A Whole New Crowd(52)

That was a week ago. Shelly and Kevin decided it was family weekend so Mandy wasn’t allowed to have friends over. They looked at me, ready to say the same warning, but it died in their throats. I snorted. I saw it on their faces. The same thought had flashed in both of their minds: Taryn doesn’t have friends. That was fine with me, though. After seeing Jace again, I was fine with some hibernating. When we went to school the next week, things remained quiet. A few others remembered my stand-off with Amber and were confused when the fighting hadn’t continued. I had to laugh at that. Her plan to get revenge backfired.

It was the next Friday when Mandy told me her and Devon were back together. I wasn’t surprised. She was an idiot, and I realized my sister would continue to do idiotic things. Did she enjoy hurting herself, because that’s what this would do to her. He was going to cheat again. She would be hurt. She would forgive him, forgive Jennica again, and the cycle would continue.

I was done. I washed my hands of my sister. When she told me about a party that night, I had no intention of going. I went home instead. Austin was downstairs and I could hear other voices, including a few girls.

“Hey, honey,” Shelly said as she bustled around the kitchen.

I hopped onto a stool. “What are you doing?”

“Austin brought a bunch of his friends home. He never acts like it, but it means a lot to him if I prepare food for them.” She put a grocery bag on the counter and threw me a grin. “Gotta do it, all those kids like to eat, you know.”

I grinned. “He got a girlfriend down there?”

Shelly laughed. “That’s my thinking too. Maybe we should ‘investigate’ later, hmmm?”

As she took out a pan from the oven, she washed her hands and then pulled out pizza dough. “You’re making homemade pizza?” I had never had homemade pizza. That was what normal people did with their normal parents. This was my family now.

“It’s Austin’s favorite. Mandy’s too before she decided her life was a diet. They have the same tastes in a lot of ways. Pizza, lasagna, but now Mandy loves salads. Poor thing.” Her eyes lit up. “So, Taryn, you and I haven’t had a lot of alone time. You’re not going out tonight? I know from Mandy that there’s always a party going on.”

I looked away. “Yeah, there is.”

“No party for you?”

I shrugged and turned back. She was staring at me, a slight glimmer of concern there, but she gave me another soft smile. There was pity instead. I hated seeing that. “You know, I could have friends.”

The pity disappeared and she straightened from the counter.

I added, “Just because I grew up in the foster system doesn’t mean I’m less than anyone else.”

“Taryn, I didn’t mean—”

“I’m here tonight because I want to be, not because I don’t have friends or I wasn’t invited to the party. I could go to any party I want. You might think to ask yourself why your adopted daughter is staying home and your real daughter isn’t?” As soon as I said those words, I cursed in my head. There was a fine line and I didn’t want to narc on Mandy.

Her hands fell away from the pizza dough. “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing. Never mind.” I had to get out of there. Shoving off the stool, I went upstairs and grabbed my swim suit. I was heading back downstairs when the doorbell rang and Shelly came back with a stack of delivered pizzas. She saw me on the stairs and laughed. “Teenagers don’t want to wait for homemade pizza.” She put them on the counter and yelled down the stairs, “Austin! The pizza’s done, guys. Come and get it.”

I had enough time to step out of the way when Austin and five pubescent boys and three girls rushed upstairs, zeroing in on the pizza in record time. The girls were slower, looking at the pizza with caution. I knew how they were feeling. They wanted it, they were salivating for it, but being skinny meant not eating, especially in front of boys, who were inhaling the food without chewing.

“Hey, your sis is hot, man!” one guy said as he stuffed an entire slice in his mouth. He nudged Austin. “You never told us that.”

The girls stared at me.

“Shut up, dick,” Austin retorted, wiping his mouth.

“Austin,” Shelly reprimanded. She tried to look stern. She failed. The adoration she had for her son was evident.

“Whatever.” Austin rolled his eyes. “Mom, where’s the soda?”

“Oh. I’ll go and grab them. I left them in the car.”

He leaned back to wait.

Uh, no. I spoke up, “Why don’t Austin and all his friends go and get them?” One of his friends stood next to me and his hand was too close to my ass. As I said that, I shifted away from him. He looked up, saw he’d been caught, and his head went back down. He shuffled away, but I saw the smirk on his face. He was another little punk.