i sat on the couch, watching gus open the door to let his friends in. a whole swarm of guys flooded the room, along with one girl. i didn't realize there was a girl? she wasn't in the chat. unless she was also someone's girlfriend. gus gestured for me to come meet him at the door. the girl started to take a few steps towards us, gus removed himself from her path and put his arm around my shoulder. "this is tracy, jerick, adam, dylan, braden and um, layla" he said , pointing out each individual person.
"hi" i said, trying to be friendly to everyone. all of the guys greeted me back with equal cheer. "hi" layla said, in a slightly bitchy tone. "babe, can i talk to you?" i asked gus. "yeah" he said, following me into the other room. i could tell he had an idea what this was about. "hey, i don't wanna seem like crazy or controlling or jealous or anything and you can totally have female friends but who's that girl out there? no one ever mentioned her coming and she just seemed kind of rude to me. wasn't sure if she's someone's girlfriend or something?" i asked gus about the mystery girl.
"that's layla. i had no clue tracy was bringing her either. i was just going to talk to him about it. she's like sort of friends with us i guess. she hangs around occasionally" gus explained. "oh, okay. i was just curious. not mad or anything" i told him. "okay babe. i'm gonna talk to tracy for a minute, you can wait in here if you want? if you're not comfortable enough to go mingle on your own yet" gus offered. "just come grab me when you're done. thank you" i told him, sitting down on the bed. i wasn't sure how to navigate his friends yet, especially layla. i decided to just wait for him to be done.
gus walked out of the room, on his way to find tracy. i heard footsteps start to approach down the hall again, i guessed it was them. "what the fuck man?" i heard gus ask, he seemed pretty mad for some reason. "what's the problem?" tracy asked, seeming clueless. "why'd you fucking bring her?" gus cursed at him. odd, considering he seemed pretty certain she was no problem. "i don't know. she asked to hang. never seemed to be much of a problem to have her around once in a while before" tracy rationalized. "okay but you know she's like creepy fucking obsessed with me. plus my fucking girlfriend is here. like are you fucked? do you have a brain in your head? do you use it?" gus continued to go off at tracy.
so she was something. at least he didn't seem too interested in her, but from the sounds of it she could be an issue in the future if she couldn't get over her little crush on him or whatever it was. the boys must have moved down the hall a little because the distinct conversation had turned to mumbles moving further and further away.
the door creaked open again, gus popping his head in. "i'm free now, let's go chill" he said, reaching his arm out to me to tell me to follow him. we wandered out to the living room. everyone had made themselves comfortable on the couches and chairs. the only free spots left were on a couch, layla had decided to sit on the end of it. she smiled at gus, like she was trying to seduce him into sitting next to her. i glared at her, quickly moving myself to the other side of gus, putting myself in the middle of the couch next to both of them.
"so, the classics. how'd you guys meet? i know you aren't from la so where are you from? what do you do?" dylan asked, i'm pretty sure that's what gus said his name was at least. "he somehow sent a link to a song to the wrong number. thought i was his producer. i'm from arizona, i'm in school right now for biotechnology" i told him. "oh damn she's smart" adam chimed in. "yeah, seems like an odd pairing. considering gus only runs off like 1/3 of a brain cell" layla said, forcing a laugh.
i pursed my lips slightly at her, "we actually get along great. gus is actually very intelligent in what he does. just because he couldn't study what i do doesn't mean i could create what he does either. i think he's very talented and full of potential but thanks for your concern" i kind of snapped at her. all of the guy's eyes kind of widened at my sudden outburst. "thanks baby" gus said, throwing his arm over me and quickly kissing the side of my head. i gave layla a bit of a 'fuck off he obviously doesn't want you' look after.
"what song did he send you?" braden asked, trying to get the conversation back on track. "the way i see things. it was amazing, like literally chills but i was also just like damn is this guy okay" i told them. "i'm okay now" gus said, smiling at me. layla seemed more displeased by the minute as she realized neither gus or i wanted anything to do with her. i wonder if she knew i was here or if it was just a coincidence she wanted to hang out with them tonight.
"how long are you out here for?" jerick asked. "till the end of the week. i'll probably be back quite soon, i love it here. seeing you mainly of course" i said, turning to say the last part to gus. "well don't worry he won't be alone here" layla said. "well, never forget you'll never be lonely" i turned to gus to seem as if i was going along with layla's comment. "because i'll be down here all the time and fly out whenever you need me if i'm not" i added, scowling at her. gus wrapped tighter around me. "relax hun. it's fine" he whispered to me.
