Blake
I try my hardest to deflect my teammates' questions as we change in our locker room after practice. They sure are pushy.
"Come on, Blake... Just talk to us!" James whines, staring at me pleadingly.
"Give it up, James. I already told you we can talk later, so just stay patient and wait a few more hours, okay?"
"Few hours?!" He exclaims in shock. "Why so long?!"
"Because Lia will most likely go to her classes at her academy in half an hour, and then we're having dinner at home."
Simon perks up at this. "Can we come?"
I don't even have a chance to answer that as other guys chime in. "Yeah." "We haven't been at your house yet." "Is it far?" "We can meet up there."
I let out a sigh of pure frustration. They seriously won't give it up, will they?
I get my bag and leave the locker room, ignoring guys' whining as they trudge behind me. Lia greets me with a smile as soon as she sees me and I almost melt right on the spot. One smile from my kitten and I turn to mush.
"Lia, tell him something! He's being mean!" James goes past me and gets behind my girl, using her as a shield from me. Justin only watches everything in silent amusement.
"What's going on?"
"We thought it may be a good idea to meet up at your house to talk..." Simon smiles widely at my girl, wordlessly asking her to agree.
Lia only raises her brow questioningly. "You sure about that? You might get scarred for life." I chortle at this. She means them meeting her dad.
"W-why?" James hesitantly asks, gulping nervously.
"You'll only find out if you're brave enough." My kitten whispers conspicuously.
"You two are so fucking mean!" James complains, sulking like a petulant child.
"I'm just kidding, James. – Lia laughs, patting his shoulder with her good hand – If you want to come to our place, that's fine."
"Yeah. You're so easy to play with, man." I add with a chuckle.
"I can't believe you two. You're really a match made in heaven." Simon grumbles angrily.
"More like a match made in hell." James adds with a pout. He's such a kid sometimes.
I take my kitten's hand in mine. "Are you going to your classes at the academy today?" I ask as we walk outside with my teammates and Justin following right behind us.
"Nope. I already got my assignments sent to my email. I'll only have to show up in two weeks to take the tests and that's it."
"Does that mean we can go to your house now?" James jumps in front of us, grinning excitedly.
"Why do you want to come to our place so bad?" I frown confusedly at him. He's so stubborn about it.
"Cause we haven't been there yet! You two didn't even have a housewarming party!" He glares at us pointedly.
"And here I thought you already noticed that we're not much into parties." I shake my head in mock disappointment, while Lia giggles beside me.
"Yes, James, it means you can come straight to our house." She tells him slowly, like she's speaking to a child.
"Okay guys, you go and have fun while we have to fucking study." Joel, one of my teammates, huffs angrily. The guys from the team bid us quick goodbyes then go towards the dorms, leaving only Justin, Dave, Simon and James with us.
"Study?" I implore curiously. "That's new."
"Laugh all you want, but after Evan's shit the dean said the condition for staying on the team, whether it's on scholarship or not, is having at least national average GPA, which is 3.0, so you can see why they're nervous." Dave explains, getting a surprised look from both me and Lia.
"Wow..." Justin breathes out a chuckle.
"Yeah, tell that to those geniuses." Our captain retorts.
"I'm sure they weren't happy when they heard that." Lia laughs.
"No, they weren't." Dave shakes his head, heading to a black Mercedes parked beside my car.
"Wow, you got a car? Since when?" I tease.
"I always had it, asshole, I just didn't use it." He laughs. "See you at your house, lovebirds." With that he beckons his brother and James to 'get their asses in' and Justin walks to a Jeep parked across the lot.
I open the door for my kitten then round my car and get in before starting it and pulling out of the lot. I drive to our house with David right behind me.
"Babe, can you get my phone? I have to text my dad that we're having guests." Lia asks after a while.
"Sure, where is it?"
"My pocket. But I can't reach it with this stupid sling." I chuckle at her pissed tone. She's been throwing away every single sling I got for her and it's quite amusing to see her so annoyed. She's so cute.
I reach my hand over Lia's waist and dig in her right pocket, pulling out her phone before handing it to her. "Here you, baby."
"Thanks." She blows me a kiss with a smile.
The rest of the drive is quiet, as usual, since neither my kitten nor I feel the need to fill the silence. It's not that we don't have anything to talk about, we just enjoy the comfort of simply being with each other.
As I drive up the driveway leading to our new house, I notice Aiden's bike and Ashton's car still parked there. Oh boy, the guys are about to meet my girl's family for the first time.
