There's a knock on my door, so I open it to see Connor, Riley, and Toby. They all look at me with puppy eyes, and I sigh before looking back at them.
"Where do you need to go?" I ask.
"Starbucks," they all say at the same time. I sigh before getting my holster with my gun. I clip it to my pants and stick my ankle knife into my combat boot. I look back at them to see all of their eyes wide.
"What?"
"We're just going to Starbucks!" Riley exclaims.
"I know, but like I said, they could try anything anywhere. I don't want to take any chances," I explain.
We all walk downstairs and go to my car. While they fight over who gets front seat, I text Ethan to watch the house. A couple of minutes later, he pulls up in a black version of my car.
"Alright, Connor gets the front seat since he's the oldest. If you don't like it, too bad." Riley and Toby groan while Connor smiles at me. They pile in, and I turn to Ethan.
"These are the guys you're protecting?" he asks with a smirk.
"Don't ask. They're a handful, but they're my handful," I say with a laugh. He gives me a quick hug while kissing the top of my head, and I get in the driver's seat. I start the engine, and we drive off to their obsession.
* * *
"You have got to be kidding me," I mutter when we walk in.
John's sitting at one of the tables with a black eye and broken nose, along with stitches on his left eyebrow when I slammed my forehead against his. Oops. Sorry not sorry.
"We can go somewhere else," Connor suggests.
"No, it's okay. I'm not scared of him," I say. He nods, and the two of us sit down on the couches while Riley and Toby order for us.
John looks over at us and scowls before getting up. He starts to walk over, so Connor places an arm around me.
"You know, I had this weird dream the other night that a girl beat me up when we were about to have a great time. I then woke up, and you were gone. What happened?" he asks.
"Um, you tried something with me, I didn't want to, but you weren't listening, so I beat you up, and you passed out. When you woke up, I was gone, so that dream wasn't actually a dream," I explain. He just shakes his head and walks out.
"Well, that was weird," I mutter.
"Uh-huh," Connor agrees. Riley and Toby sit down with our drinks, and I thank them before taking a sip.
"So Connor, who are you taking to the masquerade party?" Riley asks.
"I don't know. I was thinking of going alone," he replies, sitting back.
"Wait, what masquerade party?" I ask.
"Our mom was going to talk to you about this soon. We're having a big parry to celebrate the release of Braiden's new EP, and he wanted it to be masquerade because they're always fun, and they're really creative," Toby explains.
"Sounds like fun," I comment.
"Hey, why don't you take Emily as your date?" Riley suggests. I feel my face heat up.
"Um, can you excuse me for a second?" I ask, getting up. They nod, and I look at Connor. He's not looking at me. If anything, he's looking at everything but me.
I walk into the bathroom and look at my reflection. My teal eyes look scared and nervous, and my freckles are invisible under the flush on my face. In other words, I look like a mess.
