After talking for a few more minutes, Jaren and I decided to head back inside and sort of...assess the whole situation. When we entered, the boys were giggling their lives away, most of them too drunk to even tell what was happening. Mason was nearly passed out on the couch, but at this point he was looking at his phone, absolutely losing his shit towards the letter "E".
Maybe after five minutes Cameron finally noticed we were here, him and Swagger were probably the only ones that weren't as wasted as the others (though Swagger was just a little bit off his rocker, as you could tell from him dancing around the room to 'Mine Diamonds'.)
"Oh, you're back." Cameron mused, "So, how was the talk?"
I looked at him puzzled, "How did you know we-"
"He started eavesdropping on you two because he got bored of me and Mason arguing whether drinking half a five hour energy bottle will give you two and a half hours of energy, or five hours of half-ass energy." Swagger chimed.
I didn't bother wanting him to elaborate on that, "Okay then."
"so, you two dating yet?" Swagger asked, Jaren looked at me and I gave a light shrug in response.
"Well," Jaren begun, "(Y/N) isn't exactly ready for a relationship yet, so not entirely."
I hesitated before saying what I was going to say. "But, I would be open to a friends with benefits kind of relationship. Kind of as a starter, I guess you could call it."
Jaren looked at me, "What do you mean?"
"Think of it as like a whole trial kind of thing. If we do well in that kind of relationship then we can start officially dating. If that fails then...well, you know." I replied, the room went quiet for a moment.
"Deal." he replied. I smiled as he held up his pinky and I wrapped my own around it, sealing our deal in a pinky promise.
Swagger chuckled to himself, "that's fucking adorable. Anyway. Let's settle this debate. Raven, this guy walks up to you in a bar-"
"I'm a lesbian." she stated, cutting him off.
"I thought you were American." John chuckled from the corner.
Raven laughed a bit, "Sike bitch i'm actually lesbian and Canadian"
Because absolutely none of us had any idea what was going on, John started screaming, Craig went over to teasingly comfort him, before going on a tangent about his 'son'. Toby wanted to know which shade of pink was better for his blinds, Swagger yelling at him that they're both the same shade of pink, Matt disappeared, Mason passed out on the couch, and Cameron was just....being tall.
I looked at the absolute fucking chaos and simply excused myself, "Imma just, like, leave now, so uh. I'll be outside."
"Sure. I'll try and deal with...this" Jaren gestured to everyone. I gave him a quick nod before heading outside.
---
After everything had calmed down and everyone left, things were a little easier to handle. Raven went upstairs to head to bed for the night and I stayed up for a bit to help Jaren clean up. As we did there was a bit of small talk, questions about life, our careers, stuff like that. Once we had completely finished it was nearing three a.m., seeing as the whole get-together lasted longer than anticipated.
We sat down on the couch, resting for a bit before heading up to sleep. There was a quiet silence in the room, but was soon broken by Jaren.
"So you were serious about the whole friends with benefits, thing?" he asked, I looked at him for a bit before responding.
"I mean, yeah. Test the waters a bit, you know? If you changed your mind about it, that's okay but-" I started before Jaren cut me off.
"I think it's fine. Besides it's been quite a bit since I've been in a relationship myself. Speaking of, how are you holding up?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"About the whole Dakota situation. It's not easy finding that out so suddenly. It's been a little over two months now, hasn't it?" he said, I nodded quietly.
"Yeah," I paused, "But, take it this way, the same day I lost Dakota was the same day I found you. So there's that. But it still wasn't easy. He and I were pretty close, sure we kinda lost touch after a bit and I guess it was bound to happen. I just kinda wish it wasn't like that." I frowned.
He pulled me into a comforting hug, allowing me to stay there for as long as I needed. "I understand. I just want you to know something." he said quietly.
"What is it?"
"I will always be here for you, (Y/N). No matter what happens. Even if our relationship doesn't work out, I'll still always be there for you as a friend." he replied.
I smiled softly and hugged him again, "Thank you."
He let out a quiet yawn, I chuckled softly. "You should sleep, since Raven took the upstairs I'll just stay down here." I said.
"Nah, I'm good. I'll stay down here a bit. If that's okay with you of course." he replied.
"You sure?" I looked at him, he was laying down and I was on top of him now, he replied with a quick nod. "Okay then."
A few minutes passed and I began to think about this whole "relationship" idea. The more time I spent with him, the more comfortable I became with the idea. Maybe losing Dakota was a good thing after all. Despite all the shit I had to go through to get here. It was worth it. I smiled softly and looked down at Jaren, who had fallen asleep underneath me. I chuckled softly at the sight, laying my head down on top of him and soon dozing off to sleep as well.
