Strangers, Friends and All the In Between

Chapter 12

"Fuck you, asshole!" I yell to Ryan, controllers in our hands and eyes trained on the TV as we play her and my favourite video game. As she hears me say this, she laughs hysterically.

"You wish, hoe!" Ryan yells back to me. She and I were playing on a free-for-all online game. She had just shot me as I was scouting out someone else. I push her roughly as the both of us continue to play the match. "And at any rate," she continues, "you're at the top of the leaderboard, so you shouldn't worry too much. It was one kill from me. You'll live."

I glare at her before the both of us go back to playing. Sam walks into my room at that moment, holding the soda I asked if she would mind getting for me. She also seemed to have a drink for herself as well as a light snack in hand. She climbs behind me on the bed, placing the food and drinks on the table next to my bed. As she does this, she wraps her arms around my waist and lays her chin on my shoulder. As I continue to play, I begin to feel her lightly kiss my neck.

"Babe, come on. Not now. You're gonna mess me up," I remark, laughing. I feel Sam smirk against my neck as she continues. "Come on, babe. Please." Her smirk doesn't leave her face and I hear Ryan begin to laugh. It finally clicks in my head. "Oi, Ryan! Did you set her up to this?" At this point, Ryan doesn't stifle her laughter at all. "And you went along with it?!" I turn around briefly to look at my girlfriend who is lying on the bed behind me, laughing hard.

I turn my focus back on the game, still mad. I finish up the game, far ahead everyone else. As soon as I know the game is over, I punch Ryan lightly on the arm. She laughs as she rubs her forearm to ease the pain. After that, I turn around and push Sam roughly down on the bed and straddle her lap. She dons on a smirk as if expecting me to kiss her. I lean my face less than an inch away from hers before having my hands attack her stomach in a flurry of tickles. She bursts into a fit of laughter as she attempts to get me off of her. Her attempts are to no avail, seeing as my position has more leverage.

"Get a room, would ya?" Ryan says next to us. I stop tickling Sam for a moment and look at Ryan.

"This is my room," I inform her, though she already knows. I turn my attention back towards Sam. I lean down and give her a peck on the lips before rolling off of her and sitting back down next to Ryan. "You do realise, that was all on you?"

"How was it all on me? I didn't do anything!" Ryan exclaims.

"Because you set Sam up to do it. I know you did. You're always doing something like that when we play," I respond. "Not to mention, you knew she would be all for it."

"Well, yeah, but can you blame me?" Sam asks me as she wraps her arms around my waist again, laying her head on my shoulder. I pick up my controller again and resume playing position, awaiting the next game to start.

After about another hour, we all got hungry enough to eat lunch. I pick up my phone and check the time. It reads 1:00 P.M. I stand up, Sam letting go of the hold she'd had on me for a while now. I turn around and offer my hand to her. She takes it and stands up in front of me.

The three of us walk downstairs and into the kitchen to attempt to procure something to eat. Ryan and Sam sit down in the chairs as they look at me expectantly.

"What?" I ask, confused.

"We're waiting for you to make us something," Ryan says, donning on a child-like voice. I laugh as my expression reads offence.

"Oh, really? Is that so?" I ask. Ryan nods her head as she gives me a cheeky smile. After a few seconds, I give in and begin to make something. "You're both lucky I love you."

"Yeah, ya do!" Ryan exclaims. I laugh at her silliness, continuing to work on our lunch. After about ten minutes, I had finished making the meal. I take out three plates and equally distribute food on each plate, placing them on the table. They each take bites of their food. "Holy shit."

"Is it good?" I ask towards Ryan's comment.

"Oh, yeah," Ryan responds. I look over at Sam who looks as if she's enjoying her food as well.

"What do you think, baby?" I ask Sam, beginning to eat the food on my plate. She simply nods and continues to eat her food. I lean over and give her a kiss on the cheek before returning to my food.

We finish up our food, placing our dishes within the dishwasher and head up the stairs and into the game room. I turn on the TV and lay down on the couch, Sam getting on top of me as Ryan sits on a lounge chair next to the couch. I wrap my arms around Sam's waist as she lays her head on my chest.

"Aw, you two are so cute I could vomit," I hear Ryan say in the chair by my head. I chuckle loud enough for her to hear.

"Jealous much?" I tease her.

"Hah, yeah sure, we'll go with that," she laughs. See, Ryan is asexual aromantic so and hasn't had a relationship or the desire for a relationship for about a year now. I know this, but I like to mess with her anyways. She doesn't mind it, she's teased me time and time again for not being able to find someone I actually liked. There was a time where she kept calling me aromantic because of it.

"Why do you say it like that?" Sam asks, sounding slightly offended and completely sassy.

"Oh, babe, don't worry about her. She's asexual aromantic. I just like to tease her because she teased me about not finding someone I liked," I laugh as I explain. Sam looks down at me then at Ryan. Ryan shrugs her shoulders as she looks Sam in the eyes then back at the TV.

"What? So, she doesn't want someone to do this to?" Sam asks, then kisses me roughly before I can say anything in protest. I feel Sam run her hands inside my shirt, dragging them lightly against my abdomen. She soon replaced that sensation with one of dragging her nails down my stomach. I moan at the feeling. Sam smirks into the kiss. She then moves her mouth to my neck, kissing and biting lightly.

"Oh, gross. Come on, really?" I hear Ryan say. I begin to laugh quietly. Sam doesn't stop her administrations.

Sam stops short as we hear the door open and close. I knew it wasn't Danny. He's meant to be off at another soccer tournament in the next town over. I fear I already know who it is.

My fear rang true as I hear the all too familiar masculine voice, "Aran, dear?"

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me," I say aloud before standing up, after Sam slides off of me. I walk over to the banister railing and look down. "What the fuck are you doing back here? I swear I told you to stay the hell away from me and my house."

He turns to look at me and smirks before saying, "Well, hello to you too. I hope I didn't come at a bad time."

"Anytime you show up it's a bad time," I respond, malice laced in my tone.

"Oh, dear, why must you talk to me with such hatred?" he asks. I swear, he speaks as if he has no clue that what he did hurt Danny and I so much. I simply stare at him for a moment. I, then, shake my head and begin to laugh. "What is it you find so funny?"

"You. You're a goddamn joke! You always have been. I can't believe I used to think so highly of you as a kid. Even after you left! I still thought so highly of you. I just thought you were going to come back. I eventually gave up on that. I had to tell Danny a lie for a few years. After a bit, after I knew you weren't coming back, I told him the truth. You know what he did? He cried. For hours, he cried. When he was done crying, he swore like a sailor. Danny never swears. Wanna know why? You told him when he was younger that he should never swear. You're a joke. You're a dick. You're nothing to us anymore. I want you out of my house, now and for you to never come back," I rant to him. All while doing this, his jaw was constantly flexing and relaxing.

"Don't talk to your father that way!" I hear a familiar feminine voice say from downstairs, at the doorway. My face, I'm convinced turned completely pale. The woman steps out from behind the wall that was blocking her from my view. She looks up at me and smiles. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Mother..."