The Fighter and His Tiger (Unexpected Love #1)

49. Saturday Evening Week Twenty

49. Saturday Evening Week Twenty

Eli wasn't lying when he said that the Ryker house was chaotic, it was an absolute mess.

School had finished yesterday, not that Eli, Ty or I had gone in, but we were now officially on Winter Break.

Rosemary was in the kitchen with my Nan and Debbie cooking up a storm. Max was sat on a barstool, sipping beer with Rafael and attempting to help with chopping up the veg but they kept getting scolded for messing it up.

The twins and Ty were running around like maniacs together, he kept getting annoyed at me because I was repetitively giving him hugs whenever I saw him.

God knows where Riley was.

Raven, Cayd, Eli and Noah were nowhere to be seen but I imagined that it wouldn't be going the best right now. Eli was pissed off and he still strongly disliked Noah so I was certain that if they were together right now, it would be testosterone central.

Ty ran by me at that moment and I intercepted him, scooping him into my arms and squeezing him close.

"LYNI!!!" He screeched, "stop cuddling me all the time! The giwls will catch me."

I smothered his face with kisses, "okay," I muttered, though I relented and put him down, "I'm sorry."

He beamed at me, kissed my cheek and ran off.

"Everyone is in the den upstairs, Reillyn!" Debbie yelled from the kitchen which was to my right, "I think you should go up there before Ryker beats up that 'pretty boy' friend of yours."

Even though her back was to me and she couldn't see me, I nodded and clambered up the stairs to the den. The den was essentially this massive room that took up the whole third floor of the Ryker's house and was filled with games, sofas, everything teenagers wanted. Apparently, it was already here when they moved in and Mikael just let them keep it which was a benefit for us.

Surprisingly, when I reached the top of the stairs, I was greeted with the sight of our entire friendship group hanging out. Raven, Lana, Kins, Tori, Kie, Arik and everyone else, I couldn't keep the smile off my face when I realised that everyone I loved was under the same roof.

Startled, I jumped slightly when a heavy arm came to rest across my shoulder. I looked up at Kyle's cheeky smile, he pointed to the balcony with the pool cue, "he's losing his shit man, you've been gone for over an hour."

Eli and Cayden were casually smoking and leaning on the railing of the balcony, Eli mumbled something and Cayd clapped him on the back with a light laugh before his dual coloured eyes flickered back into the room and landed briefly on Tori.

"I'll go out and talk to him, he's gonna be annoyed," I said.

Jasper came to stand on my left, beer bottle in hand, "yeah, but you're the best at calming him down. His temper is ridiculous sometimes, but you seem to have a handle on it."

"Thank you!" I declared, "finally someone else recognises how ridiculous his temper is."

"Oh honey," Kyle began, "We all recognise it, it's just that none of us have the balls to say it out loud."

I rolled my eyes with a chuckle, "big babies," I muttered before heading out to the balcony, leaving their cries of protest to my name-calling behind me.

Cayden turned fully around at the sound of the balcony doors opening, whereas Eli's eyes remained focused ahead of him.

"Hey, koala bear," Cayden greeted with a grin.