The Fighter and His Tiger (Unexpected Love #1)

26. Sunday Week Nine (pt2.)

Eli's sweatshirt^

26. Sunday Week Nine (pt2.)

Turned out that Kinsey, Kiara, and Tori were all over at Lana's house so they basically ambushed me with a girls night; not that I could complain, I was in desperate need of it.

Of course, us being us, we all ended up drinking (except Tori) and by the end of the night, we were ordering a drunk pizza each. We were all sat on the floor of Lana's bedroom, surrounded by blankets, pillows, and a crapload of empty cans when Kinsey dropped a bombshell.

"I'm seeing someone," Kinsey blurted out

Everyone stopped eating their pizzas to look over at her in shock. So far all we had done was gossip and giggle about mindless things, I guess this was the start of real talk.

"Who?" Kie asked her

"His name is Derek. He's on the soccer team at school and I met him at work. He came into the bakery with some of his friends and asked me out," she shrugged, "he was cute so I said yes and well, yeah. That was about three weeks ago."

"Three weeks!?" I barked, "why the hell have you not us?"

Kinsey gave a pointed look to the sweatshirt I was wearing, Eli's sweatshirt, "probably for the same reason you haven't told us about Ryker. I didn't really know how to."

Lana frowned, "what do you mean, 'you didn't know how.'"

Kinsey gave another shrug, "there hasn't really been an opportunity. All we do is drink and party when we are together," she motioned around to all of us, "this is the first girls night we have had in a while where we actually talk."

Damn, she was right.

"Well, we're all here now so tell us everything," Tori demanded with a soft smile.

Kinsey's smile lit up her whole face as she spoke, "okay, so he's actually adorable. He's so sweet and kind and really thoughtful which you obviously never get in a guy nowadays-"

"True," Kie agreed

"-Things have been going really well. We are pretty much on the phone all the time, he met my mum last week and she loves him, Kora's still unsure but I think that's partly because she doesn't like any guy I date."

"Okay, but what about us," Lana exclaimed, "when do we get to meet him."

There was a roundabout murmur of agreement before Kinsey promised, "I was thinking maybe Halloween. We are bound to be doing something chill with the whole group so there's no better time. Anyway, enough of that. Rei," all their eyes flickered over to me, great, "what's going on with you and Ryker?"

Lana snatched my pizza slice out of my hand before I could shove it in my mouth as an excuse not to talk, she got a glare in return. "I'm not exactly sure what it is. I mean, it's serious or at least I hope it is because I told him everything last night."

"Everything?" Tori questioned

I nodded, "everything."

"Wait, are you talking about Marcus?" Kie confirmed. She knew what had happened, we had all agreed to tell her but I couldn't bring myself to so Lana had filled her in a few weeks ago.

"Mierda," Lana breathed out — I knew that meant 'shit' because naturally, I had made her teach me all the Spanish swear words — Lana stared at me dead in the eye, "so this is serious."

Nervous under their scrutiny I began playing with a wayward curl, shrugging as I replied, "yeah, I guess. I've obviously already met his mum and his siblings and then he took me to meet his grandma last weekend which was nice. The only person I haven't met is his dad who he refuses to talk about," a frown graced my features as I recalled how Eli had shut down when I questioned him about his father.

"Yeah, his dad is kind of a douche," we all looked over at Kie, "none of us really know much about him, just that he's an asshole and I'm pretty sure he deals in some seriously illegal shit."

My brows rose, that would explain a lot.

"That's nice and all, but have you had sex with him yet?"

Tori practically choked on her diet coke whilst Kie and Kins both laughed whilst giving me matching looks of curiosity.

I rolled my eyes, "no," I snatched my pizza slice back, "we haven't had sex yet. Actually, now that I think about it, the closest we got was at the twin's birthday party," I cringed at how awful that sounded, thank god we'd been interrupted.

"No shit," Kie admonished, "you would've slept with him then?"

I wanted to say: obviously, have you seen how physically perfect he is. But instead, I settled for a careless shrug.

"What the fuck, Rei?" My head whipped around to look at Lana, "that was three weeks ago!? What have you been doing with your time since then?"

I mulled it over for a moment, "arguing mostly," I took a bite of my pizza and then like the lady I am, continued speaking, "we do that a lot."

Tori nodded, "I can imagine that. You're quite stubborn and he doesn't seem like one to back down either. It makes sense that you would clash."

"It's weird but we just work really well together, when we aren't arguing that is, I don't know, I've never had this before."

"What does Noah think?" Kinsey asked.

"We actually got into a massive fight about it last night. I lied to him and he was furious. I don't know what to do," my voice was as quiet but I was sick of feeling sorry for myself. I was going to fix things with Noah but I needed the advice of my friends to do it.

"He probably needs time to cool off first," Kinsey said.

"Yeah, and then you want to try and make it up to him, Rei. Start with the truth. Just tell him everything and he's guaranteed to come round," Tori's wise words of wisdom.

Kie spoke next, reassuring me, "babe, we all see your relationship with Noah. He absolutely adores you. Just give him some space and I'm sure it will all figure itself out."

"What is it that he's mad about in particular?"

I turned to face Lana, "he thinks that I am going to end up hurt just like Sienna was or he thinks that what happened with Marcus will happen all over again."

Kie frowned, "why would he think that?"

"He's thought that all guys, since it happened, are going to end up hurting me so I think it's just his way of protecting me I guess," I sighed, "doesn't help that he found us in a boxing gym together."

"A boxing gym?!"

"Yeah, Eli's been teaching me how to fight," I chose my wording carefully, "he told me about how he fights to let off steam and I needed it you know, it makes me feel safe like I'm in control. Noah showed up at the gym to train, I guess, saw me and then saw Eli. I had a mild panic attack, Eli calmed me down and then it all just blew up from there."

Tori pulled me into a hug which then led to all the girls basically just jumping on top of me for a huge group hug. I couldn't stop myself from laughing and I felt immensely grateful to have them in my life.

When we all pulled away, Lana gave me a pointed look, "one good thing has come out of all this though," Lana waggled her eyebrows, "you and Ryker."

I laughed again, but then a serious thought suddenly popped into my head so I focused all of my attention onto Lana, "how did you know you were in love with Jasper?"

"Oh shit," Kinsey breathed.

Lana's face was one of complete and utter shock, "you think you love him?"

"I think I'm falling in love with him."

Lana's face moulded into one of sympathy, "oh cariño, that just means you already have."

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There are some conversations that you can only have with your girlfriends^

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