𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 | 𝐣. 𝐝𝐫𝐲𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐥𝐞

chapter 15

reese was currently sitting around a table with willow, austin, and colten. it had been awhile since the four of them had gotten together and she could tell austin and colten were getting jealous of her new friendships. like the good friend that she is, she insisted that they should all hangout at her place and she would provide food. the boys loved this idea and immediately rushed over.

"thank god you ordered pizza!" colten exclaimed. he took a big bite of out of his slice and began chewing. he continued while chewing, "if there wasn't food, i wouldn't have showed up."

willow and reese rolled their eyes at the brunette boy. austin, on the other hand, was on the same page as colten. "she's just lucky she knows our love language," austin said to colten. the two fist bumped and continued to dive into the pizza.

the way that austin and colten were devouring their pizza would make any girl question their attractiveness. maybe all reese had to do was provide photos of austin eating pizza to get the media to see she wasn't interested in him. to this day, reese doesn't understand how their ship came to be or why people were so obsessed with it. they were just two costars who got along and hung out outside of work. most of the time, other people were there too.

"reese? hello? anyone home in there?" willow waved her hand in front of reese's face. the three had been trying to get her attention for the past couple of minutes.

she snapped out of her thoughts and responded, "yeah, sorry. i was just thinking about how gross the guys look when they eat."

the two boys stopped eating and scowled at her. she couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous they looked. austin defended him and colten, "well it's not like we're trying to impress anyone."

"yeah we can tell," willow rolled her eyes at her guy best friends. they were pieces of work. both the girls loved them with all their heart, but boy did they feel bad for their future wives.

the four went back to laughing and joking around. all things were going great. reese missed hanging out with them as group. as much as she has enjoyed her new found friendships with trevor, jamie, and mason, they would never replace austin and colten. those two were her boys and nothing could possibly change that.

unfortunately, their good fun times were ended when colten decided to address the elephant in the room. "so are we just going to brush over everything with jamie or are we going to talk about it?" colten blurted out.

"are we referring to the news article or the fact that they're friends?" willow got defensive for her best friend. she crossed her arms and quirked an eyebrow at the boys.

austin shrugged, "both work i guess."

"jamie and i just friends. we've hung out a total of two times. one of the times, someone tipped off a news outlet and that's how that happened. you guys can chill on the whole overprotective friend thing," reese stated to the two boys in the room.

colten and austin stared at each other. it was as if they were trying to communicate with each other without saying anything. this went on for a good minute before austin nodded at colten to speak. colten replied, "can you really blame us that we're protective? we don't know these guys at all. they could be trying to murder you for all we know."

"okay, you're clearly over exaggerating. they're hockey players, not part of a mafia. plus, i've met them and they're nice guys," willow explained.

austin said, "and that's great willow that you've met them, but we haven't. we just want to get to know them and then maybe just maybe we'll back off. we know how guys can be." colten nodded in agreement.

reese appreciated that austin and colten cared that much about her. she truly did. at the same time, she's an adult who can make her own decisions about her friends. she's well aware about most hockey player's reputations. so far, none of them showed any signs that they were trying to use her. if anything, they had all been quite friendly and went out of their way to maintain a friendship. it wasn't like she was going to date any of them either. maybe if that was on the table she would look at the situation differently. that didn't really matter though. she knew the guys wouldn't believe her. reese realized they were going to have to meet for this to be resolved.

"i can promise you they're not using me, but i know how you guys are. so are you wanting to meet with them?" reese questioned.

colten smiled and said in a horrible british accent, "that would be delightful!" willow gave him a funny look. colten coughed, "sorry, that was really bad. anyways, yes i would love to meet them!"

now, the three were just waiting for austin to reply. austin was staring down at the floor. he was taking far too long to answer. reese would love to know what was going through his head right now. it was unlike him to take this long. eventually, his eyes left the ground and met reese's. he answered with hint of any emotion, "i'll meet them."

"great! willow and i will work out the details," reese said through her teeth. austin's response startled her and she couldn't tell how he felt. this could either end really good or really bad. reese wasn't sure if she wanted to see how it would play out.