Playing Matchmaker

Chapter 3

His car made my Jeep back home look like shit. It was foreign, expensive, and the sexiest car I had ever seen. Embarrassingly, I forgot that they drive on the other side here. This is going to take some getting used to. When I got in he asked if I minded that he play some music, I was slightly jet-lagged and music didn't sound too great but I nodded anyways. He ended up playing this really chill song that sounded foreign and beautiful and even though I had no clue what she was saying, I found myself humming along. It took maybe 7 minutes to get to Asher's house and it was just as big, if not a little bit bigger than Cade's, well mine too, I guess. He stepped out of the car and walked confidently up to the front door and, despite my long legs, I had to practically jog to keep up with him. He must've been at least six foot two. I stood a few paces behind him when he knocked on the door. A few seconds later a shirtless boy opened the door, a bagel in one hand, an x-box controller in the other.

"Cade why did you bother knocking, there's no point, you have a fucking key for God s-" We made eye contact and he trailed off. "Oh. Oh."

He closed the door and I heard a bump, crash, "SHIT", and then the door opened again, this time he wore a Blink-182 shirt. Cade laughed, a cute laugh that no matter who you were, would fill your insides with warm fuzz.

"You didn't tell me you were bringing a girl." He said to Cade, forcing a smile.

"Oh, right, this is Reagan, my foreign exchange student." Said Cade with another chuckle that made me weak in the knees.

Asher smiled and held his hand out,

"My name's Asher Reed." I couldn't help it, I blushed.

"Reagan, but I prefer Ry." And I shook his hand. We walked into the house and down a few hallways into a game room was what it looked like.

"Welcome to the man-cave Ry."

Cade had an expression of mock surprise. "I'm surprised Ash. The last girl you let into the man-cave was Lisa Gallinger in fourth grade and you kicked her out because she got cooties on your couch, you're growing up so fast." he said, wiping away a fake tear. I laughed and then fell silent again, helplessly awkward. Asher walked over and flopped on one of the black leather couches and stretched his long legs out, tousling his light brown quiffed hair. Cade grabbed a controller and Asher pressed play on what looked like Left 4 Dead, the game that my cousin was currently obsessed with. I sat down crosslegged on the plush carpet. Asher paused the game and looked at me quizzically.

"There are two other couches, you know." He said, raising an eyebrow.

I preferred sitting on the floor but I didn't want to seem weird, so I made a joke out of it.

"I assumed you didn't want me to get my cooties on your couch."

Asher let out a short bark of a laugh and then went back to his game, while I got up and sat down on the just-as-comfortable-as-they-are-expensive couches. I watched them play their game and laughed when one of them died and the other had to go back and bring them back to life, or whatever it was they did. Asher paused the game again to go pee and grab some food. Cade turned and looked at me, "Sorry if you're not enjoying yourself but something big just happened in Asher's life and I have to be here for him, he's like a brother to me."

"Oh, no, it's totally fine, it's pretty funny watching you two play video games."

Cade breathed a sigh of relief just as Asher came back in, tossing me and Cade a bottle of water and some bag of chips that I had never heard of and sat down.

"Nik Naks, I guarantee you don't have those in the Americas." Said Asher with a smug smile. The bag said they were "nice n' spicy" flavored. I opened the bag and took one out. It looked like a cheeto. I took a cautious nibble and it was like someone had taken slightly spicy ribs and made them into a cheeto. It was amazing. I popped it into my mouth, immediately reaching in for another one.