Ride Or Die | Book #1 ✓

Chapter 30

"You need to talk to him, tell him how you feel." Evangeline nudged me as we both stood in front of the bathroom mirror as we finished getting ready. I soothed out the silk emerald green dress I had on with a pair of black strappy heels. The dress itself was a spaghetti strap and ended a couple of inches before my knees, paired with my leather jacket.

I was nervous about Xander's Christmas Eve dinner, I had no idea who was going to be there or what was to come. I hadn't talked to Pierce all day despite his calls and text messages that he left. Juniper and Triston were the only ones in the gang I had told about what had happened with Mercury and Pierce in the warehouse yesterday. I couldn't get the words Mercury said out of my head, and I didn't know whether Pierce slept with her or not. Mercury was one to lie but so was Pierce.

I was bracing myself for anything to happen, knowing this could go over great or be a shit show. Aster and Evangeline were also invited by Xander to join, which I had been grateful for so I didn't have an awkward tension between Pierce and me. Juniper had called me all day about how I should just tell him and said he seemed upset when he went home last night after everything went down.

"Well look at my two beautiful girls." Aster appeared in the back of us with a smile on his face. We both had turned around and Aster pecked Evangeline's lips, wrapping an arm around her waist before turning his attention towards me. "You ready to go?" Aster asked, making me nod slightly in response.

We had all headed out of the house and into Aster's truck while Evangeline got into the passenger seat, leaving me in the back seat. Aster had pressed on the gas, taking off down the road as Evangeline blasted the music through the car speaker. I could feel the nervousness running through my body, I didn't even want to face Pierce after last night or see Mercury.

Sometimes I wish I could just blast her all the way into another dimension...

The rest of the carried consisted of Evangeline and Aster fighting over the radio while Evangeline continued to blast it despite Aster's yelling over the music. We had soon reached Xander's mansion only to see many cars parked outside of it. My heart began racing as we got closer before we all got out of the car and made our way to the grand front doors.

We made our way through the door and to the main gathering area where everyone seemed to be doing a mixture of sitting and standing in the grand living room. "Aster, Aspen, Evangeline!" Xander cheered as he noticed us "I'm so glad you guys could make it!"

My eyes flickered around to everybody, the entire gang had been here; all dressed up formally. The girls all wore dresses while the guys wore tuxes. There were a few unfamiliar faces that I had noticed, all older adults. I felt my stomach tie in knots when my eyes landed on Mr. Gunner who raised his glass to me. I quickly averted my eyes from him as Xander walked up to me, taking me over to the unfamiliar faces.

"Aspen this is Tate and Carter Crawford and this is Thomas and Venus Sullivan. This is Aspen Ambrosia, our newest recruit." Xander introduced me to them. Tate was tall with dirty blonde hair along with a matching beard, and his eyes were a deep brown. Carter was thin and had short dirty blonde hair with blue eyes. Thomas was the tallest of all with a thin frame, his hair was a light brown- almost caramel and blue eyes that were dark. Venus had long dark black hair with dark brown eyes that were so deep. They were all middle-aged and it didn't take long before I put two and two together.

Tate and Carter were the parents of Theo, Tyson, and Greyson. Thomas and Venus were the parents of Mercury and Mars. This was the old Crestmont generation, the ones that had been in place when Mr. and Mrs. Gunner were members. They were the ones who rule Crestmont at one point, their duty had now been passed onto their kids when they became of age.