Out of Bounds | Book 3 in USC series

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟗.

I shook my head as we headed out of the locker room and walked through the rows of ellipticals lining the gym floor. " He always wears condoms and even then, he pulls out before ya know..." my voice trails off as cool air blasts us as we walk out of the building and into the garage.

" Pretty soon there's going to be mini Kyler's and Jora's running around." That jokes ears Ayanna another playful shove as she searches for her car keys.

" Just for that, I'm making you buy your own Robeks, whore," I blew her a kiss as I pulled on the unlocked passenger door and got into her car.

" Fine then, I'll tell Elizabth to hide all of the chocolate and replace it with pickles since you want to be like that." She shrugs and begins to scroll on her phone.

" Lizzie would never do that to me," I said matter-of-factly.

" We'll see," she hums and pulls out of her parking spot.

I hated pickles. Literally hated them. What even was a pickle? Who decided to call a pickled cucumber a pickle? Like where does the logic come in?

" Fine," I gave in as she celebrated in the driver's seat beside me.

" I hate you," I bite my thumbnail.

" You love me," she sings.

There were a few beats of silence between us as I stared at the passing buildings on the way to the smoothie store. " I do, fuck you."

Ayanna and I's relationship started off a little... weird.

She swore up and down that I hated her.... And I probably gave her every reason to think that. I was never a girl's girl before I met my friends. I always had my guard up, I never knew who to trust, and I never felt that I made genuine connections with people.

When I first met her, she was well, Ayanna. She was super sweet and had a warm and welcoming vibe to her. She wore the biggest smile on her face and she was so happy to meet everyone. And I'll admit, I was a little jealous of the fact that she could make so many connections so quickly.

But I didn't hate the girl.

We actually had so much in common. The first being at the top of the list, shitty low-life ex's that fling their shit around to anyone that bats an eyelash at them... well at least one of them. The other will be rotting behind bars after his trial is over.

Whoever decided that it was smart to give a known abuser bond, should be put in jail too. Especially if the amount is like buying candy at the grocery store for his parents. The justice system was shit.

" How are things going with Kyler?" Ayanna asked as we sat in traffic that didn't seem to want to be moving.

" It's going good," I admit. " I guess sometimes I am just waiting for the ball to drop and crush the hopes that I have for our relationship. Like, I love the kid, but every time I give him an inch...."

" He takes a mile," Ayanna finishes for me.

" Exactly and I don't want that to happen this time around. I don't know how many more times I can handle being made a fool of. Pretty soon, no amount of love that I have for him will be enough to help me forgive him for making the same mistakes over and over, ya know."

" I get it. But at the same time, I think that constantly reminding him of his fuck ups isn't a great way to move forward either, and not just coming from you either, but from all of us too." Ayanna was always the more sensible one, along with Elizabeth. They gave out some of the best advice.

" You're right. I can't imagine how he feels having his friends clown him about it everyday." Truth is, I did feel bad that everyone shit on him for his actions. But now, it felt like kicking a dog that was already down. In order for us to move forward, everyone had to move forward and try to see the changes that Kyler had made during our time apart.