I got out the uber, thanking the man before shutting the door behind me, approaching Lara's house. Her car wasn't outside and the front door open so I wondered in without knocking, hands in my pockets.
"Lara? Alejandro?"

"I'm upstairs!" The boy shouted, making me kick off my shoes and run up the staircase, pushing open the door to the spare room hesitantly to find him laying on his bed the wrong way with his back up against the wall.

"Y'alright?" I asked, sinking into the spot next to him that he gestured for me to sit in.
He nodded, "Fill me in on the drama, come on."
"Urgh," I groaned, "Let's just talk about something else. What did you do today?"

He looked at me annoyed, rolling his eyes, "Out with the boys this morning, did a food shop with Lara then just been chilling since. Now tell me what happened with you."

I laughed, realising he wasn't gonna be pleasant until he knew what was going on.
"My parents didn't show up to the game and then Bukayo had a go at me for it, saying I was lying and that basically because they love him they're always at his games and I just wouldn't know about it. I told him that weren't fair to say and he said I'm not being fair by trying to turn him against them," I threw up my hands, "I was literally so nice about it. Lied and said something must've just came up and I'm sure they would've loved to have come but he weren't hearing none of it and just said all that shit to me."

"I'm sure he didn't mean it," Alejandro winced as he listened to the story, "Playing a big game like that's stressful and he's probably just in denial that his parents let him down. It's nothing to do with you, just shoot the messenger I guess."

"Yeah well I don't care. He knows things that my parents have done to me that nobody else does, yet he has the audacity to talk to me like that. 'You wouldn't know?' Fuck off!" I groaned, putting my hands in my hair.

He looked at me sympathetically, "You're right, he shouldn't have said it but I doubt he meant it like that. He probably weren't thinking."
"Well it's done now, is what it is. Tell me about your day properly this time," I laughed, shrugging the situation off.

He smiled, leaning his head against the wall and looking up, almost to recollect everything that happened in his mind.
"Well this morning the guys and I just hung about. Went corner shop and ate a bunch of shit in the park, cracked joke. Then-"
I laughed loudly, "Since when do you know all this slang? These lot are bad influences for real!"

He rolled his eyes, shaking his head, "Came back around two and went with Lara to Tescos. We were in there for literally an hour and a half, I was dying. I wouldn't have gone if Jayden wasn't such a dick and agreed to taking turns. I don't know how you ever dated him."
I shrugged, "Free weed."

He tried to hold in his laugh, not wanting to encourage me obviously using weed but my abruptness of just openly saying it made it too hard for him to restrain himself as he burst out laughing.
"No it isn't funny," he shook his head, biting his bottom lip, "I'm not laughing."

"Oh by the way," he sat up a bit on his shoulder, "Aryan was gonna come round for a bit but it's completely fine if you wanna just chill. I know he can be a bit much."
We laughed at that as I shook my head, "No it's okay. I came last minute and messed with your plans, I'm not gonna make you cancel them."
"Good because he probably would've climbed through a window or something anyway," he shrugged as if it were a normal thing as my eyes widened.
"That kid's got issues."

———

We spent the next forty minutes just chatting shit and pissing ourselves as we waited for Aryan to turn up. We heard the front door open and so I got up to stretch my legs, jogging down the stairs.

"Aryan you've gotta list- Oh," Jayden was stood in front of the still open door and on his phone, looking up when he heard my voice and smirking.
"Didn't know you were here," he returned his phone to his pocket and kicked the door shut as I pulled a face at his action.

"You wouldn't have, it was last minute. You know doors have a handle so you can close them nicely?"

He laughed, "You've always got jokes. I've missed you I can't lie."
"Well I weren't joking and I ain't missed you," I turned around to make my way back upstairs, feeling him close behind me as I sped up in the direction of Alejandro's room.

"Oh so you're fucking the guy who don't even speak English now? Jesus Dele I ain't known you were that desperate," he started laughing.
"We're mates and he speaks better English than you do bruv," I rolled my eyes, trying to keep walking but his hand on my shoulder stopping me.

"But he's like part of my family now innit, you can't get with your exes brother."
I started laughing, "Brother? Family? You better start treating him like that before you go claiming he is. And for the last fucking time, he's my friend."

"How come he gets to be your mate but I don't? We've know each other time and you just cut me out your life like I was nothing."
"You're a joker. He's not a cheating dick who relies on weed to have a good time, that's why he's better than you. You didn't deserve to be part of my life in the first place, you were a shit friend and an even shittier boyfriend."

"I was a sick boyfriend, you wouldn't know what a good one was if he was standing right in front of you," he laughed, insinuating himself as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Then it was my turn to laugh, "I do know what a good boyfriend is because somebody managed to step up and actually show me how a boyfriend should be."

His eyebrows furrowed as his expression screwfaced, "What? Who? Since when?"
"Don't you worry about that," I patted his shoulder patronisingly, "In a bit."
He continued to shout and ask questions but I ignored him, walking down the hallway to Ale's room and hearing Jayden huff and slam his own bedroom door. The man was a child.

