Adelina Celine Torres
"Put it up more." I direct Ronny, who seems to not know what 'up' means because he moves it rightwards instead.
"Ronald." I scold him, causing his head to whip in my direction. "No." He says sternly.
"No Ronald?" I ask, since I kinda like the nickname. "Absolutely fucking not." He says, turning back to the archway door thingy in the living room.
We are decorating the place for Owen's welcome home day, and I am putting the big strong weirdly tall man to work. I may have to step in, though, because the W and the E and the L and the C and the O and the M and the E and all of HOME and all of OWEN are extremely crooked.
"It's like you're intentionally ignoring me." I walk beside him and step onto the stool, causing him to step off.
I get on my tip toes to reach the letters and straighten them out as much as I can. "Ronny are they straight?" I ask, turning to look behind me at Ron. He is a few feet behind me, but his eyes are not on the letters.
"Are you looking at my butt?" I turn around, making his eyes snap up to my face. "What? No." He clears his throat. I put my hands on my hips, "Good. Now is this okay?"
He steps back and looks up, "Sure."
I groan, "You are the worst sometimes."
The past week and a half I have spent studying a heck ton and hanging out with Ron. It's like I never got hurt and ignored him, and he never 'got busy' and ignored me.
I visited Owen a few times in the hospital while he recovered, and it's finally time for him to come home. He is still going to be in crutches and bed rest for a while, but at least he is coming home.
I've interacted with Papa a few times. He yelled at me pretty badly about that night at the bar, but I stand by my decision to leave. Luckily, when he was yelling Nick was on his way over so Papa didn't hurt me.
"There you're done now can we do something else?" He asks impatiently, sitting on the couch.
Today I learned Ronald hates decorating, and is extremely whiney when he is doing something he hates.
"Fine. Baby." I mutter the last part, sitting down next to him. "What was that?"
"Oh nothing." I pretend to be doing something on my phone, but Aaron takes it from me and tosses it on the ground. "Hey stop it!"
Before I can react Ronny puts his arms around me and starts tickling the living crap out of me. "Ronny no! No--" my stomach hurts from laughing and I try to spin around to get him back, but he is barely ticklish at all so it fails.
In a last resort of self defense I try to shove Ron away from me, which ends up kicking him off the couch.
I hear a thump of him hitting the floor, and instantly peek over the edge of the couch to look at him. "Are you okay?" I ask, ignoring him glaring at me. "No." He grumbles, sitting up on the floor.
I make a pouty face at him, "Awww are you hurt?" I fake a baby voice, cupping his face in my hands.
He stares at me for a few seconds not moving, and I boop his nose. He recoils at that, "What the fuck"
"What?" I question. Did he not like the boop?
Who doesn't like being booped?
Red flag.
Suddenly we hear the front door open followed by voices from down the hall. I can hear the sound of crutches on the floor, and I jump up from the couch. "Owen!" I exclaim when he hobbles into the room.
"Welcome home!" I put my arms up to show him the letters we hung up for him. He is with Mike, and looks a lot better than the last time I saw him two days ago.
His face is still bruised and has scabs, one of his arms is heavily wrapped in bandages, his left leg is in a cast, and I can't see because of his shirt, but I know his torso is also wrapped from broken ribs.
Ronny stands up from the floor and walks over to join us all. "Here we got you some stuff." I grab a basket off of the dining room table with all of Owen's favorite snacks, candies, and even a pop it because I figure he must get bored sitting around all day.
I don't care if pop its are for kids, they entertain me for hours.
"Thank you so much Lina, this is amazing." Owen smiles to me, reaching his non-bandaged arm around me for a half hug. "Of course. Are you feeling better?" I ask after the hug. "A little. It's good to be home."
I feel Ronny's presence next to me, a hand wrapping around my waist almost protectively.
"Don't you think the bandage is a little dramatic?" Ron says to Owen, I turn and give him a light smack. "Be nice and go give your friend a hug." I tell him, removing his hand from my waist and nudging him.
He just makes a face at me, and I meet him with a stern look. After a few second standoff, he rolls his eyes and walks over to Owen, who has a fat smile on his face and gives Ronny a super long side hug.
They're adorable.
I am creepily watching the two when my phone rings from the couch. I quickly walk over and check it to see it's Alyssa.
Shoot!
I completely forgot I had plans to study with Alyssa tonight for a quiz tomorrow. "Hi Alyssa!" I answer the call, "I'm with Ronny right now can I come over in like thirty?" I ask, feeling bad I am pushing it back but Owen just got here and I can't leave right now.
