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With a begrudging sigh, Reed started to shuffle toward me. Given the size of the two guys joining us at the table, Reed ended up pressed right against me.
“Is this okay?” he murmured softly in my ear so the other two wouldn’t hear.
“It’s fine,” I replied, trying to give him a smile. He was talking about the fact his friends had crashed our dinner, but I was much more concerned about his sudden proximity. Those butterflies were still fluttering wildly, and my skin tingled from his closeness. It made me shift uneasily in my seat as I tried to forget the feeling, but that only made me more worried he’d notice. That his friends would notice. Reed and I were supposed to be in a relationship, so I couldn’t let myself turn into a quivering mess just because he sat next to me.
I wasn’t even sure why I was feeling this way. This was a fake relationship with an expiry date. There was no flirting and no kissing, and of course, we had the golden rule: no feelings allowed. Anything sweet that Reed said to me or any intimate looks he flashed my way were all just part of the act. None of it was real. Once I remembered that, I started to calm, and the fluttering in my stomach eased.
Before the butterflies could return, I quickly turned my focus back to Matt and Owen. “So, guys, I was promised some embarrassment?” I said to Reed’s friends.
Matt’s eyes lit up while Reed started to groan. “One wrong word from either of you, and you’re getting booted from the table,” he warned.
Matt’s playful smile only grew wider. “You know that bad-temper shit doesn’t work on us,” he replied before speaking to me. “Did you know Reed used to bring an apple for our kindergarten teacher every day?”
"Aww.” I smiled in Reed’s direction. “That’s really sweet.”
The look Reed was giving his friend was downright terrifying.
Matt hardly noticed. “Sweet?” he repeated. “Okay, clearly, I need to dig a little deeper here… How about the time you called our teacher mom?”
“I was seven, and it was clearly an accident,” Reed growled.
“There was that time you fell off a treadmill?”
“And you just stood there and laughed. Truly a terrible friend.”
“Oh, I’ve got one.” Matt’s eyes lit up. “Remember the day you showed up to English to do your book report and pulled one of your mom’s dirty books from your bag.”
“Hey, that wasn’t my fault. Parker was playing a prank.”
“Sure, it was Parker.”
Anyone else would have been cowering under Reed’s glare, but it didn’t deter Matt, and even Owen, who seemed a lot quieter, was laughing along. It appeared his friends knew Reed was all bark and no bite. And the more I got to know him, the more I too was realizing his tough exterior was just a façade.
“I think I prefer these stories to the others I’ve been told about you, Reed,” I said.
Matt chuckled. “Heard a few of the rumors, have you?”
“Kinda hard not to,” I replied.
“Well, I’m impressed you were willing to give him a chance seeing as he spends his summers fighting bears in cages.”
“It is pretty impressive that he can bench press over four hundred pounds,” Owen added with a sarcastic smirk.
“Bullshit,” Matt laughed. “That one definitely isn’t true. Reed can barely lift his own arm.”
Reed sighed and lowered his head into his hands, but his two friends just laughed harder. It was difficult not to get caught up and smile along with them. Considering how deliberately Reed shut out most people, moments like these made me feel privileged he let his guard down around me.
“It sounds like you guys have been friends a while,” I said.
“Yep, best friends since our first day of school,” Matt replied. “We both had the same Spider-Man lunchboxes, and I simply can’t ignore a sign from fate.”
“How cute,” I said.
“Not cute. Manly. Totally manly,” Matt replied, making me laugh. Even Reed had managed to break into a slight smile.
“What about you, Violet?” Owen asked. “You’re new to the area, right?”
I’d been briefly distracted while we were chatting and joking about Reed, but now they were all focused on me, I felt slightly nervous again. These boys were all very big and very good-looking. It was a little overwhelming to have their full attention on me.
