Page 6 of Ignition

If I really wanted to, I was pretty sure there wasn’t anything that I couldn’t fix. I wasn’t like Ryker, I couldn’t just go out and buy a replacement because it was easier, especially not now.

“And you’re sure all the fuses are tightened?”

“I’m not a fuckin’ idiot, Ry.”

His loud laugh on the other side of the phone made me briefly consider chucking the damn thing across the lot. But I couldn’t do that; there was no way I’d be able to afford another one. Or even replace the screen if I was careless and fucked it.

Honestly? Even the bill was a struggle right now, too.

“Then you’re on your own until I’m there in two weeks,” he said. I could hear the rush of the city behind him as he walked down the block. The honk of car horns and shouts of angry pedestrians filled the space between our words.

Living somewhere that was constantly that loud would’ve made me want to kill myself, but whatever made him happy, I guess.

“You’re actually coming?” I asked. Everything was a shitshow here right now, so avoiding us like the plague made sense to me.

“I’m certainly not goinghome,” he said the word like it was something particularly nasty, like a cockroach. “It’s cold and rainy in London. I’d much rather hang by Caleb’s pool, The Three Menskateers at it again!”

“Isn’t it Musketeers?”

“As if, bro. Those guys’ moustaches wereugly—” Ryker drew out his ‘y’ extra long. “And the only one of us who can even grow one isyou.”

I laughed, my eyes flicking up to catch a glimpse of the strip of short, well-maintained hair darkening my upper lip in the rearview mirror. “True.”

“It’s been forever since we’ve all been together. I’m not letting either of you assholes out of my sight. We’ll be sleeping top to tail all fucking summer!”

My chest thumped at the thought. I hadn’t seen Caleb much since everything happened. It was obvious his dad wanted me as far away as possible, and Caleb being Caleb meant he was avoiding anything that felt less than comfortable for him.

Two weeks he’d been home, and I hadn’t seen or heard from him once. It stung, but I understood… or I was trying to.

“I don’t know how much of that there’s gonna be,” I said, getting out of the car and leaning back over the engine, testing wire connections and tubes to distract myself. “I’m not exactly welcome at the Braye’s right now.”

Ryker made apshsound dismissively. “Come on, Marty can’t still be holding a grudge! Doesn’t he have some new bird in the house?”

“He is, and he does.” And Ireallydidn’t want to talk about it. I’d been avoiding talking about it at all since it happened.

“Fine, not at Caleb’s, but we can still go to the beach. Pick up some girls of our own. I’m running dry over here.”

ThatI could get on board with. But then I thought about all of the little finicky costs of a beach day… Parking fees were atrocious, and everyone would want to eat out at least once. Not to mention the drinking. There’s no way I could afford any of that right now.

Nina’s graduation was breathing down my neck, and I was already struggling to come up with the money to help cover her fees to evenapplyto college. I hadn’t even started thinking about the tuition; whenever I tried, it was like everything I’d eaten in my entire life tried to push to the front at once to come back out the way it went in.

But the idea of finding someone, even for the night, sounded nice. Someone pretty I could sink into. Forget what a shitshow my life had turned out to be, even for a couple of hours. I’d been so exhausted taking care of my kid sister that I was too tired to even bother with scrolling the apps.

I’d never had a dry spell like this, and I was certainly starting to feel it. Even thought about going to a heat hotel just to shake the needy buzz at the base of my skull that a good fuck with a heatdrunk omega would cure just about instantly.

“Maybe,” I said noncommittally.

“Hey! Teagan! Stay right there!” Ryker shouted, and I knew that I’d lost his limited attention for good. The man was like a talking ADHD medication ad. “I gotta go, but I’ll see you soon. Menskateers!”

The line went dead before I could say goodbye, and I was back to my own thoughts for company.

Dangerous.

I picked up my phone as it vibrated, knocking loudly against the textured plastic of the dash, and I reached into the car to grab it, my sister’s contact flashing over the screen.

NINA

I’m staying at Kendall’s tonight.