The Renegades

Chapter 10

Rae finishes searching through Sabina's record collection and puts one on the player. She doesn't know the record or the band. She likes the cover. The name sounds cool too. She doesn't think she's listened to it with Sabina yet. She likes listening to Sabina's music. It makes her feel close to her. Like she's a part of her world.

Rae hops onto Sabina's bed, where Sabina and Marley are both sitting. Marley's on her phone, looking like she wants to be anywhere else. She would rather be pretty much anywhere else. She likes hanging out with Rae, obviously, but not with Sabina. She thinks Sabina's weird. She doesn't get her. Having to hang out with her makes Marley seem weird by association. It's embarrassing.

"So how was last night with Wesley Parker?" Rae asks, propping herself up on her elbows and looking up at Sabina like a child waiting to her a story. She bats her eyes a few times to aid in her teasing.

"Rae!" Sabina exclaims, her eyes flicking over to Marley, who has finally looked up from her phone.

Marley's jaw drops a little. "You and Wesley? How did that happen?"

"He kissed her at the last party here," Rae explains. Sabina throws a pillow at her. "What? She's not going to tell Landon."

"But she could tell Hunter who could tell Landon who could kill me and/or Wes," Sabina hisses.

Marley rolls her eyes. "Oh, relax. I'm not going to tell anyone." She's already texted Hunter about it, but she can't change that now. She might tell a few other people if the gossip is juicy enough. "So you and Wesley? I did not see that one coming."

It's Sabina's turn to roll her eyes. Of course Marley wouldn't see it coming. Nobody saw it coming. Marley probably thought Sabina was destined to be alone with twelve cats living in the basement of Rae and Landon's future home. Marley with her miniskirt and crop top just to hang out in her quote-unquote friend's room probably thought Sabina in her thrift shop sweater tucked into baggy jeans could never get a guy, let alone Wesley Parker.

"So how was last night?" Rae asks again. She needs to know the details. She was playing cover up for almost an hour with Landon, who was practically on the verge of calling the cops when they got back to his house after dinner with her parents and Sabina wasn't home. Rae's her only friend who she hangs out with outside of school, and since she was with him, he had no clue where Sabina was or who she was with. Her not answering her phone certainly didn't help his worry. "Please spill! Marley practically got married and you got some super cute surprise date and all I got was a disastrous dinner with my parents. I need the details! Make me feel better! Please!"

Sabina looks at Marley, who is already back on her phone. Sabina finally gives in. "Fine! We hung out on the roof of Fatso's and just talked."

Rae cocks her eyebrows. "Just talked? No kissing?"

Sabina bites her lip to try to keep from smiling, but she fails horribly. "Maybe a little."

"He's such a good kisser," Marley adds. "I love Hunter, but Wesley is a way better kisser. Like, wow."

Rae and Sabina both always forget about the short Marley-Wesley period partway through freshmen year. It was about four days of hooking up, and then he was on to some senior on the cheerleading squad. The girls never talk about it, but Wesley teases Hunter about it fairly frequently.

Sabina looks at Marley and then down at her lap. She can't help but feel insecure. Wesley went from girls like Marley and Lilly Xavier to awkward, goofy, school freak Sabina. She wishes she felt numb right now. Numbness is better than this stupid emotion.

"So are you guys dating now?" Rae asks, her eyes wide and gleaming.

Marley laughs. "Wesley doesn't really date."

"We're just hanging out," Sabina says.

"In cute secret spots and kissing!" Rae squeals.

"How are you going to tell Landon about this?" Marley asks. Sabina can't help but appreciate the hypocrisy coming from the girl hiding a six month long relationship from her father. "I mean, Wesley's your twin brother's best friend. That's pretty much every Wattpad story's plot ever." She also wants to acknowledge that the bad boy, cool guy, football playing jock dating the weird girl is also a Wattpad cliché, but she bites her tongue. Rae gets mad when Marley gets judgmental towards Sabina, and that comment would definitely do it.

"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it." Sabina sighs, really not wanting Marley to hear any of this.

Meanwhile, downstairs in the Harpers' living room, Landon, Wesley, and Hunter are playing one of those war video games. Hunter gets shot and killed, cursing under his breath. He leans back against the couch and pulls his phone out of his pocket while the other two keep playing. He has a text from Marley.

"What the fuck?" Hunter says when he reads it.

"Dude, what?" Wesley asks, shooting an enemy.

Hunter shakes his head. "Marley just texted me something crazy."

Wesley laughs. "What's new?"

Hunter rolls his eyes. "What about you, dude? Any new girls now that Lilly's out of the picture?"

Wesley looks at Hunter out of the corner of his eye. "Nah, man. Keeping my options open." Wesley hates that he just said that. He's just not ready to face Landon yet.

Landon's game character gets killed. He tosses the controller onto the cushion next to him and stands up. "I got to piss."

"Good for you," Wesley grumbles, still playing the game.

Hunter waits for Landon to be out of the room before taking the controller out of Wesley's hand. His character gets shot.

"Dude!" Wesley groans.

"Don't 'dude' me!" Hunter hisses. "You're with Sabina?"

Leave it to Marley to not be able to keep her mouth shut, Wesley thinks. But that also means that Sabina's talking about him, so that's a good sign. "We've been talking and hanging out a lot lately."

"Just hanging out?"

Wesley groans. "Okay, we've been kissing too."

"Since when?"

"Like two weeks."

"Dude..."

"I really like her, okay?" Wesley says, smiling a little bit. "Like, I really, really like her."

Hunter wraps an arm around Wesley's neck and uses his other hand to give him a noogie. "Aw, look at you having an actual crush and real feelings!"

Wesley easily pushes him off him. "Yeah, yeah, alright. Landon doesn't know yet, so just keep your mouth shut. Tell your girlfriend the same."

Hunter sits quietly for a moment, but he can't contain himself for long. "I knew this was going to happen eventually." Hunter's always gotten vibes from Wesley that made him think Wesley likes Sabina his fake flirting with her was always way too real.

Landon walks back into the room with three cans of Coke. He hands one to Hunter and tosses the other to Wesley. He looks at Wesley weirdly. "Why are you so smiley?"

"Just thinking about how badly I kicked y'all's asses in that last game," Wesley says, popping open his soda. And maybe he's thinking about Sabina, too. Mainly about Sabina.

Sabina's door opens upstairs, and the three girls walk down to the first floor.

"She was here this whole time, and you didn't say anything?" Hunter asks Landon, clearly talking about Marley.

Landon gulps down some Coke and shrugs. "If I don't get to see my girlfriend because she's with my sister, you don't get to see yours."

Marley sits down next to Hunter and starts kissing him. Rae and Sabina keep walking to the kitchen.

"Still?" Landon asks, groaning and sinking back into the couch.

"She's mine!" Sabina calls from the kitchen.