Between Us (all of us #1)

N I N E T E E N (PT. 2)

T R E N T O N

 Graduation day. The one day every senior in high school waits on. The day they all claim will be the best day of their young lives. The day life begins, according to Roger. And for me, that's exactly what it is and more.

It's the day that changes everything.

I can sense Aubree's nervous and I love it. I love that I affect her that way, it means she actually fucking cares what I think. If I can recall correctly, she's self conscious because she wants me to like her back. And the way she stared at me like her knees were going to give out after I hinted to her what tonight would entail is making me ten times harder than I'm comfortable being around all my friends and family—I don't want to be hard around any of them, but whatever. It's worth it to walk around a little stiff when that one's around.

I saunter over to Diesel and Gio, but not without noticing the weird change on Diesel's face. Chloe probably texted him something to piss him off.

Yeah, that's what he looks like. Pissed off.

"Your pockets are gonna be so fat, dude," says Gio. "You've probably got over a thousand dollars in that box. When my sister graduated, we counted out about two grand."

"Who?"

Gio has five sisters and I never know who he's talking about because he never calls them by name. I'm not sure he even knows who he's talking about sometimes.

"Genesis. She didn't have a lot of friends, but we have a lot of relatives so she still cleaned up. I'm expecting to double that when it's my turn."

I shrug, looking back Aubree's way as she comes out the house. My mom's been staring her down all night and it's pissing me off. I just hope she doesn't try to get bold and say anything to her. I never know what's going on in her head these days.

It's probably her appearance. She snags everyone's eyes whenever she passes them, walking so gracefully in heels. I can't help but to check her out again for the hundredth time. That fucking dress she's got on is phenomenal. I wonder if she wore it purposely. I want to believe she did.

Diesel socks me in my side before standing in front of me. "Stop, fucker."

"Stop what?" I frown at him. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

I wrinkle my chin and shift my eyes from him. Obviously I know exactly what he's talking about, but damn, I didn't know I was getting sloppy. I usually time it to where it's not obvious that I'm gawking, but maybe I got a little greedy that time.

"You, fucking staring at my mom like that. Stop."

"I'm not staring at her, Dees. You're tripping." I lift my cup to take a drink, but he pushes me all the way inside the house and shuts the glass door behind us before I can even reach my lips.

"I'm serious, man." He stares me in the eye and I wrinkle my chin again in an attempt to convince him I'm still oblivious to what he's getting at.

"I'm not even looking at her."

"I saw you talking to her a minute ago. What were you telling her when you two were in here?"

"Nothing—I just thanked her for the card."

Diesel stares at me like he wants to believe me but isn't convinced. I guess I have had my guard down today, but it's hard to pretend I'm not fucking ecstatic about tonight.

"Well, don't hug her like that—and you know what I'm talking about. Watch your damn hands."

I finally take the sip he prevented me from having when he shoved me in here, wondering how long he's noticed. Knowing him, it only just hit him. If he'd noticed sooner he would have confronted me then. He doesn't play around when it comes to Aubree, but neither do I.