𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭. [𝘢 𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘪 𝘢𝘶]

Nine

The rest of dinner went pretty smoothly. Except for the fact that Ej spilled his soda all over Ricky. He didn't take it very well, so we had to leave kind of early. I thought it was pretty funny if you ask me. Anyway, when we got home everyone was pretty tired, so we all went to bed. But now, here I am with waking up with an arm draped around my waist.

When I tell you I was shocked is an understatement.

I look over my shoulder to see Ricky spread out on the bed, with his right arm near the edge of the bed and his left snaked around my waist. I lightly try to move his arm away without waking him up, but that only causes him to hold me tighter. So then I try to slip out of the bed, but that didn't work either. I ended up falling off the bed and landing with a huge thud on the floor.

"Ouch!" I wince, trying my best not to wake up Ricky. I quickly get up from the floor, relieved to find he is still asleep. I look over at the alarm clock on the nightstand, and saw it was 9:00. Surely someone else is awake. With that thought, I make my way over to my bathroom, do all the normal hygiene stuff like brush my teeth, pee, shower, etcetera. Once I'm ready I make my way downstairs, only to find nobody down there. I walk deeper downstairs and into the kitchen to grab a glass of water, when a voice from behind me scares the living daylights out of me.

"You're up early." The french accent says. I turn on my heel only to see Antoine standing there, grinning at me with a look on his face that I can't quite read.

"Jesus Christ, Antoine you scared me." I put my hand over my chest, trying to regain a steady breathing pace.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you. Are you an earlybird aswell?"  He walks past me, grabbing a glass out of the cabinet and starts to fill it up with water.

"Uh, I guess." I reply, trying to walk away from the awkward situation.

"Is everything cool between us?" He asks.

No.

"Uh, yeah. For sure."

He grins, "Good. I don't want any bad blood."

"Zero bad blood between us." I chuckle sheepishly.

There's a lot of bad blood.

"So how's sharing a room with Ricky going? He can be a handful sometimes." He asks, with that same un-readable expression on his face.

"It's going fine." I lie, looking down at the floor.

"Let me know if you ever want me to switch places with him." He smirks, walking past me and disappearing into one of the bedrooms. My heart drops.

I quickly ran back upstairs and into my bedroom and closed the door shut. That was the most awkward and uncomfortable situation I've ever been in.

"Jesus- If you could at least make an attempt to close the door somewhat quietly that'd be gre-" Ricky begins, getting up from the bed and making his way over to the bathroom before stopping dead in his tracks once he sees how uncomfortable I look. "Are you okay?" He asks, the slightest bit of concern in his eyes.

"What? Who, me? Yeah! I am on top of the world! Cloud 9, if you must!" I lie. Ricky's concerned expression remains on his face for about two seconds before he shakes it off, I hear a small "Whatever" come out of his mouth under his breath before entering the bathroom and closing the door.

+

I haven't seen Gina all day.

I was officially worried. It was 3:30 in the afternoon, it's weird for me not to see her. So me being the concerned best friend that I am, I look for her. But this house is huge. So I asked some of the guys to help me. Noah, Ricky and Chase are helping me look for Gina. The only reason Ricky is helping is because he is also looking for Ej so they can play a video game or something. I had been searching for a good 5 minutes now, and no sight of her. Did this woman get kidnapped or something? Where the hell is she?

Eventually I come to a door that I don't think I've been in at all. I put my ear to the door and I hear some sort of slapping noise.

Oh my God, is she getting decked?

I quickly bust open the door, ready to attack whoever thought they could put their hands on my best friend, but my eyes are met with something I wish I could take back forever.

Gina Porter and Ej Caswell were in the bathroom, completely making out.

"Shoot! I'm so sorry!" I slap my hand over my eyes immediately and try to make my way out of the bathroom, but I kept tripping and falling. Turns out I would not be very good as a blind person.

"Uh- Do you need help?" I hear a deep voice that I immediately recognize as Ej's say.

"Nope! I am good! Just gotta get outta this bathroom and let you two love-birds contin- Whoop!" I exclaim, tripping over something and falling forward. I would have face-planted if it weren't for the strong arms that were currently in-between my armpits and resting on my back, keeping me from falling. I remove my hand from my eyes, only to be met with someone's chest and a very pleasant cologne.

"Easy there." The person who saved me from falling says, helping steady me back on two feet. Their arms disconnect from my body and none other than Ricky Bowen is standing in front of me, an awkward smile on his face.

"You guys are SO adorable. Your children would be really attractive." Ej says from behind us, followed by a very loud laugh which I soon identified as Gina's. I turn around and glare at both of them.

"Very funny. I will be leaving now, you two can get back to doing the hokey pokey!" I grin, exiting the bathroom and closing the door behind me. I look back at Ricky, only to see him staring at me with a weird expression on his face.

"What?" I raise my eyebrows.

"The hokey pokey?" He mirrors my words.

"Yes, the hokey pokey. You got a problem?"

"Why didn't you just say making out because that's clearly what they were doing."

"Yes Ricky, I know what they are doing. I walked in on it for heavens-sake!" The door behind us opens and I turn around, only to be met with a very angry looking Ej.

"Can you guys go argue anywhere else?" Ej snaps, glaring at me and Ricky.

"It's not my fault Ricky doesn't appreciate my-" I get cut off my Ej slamming the door in my face. I turn back around so I'm facing Ricky, grab his wrist and lead him away from the bathroom. Once we're away from the bathroom, I break the news to him about this morning.

"Ricky I have something to tell you." A grin grows on my face.

"Hm?" He hums.

"This morning when I woke up, you were like- cuddling me."

His eyes literally almost popped out of his socket, I swear.

"Your arm was around my waist, it was freaking weird."

"W-Well- I- I uh- Well you see- It's not like that because- Well-" He stutters, and this is enough to cause me to break out into a laughing fit.

"The fuck are you laughing at?" His eyebrows furrow as a look of confusion takes over his face.

"You!" Is all I manage to get out, before another wave of laughter takes over my body.

"Fuck you," I hear Ricky mumble before walking away.

+

A/N

sorry this chapter is so short lol. it's just kinda a filler chapter and a chapter to go further into ej & gina's relationship. i knew since i first started this book that i wanted portwell to be a thing but i dont know how to escalate it so its starting here lol. again sorry this chapter is so short and extremely boring, the next one will be better i promise