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“None,” she said. “I tended to date guys who had at least a few functioning brain cells.”
He shook his head and lifted his shirt, showing off his six-pack. “Rock-hard abs plus incredible stamina equals no need for functioning brain cells.”
“Aww,” Amara clapped. “And you can do math? Aren’t you just the whole package?”
Ryan stuck his tongue out at her, knocking on the door. A few seconds later, it opened.
“What’s goin’ on, Rook?”
“Hayes,” Ryan leaned in and gave him a half-assed, one-handed hug. “Yo, this is Nick’s cousin…”
“Shit,” Hayes said, his bloodshot eyes widening, a huge smile creeping across his face. “Of course it is. Shit.”
“Tyler?” Amara asked as he reached out to hug her, and they wrapped their arms around each other slowly.
“OK. So apparently you guys know each other.” Ryan threw his hands up and watched them hug for a little bit too long before pulling away from each other. Tyler shut the door behind all of them as Osi walked over.
“Baylor. What is going on?” They hugged briefly, and Osi extended his hand towards Amara. “You are Nick’s beautiful cousin? Is nice to meet you. I’m Aleksey Osinov, but everyone call me Osi.”
She shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, too, Osi.” Amara turned towards Ryan, who looked increasingly uncomfortable. “These the fourth-floor hotties?”
“Guilty,” Hayes said, running his hands through his hair.
“Wow. Thanks for the flowers, Tyler. You’re almost unrecognizable without your lil’ hat and lollipop.”
“Ooh, she call you Tyler. Wait, how you…” Osi stopped mid-thought and covered his mouth. “Ohhhh. She is hot cougar from laundry room?”
“Osi! The fuck?” Hayes waved him off, as Ryan shoved past them into the living room.
“Hot cougar, huh? Nice,” Amara teased, punching him lightly. She went to catch up with Ryan, and Hayes followed.
There were four other very large guys and two heavily made up, scantily clad girls sitting in the living room, where a light cloud of weed smoke hung in the air and some sort of God-awful mumble rap music bumped through the speaker. Amara immediately took notice of the fact that the girls were staring at Ryan and whispering to each other.
“Boys, this is the rook, Ryan Baylor,” Hayes said, as he began to point at each of them. “So, we got Kasic, Dalesy, Seggy, and Jonesy. Yo, this is Dunny’s cousin, Amara. She lives with Rook. And,” he turned to Amara and Ryan, “I don’t know who the fuck the birds are, to be honest. Might be Dalesy’s.” He shrugged and put his arm around Ryan’s shoulder. “First things first: let’s say we get you fuckin’ wasted, Rook.” He led Ryan towards the kitchen, who looked back and signaled for Amara to follow them, so she did.
“And this,” Hayes said, pointing to an older guy sitting at the kitchen counter staring at his phone, “is our resident nut job, Rizz. Formally known as our captain, Matt Rislan.”
“Nut job is a bit harsh,” he said, taking a long pull off a pen. “I’m just more awake than most.”
“Yeah, if you want a good conspiracy theory, Rizz is your guy. Flat Earth, 9/11, the Titanic. Fucker is straight-up insane. Gimme that,” Hayes said, grabbing the pen from him and pulling. “Oh, and I almost forgot the best part.” He exhaled the smoke. “He’ll ‘read you’ and let you know what kind of energy you have.” Hayes looked over at Amara and Ryan, put his finger to his temple, and made the “crazy” motion with it.
“Crazy as it is, am I usually right?” Rizz asked, not looking up from his phone.
“Totally. It’s fuckin’ terrifying, honestly,” Hayes said, lining up four disposable shot glasses and filling them with Canadian whisky.
“Ugh, not that piss again,” Rizz complained.
“Shut up and drink it.” He handed them to Ryan and Amara. He picked his up and tapped Ryan’s with it. “Here’s to new friendships, and,” he turned to Amara, “whatever else.”
They all threw it back, and Ryan immediately reached for the bottle, refilling his shot. He slammed that one down too, snaked an arm around Amara’s shoulder, then looked at Hayes. “How’s your girlfriend? She good?”
“Uh oh,” Hayes said, throwing his hands up. “Rook’s gettin’ all territorial over his roomie. Lower your leg, killer. It was just some innocent flirting while waiting for our laundry, that’s all. Right, Amanda?” He winked at her.
“Sure,” she said quietly. Sensing Ryan’s uneasiness, she changed the subject. “What else do you have to drink around here?”
Someone called for Hayes from the living room. “Hold on, I’m comin’! Yeah, help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge,” Hayes said on his way out.
Amara went and grabbed a beer from the fridge, and as she walked back, Ryan was tossing back another shot of whisky. “Careful. That nasty shit sneaks up on you,” Rizz warned. “You two, you’re together?”
