Just Friends: The Sequel.

Part II: Chapter Seventeen

It's around ten at night when we get to Casper's. I come around the passenger side of the car to let Reina out, pausing for a second to blow some warm air into my hands from the cold.

Reina is wearing this long black sleeved tight top that is tucked into a pair of high waisted jeans along with some black over the knee boots. She looks incredible even though she complained about fifteen times about how she looked. I enjoyed every second reassuring her just how beautiful she is. I'd say it a thousand times if she needed me to.

"Are you sure this doesn't make me look fat?" She brings her hands to her stomach and cautiously feels over the fabric before I grasp her chin with my hands and give her a cheesy grin.

"You look so sexy in this." I assure her once more, pressing a swift kiss to her lips. "Why do you keep thinking like that?"

"I dunno," she shrugs. We both begin to walk towards the entrance and I wrap my arm around her side to bring her closer. "I guess I'm just nervous is all. I haven't hung out with everyone in a long time. Well, aside from Casey of course."

"Everyone is going to be so excited to see you, are you kidding? We've all missed you so much baby."

As soon as we open the door, thankful to be surrounded by warmth, I see Casey, Scott, Mark and Colby all seated at the bar watching the sports game on the television. As soon as they see us they all get the widest grins on their faces before they raise their glasses to us.

"Look who it is!" Mark shouts over the noisy crowd. "The couple of the hour."

I give fist bumps to Mark, and then Scott, and then Colby, and then I give a small side hug to Casey. She looks happier than normal when she glances between Reina and I, but I probably look the same.

"Hey guys." Reina gushes, biting nervously on her lip. She hugs all of the guys and takes a seat  on the barstool next to me. I try to calm her nerves down by squeezing her hand gently underneath the counter.

"It's really great you guys are back together." Mark says, shoving a handful of fries into his mouth. "You should have seen him Reina. Not getting laid didn't work well for him. He became a prick."

"Wow." I chuckle, hearing the soft laugh of hers behind me.

"See, I was nervous to see all of you again until you said that." Reina teases. "I see you guys obviously haven't changed a bit."

"Nothing's changed." Colby smirks. He lets his eyes linger on her a little longer than my liking, causing me to narrow my eyes slightly. "It's good to have you around again."

"It's good to be back." She admits. When she looks over at me and smiles all of the anger towards Colby fades away though. One look from her can make every angry bone in my body disappear.

I'm not sure when I will feel like this is all too good to be true. Being back at Casper's just like old times seems so strange to me. It's like this familiar feeling continuously brings little pangs of sadness because we could have had so many more fun nights like this had she not have lost her memory. Had I just looked the other way to see the truck coming.

We all decide on ordering wings, and I don't know whether it's the way Reina keeps smiling at me ever so often when Mark says something dirty, or if it's the way that the energy in this bar just seems so homey, but I finally feel like things are settling back into place.

After three beers I'm feeling slightly tipsy, and Reina can tell because I'm dancing along to a rap song that's playing throughout the speaker, moving my shoulders up and down as my wrists smoothly go back and forth with the rhythm.