Following the Rules

Chapter 3

I didn't get it. Not even a little bit. Sitting on the L shaped couch in the living room, my arm around Toni's shoulders and the box of pizza on the coffee table, I looked between the two friends. Toni was soft and quiet, her friend was.. Brash and outgoing. They had nothing in common, not even their taste in movies.

"I want to watch Ever After." Toni said firmly. She narrowed her eyes at her best friend who sat at the other end of the couch.

"Bah," Kaylee stuck her tongue out. "You've forced me to watch that fucking movie a thousand times. Let's watch one of the new releases."

Toni rolled her eyes. More sass. This situation was becoming more confusing by the second. "We haven't watched Ever After in weeks."

Kaylee's laugh was dry and devoid of humor. "You say that like it's an eternity."

"Sawyer wants to watch my favorite movie, don't you honey?" Toni asked. She twisted her torso to face me, her pale blue eyes wide and full of warning.

One wrong move and this whole thing could explode. Yep, I got the message. But Ever After? I'd never seen the movie before, never even heard of it. It sounded like a chick flick and I fucking hated chick flicks. It's for the business. It's for my father and everything he's built. Everything I could one day build.

"Nothing would make me happier."

I probably laid it on a bit thick, but it was too late to take it back and do it differently.

Kaylee chuckled, her dark brown eyes sparkling with mischief. She grabbed the remote from the coffee table. "You're going to regret that decision eye candy."

"I have a name you know."

"Oh?"

"It's Sawyer."

"Hmm?"

"Did you hear me?"

"No," she said flicking her hair over her shoulder. "I ignored you just fine, eye candy."

Toni laughed nervously, taking my hand in her much smaller one. She looked between me and her friend, her fingers squeezing the blood flow out of mine.

The movie popped up on the flat screen tv. Great. A fucking chick flick. I sank back further into the couch, frowning at the lame background music that started to play in the background. This was going to be stupid. The rest of my time here was going to be hell.

"I'm going to enjoy watching you pretend to like this shit." Kaylee said to me with giddy impatience.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

I looked at her again, the dark curly hair, the studs and rings that climbed up her ear. Black shirt, black jeans, combat boots. There was even a tattoo sticking out from the collar of her shirt. From what I could make out, there were ravens and maybe some branches. She was the perfect example of the girls I preferred. Dark, mysterious, naughty. She had that look in her eyes, like she wasn't afraid of anything.