Better Off

9

Thorne swerves his car into the parking lot of an apartment complex, pulling into a parking space before turning off the ignition. Though it's dark out around us, I can make him out as he turns to face me, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Where are we?" I ask, studying the apartment building in front of us. For the tiniest of moments I begin to wonder if Thorne brought me to his place, but I quickly shut down the thought. There's no way on this earth that he would take me to his house, right?

"You'll see." Looking at him, I notice that I-know-something-you-don't-know smirk curled on his lips. "You don't have anything valuable on you, do you, Sunshine?" Thorne's smirk has widened, and I find myself wondering why he would ask me such a strange question.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you have anything expensive with you? Like jewelry or cash? If you do, you might want to leave it here. And hide your purse."

I cross my arms over my chest stubbornly, wondering what the hell he means by that. "Not unless you tell me why."

Thorne looks smug, like he wanted me to say something like that. "My friends are good people, Sunshine." Thorne pauses, shooting me his signature wink. "They just do bad things."

Thorne brought me to meet his friends. It's such a crazy thought, it's hard to process. I mean, why would he want me to meet his friends? Wouldn't that mean he'd have to consider me a friend, too? Why do I even care?

Thorne leads me across the surprisingly empty parking lot and toward the closest complex to us. I follow him up two flights of stairs, joining his side when he abruptly stops at a door marked 18.

Thorne turns to me, studying me closely. Pursing his lips, he un-tucks my hair from my ear and adjusts the strap of my shirt for me. It's a weird thing for him to do, but it's kind of sweet. He gives me another once over before breaking out in a grin, saying, "You look great, Sunshine. You'll fit right in."

I can feel my feet floating off the ground as I drift to cloud 9, all thanks to his compliment. I don't know how he manages to make me feel so weightless with just one compliment, and nobody else has ever made me feel this way before. It's new to me, but I can't deny that I like it.

I take a deep breath as Thorne knocks on the door in front of us, suddenly nervous. What if his friends don't like me? What if they think I'm weird? Worse—what if Thorne only brought me here as a joke? I highly doubt that the latter is true, but I can't stop myself from thinking the worst.

Suddenly, the door is thrown open, cutting my awful thoughts short. My gaze immediately falls on a beautiful girl with long black hair and storm gray eyes, wearing tight jeans and a leather jacket. Her face lights up as soon as her eyes land on Thorne, and she lets out a loud squeal.

"Thorne!" she cries, standing on her tiptoes and throwing her arms around him, catching Thorne off guard. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a certain way as I watch the whole interaction. The way Thorne chuckles as he wraps his arms around the girl sends the smallest twinge of pain flowing through my chest, and I bite my bottom lip hard. I don't know why I'm jealous, but I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not.