*stephanie's pov*
we were seated at a small booth with a bright white tablecloth draped over the table. a blonde, skinny waitress sauntered over to us with a small order pad in her hand.
"hi, my name is jane and i'll be serving you today. can i start you off with some drinks?"
she said in a sickly sweet tone as she handed us some menus.
something about her was a bit off-putting, but i pushed the thought aside.
"yeah, i'll have an iced tea." brennen smiled at her.
"i'll have the same." i replied, staring at her sternly.
"and what about you, darling?" jane the waitress said, batting her fake eyelashes at colby.
my face started to heat up and i stared her down, but colby grabbed my hand and rubbed circles into it, instantly calming my nerves before they could get out of hand.
"i'll just have some water, please. thank you." he nodded awkwardly to her and looked back at me with sympathy.
"alright, those will be right out." she sashayed away, trying to get colby's attention, but his eyes stayed on our hands.
"damn, steph, i thought your head was gonna blow off," brennen chuckled lightheartedly.
"i'm not going to let some flat-assed barbie doll hit on him, am i?" i smirked at brennen, who covered his mouth and muffled an "oh shit," to colby, who just smiled at his menu, loosening his grip on my hand.
seconds later, way faster than any regular waitress would, jane the barbie doll returned with our drinks, carefully placing colby's down first.
"are you ready to order?" she asked in her irritatingly high-pitched voice.
"yeah, i'll have the carbonara, please, thank you." brennen replied, sipping his drink as he pushed the menu into her hands abruptly. she looked at him with a tinge of anger in her eyes, and brennen stifled a laugh, looking at me.
"i'll have the penne vodka, please," colby said, smiling kindly and awkwardly like he always does.
"good choice." she winked at him, and that set me off.
"i'll have the fettuccine alfredo." she doesn't deserve a "please".
the blonde-haired walking piece of plastic shot me a dirty look and took the rest of the menus, placing her hand on colby's shoulder as she left the table.
"colby, aren't you bothered by this?" i asked, clearly angry over that bitch's unacceptable behavior.
"yes, i am extremely bothered, but i'm waiting it out. i want to see if she'll stop. if she doesn't, i'll say something. just try to keep your cool, okay? i'll handle it." he said, kissing my cheek.
"daddy colby always knows what to do." brennen winked, turning colby's face dangerously red and causing me to laugh.
me and brennen kept up a conversation about what kind of videos might be fun to do while colby sat and listened. i haven't uploaded my first video yet, and i need ideas, so brennen was helping me come up with something.
"oh, wait! i just got a good idea," brennen interrupted our few seconds of thought.
"whatchya got?" i looked at him, leaning my cheek against my hand.
"you, me, and colby can collab to make your first video a prank on someone in the house. that will grab the viewers' attention," he said, his eyes lighting up with excitement.
"that's perfect! but who would we prank?"
"corey," colby joined in, taking a sip of his water, "he's a scaredy cat."
"good idea, colby. but what kind of prank should we pull?" i asked, gaining back my confusion as to how we could pull this off.
"well, i'm not really sure, but maybe we can do something crazy. let's take a break from talking about it and just mull it over for bit, we'll come back to it later." he said and i nodded.
"i hope we get a different waiter this time, the amount of money that the layers of makeup on that girl's face is worth could probably buy us dinner for a month," i chuckled a bit, changing the subject.
"speaking of the devil," brennen nodded to his right, where we saw jane heading over with our food.
she approached the table and placed colby's meal down with grace, then carelessly shoved mine and brennen's plates in front of us, nearly spilling them everywhere.
then, she crossed the line.
she leaned over in front of colby and slipped him a piece of paper with numbers on it, licking her teeth.
"sorry, i'm not interested." colby said bluntly, sliding the piece of paper back to her.
"you can't shake me that easily, cutie pie." she said quietly, lust dancing in her eyes.
"i have a girlfriend, in fact she's sitting right next to me- so i kindly suggest that you back off, because i'm not interested."
"you're really dating her? she's nothing compared to me, honey. i can give you everything, especially what she can't." she said, pushing things even farther.
