Cgc

When have I ever hung out with a girl this much? Never. I'm aware. But we are just friends and friends hang out this much. I mean, I hang out with Rhys and Max every day. This is all that this is. Plus, one-half of those names still isn't talking to me, so I guess Brynn will be his stand-in. Only for now, of course. No one could ever replace Rhys.

I run towards the dryer and slide on a clean t-shirt before running towards the door to open it. A short, smiley blonde stands on the other side of the door. "It's hot," she says as I make way for her to come inside. She steps in and kicks her Nikes off by the coat rack. "As fuck," I say as I start walking back into the house. She follows after me shortly and throws herself onto the couch. "Want a water?" I ask as I scan the fridge for my fruit bowl. "Please."

I find it towards the back right where I hid it and grab two bottles of water. "Who's all home?" she asks as I walk back into the living room and sit down next to her. I hand her a water bottle, "Thanks," she says. I nod, pulling the top off my bowl. "Just Valdez and me. Xander took Maddy out tonight and Rhys is at work," I tell her before taking a bite from a chunk of watermelon. "Okay, because, I have something to say." She fixes herself on the couch, her body turned towards me. I raise my eyebrow slightly as this catches my attention.

"Go ahead," I say. She clears her throat and tucks a strand of her wavy blonde hair behind her ear. "I heard from the grapevine that you and Rhys got into a little. . . scuffle," she says. I set the bowl down on my lap and finish chewing on a strawberry before I talk. "Valdez told you?"

"Valdez told me."

My lips tug up shortly. I'm not mad he told her since he probably thought I mentioned it to her already. I would have but every time I'm with her, it just passes right through me and I forget about it. I've been thinking about my fight with Rhys more than I'll ever admit out loud. It's been fucking with my head, especially at practice when we practice handoffs. He seems to be ignoring me just fine but it's hard for me to ignore him back. I try and talk to him at practice, hoping he won't let our fight affect football, but he just responds in nods and yes's and no's.

"We did," I admit. "What happened?" she asks. Just like I withheld information from Xander and Valdez, I plan to do the same with Brynn. It would be different if the fight involved something happening to me. Our fight was about Rhys — more specifically his horrible excuse of a mother. "We disagreed on something about his life, that's as much as I'll say about it. It's not my story to tell really," I say with a shrug. Talking about it will just make me think about it and I invited Brynn over for the very reason that she'll distract me from it.

"You should talk to him about it. I'm sure he'll listen now," she tells me. I only nod. I'll give him all the time he needs. It's not like I haven't tried talking to him. He's not talking to Valdez and Xander much either which scares me even more since they did nothing wrong. Rhys can push me and other people away sometimes and it's usually when his life starts getting difficult. It always has to do with Rylee — his mother — except our two roommates don't know that much. "Yeah, I'll do it before the game on Saturday," I say with a nod.

She smiles and takes a green grape from my bowl. "You'll never believe what I got on my open book quiz," she says, changing the subject. I jut my head out at her for her to tell me. "An 83. . ." she says in a whisper. I laugh, "Not an eighty fucking three on an open book quiz, c'mon, Brynn. You're smarter than that," I tease her. "Let's not forget that it was timed! I couldn't find all the answers on time and I didn't study enough since you decided you wanted to go to Killian's the night before," she exclaims, pointing an accusatory finger at me.

I put a hand on my chest and shake my head. "You could have easily declined my request, do not turn this on me!" I say. "You insisted!" she defends. I laugh, "You still could've declined." She glares at me although it's not intimidating at all. "I didn't want to bruise your ego by declining your invitation," she stutters. "Trust me, that would have not bruised my ego. Stop trying to blame me and my ego for your failures, Brynnie." I smirk.

"Well. . . an 83 isn't that bad," she says, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yep. A B minus isn't that bad," I tease. She smacks her lips. "Okay, it sounds bad when you say B minus, shut up," she says, smacking my arm lightly. I laugh and extend my bowl to her. She looks at me before searching for a specific fruit. Her body leans forward slightly, causing her chest to brush against my arm. Immediately, my whole body heats. No. I scoot away from her slightly and clear my throat. Fuck, I cannot be having dirty thoughts about this girl. Even though one million just ran through my brain, I shake it off.

