𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 | 𝐣. 𝐝𝐫𝐲𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐥𝐞

chapter 22

"reese, can we come in?" austin asked after him and colten had spent several minutes knocking on her door. the girl had yet to let them in as she was still annoyed from the day before. after she left trevor and jamie's, she spent the rest of the night with willow.

the girl finally responded, "give me one good reason why i should!"

the boys gave one another a look, knowing they were both screwed. she sounded pissed and it was hard negotiating with a pissed off reese. colten decided to answer, "we've come here to talk."

there was silence. austin rolled his eyes at his best friend for his lack of explanation. he added, "and we've come to apologize."

suddenly, austin and colten heard the door unlock. reese made no effort of opening it for them but knew they would come in once they heard the click. the two looked at each other hesitantly before stepping foot into reese's apartment. when they slowly opened the door, they found reese huddled up on her couch with a coffee mug. for the moment, she appeared harmless. they could only see her back side though.

the pair walked over to where reese was sitting and saw her face. she was most certainly not a good mood. "hi reese, how are you?"colten asked with fear as he took a seat next to her on the couch. he left a good amount of space in case she decided to strike. meanwhile, austin took a seat in a chair a good distance away.

"how does it look like i'm doing?" reese quirked an eyebrow while placing her mug on the end table. the sudden movement startled colten, leading him to move further away.

austin responded to his best friend, "reese, i'm sorry colten and i have made you feel this way. we didn't realize how important this was to you and we know we judged jamie too soon. i think i can speak for both me and colten that we're just hesitant about you being with other guys."

at the end of his speech, austin gave a quick glance at colten. colten took the hint and continued, "yeah, we're just protective over you and the fact he didn't really talk to us just gave off the wrong impression."

reese gave the two a confused look, "you guys have never cared about who i've hung out with ever. why now?"

"well, to be fair, they have never been hockey players and they're almost never guys. if you had hung out with other guys, then this conversation probably would have happened a lot sooner," colten pointed out.

reese couldn't deny that he had a good argument. she never really talked to any other guys because she had colten and austin. she had never felt the need. the girl replied, "okay, you do have a point there, but that does not excuse how you treated jamie or reacted to him."

"trust me, we know. trevor already gave us an earful and we do really feel sorry for upsetting you. trevor also proposed an idea that i think you might like," austin said.

now, reese knew trevor was going to text her best friends. she never did find out what he said because she left shortly after. jamie was supposed to let her know what happened, but clearly he had either forgotten or was waiting for austin and colten to explain it.

intrigued, reese asked, "oh, what did trevor have in mind?"

"he proposed the just us guys hang out without you or willow just so we can get to know jamie more," colten explained.

reese was a little surprised that trevor was becoming a problem solver. what she was even more surprised by was that these two boys had agreed to it. part of her didn't believe it. due to this, she questioned them, "and you guys actually said yes to this?" the two boys nodded in response.

with their answer, another question popped up in her head. she continued, "why?"

austin was the first to speak up, "because i understand now how important us getting along with jamie is to you. i don't want you to be mad at me. if you haven't noticed already, i kinda like hanging out with you."

the blonde felt an overwhelming amount of love. this is why austin is her best friend. even though he could be an idiot at times, he knew exactly how to fix his mistakes. his actions always matched his words. after she soaked in all that austin said, she turned to colten, "what's your excuse?"

reese and colten were close, not as close as her and austin. he had a different way of showing his love and appreciation to the girl. he wasn't nearly as good with his words as austin was and didn't express his feelings like that. instead, colten did it through actions that usually went unnoticed or behind the scenes. right now, he was being very cautious and careful with jamie because he could see right through him. colten knew jamie was interested in reese. he wanted to make sure jamie would never hurt her.

colten answered reese, "trevor can be very convincing and mason will be there." reese glared at the blue eyed boy. as a result, colten added, "i promise i will talk to jamie and not make any judgements until i get to know him."

a huge grin found its way on reese's face and she hugged colten. he was slightly startled at the sudden burst of joy but hugged back after a moment. austin, on the other hand, was feeling left out and inserted himself into the hug.

"back to being one big happy family!" austin exclaimed.

reese pulled away with a mischievous look in her eyes. colten and austin were back on high alert at the change in her mood. reese informed them, "well not quite yet. i have one more request ."

colten nervously asked, "what may that be?"

"you and austin need to apologize to jamie and then you will be forgiven," the girl stated very content with her decision. oh, how the boys were about to be humbled.