"i'd definitely take her over you and your terrible personality any damn day. and did i mention i can get you fired for displeasing a customer? i won't ask you again, waitress. back off." he said intimidatingly, wrapping his arm around my waist as brennen sat there open-mouthed.
she scoffed and walked off, snatching the piece of paper off the table and scampering back to the kitchen.
"bro, that was nuts! i've never seen you so defensive," brennen said excitedly.
"she took it too far. she's not aloud to insult anyone, let alone my fucking girlfriend." he mumbled, his face now red with anger.
"hey, hey, hey, it's okay, calm down. thank you for standing up for me," i squeezed his hand and spoke softly, "it's over now. you don't need to be angry. if she causes more trouble, i'll handle it myself." i grabbed his chin and turned his face toward me, giving him a reassuring look. within seconds he calmed down and blessed me with that iconic smile that made me fall for him the second i met him.
"okay."
•••
*brennen's pov*
as stephanie was calming colby down after that bitch jane tried to get him, i looked at colby. i've never seen him look at anyone the way he does stephanie. she was able to get him to stay calm, and he stared into her eyes like he'd never seen anything like her in his life.
he must really love her.
•••
*colby's pov*
i breathed out and let go of her hand, picking up my fork and digging into my food.
"now this is some fancy ass pasta!" brennen laughed, taking a huge bite of his spaghetti.
"wow, you're right, this is really fricking good," stephanie smiled as she shoveled it down.
i ate from my plate. it was good, but i was still angry over what that waitress had said about steph. her words echoed in my head:
"you're really dating her? she's nothing compared to me, honey."
"colby? you okay?" stephanie's voice snapped me back to reality.
"yeah, yeah, i'm fine."
"no, you're not. are you still angry about jane the bitch?" brennen said.
i looked down at my plate, avoiding their eye contact. i normally like eye contact- but not right now.
"oh, colby, don't be so shaken up over it. she's just flaunting what she doesn't have," stephanie said, taking another bite of her pasta.
"it just makes me angry how people underestimate you."
"colby, that waitress just wanted to get in your pants. you and i both know that stephanie is a boss ass bitch who will handle jane if she has to. it's gonna be fine." brennen smiled, trying to joke.
"just try not to get her too angry, okay? i know she's going to come back," i looked into stephanie's eyes, searching for the sign that she'll listen.
"i promise i'll keep my composure. if she bothers you, i'll handle it next time. like brennen said- i'm a boss ass bitch," she chuckled, rubbing my shoulder.
speaking of jane, here she was, once again swaying her hips over to our table.
"here's the check," she put it down as she took away the now empty plates in front of us, "and i'm still here, if you want me." she got really close to my neck, and i cringed away at the feeling of her breath on my jawline.
"he doesn't."
oh, lord. here we go.
"what did you just say?" jane replied, placing her hand on one hip and the other on the table.
"i said he doesn't. it'd be wise for you to back off a taken man- it's rude to butt into someone's business when they never asked you to." stephanie said to her, keeping her tone calm.
"well i don't think anyone asked for your opinion, you bitch." jane snapped.
"you shouldn't talk to customers that way. and i'm not a bitch; i'm just right." stephanie grabbed my hand to try and comfort me, but i couldn't handle it anymore.
"well, i dis-"
"it's time you stopped acting like a child and learned your place. i'll never date you, so go find some other guy to fuck, because it's certainly not going to be me. now let us pay the damn bill before i get you fired for harassing a customer." i raised my voice loud enough to get my point across.
jane took the money i put next to the bill and stomped away, leaving me fuming and brennen and stephanie quietly sitting.
seconds later she came back with the receipt and we got up to leave. i climbed out of the booth and as steph stood up next to the table, jane's fist collided with her jaw.
stephanie's stood there in shock. everyone in the restaurant saw what happened and stared brennen, who was holding back jane, still swinging punches into the air.
jane had ripped her arms free from brennen's grasp and tackled stephanie, landing two blows to her stomach and her nose before another worker and i pulled her off. i rushed to steph's aid and tried to help her sit up, but she jumped right up like everything was fine. she held her stomach, blood dripping down her face, and walked over to the restrained waiter.
i almost pulled her back until i heard what she growled.
