A chill crept up my spine. “Jeffrith? What is it?”
Jeffrith said nothing. He continued staring, swaying.
The moment grew awkward. A cool breeze swept through the alley, blowing dirt and grime around my feet.
Taclo said, “He just lost his sister, Seph.”
I blinked at the boy. “And I lost a friend. What of it?”
The other boy standing to Jeffrith’s left, Koylen, patted Jeffrith’s shoulder and smiled at me. “Don’t you think he’s handsome, girl? You should.”
I ground my teeth together. “I don’t.”
Jeffrith snarled unintelligibly. Either his words weren’t working or he saw no use for them.
He advanced toward me. I backed up.
A few more steps and I’d have my spine against the dead-end wall of the alley. Fear rose in my blood as I noticed the wicked glint in Jeffrith’s eyes for the first time once he stepped out of the shadow of the moon.
“Tired of this shit,” he muttered, maybe to himself.
My brow furrowed. “Jeffrith, what are you—”
He lurched toward me with a hand stretched out to grab at my tunic.
I gasped, backpedaling quicker, stumbling—
“Hoy!” called a voice from the end of the alley.
My heart soared, mixing with the fear of having a drunken Jeffrith so close to me, hand frozen in midair.
Baylen stepped in and shoved Taclo and Koylen aside, who tried to bar him entry. “The fuck is going on here?”
Baylen advanced on Jeffrith, stepping up to the taller, older boy. Now closer to manhood himself, Bay actually had the acumen and build to stand up to Jeffrith, when he didn’t as a child.
Yet hefrozewhen his eyes landed over Jeffrith’s shoulder on me. His body went rigid, eyes widening.
Taclo said, “He’s tired of waiting, Bay.”
Koylen added, “You had your shot. Give him his. He’s grieving.”
I tightened my hands into fists at my sides.
Baylen’s mouth opened and closed without words. Maybe it was the way I had spurned him; his resentment he felt for me; his fear of Jeffrith’s retaliation.
Whatever it was, something changed in Baylen’s eyes. The courage he showed as a youth, the bravery, wilted. His shoulders sagged.
He truly doesn’t care for me anymore.
No. It was worse than that, I noticed.He wants to see me hurt because I’ve hurt him.
Baylen’s eyes met my fearful, dewy orbs over Jeffrith’s shoulder. I gave him a piteous headshake, begging for assistance.
He stammered. “I, erm—”
Jeffrith rounded on him before he could finish, arm going wide to swing the booze bottle at Baylen’s head.
The crash of glass breaking and shattering on Bay’s face sent him flying to the ground with a yelp.
