Beware of Bad Boy(12)

We worked our way through the masses and found Taye chatting up a petite brunette. When Dante was done greeting his cousin, I pounced on questioning him. “Hey, Taye, who’s the hot blonde in your crew?”

His expression filled with disapproval. “Don’t even think about it, Caleb. I know you, man. We don’t put up with anyone fucking around with Gigi or Cece.” Huh, Cece must be the Hispanic chick that danced with them.

“Gigi?” Now this would be good. “It’s not like that, Taye. It’s just I’m pretty sure I know her. Where’d she go?”

Taye gave me a skeptical look and pointed over to the dance floor where Gianna was dancing with one of the Hispanic guys from the crew. “She’s over there with Jared.”

My eyes darted over the pair, taking in her smiling up at the guy. So this was Jared. The guy she called when something went wrong. I’d rarely seen her smile and right now she was smiling as if she were high on life. At Jared. I didn’t know why, but the uncomfortable feeling of jealousy coursed through me.

“Yeah, that’s her, Gianna,” I stated when Taye continued to stare at me with wary disapproval.

Finally, and almost reluctantly, Taye said, “Hey, you guys should come to the after party at Jared and Cece’s house.”

“Sure, why not?” I agreed nonchalantly. It would be interesting to see how Gigi handled me invading her group of friends. I’d known Taye for years but he and Dante didn’t hang out much so I’d never met all of Taye’s friends.

A while later Taye rode with us to the after party to show us the way. Nina sat between Dante and Taye in the backseat. Skylar sat up front with me since she was sort of my date for the night. We arrived to the house the party was at and unloaded from the car, with Skylar easing up next to me as we strolled up the walkway.

Urging her in front of me and ignoring the confused look on her pretty face, I let her and the others go in ahead of me and stood back when we entered the living room. There were people dancing in the center of the living room, showing off mostly. Gianna and the other girl from the crew were laughing and doing silly dance moves that mimicked the guys’ serious ones.

Taye called, “Watch out!” and slid into the middle of the group doing a head slide on the hardwood floor. He flipped forward onto his feet to grab the Hispanic girl, Cece, and lift her up in the air.

The girl laughed and whined, “Taaaaaye!” as a giggling Gianna tried to pull her down. While the girls were distracted, Jared snuck up behind Gianna and poured a bottle of water over her head.

Gianna spun around in shock and Jared dashed away. Before Jared could escape through a doorway, Gianna jumped onto his back and they tumbled forward to the floor. Gianna straddled him while his face was to the floor. Triumphant, she declared, “That’s what you get, punk!”

I would’ve never imagined Gianna had this playful side to her personality. Actually, I assumed she was sadly lacking in the personality department. Why did she act so moody at home and school, then here she acted the complete opposite? It was unexpected, for sure.

She hopped up off Jared when he started to get on all fours with the clear intention of getting the best of her. Her gleeful smile faded and her blue eyes shot wide when she locked in on me.

I smirked and said devilishly, “Hello, Gianna.”



GIANNA



Oh. My. God. What was Caleb doing here?

With this thought foremost in my mind, I asked him, “What the fuck are you doing here, Caleb?” At the hostility in my tone, everyone’s eyes focused on us.

Jared confronted Caleb with his arms arrogantly crossed over his chest. “I don’t know you, what are you doing in my house?”

To my surprise, Taye stepped forward. “It’s cool, Jared. He’s a friend of mine.” How did my friend Taye know my infuriating stepbrother? Taye turned to me. “It’s cool that he came, right? I’ve known Caleb forever ‘cause he’s my cousin’s best friend.” What was I to say to that?

“And I’m Gianna’s stepbrother,” Caleb piped in slyly. I guess there went pretending we were nothing to each other.

Jared was confused for a second before his face broke into a welcoming grin. He gave Caleb one of those awkward half hug, pat on the back things guys did. “Dude, nice to meet you. I’m sorry if I was an ass, but you understand. Us guys are always having to watch out for our girl, Gigi. Hey, so you must be the guy who beat down that Josh motherfucker. No one fucks with our Gigi. We’ve been telling her to dump his ass for months. Thanks for jumping in and taking care of it for us.”

“Us?” Caleb raised his eyebrows, all GQ handsome dressed in black pants with a grey t-shirt and black vest. His hair looked like the girl standing next to him, obviously his date, ran her hands through it in a moment of passion. As usual, his mere presence annoyed me. The girl was clinging onto his arm with a starry look in her eyes. Her short purple dress made her look cheap, which was probably Caleb’s usual type.