Chapter 2: Chapter Two | Bro-code
T w o
Ten minutes later, Anna started having second thoughts wondering if it was a good idea to trust a guy she just met less than 2 hours ago. Then again, it's either she let her guard down or spend the night on the street, and the rest of many nights to come. What if he's a serial killer? The thought alone made her squirm.
She stole a quick glance at the blond, he seemed harmless enough, really. Then again, not all villains have the look worthy of pissing yourself, take the movie The boy next door for example, imagine that nice hottie being the bad guy all along. The image of when Jlo's character stabbed him in the eyeball swarmed her mind, she shuddered.
That was some serious shit!
Out of a newborn habit, she side glanced at him, his gaze was fixated on the road, only occasionally does he tap the steering wheel, making a soft clicking sound with his tongue like he was making a rhythm.
He caught her staring and she swiftly looked away in embarrassment. "Let me guess, you're not comfortable being in this car with me, are you?"
She fiddles with her fingers, "I just―" She breathed out, "This is all so overwhelming for me, one minute I'm being kicked out by my dad and the next I'm sitting in a stranger's car who's taking me to a house of four guys to live in, and you'd have a knife to my throat and I wouldn't be able to tell what your name is."
He burst out laughing, making a U-turn, "Life is nothing but unpredictable, maybe we were meant to meet at that bus stop tonight, maybe your dad was meant to kick you out all along, and maybe you ought to stop getting paranoid and edgy like you're about to bail any minute."
"Okay fine, I'll try not to act weird any further." Easier said than done.
"Good," he clarified. "And by the way, the name's Rafael Wentworth."
Not another word was spoken by either of them, and when the car started slowing down, she knew that they had arrived. He parked the car in front of a huge blue house that looks like a mansion compared to the two bedroom apartment she shared with her dad. Sure enough the house looked old, but not that old. Beautiful, but moderately.
She snapped out of her daze realising that she left him to take out all of her stuff while she stood there ogling at the house the minute they got out of the car. So she joined him, and together they carried it and deposited them on the porch before Rafael took out a set of keys from his denim pants.
"I need to be sure of one thing: do you agree to be our housemate on your own free will and not because I pushed you into it?" Because truth be told, he wanted her to want to move in with them. Sure, she seemed like she didn't have much choice. Still, Rafael wanted her to be OK with everything. His only hope was that he wasn't making a mistake by bringing her into his and his friends' lives and that they'll even accept her. He sighed, waiting for her to respond.
"It's not like I have a choice or anything," When she noticed her answer wasn't convincing enough for him, she tried again, "Fine, yes, I agree to this on my own free will. Now open the door already 'cause I'm freezing."
He chose a key amount the bunch of keys sliding it into the hole and opened the door. The loud sound of male voices echoed the second they entered." Fu¢k yeah! almost there, almost there.... You are so going down, it's your funeral, I tell you, your freaking funeral!"
Okay, she thought, that was weird. She glanced at the Rafael who shrugged, making his way into the house to where she assumed had to be the living room with the set of green couches, a coffee table and two guys fumbling with controllers as they intensely focused all their attention on an Xbox. He walked passed her, motioning for her to follow, till they stood beside the game players, none of them was letting their attention off of it.
"May we should just leave them alone for a while." She suggested, but he wasn't having it.
"No way, these guys can play for five hours non-stop." he laughed, "Hey, guys! Look who I brought home." That got the ginger haired's attention. Anna suddenly felt awkward as he surveyed her body up and down, before settling on her face, he smiled and it was cute, he was cute. Just like her life saver―Rafael. Her mind was too muddled to appreciate his good-looks earlier on.
"Oh, hi," He stood up, tossing the controller on one of the couches, adjusting his Linkin Park jersey.
"I knew it!" The other guy with wild brown curls jumped in glee, throwing his fist in the air, "I knew I'd kick your ass, you just lost to me man―" He trailed off as his eyes landed on the unfamiliar girl, observing her cautiously.
"Some people are worth losing a game for, 'cause damn she's hot." The ginger haired said, still staring at her. Yet his stare wasn't all that rude, but one in which you tend to do when appreciating what's in front of you , "So tell me this Raf, is she your new girlfriend or something, did you dump Sarah for her? Whatever it is, I'm so not judging." His laugh faded realizing that he was the only one laughing at his joke. "That just made me sound like an asshole, didn't it?"
Anna couldn't think of one thing to say to that. Though she agreed he was right on the sounding like an asshole part.
"Guys!" Rafael snapped. "Focus here, we have a new development tonight."
"I'm all ears," The ginger haired flopped himself on the couch, tucking his hand on the edge of the couch as he took out a cracker and bit at it. Anna made a face, and when he noticed it, he just shrugged unapologetically.
