Page 21 of Her Crew

“You’re being⁠—”

“I just had to listen to that woman tell me how you’ll fuck anything with a vagina, so I deserve to be anything I want to be.”

“We’re a crew.”

“What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”

Ace exhales. “That’s just something that happens.”

“Ah, so that kiss we had was just some kind of hazing? Got it.”

Ace leans over me and puts his hands on the arms of the chair. “Come to my room, pup.”

“I’m good, thanks.” I stare at a goddamn tree to the right of us to avoid looking at his face.

“You aren’t going back in there with Delia tonight.” He plucks my cookies from my hand and crushes the bag in his fist. “You’re compulsively eating because of her. Have you felt the need to binge in the last couple days?”

No, which is weird, but that doesn’t matter. I’ll happily lie to his face. “Yes. But I can only eat when the rest of you do.”

Being away from home has helped with the anxiety, but now that I’m thinking about it, it’s all I can think about. It’s literally consuming me. I can’t stop thinking about the last few cookies that were left in that fucking bag.

Fuck.

“My. Room. Now.”

Can he see my quickening breaths as the panic chokes me? It makes me feel like he’s lying on my chest and suffocating me.

And just like that, I’m in a full-blown panic attack. I train my attention on the oak tree in the distance, but it’s ripped away from me as he grabs my chin and forces me to look into his pretty fucking eyes.

He grabs my hand and drags me to my feet. I dig my heels in as he walks me across the grass to his door. It feels too much like home at this moment, and I can hardly take it. He doesn’t mean it, of course, but my body knows no difference. I focus on my breathing as he fumbles with his key until the door finally pops open. By the time we step inside the stuffy room, I feel like I’m going to pass out. Black lines my vision. And then I’m gone.

I wake up in a queen-sized bed. I don’t feel like I’ve been out for long, though I have no way of knowing. As I look around, trying to orient myself to the room and remember where I am and how I got here, a toilet flushes nearby.

Ace comes out of the bathroom and puts a hand to my head. “You okay? You hit your head when you passed out.”

I didn’t even notice until he touched the goose egg right above my eye. Beauty and grace, ladies and gentlemen.

I push his hand away and touch it myself. Yeah, I definitely hit my head. The pressure from my fingertips is enough to send a shot of pain through my skull.

“I’m fine,” I say as I get out of bed. A wave of dizziness flashes through me. I take a clumsy step forward, and his hands are on me, holding me upright.

“You need to lie down, Tegan,” he says.

Three snide responses spring into my mind, but I shut my mouth. He’s right. I feel like shit now.

I step back and let myself fall onto the bed. “You get a room by yourself?”

“I’m their best seller.”

“Are you sure you didn’t fuck Stacks for this privilege?”

I mentally high-five myself for that zinger. Dizzy or not, I’ve still got it.

Ace climbs over me and pins my arms above my head, and my confidence wanes. He smiles down at me, and it’s more dizzying than me knocking myself out. “I’m not some monster with a dick, fucking anything and everything around me.” He runs his tongue along his teeth, which I’ve come to notice is a nervous habit. “Have I tried to fuck you yet, pup?”

I shake my head but focus on the keyword in that statement.

Yet.