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eight

friday ☾

"You're not a damn salesman; get your foot out from between my door and my door frame before I break it and you cry for your mama."

The boy, who Damien had called Leith, winced.

He grunted and tried to shove a shoulder in between the door and the doorframe. Raegan narrowed her eyes and jammed her bare foot on the boy's shoe.

"Get, lost." She hissed through gritted teeth, venom dripping from her words.

"Look, man, we don't want trouble," Allie snorted behind Raegan, crossed her arms.

"We don't want trouble," Parris, the one next to Damien, repeated himself upon Allie's interruption. "We're here to apologize."

"Wow. You hearing this, guys?" Raegan spat out, tried to close the door again to no avail. Leith groaned in pain but said nothing. "Well, you're six years late, and I don't want apologies."

She tried to kick Leith's foot out of the way, but she wasn't wearing any shoes. Leith's foot barely budged. The five boys stood there awkwardly after Raegan's announcement that she–we, wanted no apologies. They made eye contact Damien who... well, clearly initiated this after my tirade the day before. I met his eyes behind Raegan's tall frame and smiled, almost apologetically. His mouth twitched upwards but he quickly let it die down in case my friends got the wrong idea.

All in all, the afternoon's supposed apology session turned into a stand down, in which Raegan completely used up all of her stocked threats and swear words, and Allie her drama-worthy snorts and disgusted looks. I, on the other hand, worried for Damien's sanity as his friends muttered invalid apologies that paled in comparison to his short but sincere and to-the-point apology after Raegan was done harassing Leith's foot.

An old couple exited from a room down the hallway and passed us on their way towards the elevator. The boys cringed in embarrassment since Raegan had made it clear she wasn't letting jerks into our room any time soon.

I wondered if Leith's foot was okay. It probably wasn't.

In the end, Allie declared that if they wanted to apologize, they might as well do it over dinner. Their treat, of course. At the sushi restaurant we couldn't eat at. And so Damien-and-Friends™️ catered to our suspiciously large appetite for dinner that day. Friday well spent, if you ask me.

* * *

The restaurant's chatter was quiet in comparison to our hissing companions. Damien and I had strategically slipped away from the frightening dinner table to the bathroom separately as an excuse.

"I tried," Damien whispered, and his laugh rumbled through my body as he pulled me against him in an embrace. "That was horrible."

"That was more than horrible. I don't want to go back." I grinned against his chest and laced my fingers behind his back. A stranger glanced at us oddly as she entered the bathroom, but I ignored her and sighed into Damien's shirt. Still, we returned soon after, but it was a nice break from trying to play mediator. Dinner was served over uneasy laughter from the boys as Raegan did her best to produce snarky remarks and jabs at everyone, and Allie's sarcastic comments were all too bubbly for the boys to discern. "Awkward" was an understatement of the situation. Proper conversations were attempted by some, but they only ended in silences nobody can fill. The real apologies only really came when we were back in the hotel.

The eight of us decided to walk back to the hotel from the restaurant. Allie and Raegan finally loosened up after a glass or two of alcohol, and they chatted on and off with Parris, who seemed to be the only one they could tolerate. I made awkward conversation with Joon behind them, and Damien didn't seem to think I needed help continuing the small talk at all. He was very, very wrong, in my opinion.

As we bumbled our way onto the ninth floor, our little field trip finally came to an end. The boys stopped in front of their room, which was closer to the elevator than ours.

Parris turned to look at Allie, then quickly turned away with pursed lips. The girl in question crossed her arms with a pout.

"Don't you have something to say, pretty boy?" Allie retorted.

"Yes, yes. I do. I'm sorry. I really am." Parris scratched at his neck and stared at his toes.

"We're just very childish, is all. Please, forgive us," Leith threw in, and when Raegan's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, he winced, glancing at Damien. "You can ask Damien! He knows it's true. Most of the time we don't mean to be bad people, we just... come off like that."

"That's just you, Leith," Joon gave Leith a slap on the back and he scowled. "And, me too. I am sorry. Truly. I didn't know it would have such a big impact on you, and... after hearing your side of the story, what we did sounds even more like a jerk move now." Joon shook his head and sighed. Everyone looked to Cadeo, and the shortest boy swung on his heels in nervousness.

"I'm sorry, too. I had my insecurities in middle school, and... I guess twelve year old me thought it would be a good idea to dump it on someone else. And thank you. Thank you for giving us a chance. I was actually debating apologizing at graduation, but I was too–"

"Scared and cowardly," Joon nodded mockingly.

"And a douche," Leith hopped on the bandwagon and put himself behind Parris as Raegan glared at him again. She really didn't seem to like him.

"I'm serious here," Cadeo snapped, then turned back to Allie. "I was too scared to do it. So thank you for giving me a chance to not... look back in the future and regret something I didn't get to apologize for." He glanced at Damien. "And I guess have to thank Damien for that, too."

Damien nodded and looked away.

Allie flipped her hair over her shoulder with a slight frown. "Well, if you ever call me Gracelyn again... Abuela Gracelyn will come haunt you in your dreams herself. And you don't want that. Está loca."

Leith shivered, probably recalling Allie's answer to why she despised her middle name.

"Well, good night, then. And see you... never." Allie shrugged and turned around, heading down the hallway.

"Good night," I barely smiled, and before I could even look at Damien, Raegan had taken my wrist and pulled me to her side.

"How come I never get called a 'pretty girl'?" Raegan asked Allie quietly, and I let out a laugh.

"Oh, shut up, Raegan."