I can’t help the chuckle that falls from my mouth at the thought of Sienna feeding my ex-boyfriend to her pet ferret. We spend a few more seconds simply embracing one another as Denver and Georgia’s loud footsteps travel towards us.
“Was it my cousin? If it was my cousin, I'll call his mom on him!” Denver exclaims as she enters the room, she jumps on the bed with bright eyes, her ruby red lips curled in a large menacing smile.
Denver’s like the missing piece in our friend puzzle; she fit right in perfectly when I introduced her to Sienna and Georgia and she’s also been the only other person who can go “shot for shot” with the crazy blonde.
I shake my head at her antics with a small smile and stretch. “No, but, he did text me.” I chuckle, showing the girls the recent messages. Denver grimaces as Sienna and Georgia each smile at the text.
“C’mon, ladies, enough moping around. We have sweaty football players to watch!”
The boys are losing so bad it’s not even funny. When we’d gotten to the Tawny Reeds Stadium, it was filled to the brim with both SFU and Rhode Island University students, all excited for the first game of the season and all signs pointed to a win from Summerfield. We’d pre-gamed with a few of the frat guys from Omega Tau, and Georgia (to no one's surprise) did a keg stand with them.
Our spirits were finally high after being so low back at the apartment, only for them to droop tremendously after the very first play where SFU fumbled the ball after being tackled by the largest man I’ve ever seen in my life.
From there, the game went downhill and I can just feel the anger radiating from both my brother and Tatum from here.
“I thought you two said this would be fun…” Denver whispers to Georgia and me, her eyes locked on the field as she frowns.
Georgia sighs, running a hand through her straightened hair. “It usually is! I don’t know what’s going on with Ry but hey! It’s only the first quarter…they can still make a comeback,” she says skeptically.
I frown, my eyes never wavering from the field as the Rhode Island Rams score again, bringing the score to 4-12.
“Hockey is way more interesting,” a deep voice whispers so close to my ear that the hair on the back of my neck raises; I jump looking over at the smilingculprit. Our faces are so close that our noses are just shy of touching as the minty smells of his breath invades my senses.
“Why are you here?” I ask, trying and failing to sound cold as Blake’s smile grows wider, resembling the Cheshire Cat.
“Well, madam… If you actually read my text instead of just opening it, you would see that I told you I’d be here and that we also have to work on our project tonight.” Blake shrugs leaning back, my eyes rake over him unconsciously noting his backwards cap, SFU Hockey tee, and dark light-washed jeans.
“She has plans,” Georgia interjects the grinning Blake; his smile falters for a second before it returns to its usual bright state.
“No she doesn’t,” he retorts cheekily.
Denver groans from beside me, clearly annoyed by her cousin's presence.
“Yes she does, you idiot. Her brother invited us out for the night.”
“He invited us too!” Jace speaks up from beside Blake. I jump from the sound of my best friend’s voice; I’d been staring at Blake for so long that I didn’t even notice the hoard of hockey players, plus a toddler, behind us.
“Oh, fuck me sideways, why are you here?Don’t you have some girl to paint or something?”Georgia looks at the toddler and whispers before rolling her eyes and popping her gum as she looks Jace over with disdain.
He mimics the eye roll and sighs. “Did Halloween come early, or have my nightmares come true, Peach?”
He got her riled up instantly and the two of them began bickering like cats and dogs. Usually, I’d step in and cut them off before they could even start, but the roar of the crowd draws my attention back down to the field.
“Number 21, Ryan Santiago-Jones with a touchdown!”
The crowd erupts in boisterous cheers, everyone jumping out of their seats cheering for my brother, and soon enough, the game starts to turn around.
“We’re all going to 88UP tonight after the game, the teams usually go there whether we win or lose to let off some steam. You guys are more than welcome to join.” An invitation from Blake has my reluctant cheeks heating from his unwavering eye contact.
“We. Have. Plans,” I say, getting closer to his face with every word before turning quickly back to the field.
The game goes on with the SFU Tigers leading by 15 points, we watch as Ryan and Tatum dominate the field racking up points with ease as Rhode Island’s defense begins to waver. In the end, SFU takes home the win leaving us with a whopping 45-26.
Immediately after the game, we all go down to the locker rooms to wait for Ryan and Tatum.
Denver groans, shifting her weight on her heels as she leans back against the wall. She wasn’t lying when she said she hated football, she was unamused the entire game and confused about what was happening on the field. It took Georgia explaining the game and its rules for Denver to somewhat understand it.
“Now listen up losers… When my man comes out those doors, don’t say anything to him. Just let him come home to mama.” Georgia grins before curling her lips into a snarl as she makes eye contact with Jace. The boys (though no one asked them to) decided that they would follow us down to the locker rooms. Along the way, Sienna declared that she wasn’t feeling up to partying. Derek also announced that he had to take his adorable daughter, Delilah, home as well so the two of them left together since we’d driven Georgia’s car here.
