Love is a Fight

Chapter 36

~ ryder ~

We sat on the couch in a rough awkward silence. I looked towards Grayson but he was painfully quiet staring at the wall in front of him, his thoughts practically racing in front of us. Veronica had her legs pulled under her in a criss-cross position swirling the contents of her cup around in her hand. Nick was spread out lazily across the couch, one arm resting on the back of it — the other grasping a handle of vodka. I sat on the couch watching the party take place around us. People were slowly starting to leave as it was the late hours of night or early hours of the morning depending how you look at it, the party was wrapping up.

"So uh" Toby spoke up, his voice fragile as if he knew any wrong words would spark anger from the boys. "We're gonna head out" he motioned between himself and Heath. Heath stood bored, stoic as per usual, yet his eyes flickered back and forth at the boys almost to see if they were okay.

"Yeah man thank you for coming!" Nick was quick to put on a smile. It looked like his usual one, bright and full of life. It made me wonder how many times he's faked it in the past. He gave Toby a bro hug and Heath a nod. Grayson hopped up as well. From him, Toby got a fist bump but he paused at Heath as the heavily tattooed boy pulled him close by the shoulder.

"You got him good man. Fucker can barely breathe, I think you broke his ribs" Heath nudged him. I suppose this was Heath's weird way of making Grayson feel better. It must have worked as a small grin broke out onto his face. "Take care of your girls" he nodded towards us before pulling away and following Tobias out the door.

Grayson sat back down yet this time his leg began bouncing up and down. Nick was still standing glancing at all of us.

"So I guess that shot didn't exactly ease the tension huh?" he scratched the back of his neck trying to make light out of the situation. I chuckled softly at his idiotic nature causing Nick to send me a smile. We looked around the room as only a few people were left. One group of them was the baseball players. They seemed to get the hint as they began making their way to the door.

"See ya. Thanks for the party Nick" Cranford walked by ruffling my hair and then nodded towards Nick. Nick seemed hesitant to respond seeing as Grayson was sending Cranford a hard glare.

"Yeah man, anytime" Nick smiled. Cranford and his friends left shutting the door behind them. You could still hear their shouts and laughter from outside as it slowly got quieter and quieter the farther they walked from the house.

I looked over to Grayson who was not surprisingly rolling his eyes. "Yeah man, anytime!" Grayson mocked Nick in a high pitched voice.

"Shut up bitch" Nick picked up a pillow laying next to Veronica and flung it towards the gray eyed boy. "What else was I supposed to say!"

"Oh I don't know. How bout fuck you, you dumb pussy ass bitches who love playing with balls" Grayson growled as I erupted into laughter. I was still on a drunk high and quickly put my hand over my mouth to stifle my giggles.

My sudden fit of laughter caused Veronica to giggle lightly as well. Both of us attempted to keep low and quiet but that obviously wasn't the case. I saw Grayson look over at me and smile. He rolled his eyes again but this time it was playful and filled with fake annoyance. Nick wore a large smile as well seemingly happy that his friends were going back to normal.

Veronica yawned but tried covering it up not wanting to reveal she's tired. I watched as she stood and walked into the kitchen. Nick momentarily wore a concerned impression, justifiable considering the last time she walked off caused the eruption of our night.

After an internal debate he seemed to cave and went to follow her. He came to halt as he almost crashed into the short girl coming out of the kitchen. Veronica had a garbage bag in her hand and I watched as she started to pick up cups and bottles placing them gently in the large white bag.