All Yours {BOOK 1 OF THE LAURIE U SERIES}

4| Serial Killers and Cheeseburgers

~Alina~

Hali pulled me into some random cafe with baby blue colored booths and the smell of fries and urine in the air.

She pulled me and Selene into a booth. Aurora had a date with some Medical student.

"This place smells." Selene said wrinkling her nose.

"Like good food." Hali said.

"No, like piss." I said looking at the menu. Hali never ate at the same place twice unless she falls in love. We once drove four hours for burgers that weren't even worth the trip. A girl came over and took our drink order.

I felt eyes on me but I looked around and couldn't find where they were coming from. I looked to the back corner of the restaurant and saw Reece staring at me. What was he doing here?

He waved at me and all the guys in his booth turned to look at me. I waved back and Hali and Selene looked over.

Hali looked back to me with a smile plastered to her lips. "He's cute." she muttered.

"Shut up." I said looking down at my menu.

"How do you know him? Is he single? He's hot. And so are his friends." She turned back to the boys and smiled.

"He's the hockey player who I trained with. I don't know and I don't care. No! He's not. And whatever."

"Whatever floats your boat honey, but he's walking over here with his friends." I looked up and saw his friends walking over with him trailing behind.

"Hi," one of his friend said. "I'm Tucker and that's Callum, that's Caspian and we'll... you know Reece. We're his friends."

I opened my mouth to talk but Hali spoke over me.

"You." she said pointing to Reece. The boys parted like a crowd and Reece tucked his hands into his pockets.

"Yes?" he asked.

Hali whispered something into Selenes ear and she smiled. "Ok you'll do. But if she gets hurt on your watch I'll kill you."

"Hali-" I gritted my teeth.

"Good to know." he said. I looked to Reece and he smiled.

"We'll..." Hali said. And I prayed that she would just stop talking. "You guys want to eat with us. I got to make sure you're not a serial killer." she pointed to Reece again.

"I'm not a serial killer." he said.

"Yeah, that's what they all say." Selene says joining in on the Let's-Embarrass-Alina-Fest!

"There's no where for us to sit." Tucker said.

Hali looked around the cafe. "There." she said pointing to table seating 10.

After grumbling and complaining from both parties we were all seated at the table. Reece sat across from me. While everyone was talking up a storm we sat in silence.

"You did really good today. I honestly don't see what your coaches problem is." he said breaking the silence.

"I do." I said. "Everything you pointed out was true. I'm too stiff. I'm trying to make it look too graceful. Perfection has slowed me down." I said forcing a smile. He chuckled.

"I have a suspicion." he said leaning in. I leaned in to.

"Yes?" I said.

"Our coaches," he said. "I think there's something going on between them."

"And the proof?"

"There isn't any but coach isn't scared of anyone let alone a 5'2 woman who teaches ice skating. He would never bow out that quickly and all she had to do was walk into our locker room yell that she was taking the rink and he stepped back. Literally stepped back!" we both started laughing.

"We'll I can admit that she is a terrifying woman. She's been my coach for 3 years and if she breathes weird I duck for cover." he smiled at me.

Our food is placed in front of us and we all seemed to have a good time.

I'm halfway through my burger when Aurora steps through the door of the cafe wearing a black cocktail dress with a matching clutch at her hip and her hair pinned up with god knows how many bobby pins.

She looked around and spotted us. She slipped into the chair beside Hali and rolled her eyes.

"I think you're a tad overdressed." Hali said. Aurora gave her the finger and leaned over the table to look down at me.

"How was Jared?" I asked.

"An ass." she said. "I got all fancied up. I put high heels for crying out loud and he said... and I quote I was to unprofessional. Like it was a fucking job interview or something." she starts unpinning her hair and the waitress comes around and takes Auroras order.

"Cheeseburger and a water thanks." she says. She looks to the boys likes she's just noticing they're there. "Since when do we have new friends?" she asks.

"We don't." I say.

"Yet." Hali corrects giving me a look.

"Back to me," Aurora says. "I'm still not done." she says and continues to tell us about her awful date.

"Wait!" Tucker says.

"Who are you?" Aurora says.

"Tucker, nice to meet you." They shake hands and he continues. "Y'all really slip out the window. That doesn't just happen in movies?" we all nod.

"How many times has a girl texted you from the 'bathroom' claiming she has stomach issues or girl problems."

"1." Reece says.

"2." Caspian says.

"1." Callum says.

Tucker holds up seven fingers.

"Honey." Hali says placing an arm on his hand. "We've already slipped out the window and are in bed in our sweatpants eating a tub of ice cream."

All of us girls laugh. Tuckers face falls and he looks mortified.

Auroras food arrives and we all go back to our own conversations. Reece turns to me. "How many times have you climbed out of a window."

"5 times." I say. "Most of them were my freshman year. One a month ago."

"What is it that makes you literally climb out a window?"

"We'll this one guy grabbed my ass before we even got to the restaurant. And then tried to grope me under the table. So I told him that I had to pee and got out of there." I put another fry in my mouth. I looked up at him. He was confused and intrigued all the same.

"What's the worst one?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" I said.

"The worst one that you had to climb out a window."

"We'll this isn't really a climbing out the window story but this one guy showed up to a date wearing sweatpants and I was already iffy about him. And then he threw up on me."

"Threw up on you?" he said, eyes wide.

"Yeah. And then after I got cleaned up he wanted to continue the date." I looked down at my empty plate.

"I have new respect for women." he said. The waitress came around and refilled our cups.

"You should. All the crap I've put up with just in college I want a shrine built of me." I said. Reece laughed.