Ryan’s POV
I follow Joel outside, wondering what this is all about. He stops and turns round.
‘You know I like her.’ He says simply. Whoa, this is about a girl?
‘Abi? I like her to.’ I reply. He rolls his eyes.
‘Look, we’ve only known her a few hours...’ I start before he interrupts me.
‘Yeah and already you’re making a move, comforting her, letting her cry on your shoulder. Doing the whole romantic hand holding.’
’ I’m shocked. Yeah I like her but still, Joel was kind of overreacting.
‘You always do this, jump in before I have a chance. Making sure they forget about me and are charmed by you and your good looks.’ He continues. I am getting slightly angry now. We both like the same girl, wouldn’t be the first time. I roll my eyes and say;
‘Look Joel, we both like her. You weren’t the only one who liked her as soon as you set eyes on her and all that. ‘He nods sadly. Having been in this situation before, we decide to set it traditionally. Rock, Paper Scissors, we both open our eyes to find both our hands in the rock position.
‘Rematch.’ I say.
‘Rock, Paper, Scissors.’ Joel says and again we open our eyes to find our hands in the same position, this time paper.
‘For God’s Sake.’ I say, for once tradition has failed us.
‘How about we let her decide If she even wants one of us.’ Joel suggests.
‘Ok then. But neither of us can do anything romanticy with her unless she suggests it.’ I say.
‘Only if that includes putting our arm around her shoulder.’ Joel says and I am trying to figure out why it bothers him too much. Before I can ask he turns and walks back into the restaurant.
Abi’s POV
Ryan and Joel return and Ryan sits back down next to me. All of the casual arm resting and shoulder squeezing has gone
‘You ok?’ I ask quietly. He nods but it seems half hearted and I decide to find out what’s up.
Joel is looking at us both so I go back to my chicken and glance at Adam and Andy, pretending I’m interesting in what they’re saying.
‘We could see you Joel, rock, paper, scissoring!’ Andy is teasing him with some inside joke.
‘Who won?’ Adam wants to know.
‘It was a tie.’ Ryan adds in.
‘A tie!’ Andy and Adam say together.
‘So what happens now?’ Adam asks glancing at me.
‘I don’t know.’ Joel says.
We return back home and I wonder at all the tension. Was it really all about a game or was that just a metaphor?
‘Joel here’s your room, You’re sharing with Andy. Is that ok?’ I say having put him with Andy because it was the biggest bedroom.
‘Adam you get your own room, just down the hall.’ I point in the right direction. Both of these rooms were en suite. Only mine and the other guest room weren’t.
‘Ryan you’re here.’ I lead him into the last bedroom. Mine was just across the hall. This house was the same one I had grown up in and had four bedrooms but was still quite crowded with the five of us. Luckily my parents weren’t here as they were celebrating their wedding anniversary by travelling round the world for a bit. They had already been gone 8 months and showed no signs of being back soon. At least no one was sleeping on the sofa. We decide to just go straight to sleep as it was quite late and we were all tired.
