Playing Games

Back to Reality

The rest of the day we hang around the house not doing much. My flight leaves early tomorrow morning, so I mainly spent my time hanging out with Adam and Christine, as well as the rest of our little group. "Okay so, Adam and I have an announcement-" Christine says as she was quickly interrupted my Jay and Smitty simultaneously, "YOU'RE PREGNANT!" "Yeah, no. Not pregnant thank you very much" Christine says laughing at the two boys. "We love you guys and wanted to do something with y'all that's like a honeymoon but like we're all together, ya know?" Adam says, vaguely explaining the situation. "So you want us to go on your honeymoon with you?" Nick says questionably. "No! We want you all to fly out to Hawaii a week earlier than the wedding so we can spend the week together, partying and prepping for the wedding! Wouldn't that be fun!" Christine says excitedly. "Wow, really? That sounds amazing! I'm in" Marine says and Jay quickly agrees. "Fuck yeah, I'm hella down" Smitty says quickly. "Sounds like a blast, can't wait!" Nick says. "I'm always down to party with y'all" Austin responds, leaving the rest of the group to look at me. "Absolutely, id love too!" I say reaching over to pull Adam and Christine into a hug. "Oh my god, yes! Okay, ill plan everything out. You guys just make sure you're available for the dates and I'll handle the rest! This is going to be amazing!" Christine says immediately getting up to run over to her laptop, already eager to plan the vacation out.

A few hours later we all settle into the living room, pigging out on the hundreds of dollars of Postmates we all ordered. Austin takes the empty seat next to me, and I'm glad we have come to an agreement to keep things purely platonic. "You know Sof, its gonna kind of be weird without you around. You're one of us now, no escaping it" Smitty says as he stuffs a large bite of food in his mouth. I smile at his comment. "Yeah, I told y'all she's great. But it won't be too long. We'll see each other for the wedding and ill finally convince her to move out here" Adam says. "You know id love too, but I got a life in LA" I say sipping on my glass of wine. I didn't really have a life, but it was what was comfortable to me. I was always terrified of change. "What work and some friends? Convince the to come out too, they'll do it" Adam says back to me knowing damn well, I have no life. "Yeah right. We'll see, we'll see. Maybe if you two pop out a kid soon, i'll consider it" I bite back. "If that's what it takes to keep you here, ill bring Adam to the room right now" Christine says. "Ew! No, no that fine," I say laughing with the rest of the group, "Lets talk about something more interesting anyways... what are you guys planning for the bachelor and bachelorette parties?" "Oh fuck yeah! Now we're talking" Smitty says, getting more interested in the topic. "Well, that will be for the maid of honor and the best man to decide" Christine says as she looks at Austin and myself. "Oh, I already got a shit ton of ideas. We're gonna have a blast boys!" Austin says as he makes himself comfortable on the couch.

He casually wraps his arm around my shoulder's and I give him a curious look. As the rest of the group get lost in bachelor party conversation, I lean into Austin, "What are you doing?" "What, I can't touch my friend?" He says with a smirk. "No, its fine. I was just asking" I replied back, trying to to get flustered by his touch. "Relax, babygirl. It's purely platonic, remember" he says looking at me. "What games are you trying to play, Austin?" I ask him, clearly seeing through his "friendly" facade. "No games, just doing what feels... natural" he says as he looks at my lips and back up to my eyes. Oh boy. Here we go. "Mhmm," I say in response not breaking eye contact. "Truthfully, I just want to see how long you'll last before you break" he says matter of factly. I take a sip of my wine and tilt my head. "Before I break?" I ask, wanting him to clarify more. "You want to be just friends for whatever reason, and I get that. Im cool with it. Hell I'm the one we suggested it. But I want to see how long it'll take you before you break," he pauses, "and have you begging for me" he says sipping his beer, not looking away. I look down, and I can feel the heat in my cheeks. Fuck. I let out a playful scoff, "yeah right" I roll my eyes, "if anyones gonna beg, it'll be you." I lean forward to place my glass on the coffee table and end that conversation there.