"This here is our new housemate, Er..."
"Anna McAdams." She offered. Rafael immediately thought about how stupid he seemed bringing her to live with them without knowing her name.
"Right," he blushed, rubbing the back of his neck, "Anna will henceforth be staying with us for as long as she want to."
"This is so great!"
"Are you crazy?"
The two guys both blurted out nearly at the same time. And he answered them both sequentially. "Yes Julian I know right? It's so great, and no Riley, I'm not crazy, I know exactly what I'm doing and right now I'm telling you that I brought Anna to live with us." Rafael broadly smiled at Julian's elated face, which vanished as his eyes landed on Riley perplex look.
"Can I know why?" Riley folded his arms across his broad chest. Anna felt like a bystander, wondering if Riley was too cautious or too against her staying with them.
"Excuse me for a moment." He announced, asking Anna to follow him into the kitchen island. And boy was it messy, as the living room was. A typical boys environment. "Help yourself to dinner, I'm sure there's left over in the microwave, if you're not up for that, you can check for anything appropriate in the refrigerator. I'll be back in a bit, okay?"
She nodded in agreement, but then said. "Wait." He stopped and turned towards her, "Are you sure your friends will be okay with having me here, the ginger haired was okay with it but the other one, Riley is it? Sounds the opposite."
He waved a hand to dismiss her insecurities. "Oh, don't worry about that one, he'll come around."
By the time he made his way towards his best friends, he found them in a bit of an argument with each other, when they saw him, Riley was the first to speak, "What were you thinking, why in the world will you bring in some random girl and think it's completely okay for her to live with us. I thought we're in some sort of a bro-code that we're to let girls in here as far as they get to leave soon after?"
"Screw the bro-codes, that girl is in desperate need of help and I can't turn a blind eye, I'm not that kind of guy."
"Then might I say well done, Mr. Generous! You deserve a freaking award, c'mon Julian go get your tux we're leaving for the big moment!"
Julian rolled his eyes. "Riley, calm down and hear him out."
"Oh, I'm hearing him out alright, and I could even agree to this outrageous decision but how do you think Dimitri will react?" Riley sat on the the arm-rest of the couch, then snatched his headphone off the coffee table, putting it around his neck.
"Let me deal with Dimitri, that's my part not yours."
"What's her issue anyway?" Julian wondered out loud.
When he told them the whole story, they were silent for a beat and the silence was what he couldn't take, the talking, no matter how loud and argumentative, was better than the silence as far as the situation was concern. He wanted to have a mutual understanding between them.
"Well, I guess it won't hurt to have a female around." Riley decided, with a shrug.
"Hit you right on that soft spot, didn't it?" Julian joked and Riley threw a squashed empty canned drink at him, he ducked easily.
"Thanks man," Rafael clasp him by the shoulder.
"But where will she be staying?" Riley inquired.
"Oh, I can just vacate my room for her, I won't mind." Julian suggested, winking. "She's worth it."
"No, Julian. Anna will be staying here for a while, I don't think she'll handle the thought of been the reason why someone sacrifice their room for her, persuading her to agree to this decision was tough enough, and what about your girlfriend, huh? I'm sure you don't mean to be doing your nasty business on the couch."
"Hmm... You're right." Julian's mind was already wandering to the events of last night, relishing the things Samantha did with her hot mouth and small hands. Yep, definitely not something to do in the living room and risk getting walked into.
"Then what? There are four rooms in this house occupied by four guys."
"And among those four guys, one of them is single." Rafael pointed out.
Riley exchange a look with Julian, before settling his attention on his other friend. "What are you getting at?"
"The single guy will have to share his room with her." He declared, like it was the easiest thing in the world.
"You do realise that the only single guy around is Dimitri right?" Julian reminded him, just in case he had forgotten.
"Of course." He shrugged, utterly seeming oblivious about the shocked look on Riley's face.
"Okay, so could you inform me when you're breaking the news to him so that I can safely stay out of the house until he cools off his steam?"
"Come on, it can't be that bad!"
"You seem to have forgotten who Dimitri is." Riley brown eyes met his blue ones. "I hope you know what you're doing."
"Its a risk I'm willing to take, that girl needs all the help she can get."
"Where about is he anyway, I thought he's supposed to be back from his mother's tonight? Julian inquired.
"Not yet, I'm guessing tomorrow or so."
"Okay. I better get Anna settled then."
"This is going to be fun." Julian announced after Rafael walked back to the kitchen.
"With us? May be yes, but with Dimitri?" He shook his head," I kind of pity the girl since she has to put up with him every damn day."
"And that my friend, is my idea of fun."
***
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