"you can hurt me all you want, but you will never lay a hand on my boyfriend. he's mine, and i'll do everything in my fucking power to keep the grubby hands of girls like you off of him. so punch me and kick me and beat me to a pulp- but if you ever such as touch my man, you'll never feel pain as bad as i'll give it to you." she growled in a low voice i never knew she had.
she then walked back to me, grabbed my hand, and led us out of the restaurant, brennen following with his middle finger in the air.
we let the doors close behind us and i stopped her in her tracks.
"stop, stephanie. you're hurt, we need to get you some help. she punched you way too hard for you to be alright."
"i'm fine, colby. she just made my nose bleed-my stomach is okay. all that matters is that we got out of there and away from that crazy bitch." she held my cheek, wiping the blood from her nose.
"c'mon, let's just get in the car. i have clean napkins left over from my fast food trips, we can clean you up in there." brennen said, walking on the opposite side of her as we made our way to the car.
•••
"you didn't have to do that, you know." i told stephanie as she sat next to me in the backseat, holding a napkin to her nose to stop the bleeding.
"do what? get punched?" she joked.
i'll never understand how she manages to stay positive in even the most dire situations- she's so unusual.
but like, the good kind.
"no, of course not. you didn't have to go up to her and tell her off after she sucker-punched you." i smiled into her big brown eyes.
"d-did you hear what i said to her?" she stuttered, her mood dropping a little.
i nodded in response.
"oh god, i'm so embarrassed,"
"why? it was kinda hot," i laughed, winking at her rosy cheeks and wide eyes.
"because i've never acted like that before. something came over me, and i just felt like i could do anything. i said stuff i would normally never say and now i regret it." she played with her fingers. i guess she picked that up from me.
"you shouldn't. you scared her- she was shitting her pants the second you finished talking,"
"oh, stop it," she looked up at me and smiled.
we drove in silence for a few more minutes until brennen pulled into the driveway of our house.
"alright, lovebirds, we're home. you guys go inside, i'm gonna head back to my place." brennen looked in the mirror on the roof of the car.
"i'm really sorry i ruined dinner, brennen, i didn't mean for things to escalate so quickly-"
"hey, don't apologize, that shit was crazy! you went all dark and scary on that bitch and i got to see it happen," he laughed, making her smile.
"anyways, go inside and i'll text you tomorrow to see what's going on with that prank we're planning."
"no problem. thanks for hanging out today, talk soon," i said, helping steph out of the car.
"bye brother!" and with that, brennen was out of our driveway and on his way home.
i walked her inside and brought her to the living room, where to my surprise, all our roommates where sitting and watching tv.
the faces of elton, aaron, sam, corey, and devyn all dropped from happy to concerned as steph walked in with a bloody napkin.
"what the hell happened?" devyn said, jumping up to inspect stephanie, who just let her do it.
"well, long story short, some waitress bitch tried to get all up on colby and i wasn't having it, so she attacked me," stephanie explained.
"what?! why'd you let her?" sam said, getting up to walk over and bring her to the couch.
"guys, i'm fine. my nose is bleeding, im not dying." she chuckled.
"what you don't know is that stephanie hopped off the ground like nothing happened and went all dark mode," i said to the room, "it was like a switch turned on and she just got all demonic. she told her ass off and walked out with me and brennen following behind her. it was awesome." i smiled.
"that's fricking awesome," elton giggled, earning nods from aaron and corey.
"are you sure you're alright?" sam said, getting her an ice pack to hold against her nose.
"i'm fine. i promise. thank you for caring so much." she smiled.
i sat down next to corey as sam and devyn tended to stephanie while we just shared looks back and forth. her eyes lit up with something i couldn't recognize.
then all off a sudden, i thought back to how i felt when i told her all those things before dinner- and i realized how i felt:
i was in love with her.
•••
*stephanie's pov*
i sat there on the couch, an ice pack to my nose and sam and devyn hovering over me to make sure i was alright.
i stared at colby and i realized that what i thought about earlier tonight was true:
i was in love with him.
(ahhhh things are getting good now!!
thank you all so much for getting this story past 400 reads, that's crazy! i'm so happy you enjoy the story. more chapters to come very soon!)