Horror flashed first as she twisted around. “Logan? She’s with you now?”

Logan glanced at me. We shared a look before he rolled his shoulders back, squared his chin away and threw out his cocksure attitude. “Is this news to you? I’m hurt that you’re even surprised by this.”

“I … I …” she sputtered, drawing to her tallest height. “I’m not. Of course not, I’m just taken aback by the camaraderie between you two. There’s no hard feelings?”

“Why would there be?” Logan asked, throwing an arm around my shoulders. He lifted up on his tiptoes so we were the same height and then he patted me on the arm twice. “She dips in both of our cream dishes.”

“Logan!” We waited as she swayed on her feet, a hand to her chest. Then she sputtered again, “This is disgusting. I implore both of you to break up with this girl. If she’s doing what you’re insinuating, this will go down a bad road. Trust me. You both need to stop seeing her.” She paused and an old flare came over her. “Her mother alone is a good enough reason to try for someone better. Horrible breeding. You both need to preserve where your se**n goes. Once you’ve reproduced, there’s no going back. That child is in the world for the rest of your life—”

I’d had enough. “Mom.” I shrugged Logan’s arm off me. “We’re joking with you. Sam’s still my girlfriend, and it’s not her fault she doesn’t have friends here. Some of the other girls are jealous.”

“Oh.”

We waited. One second.

“You two are horrible children. To joke like that? Why would you even think about something like that in the first place?”

“Relax, Mom.” Logan threw his arm around her shoulders. When she tried to smooth out her shirt’s collar, he said to me, “I already asked around. No one’s seen her.”

Heather was working. Sam knew her old classmates would be there. It made sense if she opted out. “She’s probably watching a movie at home or something.”

“Or she’s already at the party and getting drunk.”

Sometimes my brother really pissed me off.

“What?” He flashed me a grin. “It’d be awesome if she were. My sis needs to get drunk more. Last time she did, she and Tate got into it. That was hilarious.” His smile turned wistful. “I’d pay money to see something like that again.”

“Okay.” Helen gave us a kiss on our cheeks. “I can tell where this is going so I’m going to be heading out myself.”

When she collected her purse from the bleachers, Logan asked, “Are you going back to the hotel?”

She snorted. “Oh no. I’m not eighty years old. I’ve got plans myself. I’ll see you both for dinner tomorrow night? Samantha is always welcome to come. Please extend the invitation to her.”

“Wait.”

She paused. “Mmm?”

“So what are you doing tonight?”

“Mason, son. I do love you, but just because your girlfriend doesn’t have girlfriends doesn’t mean every female can’t have girlfriends. It’s a girls’ night tonight. I would tell you both not to wait up for me, but you never do. I’ll just say my farewell with, ‘Don’t impregnate anyone tonight.’ How’s that?” She waved at them as she headed for the doors.

I waited until she was through the door before I commented, “Mom doesn’t have friends.”

“She has cousins.”

“Sisters.”

“Sisters-in-law.”

“But no friends,” I finished. We shared a look before I cursed. “She has a date tonight.”

Logan groaned. “There went my pre-buzz. That’s like my foreplay before partying.”

“I want to get drunk tonight.”

“I’m down with that.”

We started for the door and as we went through the gym doors, heading for the building’s exit doors, I heard my name called. I couldn’t see who it came from so I kept going. We hadn’t gotten far from the doors before two people stepped from the line of trees near our Escalades. As I recognized the Broudou brothers, five more followed them.

Logan gave me a pointed look. He was down for whatever happened. It was the look we’d been using since childhood. Fuck it. If this was the time, this was the time. The need to bust someone up was with me and I was done waiting to get even with them. “You put my best friend in the hospital. I thought the next step was ours.”

Budd shook his head, and the skin on his neck shifted from the movement. He brought a bat out from behind him and tapped it against his leg before leaning his weight onto it. “Well, we were going to do that.” He gestured to his brother beside him. “Brett wondered if that was smart. I think he said we should kick the pooch while it’s down. I heard he got a few broken ribs and he’s being baby-sat by his rich mommy and daddy. It was all over our school. The famous movie folks are back in Fallen Crest.”

Logan narrowed his eyes. “You think we’re some goddamn pooches?”

“You’re a man down.” He made a show of looking around. “Looks to me like no one else is around.”

“We heard there was a big party,” Brett added.

Logan snorted. “Aren’t you supposed to be banned from our campus?”

“Yeah.” Budd laughed, the sound was menacing. “They caught us twice, but we keep coming back. We’ll keep coming back, you know. That’s how we operate. No damn Kade is going to beat us.”

“That’s not what the scoreboard says inside.”

The smirk vanished from Budd’s face. He brought the bat up and began tapping it against his free hand.

I was done with this. I heard what Budd said, they weren’t going away. They would keep coming back. It was the same sentiment from Kate. I had a plan too, but right now I didn’t want to wait for it to happen. He brought the bat, but I was going to use it on him and with that in mind, I stepped forward. The movement wasn’t to close Logan out, it was to seal our ranks. Our backs would go against each other. It was the same system since our first fight in elementary.

The rest of them registered the movement and they dropped their stance, ready to start fighting.

“Mason!” someone called. It was the same voice from before.