She finally picks out another grape, this one purple, and leans back into the couch. She barely touched you, little guy, calm down. I grab a pillow and place it on my lap, putting the bowl over it. She giggles, "What did you do that for?" God, even her voice-

No.

"I'm cold," I lie stupidly. "Dude your lashes are sick," she says, completely dodging my reply. Thank, God. She leans in closer again. Fuuuuck. Her face is so close to mine as she inspects my eyelashes, I guess. "It looks like you're wearing mascara, that's how long they are. I despise you," she says, leaning back. "Uh, is that a good thing or a bad one?" I ask, genuinely confused. "Men do not deserve long lashes as they have no use for them," she shrugs. "I disagree," I say. "What will you use them for?" she asks, brows slightly raised.

"Getting girls? You seemed to like them just now," I say, my lips curving upwards. She rolls her eyes. "I'm kidding, they're hideous," she tells me, trying to take away an unsaid compliment. "Nah-uh, you already said it," I laugh, plopping a strawberry into my mouth. She gives me a literal thumbs down before standing up. "Where you going?" I ask, following her every movement. "None of your business." Her voice fades as she walks upstairs. I hear the restroom door close a couple of seconds later.

I quickly place the bowl on the coffee table in front of me and remove the pillow from my lap. Wearing sweats probably wasn't the best move but yet again, I didn't think I'd get a hard on from a girl brushing against me. It's been too long without sex and my hand obviously isn't doing its best job. I put the pillow back beside me and switch on the tv as I wait for Brynn to come back downstairs. She does about two minutes later and plops down next to me again. "I like your soap, it smells like peaches," she says, smiling. "Maddy buys that shit," I tell her, looking at the rerun of the NFL game.

"I take it back," she says with a tiny bit of attitude. I can't help but smile at that. Maddy hasn't grown on her yet no matter how nice Brynn has been to her. Mostly, they just ignore each other. "Look, eventually-" I'm cut off by the sound of the front door opening and closing. Great, speak of the devil. "Oh, God," Brynn whispers next to me as the sound of Maddy's high heels inch closer. "She did not have three legs, Xander. She had four," Maddy says. "You're wrong," Xander replies as they both step into the living room. I greet the couple with a smile.

Maddy's eyes fall directly on the blonde next to me, ignoring my presence completely. "How was your date? And who had three legs?" I ask, trying to distract her. "Four!" Maddy says, her green cat eyes focused on me. Xander rolls his eyes from behind her as he walks over to sit on the couch in front of us. Maddy follows shortly behind, taking off her tall heels. "It was a dog. Maddy thinks it had four legs but I saw only three. Poor pup," Xander explains. You'd think their stupid arguments would stop now that they're dating. Nope.

"Because you're blind," Maddy shrugs. Xander sighs, "Whatever you say, baby." Maddy smiles like she just won that one but then her focus is back on Brynn. "And what are you doing here?" she asks, arms crossed across her chest. "Hanging with Cgc, obviously," Brynn replies more confidently. "Ah well-" Maddy is interrupted this time by, again, the front door opening and closing. There's only one more person that could be. I don't avert my attention from the people in front of me. "Yo!" Max's voice echoes through the hall. I look up since I expected Rhys. Rhys does follow in shortly after.

Max heads over to the fridge and grabs a beer. "What are you doing here?" Maddy's face lights up slightly at Max. They're best friends, have been since before any of us even knew her. "I came for you, duh," he says, sitting down next to her. "I'm gonna go shower," Rhys announces before disappearing upstairs. "Is he still cranky?" Maddy asks when the door of the bathroom closes. "He seemed a bit more alright with me," Max says, taking a long swig of his beer. Everyone knows about our fight since they've noticed we haven't talked in a couple of days. The game is in two days, I need to make shit right.

