You Made Me Fall, But That's Okay

Chapter Twenty-One - Hugs and Kisses

When Sinead came home, I cooked her one of her favourite dinners. She ate it up quickly, obviously extremely hungry, and then began wondering where Trav was. He hadn’t came back after Ryan told him to go away. Maybe it worked. I hoped it did. How brilliant would life be if Travis moved far, far away? Maybe we could send him off on a ship to the most deserted place in the world … If only we could. Ryan said that Kyle wanted us to go over to his house. When Sinead found out she nearly pushed us out the door.

‘Laura, if I needed a babysitter, I’d say so! Go on! Have fun!’ she kept saying, throwing me my jacket and a bag. ‘All your school stuff is in there for tomorrow. Stay over in Ryan’s tonight. I’ll be fine on my own. Kayla’s coming over anyways. Go on, Laura! I don’t want to see you until tomorrow – unless it’s an emergency. Goodbye! See you, Ryan!’

Reluctantly, I followed Ryan into the car and we arrived outside Kyle’s house after about ten minutes. Kyle brought us up to the attic, where about fifteen guys were already chilling out. Each pair of eyes snapped towards me, and each mouth grinned almost instantly. Well, they were happy to see us.

The tall blond I recognized as Sam was the first to stand up, and he strode over to us, and in the blink of an eye, I was trapped in his arms. Was he hugging me? What the hell was he doing? The other guys laughed around me, and Sam only let go when Ryan growled at him to stop. Is that how they normally greeted people?

‘Let the lady sit down.’ Kyle said to the others, who laughed again. The only one to give up his seat was James. Although he was being so nice, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take it, because he was sitting beside Scott. Ryan nodded at me encouragingly, obviously wanting me to get to know his friends. The geek surrounded by seventeen gangsters, how awkward … I bit my lip, and headed for the chair.

Everyone was watching me silently, as if they’d never seen a girl sit down on a chair before. Why the hell was I so interesting? Wow, I was Ryan’s girlfriend. Big deal. I looked around at them all, blushing because of all the attention I was getting. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘Nothing.’ Sam smirked. ‘Nothing at all …’

‘Are you sure? ’Cause you’re all looking at me like I’ve got three heads.’ I grumbled, wishing Ryan would come over to me. He was standing beside Kyle on the other side of the room, and I was already getting withdrawals. I wondered what he was chatting about to Kyle … James must have noticed me staring as he began clicking his fingers in front of my face.

‘You really are Irish!’ one of the guys I didn’t know exclaimed suddenly.

I rolled my eyes. ‘No way.’

‘She’s got quite an attitude, doesn’t she?’ Sam commented, wagging his eyebrows. ‘I like it.’

‘Leave her alone.’ James told him.

‘I thought she was Ryan’s girlfriend?’ another lad frowned.

‘Of course she is. What, am I not allowed to stand up for the girl? I couldn’t blame her being frightened around you guys. You’re acting like freaks, staring at her like that!’

‘We were just wondering if she’s Irish …’ a guy at the back mumbled.

I stood up. ‘Ryan, can I go home? No offence, but …’

‘You don’t like my friends?’ Ryan grinned.

‘Hey!’ one of them yelled.

‘She doesn’t even know us yet!’

‘We haven’t started the meeting and she’s already leaving!’

I frowned. ‘Meeting? You’re having a …? Oh. Um, I think I will go. I don’t want to mess up your meeting thingy … I’ll get a taxi home, or something. See you later, guys –’