When the Game Changed (Ryan Haywood x OC) (Fake AH Crew)

Chapter 10

Ah! FINALLY the plot is starting to segway in! Enjoy, guys.

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Dakota's phone vibrated in her jeans pocket for a split second, then as if it had never even alerted, it silenced.

She didn't think anything of it until it happened again, causing her to reach into the denim to pull out the smartphone.

She had two unread messages. One from a number that wasn't saved, but she didn't know what it said because she turned off the setting that showed messages on the lock screen, and another was from someone that she had been texting pretty frequently for the past week: Ryan.

It wasn't like they never texted before. It'd be the occasional, "Hey, 'boss man' needs you for some running through," or "You forgot to lock your door, you're lucky I don't rob you 'cause I am a criminal after all." Small things like that that didn't really mean anything other than friendly intentions. But ever since their "business date" as Ryan kept calling it and refused to say it was more than anything else just to piss Dakota off, the two hadn't stopped keeping connection with each other through cellular communication.

They couldn't stop even if they wanted to. It even got to the point where they would be in the same room and if they wanted to say something to one another without the others hearing, a little "ping" would resonate through the air, followed by either Dak or Ryan chuckling, and it would just keep going from there.

If they were inseparable before, they were starting to get conjoined at the hip even more than Dakota was with the younger members of the crew, and that was saying a lot considering that little friend group did every little thing together. And to make matters worse, Dakota was starting to feel more for the man with every word they said to each other, and she completely hated the fact that she was getting so involved.

She definitely hated the fact that she agreed to more "business dates," particularly one in a few days when they were both free and available. She was just making it too easy.

Dakota shook her head and looked down at the phone in her hands, and even though she was being completely biased just a few seconds ago, she couldn't stop the smile that flowed off of her lips when reading the text from Ryan.

Just an FYI, I look better than you in a dress, so don't be surprised when that's what I show up in. My legs crave attention.

She had to stop herself from laughing before replying something about, I wouldn't doubt you. With legs of your caliber, you should wear the shorts that I like to lounge around in. Then you'll be getting catcalled every which way and I'll have to drag you off of the streets.

The two had been talking about what they were gonna wear to their next occurrence together, and Ryan insisted on wearing a dress, but Dakota probably had been insisting it more than he was. She would have killed to see him in one of her dresses while walking the sidewalks of LS, but maybe that was another story for another time.

Before stashing the phone, she continued on to the next message that she got, from the unknown number. It wasn't actually particularly unknown, she knew exactly who the number was even though it changed frequently according to the person's very unrelenting paranoia and conspiracies, and while it was annoying when she first started to do business with them, Dakota actually got acutely used to not keeping their number saved.

Her eyes scraped the screen that read, Haven't heard from you in a while. Thought you were dead but looked up your GPS and it keeps moving around, so unless you're an imposter, you just don't want to conduct anymore business I'm guessing.

Dakota's thumbs quickly dragged along the glass of the phone as she replied, Been busy. Found a crew. If I need you, I know where to find you.