AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He chuckles. "Doesn't mean I'm not going to tell him to stay away from you. Not that he's been doing that very well either. Drew does what he wants. Always has."
"Sounds like someone else I know."
We enter the house, and a chill skitters down my spine. What if Seb is wrong, and Drew is here anyway? And I have to sit and endure pizza with him and his friends.
Seb leads me into a clean, modern kitchen I still remember from the party, and I plop at the countertop bar. I duck my chin to hide my blush as I remember that night and what happened after I left the party.
Lee stands on the other side, a pizza box in hand, his light hair mussed, his v-neck T-shirt showing off his golden skin.
Aries stands next to him, almost twice as wide, a big dude, his dark curls tucked back with a black elastic headband. They both eye me like a snake they accidentally walked up on.
"Hi," I say.
Lee recovers first and sets the pizza out on the counter. "Pepperoni? Mushrooms? What's your pleasure?" He slaps Aries on the chest. "Don’t be rude. Get the lady a beer."
Aries narrows his eyes in suspicion, but he still turns to grab a beer out of the massive stainless steel fridge. He opens it with one hand and plunks it down in front of me. Some foam escapes the top, and I reach to grab it and lick the edge of the bottle when Lee hands me a plate with a couple of slices of pizza on it.
Pizza is pizza in all its beautiful forms so I don't request anything else and finish cleaning up the beer mess while I nibble on the pepperoni and banana pepper piece I pick up first.
Sebastian sits beside me, tosses his jacket on a nearby empty chair, and greets his friends. "Look at us, doing normal happy family shit."
Lee chuckles, and Aries just stares between us like we might randomly attack him at any moment.
Eventually, Aries settles down and pulls a stool to the other side of the counter to sit on. He cradles a plate stacked high with pieces of mushroom and sausage against his chest.
Seb picks at a piece of pepperoni and cheese. Lee doesn't bother with a plate or chair. Instead, he sits on the counter and folds his slice in half, eating it bite by bite.
Once he chews, he eyes everyone. "Yeah, this is fun. Not awkward as fuck or anything."
We all chuckle and eat. Lee tosses another slice on my plate. "How's school going? Are you getting caught up?"
I groan. "Yes. It's easy to study when I don't have to juggle a job and money."
He nods. "Yeah. I can only imagine. We're all spoiled rich boys who've never had to deal with school tuition." He says it as a joke, but there's something under his tone that's darker and has a jagged edge I'm not getting near.
I glance back at Aries, who is stacking his plate again. Where the hell did he put all that? I glance among the men. "Did he even eat, or did he just inhale his food like a vacuum?"
They all laugh, even Aries, who then shrugs.
"Why do you think we get so much pizza?" Lee says, waving to the stacked boxes for the four of us. "Drew can have leftovers."
The mention of Drew's name makes the smile slip off my face, and the tension returns to the room.
"Way to go, asshole," Aries mutters to Lee.
Lee doesn't even flinch. "So what is going on between you two? I saw you kiss one of the new kids at the party? He's still alive, by the way, for now. Not sure how long that will last, though."
Seb grabs another slice of piece, this time a sausage and mushroom, even as Aries growls at him. "Let's not dive into that conversation, Lee. Let’s just sit and have a nice relaxing dinner."
Aries snorts. “I hate to break it to you, boss, but nothing about dinner is relaxing.”
Seb ignores Aries's pointed comment and stares at Lee. "How’s life for you? What about your girl? The one your family is setting you up with?"
Lee grumbles under his breath and shoves half a slice of pizza in his mouth. After he swallows, he licks his fingers. "Apparently, we are getting married. Because that works so well in our world. They’re calling it an arranged marriage.”
I consider his words. "Is that what was happening with Drew and that girl at the party?"
Sebs sighs like he would love anything better than talking about Drew for five minutes. "Yes. His father forced him to spend time with her for some business thing. And he made it very clear that Drew had to do anything and everything she wanted."
