29. Derek
“Talk about a fucking plot twist…” Blake says, his jaw dropped as the storyline finishes on our video game. He runs a hand through his hair, turning to look at the rest of us on the couch, and sighs.
Jace comes into the living room, plopping down on the seat next to Ryan with a groan.
“Mama Bear, can you please go back to cooking our meal preps? I hate to say it because I love my girl, but she can’t cook to save her life…”
Ryan smacks Jace upside his head with a small laugh as Jace pulls out the burnt chocolate chip cookies that Sienna made for us.
I grimace as he taps the cookie on the table, and it makes a clanging noise instead of crumbling like a normal sweet treat.
“You better eat every single one of those cookies too, Si Si was so excited to make them…” Ryan says, hiding his laugh as Jace rolls his eyes, settling in his seat on the couch.
He pops one of the cookies in his mouth, grimacing as he eats it, and throws on the fakest smile known to man. “Delicious…”
Smirking, I pick up one of the cookies and pop it into my mouth. They're hard with a burnt taste, like she left them in the oven too long and tried to fix it by putting them in the fridge. I scrunch my face as I swallow it and turn to the group.
“Who called this emergency MMA meeting?” I ask, twisting to face the guys as Ryan quirks a brow.
“MMA?” he muses.
“Married Man Anonymous.”
He looks between the three of us, amused, before chuckling. “Last time I checked, only one of you dingus’ was married.”
Jace waves him off, shaking his head.
“Sienna and I are getting married—no doubt about that. Blake will probably convince Cleo to marry him, so that leaves you to figure out your shit with Denver. I’ve got a plan for us to all live on the same street in ten years, and you’re the only one not following through…”
This guy…
Ryan and I share a look. Both Sienna and Cleo are his relatives, so I highly doubt he wants to hear Jace talk about them, but he shrugs and slumps his shoulders before getting comfortable on the couch.
Blake settles into his spot on the couch, placing down his controller, “First rule of MMA, no one talks about MMA. We keep our chat between us, the girls can be a little—”
“Crazy. They can be crazy as fuck. Don’t let any of them know about the chat,” Jace says, giving me a pointed look as I laugh.
Georgia’s already seen the chat, and she thinks it’s cute.
“Second rule of MMA, we hold one another accountable. I don’t want to see any bullshit from any of us. Happy wife, happy life. Capiche?”
I chuckle. “That was already a given, Wilder.”
Blake sighs. “Capiche or what?”
We all heed and agree with him. “Capiche.”
Ryan speaks up, “Now, can you three help me with making Denver my girlfriend? I think she’s loosening up to the idea of it and—”
Blake cuts him off, “Just ask her. You’ve been toying around with your feelings since the start of the fall semester. Stop being a baby and ask her out.”
Ryan frowns, looking to me for help. I grimace.
“I don’t think I asked G to marry me… We just kind of woke up that way.” I chuckle, scratching the back of my neck as Jace frowns, twisting to face me.
“You haven’t formally asked her to marry you?”
Blake pipes up now, fully invested in the conversation, “You’ve at least taken her on a date, right?”
“I…” I trail off as the guys gasp.
Blake and Jace hop off the couch, communicating with their eyes before leaving Ryan and me alone in our spots. The two of us share confused looks, and before we know it, Jace and Blake are reentering the living room with a humongous dry-erase board and bright smiles on their faces.
“How to get the girl—Medium Hard edition,” Jace announces, writing the words on the board as Blake gives us a grin.
Blake stalks the length of the living room like a professor commanding a lecture. He pauses in front of the television, a gleam in his eyes as he gestures to the board.
“Here’s how to get the girl—”
Frowning, I shake my head. “I’ve already got her… Shouldn’t I stand up there with you two?”
Jace shakes his head. “Absolutely not, you need as much help as Captain ‘I can’t tell if the girl I’ve been obsessed with likes me back’ over there.
Both of you have strange cases. Denver clearly likes Ryan, but she hasn’t talked about taking the next step with him.
You’ve completed every damn step under the guise of being married, but the two of you haven’t dated yet. ”
I guess he’s right… Georgia and I woke up married. We’d only hung out in a romantic sense a few times.
“First things first, get her to like you.” Blake grins deviously, pointing to the board as Ryan sighs.
“We know they like us…” He frowns as Jace shakes his head.
“Both Denver and Georgia can’t stand me; what’s to say they don’t just tolerate you?”
I tilt my head at him, wanting to laugh in his face at the thought.
