West stared across the cafeteria, his eyes on Zayden and Seth where they sat side by side, laughing and talking. Life was seriously unfair. Not only had he lost any opportunity with Zay, but the guy was dating the worst kind of asshole instead. He had an overwhelming desire to smack Seth in the face with a brick or maybe a cinder block. Even better, run him over with a semi.
"You stare any harder and you're gonna break something," Josh told him with a little laugh.
"Shove it. I'm not staring."
"Man, if that isn't staring then someone needs to redefine the word for me because I'm confused."
He threw a chip at Josh. "Asshole."
"Yup, that's me, I'm such an asshole." Josh threw the chip back at him. "Come on, you can't keep brooding about Zay, there's nothing we can do. He wants to be with Seth and if we keep trying to interfere he's going to pull farther away.
He sighed. "Yeah, I know that, but I can't let it go. I just ..." He broke off and shook his head.
"Hey, I know Seth burned you but as far as I can see, he's been good to Zay."
West ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. "I know." He pulled his eyes from Zay and focused on Josh. "Where's Alyssa today, I haven't seen her all day?"
Josh sat back in his seat. "That I can't answer."
"She's your girlfriend and you don't know where she is?"
"I do and I don't."
"Not an answer," he said with a frown.
"She's at home, at least that's what she told me in a text this morning but I have the feeling she's up to some shit that she doesn't want to tell me about. I doubt she's actually at home."
"Alyssa up to shady shit? Doesn't sound like her."
"No, it doesn't, which worries me," Josh replied. "This isn't like her. This shit with Zay has been hard on her. They've been best friends since freshman year."
"Not that long. It isn't as if they've been lifelong friends. We've known each other longer than they have."
Josh nodded. "Yeah, I know but they were close and it seemed like they had known one another their entire lives. She's a hell of a lot more upset than she lets on."
"Alyssa is strong, she'll be okay. It's gonna take her a little time." West shrugged.
"I don't think time is gonna do shit if she doesn't want to let go. I think she's determined to prove Seth is fucking with Zay and he's not serious about him."
"If she does that it's only going to shove Zay further away, he isn't going to like the fact she went poking around trying to find something out about Seth."
"No, he isn't but I don't think she's going to listen."
West's eyes went back to Zay and Seth and he released a long sigh. This was going to turn into a huge mess. Of all the guys in town, why did Zay have to choose Seth? Not that he would have been all right if he began dating anyone else, but it would have stung less. Hell, he'd rather Zay began dating Marlow. Low was a good guy, kind and generous, he was a hell of a better match for Zay than Seth.
"All we can do is be here for him if the shit hits the fan," Josh said.
"Yeah, I have the feeling when it does it's going to be a whole lot of shit and one hell of a mess."
Josh chuckled. "Yup. Better invest in some waders."
"Idiot," West muttered before throwing a handful of chips at Josh.
***
Alyssa frowned and poked through the file folder before she looked up at her mom. "Are you sure this is all you have?"
"Lyssa, I'm not even supposed to let you see that, even if there was more I probably couldn't show it to you. Why do you care about this boy?"
She slapped the folder shut. "Because Zay is dating him and West says he's bad news. I'm worried about Zay but he won't listen to anything I have to say. He thinks I'm trying to sabotage his happiness or some crap."
Her mother sat down beside her. "Are you?"
She sighed. "I don't know at this point. There doesn't seem to be anything to prove West's accusations, but I trust him, Mom. West isn't the kind of guy who would lie."
"Are you sure about that? If West wants them to break up he may have exaggerated things."
"No, I can't see him doing that, it isn't like him. Even if he does have the hots for Zay," she told her mother with a grin. "Besides, Josh trusts him too. They've known one another since the fourth grade.
Her mother laughed as she gathered up the file folder. "Well, the only thing I know about this boy Seth is that he sued to be emancipated from his parents when he was fifteen. They have been doing checks on him since then until he turned eighteen last month. As far as we can see he's doing fine and he hasn't gotten into any trouble. He has a regular job working for his uncle," she said with a shrug.
"I know. Thanks for letting me see the file anyway."
"Sweetie, do some thinking about this, there's nothing that says this boy has any evil intention maybe you need to let Zay be happy, even if it's without you in his life."
"I wish I could shake the feeling that something awful is going to happen. If I could then I might be able to let this go." She stood, hugged her mom, and left the office. Her mother was a social worker for child services, she dealt with a lot of cases and Seth's case had been one of them. She had an inspirational thought at four in the morning to ask her mom to see Seth's file. Her mother agreed after a brief argument. The file wasn't sealed but her mother could still get into trouble for sharing it with her so she appreciated it a great deal. Seth had never gotten into trouble, at least he'd never gotten caught. She knew Darrel and some of the other guys in their little gang had records, but Seth didn't. It meant he either was trying to get out of the gang or he was smart enough not to get caught. According to West, it was the second one. He'd insisted more than once that Seth was extremely intelligent. If that was the truth then catching him in the act would be difficult and without proof, Zayden would never listen to any accusations.
Instead of heading back home, she went to Josh's house. She was going to have to let him know what she had discovered, which was a whole lot of nothing. As far as she could see, there was no way out of this and she worried Zay would get caught up in something that would ruin any chance of him having a future. West managed to walk away from Seth. Though he was still tied to the bastard because of that picture.
She chewed her bottom lip and, took a seat on the couch before she grabbed her phone and dialed. It rang twice before he picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Seth."
"Who is this?"
"It's Alyssa. I want to talk to you about Zayden."
He sighed. "Look, I don't know why you can't let him be happy."
She snorted. "I could if I wasn't certain you were screwing around with his emotions."
"And why do you believe that, because of whatever bullshit Weston has told you?"
"I've seen the picture, Seth," she told him. Silence followed her statement. "Didn't expect that, did you?"
He laughed. "You trying to get me to admit to something, Miss. Roman?"
"You think you're so clever, don't you? You get others to do the dirty work and your hands remain clean. You never get caught but you get whatever profit there is."
"You might want to remember how squeaky clean I am before you begin throwing around accusations. Things have a way of surfacing. Who knows, that picture you saw of Wes could end up going to the cops. Have a nice day."
The line disconnected and she tossed her phone onto the couch beside her with a frustrated growl. "Bastard."
There didn't seem to be any possible way they could catch Seth doing anything shady, the guy covered his ass. He knew how to keep suspicion off of him and throw it onto someone else. If they continued to push Zay and convince him that Seth was up to something Seth would take West down. She grabbed her phone and sent West a text to let him know what happened. He replied that he didn't give a shit about what happened to him if it meant Zay went free.
"Selfless to the end," she told her phone with a sigh. West would sacrifice himself to keep Zay safe. It was too bad Zay couldn't see how much West cared for him. She was certain Seth would never sacrifice himself for anyone. Her mind turned over what she'd read in his file. He wanted independence from his parents because his mother was an alcoholic and his father was rarely around, his father spent most of his time in and out of prison and when he was out, he was usually with one of several women, none of which were Seth's mother. It was no wonder he'd wanted to get away from them, but instead of making a better life for himself, he fell in with Darrel and his crew. If what West told them was the truth, he stole cars regularly and brought them to a chop shop downtown. Whether his uncle was involved or not West didn't know, but Seth had begun using the tow truck to pick up cars just after they went their separate ways. No one questioned a tow truck unless it was their car being towed. As long as Seth grabbed the car without the owner seeing him he was golden.
It was one hell of a crappy situation and she saw only two ways out. Zayden got caught jacking a car and went to jail or he got caught and somehow wound up dead.
"I hate Seth," she muttered. "I hope the karma train runs his ass over and soon."