Jake and I had ended up moving to random topics in our conversation until Ryver had woken up, he didn't stay here long, since he had to meet up with Justin, but Jake had gotten a ride from him. The gesture was sweet. I didn't expect him to offer his brother a ride.

As odd as that might sound, the two seem to have a strained relationship, considering neither of the two feel comfortable when speaking on the other.

Nonetheless, I hope that both boys come out of that car unscratched, images of them going at each other's head, crosses my mind, hopefully, those are only my messed up thoughts, and none of that actually happens.

I think the best part of my morning is when Ryver waited for Jake to go to the car, and gave me a long hard kiss, it was both unexpected and sweet, and the bonus that he had left with a smile etched on his face.

So, now I sit in my room reliving the memory and hope that there will be many more like it.

*~*~*~*~*

It has been two weeks since me and Ryver have had this whole trying to date thing, and I've been relishing every touch, kiss, and smile that Ryver is offering, replaying all the memories on repeat.

Of course, there's a few downsides to spending time, like the dirty looks from some girls from school.

Melinda being the worst, she hasn't done anything yet, which isn't surprising, I'm sure she has a plan or at least is working on one.

It doesn't sit well with me.

For now, I'll enjoy what I have.

My happiness always dims a bit, every time an old memory surfaces in my mind, but I always try to push them back and remind myself Ryver is different.

He isn't trying to play me, use me, make me his toy, he is genuinely a caring person.

In these two weeks I have also met a few of his friends, though the most I've seen of is Justin, I don't mind, since he seems to be very accepting of me and Ryver's relationship, and is always kind to me.

Today Ryver is going to be hanging with my gang, which is sad, in some ways considering they are also his brother's friends and he has never met them properly before, other than that one time at a party.

He tried to ask me again how I met my friends, especially his brother, though I shut the topic down immediately, still not ready to go down that road, yet at least.

Sooner or later I will have to, though for now I think it's okay.

So that's why now we sit in Ryver's car in front of Jake's apartment, all my friends sitting upstairs, and I have no idea how this will play out.

"So things you should know." I say turning to face him.

"It might be chaotic when we go up." I say cringing, knowing there's a chance Dean or Collin might be acting like five year olds, I don't mind their lack of maturity, sometimes I need a dose of Dean carefree nature.

But it doesn't mean that I know how Ryver wil take it.

"What do you mean?" Ryver asks, raising his eyebrow at me.

"Well, I told Dean to be on his best behaviour, but I never know what I'm walking into when I go over." I laugh. "So just be prepared."

Memories of the time Dean was standing at the counter looking for snacks while Jake yelled at him from the kitchen floor telling him to get down.

Or when I had walked in to find Collin laughing on the sofa Jake as usual the party pooper pissed the hell off that Dean had brought a Mickey Mouse ball, and ended up breaking one of Jake's lamps, while playing with it.

There's at least a hundred more crazy moments in Jake's apartment with not only Dean as the main trouble maker.

But of course Jake is always the serious one.

"Okay..." Ryver says and I can tell he's still confused over what I said.

Hopefully Dean was serious when he said he'll be good, since I did give him candy that Collin has had to stop him from buying because of his addiction to it.

Dean and those sweet candies are like Cat Valentine from Victorious, with bibble.

We kiss once before exiting the car, and I all but hope this goes well.

*~*~*~*~*

R y v e r s   P O V

If you told me a few months ago that I would be hanging out with my brother, who is the best friend of the girl I like and hope to be my girlfriend soon, along with their few friends, I would tell you that you're out of your mind.

But here I am, with Ensleey's hand clutched between mine, our fingers interlocked together, exiting the elevator, walking to my brother's apartment.

I'm still confused on how she came to meet my brother, let alone for him to become her best friend, but I don't question her on it, since it seems to be a complicated topic.

I also don't question Jake on what really happened with Rachel.

Right now my main focus is to get Ensleey to trust me, I think she's almost there, not that she wants to admit that, so I give her time.

Because what else can I give her?

When we reach Jake's door, instead of knocking like I expected her to do, Ensleey swings the door open, and strolls in like she's done this a million times, which I suppose she probably has.

I trail behind her, my hand still clasped in hers.

As she did warn me that it might be chaos, not literally though I can hear yelling.

One voice belongs to my brother.

"Dude you need to calm the fuck down!" My brother voice booms through the apartment, Ensleey's rolls her eyes and steers me towards the kitchen where I see three guys, a guy I saw at the party and told me where Jake was, sitting at the bar stool, the guy who was with my brother at the party standing close to the refrigerator, and my brother who's shooting daggers at him.

"What the hell did he do?" Ensleey's eyes the bunch with suspicion.

"You," The guy at the bar stool points an accusing finger her way. "gave him candy."

"Shit he ate it all already?" She asks, eyeing the boy who's jumping up and down.

"No, of course not Ens, it's not like it's Dean we're talking about here." Sarcasm rolls off my brother's voice, I stand by Ensleey's side confused not knowing what to do.

"Dean has a sugar problem." She whispers to me, but the boy who's jumping up down I now know as Dean, hears her.

"I don't!"

"Yeah sure, I gave you the freaking bag yesterday!"

"Yes, and I've been deprived for years!"

"I gave you candy last week!" The boy who's seated on that stool chimes into the argument, my brother looks at me shaking his head.

"Guys-"

"That was a week and at least two-" He pauses, staring at the ceiling then to his fingers, which he counts on to know-what I'm guessing is the amount of days-when Ensleey warned me I didn't know what I expected, but I definitely didn't expect this.

"It was a week and four days."' He says, narrowing his eyes at who I'm guessing is Collin, from Ensleey's description.

"Oh, ye-"

"Shut the fuck up!" Ensleey says with a small scowl looking over to me, her features forming with an apologetic look. "You wanna scare him away."

I don't say anything feeling uncomfortable with all of them now looking at me.

"Collin," Collin says advances his tattooed hand toward me, I shake it, feeling a little more at ease, with the easy smile he has.

"I'm Dean, the cool one," Dean says, pointing to himself. "I'm Ens's besest friend, like ever."

"No you are not, " Ensleey says. "And bestest ain't a word!"

He sticks his tongue at her. "Whatever you don't have to admit it, for me to know its true"

I watch their interaction feeling like an outsider, which I am.

After that things ease out a bit, we end up watching a movie, which seems to be the norm for them on Sundays, Dean and Collin get into an argument and Ensleey and Jake bet money on who will shut up first, their words not mine.

They ask me if I want to join in, I decline.

When Jake turns out to be right, winning the bet, he brags about it to Ensleey for a while clearly trying to annoy Ensleey.

I don't think I've ever seen my brother like this.

They also tell me that the last member of their group-Chloe-couldn't make it, but I'd meet her at some point.

In the end, it was nice, I didn't expect the day to go as it did, but it definitely was better than expected.

I can even say I enjoyed myself.

Though I have a feeling that me and Ensleey won't have that many more good days.

~~~~~~~~

A u t h o r s   N o t e

Thank you so much for reading, hope you enjoyed!

Please vote and comment.

-R.E