Ghost City

7

The sound of the doorbell ringing was enough indication that my guests had arrived. From beside me, I saw Aurora's face light up, her cheekbones rising as a wide smile stretched across her face. I chuckled and held her hand in mine as we climbed off the couch and walked to the door. I opened it, revealing the gang, with the only addition being Jonathan's girlfriend Vanessa, who we called V, Ness, or Nessa, sometimes.

"Hey!" Everyone greeted with warm smiles before exchanging hugs with me and Aurora. I invited them in, and they immediately began looking around the house, causing me to chuckle.

I chuckled, "He's in the kitchen." We all walked to kitchen, and the gang froze when they took in Damien's appearance. Damien turned the stove off and looked up from the stove only to see a bunch of eyes watching him.

"Sure, not creepy at all," he said, causing everyone to chuckle.

Justin was the first to walk up to him and give him a dap while smiling, "It's great to have you back, man."

Zach was next, and then Natalie and Aria, and then Vanessa, who was introduced to Damien by Justin. Nico, however, remained at a distance from Damien, and I knew that Damien peeped that too.

"Let me holla at you real quick, Day," Nico said, and everyone- except my nosy self- exited the kitchen so that the two could talk in private. Nico sent me a look as if asking me why I was still there, and I rolled my eyes.

"This is my house. I'll stay if I want to," I said while crossing my arms.

"Whatever," Nico sighed before directing his attention to Damien. "My reaction when you came wasn't welcoming, and that's because I thought you ran away. The way you disappeared like that was just weird and random, and I should've given you the benefit of the doubt that you had been kidnapped. I'm sorry, man. I know my response to your arrival must've felt like a stab in the back."

"It did," Damien admitted. "I've never witnessed you not taking my side until that night though, and I guess you had a descent reason for reacting the way you did. I accept your apology."

Nico lightly smiled, "Cool," before the two dap. "I'm glad you're back."

Damien smiled as well, "Me too."

Intervening, I frowned, "That's it?!"

"What do you mean?" Nico frowned.

I answered, "No arguing? Just a simple justification and an apology and he forgives you, but with me-"

"He never point a gun to my head," Damien frowned, "and he never blamed me for getting kidnapped. Let's not start this argument again."

Nico frowned, "You blamed him for-"

"It came out wrong," I rolled my eyes while looking away. "I wanna talk to Damien in private."

Nico gave a quick nod before joining everyone else in the living room, and Damien sighed as he took the dishes out of the cupboard. "What now, Sagacity?"

"Can we just not argue anymore?" I sighed. "I'm sure you hate it as much as I do."

He huffed, "You sure seem to love it."

"I don't," I said flatly. "I don't want things to be tensed between us, and I don't want for us to constantly butt heads. We should be able to talk shit out as easily as it was for you to talk things out with Nico."

"I'd like that too, but at the same time, you can't compare the friendship I have with your brother to the relationship you and I have," he said.

I huffed, "Right. He's like a brother to you, and I'm just some girl you stuck your dick in that resulted in your offspring."

As he fished out food onto the plates, he sighed, "It's not like that at all. The interactions we share I just take much more personally, so it's a bit harder to get over when you do something to me- especially something grimy as fuck."

"I'm sorry, Damien. I don't know how much times you want me to say that," I sighed while walking to him and standing beside him. He looked down at me and I added, "I really do mean it. I wanna restore what we had and make it stronger, but we can't be arguing so much and expect that to happen simultaneously."

He agreed, "I agree. I don't wanna be arguing with you either, but I do need my space from time to time. I'll work on being more open, but you gotta give me time. Some shit I'm just not comfortable talking about."

"Okay," I nodded in understanding. His eyes then traveled to my lips, and, for a moment, I thought he would kiss me. However, he just went back to dishing the food out onto the plates.

I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed, but at the same time, we weren't exactly together. I only hoped no one would bring up our relationship status over the group dinner.