"What was that about?" Balde was sat up against his headboard now as I laid sideways on the other end of his bed.
"Just Jayden being Jayden," I huffed as he laughed and we heard the doorbell ring, "For fucks sake, now the boy gets here."

I jogged downstairs, pulling open the door to see Aryan stood in the rain, his windbreaker only doing so much.
"Get inside you idiot," I pulled his arm, bringing him into the house.
"You good? Jandro said you weren't doing great," he slapped his arms to get the water off him, making me flinch and back up a bit.
"Yeah I'm calm, don't worry about it."

He passed me a small black plastic bag, the ones you'd get from the corner shop, "Well I got you some shit anyway."
My face broke out into a grin, "Aw see you do love me really."
"Shut the fuck up," he grumbled, kicking his shoes off and following me upstairs.

I sat cross legged on the floor, eating some strawberry laces from the bag and just letting the two of them catch up a bit.

"Dele chuck me one," the curly head propped himself up so he could try catch it, "That was a shit throw!"
"You're just shit at catching!"

"Gonna have to agree with her on that one bro, how did you not catch that?" Ale spoke up, face wincing at the unsportiness of his friend.
He pushed him, "Shut up! I play basketball, my catchings fine!"
"I play basketball too, my throwings fine," I folded my arms as he rolled his eyes.
"I'm not getting out of this one am I?"
"Nope."

We spent the next hour cracking joke and eventually moved down into the living room to play some fifa. Aryan bigged himself up so much but lost to me six times. I also only played him six times to put things into perspective.

I watched as he screamed at the TV whilst Alejandro ran with the ball closer and closer to his goal.
"Fucking run! I'm telling this dickhead to run and it won't! Your controllers are shit that's why I'm losing!"
I opened my mouth, ready to back Jandro but was interrupted by my ringtone.
"I'll be back in a minute."

Balde nodded to me whilst the younger boy paid no attention, staring intently at the screen. I pressed answer, sitting on the bottom step of the staircase and listening to my boyfriends voice, a smile forming on my face.

"Ayodele it was sick! We were on the coaches to go back to campus but they fucking broke down, can you believe it? And we were literally in central london, it was so fun. We were crowded by all these fans and the next thing you know, speakers are playing, drinks are being passed about. It was a whole fucking parade and we've only won one game."

"I'm in the car with Jadon and Raz right now, we wanted to stay longer and Jadon's car was at his mums. Sorry I'm rambling, how are you? How's things going?" he spoke quick, excited to fill me in but tone changing as he started feeling bad.
"Don't say sorry, I like hearing you talk," I smiled giddily and thankfully he wasn't there to see me simping, "And yeah, everything's good."

"I miss you, when you coming back?" he asked, causing the same old butterflies in my stomach. It didn't matter how long we were dating, I think he'd always have that affect on me.

"I'll see if I can get Ale to drop me once he's done with this game. Aryan came over and we've been playing fifa," I explained.
"You won yeah?" he asked and I could imagine. the grin on his face.
"Pftt, obviously. Do you expect any less?"
He laughed, knowing how competitive I was, "Nope."

There was talking over his end of the phone for a minute, "We can pick you up if you want. We'll be passing through in about half an hour anyway."
"Yeah please, tell Jadon I said thanks."

"You can tell him when we get there, he's pissing me off," he started laughing as I heard the guy in question start to shout in the background.

"Well I'll leave you to it but I'll see you in a bit, yeah?" I wrapped up the call as the two guys had their own conversation.
"No I'm sorry, don't go. The dickhead's just obsessed and wanted to talk to me. I'm all ears, tell me about this evening."
I laughed, "It's fine, I'll see you later."
"No," he groaned, "I wanna talk to you."

"Tell Sanch to put his foot down and maybe I'll be talking to you in twenty minutes instead of thirty," I laughed, "I love you."
"I love you too sweetheart but I don't think telling Jadon to go faster will result to us getting to you alive."

I started laughing until I felt somebody behind me, making me pull the phone away from my ear and turn around from the step I was sat on. Jayden was stood on one a few up from me, "So this is the boyfriend?"
"Yeah and what about it?" I scoffed.
"You don't love him, that was a lie."
I furrowed my eyebrows before laughing, "What the fuck?"
"You're still in love with me, everybody knows."

I was about to retaliate until I heard Alejandro calling my name.
"Ayodele! He lost again, come on you gotta play the winner!"
I put the phone back to my ear, "I'm sorry, I'm gonna go. Bell me when you're near."
"That's alright, we'll see you in a bit. Love you," his voice was louder as he shouted over Raheem and Jadon's arguing.
I laughed, "Love you too, in a bit."

I slipped the phone into my pocket, grimacing as I looked at Jayden's face but deciding on not saying anything for once and instead walking back into the living room.

Aryan chucked me the controller, "You better fucking win, he's pissing me off."
"Of course I'm gonna win," I laughed cockily as Jandro raised an eyebrow.
"We'll see about that."