"Of course, I was just calling to let you know Tess and Blake are over studying too. Is that alright?" Alyssa asks.
"Yeah for sure." I tell her, "See you then." I say, hanging up.
Ronny is giving me a look like he is curious as to who I'm talking to. "I need to go study with Alyssa soon, but don't worry I would never leave before cake!" I go to the kitchen, taking out the masterfully made chocolate cake.
"Tada" I set it on the counter for Owen and Mike to admire. Its a round double layered cake with white frosting and the four of us on it in stick figure drawings of black frosting. I gave Owen crutches, of course.
We all eat the cake and sit on the couch so Owen is comfortable, and just talk as Mike puts on a football game to watch. The next half hour goes by fast, and before I know it I have to leave to go study.
"Bye Mike, bye Owen feel better" I wave goodbye to the two of them. Ronny walks me to the front door, "See you tomorrow?" Ronny asks, and I get the happy-excited feeling of him wanting to hang out with me. "I have a quiz, but after?"
He nods and I leave, "Bye Ronald." I tease him, making him roll his eyes and shut the front door on me.
Jerk.
I climb into my car and blast Taylor Swift the whole twenty minute drive to campus. It almost distracts me from the fact I will be studying for the next three hours.
Ugh. I should drop out.
Just kidding Papa would literally kill me.
I walk up to Alyssa's dorm, knocking when I get there. "There she is." Alyssa opens the door and steps aside so I can walk in. "Hi." I greet Alyssa, Blake, and Tess.
Blake and Tess are sitting at a small table Alyssa has in the corner of the room. There's two open seats, one next to Blake one next to Tess.
Seeing Blake again, Alyssa's words on how he is 'into me' come back into my mind. I had completely forgotten how I was stressed about that. He asked for my number, but he never texted me, and I think I was right that he doesn't like me. I hope.
He's really nice, but I can't help but have a small—really small crush on someone else.
"You missed out on the song Tess came up with to memorize the vocabulary words." Blake says, his face showing that the song probably wasn't that good. "Oh don't worry I can sing it agai--
"No!" Blake and Alyssa say simultaneously, making me laugh. Alyssa takes the seat next to Tess, a little close if I may add, and I sit next to Blake.
The four of us spend the next two and a half hours rotating between silently reading our notes and quizzing each other with flashcards. I actually feel like I got a lot of work in, which I usually never do if I study in groups.
"I might head home." I say to them, since it's going on 10:00 and I am exhausted. "Me too" Blake stands up. I look to Alyssa who is staring at Tess. This girl.
"So...we will go now." I say, waving bye to the two and taking Blakes hand to drag him out of the room. Once we are in the hallway, he turns to me confused.
"Did you not see them looking at each other?" I tell him as we walk down the stairs. He shrugs, "Not really. I knew they were both bi, but I didn't think they liked each other."
"Me neither, and I will be angry later with Alyssa for not telling me." I say, making him laugh. We walk out of the dorm building and start towards the parking lot.
"Do you live off campus?" I ask him. He nods, "I have a place with Andrew and Leo. It's small but it's nice. Maybe you'll come see it sometime." He says casually.
"It sounds nice. I wish I lived here sometimes instead of with my family." I sigh, "I just feel like I'm missing out."
"Why do you live at home then?" He asks.
I shrug, "My parents are pretty strict and want me there. They're paying for my school so I can't exactly argue." I can't help but feel extremely ungrateful as I say that. How spoiled can I be to be complaining about living in my very nice house instead of a college dorm? I'm already going to school for free.
"Trust me, you don't want the communal bathroom experience." He jokes. "I guess so." I say, picturing a gross communal restroom.
"Thank you for walking me to my car." I say to Blake. "Yeah of course. Drive safe." he smiles to me as I get inside. "Bye Blake" I wave to him.
I drive home in silence since I'm too lazy to put on music. My car does a thing where sometimes it refuses to connect to my phone, and I am over it. I feel oddly at peace for having a quiz tomorrow, though. It's a decently easy one, but I am usually stressing the heck out the night before.
Let's just hope I don't fail.
Hey guys thanks for 7k reads! Love y'all sm!! Hope u enjoyed this chapter :) I am currently on chapter 67 writing so I'm almost done w the the whole thing and it's kinda sad.
I started it in like may but I had weeks I wouldn't work on it haha but bottom line I have been doing this thing for a while! Happy y'all finally get to read it!
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