The Fighter and His Tiger (Unexpected Love #1)

13. Friday Night Week Five (the dance.)

13. Friday Night Week Five (the dance.)

Kora wiped her hands on her dress for like the 20th time causing me to hit her arm; again.

"Stop it," I scolded, "you are going to make creases or marks on your dress."

Which would have been a travesty on the gorgeous off-shoulder burgundy short dress. It was tight on the top and then flared out at the waist to about mid-thigh, the front was shorter than the back. Her hair was curled and the front two strands were put in plaits and then clipped to the back, she had a black clutch and black/silver heels; she looked stunning.

"I'm really nervous, Rei," she looked over at me as she voiced this and I grabbed her hand and gave her a reassuring smile.

"He is amazing and you are amazing, what could possibly go wrong?" I chose to ignore how my brain made a list of all the things that could go wrong and instead rung the doorbell and waited for Debbie to answer.

My unease was diminished by the huge smile on her face when she answered the door and it somehow grew wider when her eyes landed on Kora, "You must be Kora. I am Debbie, Riley's mother."

Kora shook her outstretched hand with a smile, "Yes I am, it's very nice to meet you, Mrs. Ryker."

Yes, Kora! Earning brownie points already with the 'Mrs Ryker.'

"Please, call me Debbie."

Kora smiled and nodded. Debbie couldn't stop grinning and just stood there with the door open, staring at Kora - okay then.

"Um, can we come in Mrs Ryker?" This seemed to snap out her out of it as she shook her head, apologising and opening the door wider for us to step in before she closed it behind us.

"Riley! Your date is here!" She shouted up the stairs before turning and giving us a smile. She started up a conversation with Kora about school and I just stood there awkwardly counting the number of steps they had.

I was on number 22 when Eli came stomping from the direction of Riley's room and stopped at the top of the stairs, a scowl on his face as he looked directly at me, "this fucking thing doesn't work" he declared, waving around Riley's tie causing me to smile.

Debbie gasped midway through her conversation with Kora, turning to glare at him, "Ryker!" She reprimanded before turning back to Kora with an unsure smile.

Touching Kora's arm to get her attention, I told her I'd be just a second before jogging up the stairs, I missed one though and Eli had to catch my arm before I fell. I gave him a sheepish smile as I righted my footing and held my hand out for the tie, "you are probably tying it wrong."

He handed me the tie and then trailed behind me as I went to Riley's room, mumbling about how it was the 'stupid tie's fault'. Men.

It was pointless that I'd knocked on Riley's door as Eli just barged in, holding the door open for me and motioning to Riley who was stood in front of a mirror, "you do it then."

I gave him a glare, "I will, thank you very much."

Annoyed with his tone, I stomped past him and stopped in front of Riles. He was wearing black slacks and a burgundy button-up that I had bought him on Tuesday to match Kora's dress. Our school was very formal with dances so I had also bought him a silver tie which matched Kora's heels; I know, I'm that good.

"You look great, Riles. All the guys will wanna be you and all the girls will be jealous of Kora."

"Oh for fuck's sake, just tie the goddamn tie." Eli the Asshole exclaimed from his seat on Riley's bed, what crawled up his ass?