“If they just tolerated us, there’d be no way that Georgia and I share a bed every night and that Denver lets Ryan around her…
They want us to be there with them, therefore they like us.
” I shrug, but the shaking of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum’s heads has me second-guessing myself until Ryan speaks up.
“I know that it has something to do with her parents. She’s not willing to get into a relationship because of them. Besides, Derek probably has the best case out of all of us, so shouldn’t he be the one to give the advice?”
Jace and Blake share a confused look. “Mama Bear needs this advice more than anyone…” Blake frowns.
I run a hand through my hair. “You two are assholes…”
Jace ignores me, placing notebooks in front of the both of us. “He’s only ever been in one other relationship—when he was seventeen, which is also when he had Deli, so it’s safe to say he needs all the help he can get.”
I knew I shouldn’t have told those dickheads that…
Ryan gives me a bewildered look as he picks up the notebook, turning to a blank page.
“Dude, really?!” I exclaim, looking pointedly between Ryan, the notebook, and the two idiots standing in front of us.
“We need all the help we can get...”
“Why do you look like you're being held against your will? It’s just ice cream, asshole,” Sienna chides, slapping my shoulder as we walk into the ice cream parlor, Scoops Up.
Muttering, I follow behind her, “If only you knew…”
Jace and Blake spent forty-five minutes attempting to instill the art of “Getting the Girl” into our brains before giving Ryan and me a “pop quiz.” The “pop quiz” being them randomly questioning us about what they’d “taught us” while we played a round of COD.
Sienna tucks a piece of her blue hair behind her ear as we take a seat at one of the tables in the parlor. I tilt my head, eyeing her.
“Wasn’t your hair purple last week?”
She nods, her eyes bright as she unlocks her phone, showing me a picture of the purple hair she’d been rocking. I raise a brow at her.
She rolls her eyes, placing the phone down, and eating a spoonful of her lavender ice cream.
“That’s the art of Black hair, Derek. I learned how to do wigs a few years ago because I was in the drama club back in high school and decided to try it out on myself. What do you think? Do I look like an elf?” she asks, leaning across the table, her eyes wide like a maniac.
Unbothered, I tilt my head and nod before taking a bite of my ice cream. “You weirdly do…”
Sienna fist pumps the air with a smile, “Good… I needed a change after dealing with Daisy a few days ago—I was starting to fear that she’d follow me around because of my hair.”
My spine stiffens, the air around us becoming frigid in an instant, goosebumps riddle my flesh as I zero in on Sienna. She takes another spoonful of her ice cream, frowning as she eats.
“Daisy?”
She grimaces, taking another bite of her ice cream.
Since becoming friends, there are very few things that I’ve learned about Sienna, and the main one is that she can’t hold anything in when she’s cornered.
I harden my gaze on her, leaning across the table, noting the way she avoids eye contact with me.
She picks up a spoonful of ice cream, and as she’s about to eat it, I snatch the spoon away.
“You’re hiding something.”
She scoffs, “And you’re harboring my ice cream…”
I purse my lips at her as we stare one another down. I eat the ice cream from her spoon and smile when she groans, giving in.
“Why didn’t you tell me that your ex-girlfriend was my dance partner? I mean, it would’ve been nice to know ahead of time—”
I reel back, my heart rate kicking up a notch as Sienna’s words hit me like a truck. “I’m sorry… What?!”
Sienna jumps, her eyes widening, “Daisy—you didn’t know that she was a student here?”
My mind whirls as I think back on the past few months of school and frown as I come up with nothing. I had joked about seeing her a while ago, thinking that my mind was playing tricks on me—but to know that she was actually here this entire time has my heart racing.
What was she doing here? Did she know I go to school here?
Is Georgia okay? Has she seen her?
Fuck.
“Based on that look you’re giving me right now, I guess it’s safe to say that you had no idea…” she trails off, grimacing as I slump down in the chair.
“Please don’t tell me this story gets worse.”
She makes a face, “Welllllll…”
My face drops. She can’t be fucking serious right now…
“She spat at Georgia—don’t give me that damn look.
Do you really think that I would let someone spit on her?
No, as soon as she tried to, Georgia and I knew what she was trying to do, and we stepped out of the way.
I had to physically drag your wife away from her, and by the time she’d calmed down, she told me everything.
You picked a crazy one, by the way…” Sienna says between bites of ice cream.
My jaw is on the ground as my mind struggles to comprehend what she’s telling me.
“I’m sorry… What?!”
She sighs. “Yeah… G didn’t tell you?”