The Girls of 310 [COMPLETED]

Chapter Eight: Incubus

I resisted the urge to cheer as Reece made his way towards us. He caught my eye long enough for me to see the mischief dancing in his. Despite the cold, my palms became sweaty as he approached. My pulse quickened and I cursed myself for allowing him to still have this effect on me.

“Hey-” I started, but was surprised when he continued straight past me. I turned to Marianna with my mouth agape.

“Don’t read into it too much,” she tried to assure me. Brushing it off, we went over to where Josh and Travis were, and of course, Reece was standing there talking to them.

The second we got there, Travis rushed to Mari, inspecting her face. “You’re okay?”

She giggled- a legit high pitched, girly giggle- as she replied, “Yes, I’m okay. You really couldn’t let him land one hit on you, could you?”

I watched, smiling, as he subconsciously puffed out his chest a bit and they continued talking. Josh and Reece began to talk to each other in hushed voices as I stood there, awkwardly shuffling my weight between my feet.

“I’ll see you at home, bro,” Reece said as he did the guy hug thing with Josh. “Trav! I’m gonna go.”

Travis paused his conversation with my best friend to walk over to Reece. Marianna took that moment to come stand beside me. “He’s kind of cute, huh?” She whispered dreamily.

“Kind of?” I raised my eyebrows. “Girl, that man is fine with a capital F.”

She let out another one of those giggles. “He asked if we wanted to go back to his place and order some food.”

“Yeah, Mal, come over, Josh can drop you guys home later,” Travis joined. When he finished, Josh smiled boyishly and nodded, agreeing to the plan.

I took a moment to think, and Marianna saw the hesitation on my face. Reece said he’d see them at home, which most likely meant that he was headed there now. Did I really want to be in that house?

Then again, we did Uber to the party, and Josh was now offering us a free ride. Reluctantly, I agreed and we all made our way to the front of the house. We climbed into Josh’s sleek, black BMW and listened to the radio in silence for the short drive.

When we got to the house, I was ecstatic to see that it looked empty. Reece’s car wasn’t in the driveway, which meant that God was really up there looking after me. We shuffled out of the car and I silently thanked myself for deciding to dress comfortably that night.

I pulled up my leggings as we walked up the stairs and began unzipping my teddy coat and we waited for Josh to unlock the door.

“Any day now, man, it’s freezing out here,” begged Travis.

Josh raised an eyebrow and ‘accidentally’ dropped his keys. He reached for it extra slowly, causing Travis to yell out a string of curses before finally pushing Josh aside and opening the door with his own keys.

All of the lights were off. Another good sign. We all settled into the living room, arguing about what to eat.

“I want pizza,” said Marianna.

Travis shook his head, “We had pizza last night.”

“What does that have to do with me?” she joked.

I snorted as I attempted to hold back a laugh and all heads turned to me. “Mal. That was the ugliest thing I’ve heard come out of your mouth,” Josh said seriously. He then proceeded to mock me.

I laughed even harder as he teased me and everyone soon joined in. At some point, the door had opened, but we couldn’t hear it over the sounds of our snorts.