"Hey, glad you guys came." Aaron says as he pulls me into a hug and I smile.
"Of course we'd come." I say and he chuckles.
"I thought you would've been with Worpel." He says and I shrug.
"She got home about an hour before we left, so she spent a decent amount of time with him." Marcus answers for me and Aaron raises an eyebrow.
"So you slept over?"
"No, we both fell asleep on the couch." I say as we walk through the house and into the kitchen. I look around and see that we're the first ones to arrive, as usual. Unless Marcus agreed to help Aaron set up...
"Oh." He says kind of disappointed that there's no juicy details attached to what happened.
"Yeah." I say just as Baz opens the sliding door.
"Ah, our helpers have arrived." He says walking over to me and pulling me into a hug, and I ruffle his hair.
"So you're just using me then?" I ask and he nods.
"Yeah, sorry about that." He says and I laugh.
"Cause you two idiots can't do anything without me." I say grabbing some stuff that's sitting on the bench and taking it outside where there are a couple of tables set up.
"And that would be true." Baz says following me.
"You put plates out, and I'll put the napkins, can't believe this shit hasn't been set up yet." I say throwing the plates at Baz who looks at me with a smirk.
"Sorry mum."
"Yeah, you should be sorry." I say as I place a napkin at each spot, along with some cutlery. I end up taking over from Baz because he is taking twice as long to put the plates out. It seems like such a simple task yet he keeps getting distracted by his phone.
"Baz." I say and he looks up at me. "Stop admiring the most recent ab photo you've taken and help me fucking set up." I say, which makes Aaron laugh.Baz opens his mouth, as if to say something, but then closes it, unable to make up a comeback.
"How did you know I was admiring my abs?"
"I've known you for about 6 years now, so it would be a bit embarrassing of me to not know what you do with your life." I say and he nods.
"Fair enough." He shrugs before grabbing the plates from my hand and placing the rest of them at each spot.
I then head inside and help Em with the salad's before taking them outside and placing them on the tables.
Once everything is set up, Em and I take a seat and let the boys do the rest.
"You gotta fill me in your night with James." Em says and I nod.
"I will, just not here, not now." I say as the sliding door opens and a few of the boys and their partners have rocked up.
"Alright fine, tomorrow." She says and I nod as I stand up and pull Logan into a hug.
"Hey Logs how have you been?"
"I've been good, how have you been gorgeous?" She asks and I nod.
"Yeah very good." I say and she smiles.
"That's good to hear." She says before heading off to say hello to the boys.
One by one everyone has arrived, including Josh and Tippah, which makes me a little uncomfortable because Tippah knows about what happened between Josh and I. But I know she'll be nice to me because that's the type of girl she is.
"Hey Tippah." I say and she smiles, walking over to me and pulling me into a hug.
"Hey Tahlia, how have you been?"
"Yeah good good, yourself?"
"Yeah good, just been exploring Melbourne you know."
"AH yes, that must be fun."
"Yeah it is, Josh is showing me all the gorgeous sights."
"I could imagine." I say and she smiles, just as Josh walks over.
"Hey." I say and he smiles.
"Hey Tahlia." He says pulling me into a hug which I did not expect.
"How's the back going?" I ask and he chuckles.
"Yeah good, Em is just good at her job."
"She is." I say and Em chuckles.
"Oh stop it you two, I'm flattered."
"But I did change my pillow and I found that helped a lot too."
"I was telling him that when the neck pain started and he didn't listen." Tippah says shaking her head and I laugh.
"Stubborn as always." I say and Josh smiles.
"I'll leave you girls to it, I'm gonna go with the boys."
"You do that." Tippah says and I smile as Josh walks away.
"So when are you headed back to Adelaide?" Em asks and Tippah smiles.
"In the new year. I promised Josh I'd spend Christmas and New Years here, then I'll be back in Adelaide to start preseason."
"Sounds good. Josh would be pleased that you're spending it with him." I say and she smiles.
"Yeah he is. It did take a lot of convincing though as I wanted to spend it with my fam, but my family have met Josh numerous times and insisted that I stayed and enjoyed my time with him because who know's when I'll see him next."
"Yeah, that's true." I say and she smiles.
"Jack told me you got back into teaching, how's it going for you?" Lou, Jack Macrae's girlfriend says and I nod.
"Yeah I did, I love it. I have no idea why I even stopped."
"Maybe you needed a break." Logan says and I nod.
"Maybe, but I love it, always will love it."
"Is it hard teaching teenagers?" Elle, Ed Richard's girlfriend asks and I chuckle.
"It can be a challenge but they all love me so they all pay attention in class."
"I could only imagine some of the spoil brats." Logan says and I nod.
"Oh yeah there's definitely some kids, but like I said all of them respect me and majority like me. I think it's because I try to be relatable, and kids love that. When I teach, I don't just teach the study design, I use real life scenario's and relate it to their interests, which makes them more interested in the subject."
"That is so smart." Elle says and I smile.
"Yeah, I've learnt over the years what to do and what not to do and teaching straight from the study design is not one of them." I say and she nods.
The rest of the night is filled with mostly laughter and banter. That's what I love about this group of people, they can all take a joke and the banter is top notch.
We get home at around midnight and I go straight to bed. As I drift off to sleep, I find myself thinking about a particular someone. He goes by the name of James Worpel. Here we go again...
****
Hey guys, bit of a filler chapter haha
I hope you all are enjoying the story so far!!
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