I don't know how much longer I would have lasted. I see him chuckle as he shakes his head slightly. I think I've won this round, but we'll see how it goes. "So Sof, what time you leaving us tomorrow?" Nick asks and the room grows silent. "Umm bright and early, unfortunately. Plane leaves at 8am" I say with a pout. "We're gonna miss you so much," Christine says as she reaches over and grabs my knee. "I am going to miss all of you. Seriously, you all have been so welcoming. I wish I could have stayed longer," I say trying not to get emotional. "Omg stay! C'mon, just for another day or two, it'll be so much fun!" Marine says with a big smile. "I would if I could honestly, but I have work and I can't call out. But we're going to see each other soon enough, we got the bachelor and bachelorette parties, and the wedding, it'll be great!" I say bring to lighten the mood. "What if we did the bachelor and bachelorette parties in Hawaii? Like a couple days before the wedding?" Jay asks and we all look at each other. "Honestly, that's a great idea. It'll be easier since we're all already there" Austin says as he takes another sip of his beer. "Hell yeah, I'm sure we can figure something out" I say smiling at Austin then at the rest of the group. "I think we should make it official and add you into the group chat, every one agree?" Nick asks and everyone agrees immediately. "Fuck yeah! Lets do it!" Smitty says and Im quickly added into their chat. "Wow, you guys," I say wiping a fake tear from my cheek, "I am honored."

Austin grabs my phone out of my hand quickly and I look at him and ask, "what are you doing?" "I know who's who so I'm just putting the name to the number, darlin'" he says not looking up from the screen. "There, now you got everybody" he says as he looks at me with that damn smirk. I look down to see what he wrote for everyones names. It all seemed normal until I came across his name. Daddy🤠. Absolutely fucking not. "Austin!" I say wide eyed and my jaw to the floor. "What you don't like it?" He says trying not to laugh. "You're an ass, change it" I say giving the phone back to him. "Fine, fine. You'll call me that one day" I tried my hardest not to react and just gave him that "really" look. He begins typing once again, "Here, is that better?" I grab the phone from him to see he changed it to cowboy🤠. Well it looks like someone liked my nickname from last night. I look back up at him. "That'll do, I guess" I say putting my phone back into my pocket. Truth is I definitely didn't mind the nickname, but I couldn't let him know that.

The rest of the night went pretty smooth with some flirtatious banter between Austin and I, but nothing too drastic. I look at the clock, 11:37pm. I let out a yawn and stretched my arms over my head. "Well guys, I think I should head to bed" I say frowning. "Noooo, not yet!" Marine says, yawning herself. "Babe, you're about to pass out too" jay says laughing at his wife. "I know, but ill see you guys soon, okay?" I say walking over to the couple and giving them big hugs. "My turn!" Smitty says as he pulls me into his arms and lifts me up, earning a squeal from me. Next, nick pulled me into a hug and smiled down at me. "See you in Hawaii, yeah" he says softly. "Hell yeah! Can't wait" I say giving him a big smile. "We're going to head to bed as well," Adam said as he helped Christine up from her spot on the couch. "Okay, you're still good to take me to the airport tomorrow right?" I ask as I walk over to the couple. "Absolutely, be ready at 6:30 am, not a minute later," he says in a fake stern voice. "Aye aye captain" I laugh as I salute him. He pulls me into a tight bear hug, "I'm gonna miss you kid, I love you more than anything you know" he says in a muffled voice. "I'm going to miss you, I love you so fucking much" I say trying to hold back any tears. I pull back looking at him with watery eyes to see that his eyes were just as watery. "Dammit, Adam don't make me cry!" I say trying to laugh it off. I hug and say my goodbyes to Christine as well, leaving only one person left. Adam and Christine leave to go to bed. Jay and marine must have already left to head to bed as well and I can hear Smitty and nick in the kitchen.

So that leaves Austin and I to ourselves. I sigh as I give him a small smile. "Get over here," he says in a low and might I say, sexy as hell, rasp. I wrap my arms around his neck and he wraps his arms around my waist and squeezes firmly but gently. I can hear him inhale on my neck and exhale with a subtle groan. As he pulls back, he brushes a strand of hair behind my ear. "You know, it's going to be kinda weird without you here" he says still holding me close. "Yeah well its going to be weird not being here. I- I'm gonna miss you. And the rest of the guys, I had a great time" I say trying to keep my composure as he's practically eye fucking me right now. "I'm glad you had fun babygirl, I'm gonna miss you too" he says as he places a gentle kiss on my forehead. He pulls me into one last hug and kisses the top of my head as I pull away from his warm embrace. "Goodnight, Austin" I say making my way up to my room. "Goodnight, Sofia" he says with a sad smile.