this girl.”

Then she flounced away, hurrying after the rest.

I shifted back to my heel and reassessed this girl. Dressed in baggy jeans, a black T-shirt with a rock band on the front, and she had a lip ring—make that an eyebrow ring as well, she didn’t seem like any sort of help against Hell Bitch.

“Who is this Hannah and why does she want our friendship so bad?”

Beth shrugged as she bent to grab a backpack. Glass clinked together inside, but she put her arm through one of the straps and slung it over, uncaring about whatever was fragile inside. She flipped her straight brown hair over her shoulder. As she did, I caught another small tattoo of a hummingbird behind her ear. “No idea. And Hannah would not come to something like this.”

“Still.” There had to be a reason. “Who is Hannah to you?”

“She’s my cousin.” She grew suspicious. “Why?”

“Because when someone throws a girl at me and commands our friendship, I want to know why,” I snapped.

“Oh.” The suspicion melted away. “That makes sense. I’d want to know too.”

“You’re not curious why she said that?”

Checking her pockets, she started towards the stairs. I fell in step beside her and heard her say, “When it comes to Kara and her friends, I don’t really give a damn. They’re too loony and pretentious for my liking.”

“Wait.” My arm caught hers. I hauled her to a stop on top of the stairs. “You said Kara and her friends?”

She rolled her dark eyes. “Yeah, I know Kara because she’s best friends with my other cousin.”

My heart began pounding. I already knew where this was going. “Who is that?”

“You don’t want to know her. Trust me.”

I think I already do. “No, really. Tell me.”

“Tiffany, she’s Hannah’s older sister.”

Bingo.

I knew there’d been a reason, but wait. That made no sense. “So you’re best friends with Hannah, who is sisters with Tiffany? I’m confused.”

“Join the club.” She shrugged again and started down the floors. When we would’ve veered to the left and kept going to the basement lobby, she went to the right.

I paused. For some reason, this seemed important for me to know. And I hated to admit it, but Beth wasn’t hard company.

She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “If you want to, we’re going to Club T.”

“What’s Club T?”

She flashed a grin and it transformed her face. Beth had seemed moody and withdrawn, but with the slight curve of her lips, she was animated. Most guys would consider her plain looking, but in that moment, I thought she was radiant. She laughed at me. “Come and find out. Hannah’s driving.”

I didn’t need any more incentive. I was out the door in two heartbeats.

A red Camaro was waiting for us, with another blonde bombshell behind the wheel. She never grinned, nothing. Her aviators hid most of her face and her lips never moved an inch. She only spoke to Beth as I crawled into the backseat and her cousin took the front, “Who is this?”

“Um.” Beth glanced at me before she settled into her seat. “A friend. Let’s go.”

She gunned the Camaro and off we went. I was thrown back by the force of it, but I didn’t mind. The girl was thin like her sister, but she was tanner. Her hair held red streaks among the golden blonde of it and a tattoo was on the underside of her forearm. It was in another language, but in simple and tiny letters. While her sister had been dressed like she was attending tennis classes at the White House, this girl wore tattered jean shorts and a black top that stuck to her.

Both were gorgeous.

What was in the water around here?

Beth frowned at me once more before her cousin turned the radio up and the two talked the rest of the way. It was a thirty-minute drive. She pulled into a parking lot outside a warehouse. The tall building, built from tin, was decorated with nothing. A lone black sign hung over the side entrance door, behind a guy in black clothes. He wore a hooded sweatshirt as a line of people waited.

“Oh, hellll no. This ain’t happening.”

Hannah parked the car and was out in record time. Beth caught my arm, holding me back, and we watched as she sauntered towards the bouncer. She pressed her chest against his and arched her back. One of her legs lifted in the air, all the while she was smiling and cooing into his ear.

“What is she doing?”

Beth shook her head. “She’s getting us in. That guy is new. Hannah’s been coming here for three years. She doesn’t like change.”

Three years?

“How old is she?”

“She’s a sophomore this year, but we came to visit Tiffany when we were in high school and she was a freshman and sophomore at Grant West.”