Pretend

the reunion

Erien

Who would've thought I'd be in this situation?
----------------

To say the diner was packed would be a complete understatement. The sun had barely set for today and it was kind of chilly in August. Despite of everything that was going on in the city, the little place had a line that stretched around the corner.

I sat in my booth with Leah and Kahri as we chatted about our day while we ate our pancakes. Leah didn't do too much talking. Shocking, she was the one on her cellphone the entire meal. Kahri, on the other hand, had a load of tea to spill in the water.

"Shit I still can't believe you got this love triangle going on. I ain't know you had it in you," Kahri snickered while sipping his drink. Leah chuckled at his comment.

Excusing myself from the area, I headed towards the bar to get a refill. There was a group of large men in hoodies that stood in the center of the aisle like no one else needed to pass by. One with an recognizable laugh lost his balance and ended up tumbling back. Despite all of my hard dodging, the dodges weren't good enough, because his back crashed right into me, sending my glass shattering on the tiled floor.

"Shoot," I mumbled and wiped the little specks of lemonade off my palms.

"My bad. Excuse m-" the voice stopped as the man turned to look me in my face. "Ty?!" the built, dark man exclaimed. Before I could say anything, the man embraced me in a tight hug.

This is why it's so packed..

"Jarvis, let go of me please," I managed to get out. His grip was a little too tight for me.

Jarvis, yes Jarvis Landry, released me just to stare me down. "I'd never think I'd see your face around here!"

Yeah right.. as if Odell isn't hunting me down and you knew nothing of it.

"I think I should be saying that.. do you want to join me? Just know Leah and Kahri are waiting for me."

He doesn't know who Kahri is nor do I care.

After bickering back and forth, I finally got him to join us. Surprisingly, everyone kept a genuine smile on their faces.

"You left me to a pack of wolves!" said an angry voice behind us along with heavy stomps. The stomps came to a hault and I looked up to see the face I once loved. "Tyler?"

"I wish everyone would refer to me as Erien," I mumbled then stood up to bring the tall, wide, bushy-haired man into a hug. "After two months, you've found me." I got a load of his cologne and I instantly felt like I was in high school again. It felt as if we were doing the annual after school routine; practice then hit the diner.

"Aw isn't this a nice little reunion," Leah said lower than ever but loud enough that I could hear.

Kahri cleared his throat all melodramatic so that the entire place could hear him, "Ty, don't forget we have plans to get to."

That was a lie.

I forgot I was still wrapped around Odell until Kahri pulled me by my belt loop. I felt as if all the negative feelings I had about seeing Odell had all went into how I feel towards Kahri right now. I wanna run him over with the bat mobile.