"Damn, full house," Valdez suddenly appears and sits down next to Brynn and me. "Hey, man," Max says. Valdez juts his head out at him and gets distracted by his phone a couple of seconds later. "We should watch a movie," Maddy says. It's only nine-thirty, so it's not too late. Also, I only have practice tomorrow in the evening since my professor canceled class. Brynn looks at me and wags her brows. She knows I'm not a movie guy unless it's a horror which is starting to bore me now too. "Which one?" I ask. "I don't know, I'll look," Maddy says and grabs the remote from the coffee table, switching to Netflix.

"You fine staying here for a bit? I think I'm gonna talk to Rhys," I whisper to Brynn. She grabs the fruit bowl from me and nods. "Go ahead," she says with an encouraging smile. I look at her for a little longer before I go upstairs, to Rhys' room specifically.

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I only wait for about five minutes before Rhys walks into his room. He flinches back slightly, gripping the towel that sits low on his hips. "Dude, you fucking scared me," he says, running a hand through his blonde hair that's darker from being wet. "At least you didn't drop your towel," I joke, trying to somewhat lighten the mood. He doesn't say anything and walks over to his drawer, pulling out clothes. "We're watching a movie, are you gonna join?" I ask, avoiding the more serious conversation as we both suck at those.

"Probably not." Well, at least that's one more word than his usual one. "I'm gonna change, are you gonna look at my ass?" he says, looking at me in the mirror. I don't answer his question and look away to allow him to change. "Rhys," I start. "Let me get dressed first," he says before I can say anything more. I listen to his request and once he puts on some sweats, he sits down on the end of his bed since I occupy the other half. "Yeah?" he says.

Fuck, I suck at apologies. I don't give them out a lot. "I-I'm sorry," I say, cringing at my small stutter. Rhys knows I suck at this, he does too. It's not like I don't want to apologize because I do. I overstepped boundaries in his point of view and I never want to make him upset. That wasn't my intention, but I get protective when it comes to him. He's like the little brother I never had. I care about him more than I care about most people and that's scary for me. I've never cared about someone other than my parents — despite how shitty they are — this much.

"I shouldn't have said what I said, man. I regret it, I mean it. You were right, I don't deserve to speak on your life. I'm an asshole and I'm sorry," I spew out the best apology I could even come up with. Rhys shakes his head and looks away from me. His elbows rest against his knees, his hands tugging his blonde, damp strands. "No. I fucked up. I'm fucked up, C," he says lowly. I furrow my eyebrows, trying to look at him even though he's avoiding all eye contact with me. "What do you mean?" I ask.

"I said some fucked up shit, man. I'm the one who should be apologizing to you," he says, his voice still low. I shake my head. He did nothing wrong. No, I fucked up. That's that. "You would have never said those things if I didn't start judging you for your decision to give your mom money," I tell him. He looks up from the floor, his hair messy atop his head from all the tugging he did to it. "Who fucking cares? I shouldn't have said those things regardless. We promised each other that we'd never use our parents against each other. I used yours against you. . . terribly. I know you say you don't care, but I know you, C. That shit hurts you, just like it does me."

I swallow a lump in my throat. He's right. I'll never say it out loud, but my parents have that effect on me. Hearing Rhys say those things felt like he was stabbing me in the chest with knives. Despite what I say about them, I love my parents. I don't know what I'd do without them and it pains me to even think about it. It hurts even more that I have no idea how they feel about me. I don't think they care about me that much. I'm a hypocrite for hating Rhys' mom for the way she treats him when it's the same way my parents treat me. The only difference is that my parents are workaholics, not alcoholics.

"But you can actually get your feelings hurt man, I can't. We know this," I chuckle weakly. I don't want him to feel bad for what he said to me. I'm fine, I'll be fine. "I'm sorry," he says. "It's fine. Just come back to me, yeah? It's been weird not talking to you," I admit. He gives me a weak smile, his eyes reddened. "It has been weird," he says as he stands up "we gonna go watch the movie or what? Maddy picked The Conjuring, I peeked it before I came up." I groan slightly. I've watched the movie a couple of times but it's one of the few horror movies that can actually scare me.

Rhys laughs at my misery. "I'll sleep in your bed and protect you from any demon," he says, tiptoeing to wrap his arm around my shoulder. I smirk, "Okay, fine. Let's go." He chuckles and we both exit his room and return to our friends.