After I help my kitten get out of the car, we walk hand-in-hand to the front door with the guys following close behind, constantly commenting how big and awesome our house is.
"Hey dad!" Lia greets with a grin as her dad swings the front door open before we can even reach it.
"Hey Tyson."
"Hey, you two. How was your first day at uni?" He chuckles, holding the door open for us.
"It's not our first day, dad. – Lia giggles – Oh come on! Let them in!" She scolds when she sees Tyson blocking the way for our friends.
"You sure, little mouse?"
"Yes, dad, I'm sure. Those are the guests I texted you about." She explains, getting only a quiet 'okay' from Tyson before he lets the guys come in.
"You're still as protective of her as you used to be." I hear Justin tease as he walks inside, shaking his head at Tyson.
"Justin? The hell you doing here?" Tyson sounds surprised to see the younger guy here, but still greets him with a bro-hug.
"Just had something to do in town and decided to visit Cookie and you." Justin shrugs.
"Come on guys, let's not stand here." I beckon at them to come further inside, leading them to the living room.
"Wow, your house is awesome!" James glances around with wide eyes. "How much is the rent for this?" He questions, taking a seat at the big couch.
"It's not rented." I shrug. "We bought it."
The silence that follows my statement is both amusing and concerning. All three of our friends look like something just snapped in their heads.
"B-Bought..." James repeats.
"Yep." I smirk at his gaping mouth.
"How much money do you have exactly?" Simon gasps as James is too busy getting his jaw off the floor.
"How much do you think I make from my fights?" Lia teases from beside me. Tyson and Justin only chuckle at this and I exchange knowing looks with my girl. I guess it's not easy to think that my girl is literally a millionaire, since she doesn't really brag about her money.
"I don't know... few hundred a fight?" James tries to guess, getting a genuinely amused laugh from Lia.
"No, not really."
"Few grand?" He guesses again, making Lia laugh even more.
"Times ten." She smirks. All three of our friends gape at her in pure shock.
"Holy shit... - David breathes out - Can you teach me how to fight? I could pay off my student loans with that!" He exclaims.
"I can teach you, sure, but newbies don't really earn that much at first."
"It's still something." He shrugs.
"Hey, where are the batteries?" I burst out laughing at Lia's question, barely catching my breath at the casual tone of her voice. Instead of calling them by their names, Lia started referring to them as 'batteries' when she speaks about them as a group because, I quote: "They're AAA."
Tyson manages to stop laughing for long enough to answer. "No idea. They went downstairs about an hour ago. I'm guessing they like the den."
"Batteries? Den? What the hell?" Simon seems confused by the cryptic message.
"Batteries is what I call my brothers, cause it's too bothersome to say their names and they all start with an A. And the den is like a... home-theater downstairs."
It's now Justin's turn to be surprised. "Wow! You have brothers?!"
"Yeah."
"Damn, a lot happened since I last saw you..."
"Yeah... You have no idea how much." I can hear the sadness in Lia's voice and I gently pull her tighter into my side, kissing her head softly. She only smiles at me before turning back to Justin. "But I'm better now. Everything's over. Well, almost everything, but I already told you about that."
"Speaking of that, what the hell happened to you?" David questions, staring worriedly at my girl.
I decide to give Lia some time alone with the guys, already having heard everything. "I'll go look for you brothers so you can talk freely, okay?" I whispers into my girl's ear, getting a short nod from her in response. With a quick peck I get up from the couch and beckon at Tyson and Justin to leave Lia and the guys alone.
"Come on, Justin, why don't we catch up while little mouse talks to her friends?" Tyson pats the younger guy's shoulder, taking him to the kitchen.
"I'm going to see the trio." I inform them then head to the basement, where Lia's brothers supposedly are.
"Okay."
As I climb down the stairs, I catch Lia's quiet voice recounting what happened to her. When I get in the den, I'm met by my girl's brothers talking quietly as Adrian works on his computer. The den is an average-sized room with a bunch of huge beanbags arranged in a semicircle, facing the 146-inch TV. In the corners we have installed high-quality THX sound system. What? We like watching movies.
"Blake? You're back already? Where's Lia?" Ashton notices me first.
"She's upstairs with our friends, but I decided to give them some space."
"Oh, okay. I was actually meaning to call you..." Adrian says when I sit on one of the beanbags.
"It better be some good news."
"It is." Ashton affirms, while Aiden only throws me an evil smirk.
"We found that cop."