Page 8 of Fight

Before Lena could answer, she was interrupted by a pair of arms coming around her neck and a blond head settling on her shoulder. She jumped, and then relaxed and smiled in recognition.

“Morgan!” she exclaimed.

“Hey roomie!” Morgan greeted as Lena stood and turned around and they gave each other a tight hug. “It’s so great to see you.”

“You too! Sit, sit,” she ordered. She glanced down at Jake, and wished he would take a hint and move down a spot so she could chat with her new roommate. However, he sat in happy oblivion, smiling up at Morgan.

“Hey Morg.” He stood up and enveloped her in a big bear hug, which Morgan returned and held for a couple seconds too long.

“Jaakke.” She breathed out his name slowly. “Damn, you’re a beautiful boy. Mmmmm! You’re so hot.” She moaned as she rubbed her hands up and down his broad back, breathing him in.

‘Right back ‘atcha, babe,” he said smoothly as he let her go and looked down appreciatively.

Lena felt a prickle move up her back and moved uncomfortably in her seat. It was fine if Jake and Morgan wanted to be flirty and handsy. Totally fine. Wait, were they seeing each other? Her new roommate and…Satan?

Morgan settled into the seat between Jake and Ian. “Hello to the rest of you who aren’t my new roommate and/or sexy as hell, and therefore not as special,” she noted as she draped her purse on the back of her chair, her hair gliding over her bare shoulders.

Ian’s face pulled back in discomfort. “Or related to you?” he questioned. “Turn it down a notch, cuz.”

Morgan shot Ian a scathing look as she braced her face on her hands, her hair falling around her head in long golden waves. She had what Lena and Annie referred to as “princess hair.” Her long, blond locks fell in the perfect beach waves down her back. She could jump out of the lake, let her hair dry in the sun, and it would dry in beautiful, frizz-less waves. Lena also tended to wear her hair down and in waves, but her “effortless” hair took a lot more effort. She would never in a million years jump in the lake and wet her hair without a concrete repair plan to address the damage.

Morgan wore a sleeveless black dress that hugged her voluptuous curves and showed lots of skin. Her golden hair flowed around her tan skin and she radiated a glowing aura of fun.

Morgan’s laughing mossy green eyes looked up at them. “So what are you bitches talking about?” she asked.

Jake perked up, alerted to the scent of potential to pick on Lena. As he opened his mouth to respond, most likely to dig in on her clothes and her suitcases again, Lena panicked and couldn’t stop herself from blurting out, “My flight!”

Everyone looked up at her wide eyed and waited as she continued, pasting a huge toothy smile on her face. “We were talking about my flight. And it was good. Great, actually! I met a guy.”

Chapter 4

“Aguy?!”exclaimedMorgan.“Tell us more!”

"The winking guy from the airport?” Annie grimaced. “He was cute, I guess.” Annie started pointing her finger back and forth between Jake and Ian. “But guys, never wink at a woman you don’t know. So weird.”

“Guys were winking at Helena at the airport?” Jake asked incredulously in a laughing voice, a smile growing wider on his face by the second.Uh-oh, Lena could see where this was going. She shifted nervously in her chair and shot Jake sharp eye daggers before straightening in her seat and re-pasting the smile on her face.

“Notguys,” she insisted. “Just one guy that I sat next to on the plane. And, he was super nice despite the ill-advised wink that Annie witnessed. I wasn’t feeling well on the plane and he was very sweet about it.”

“Aww, poor Leeny.” Annie rubbed Lena on the shoulder. “Guys, she gets so sick from basically any kind of motion. You should have seen her in Venice. We had a very wobbly boat and this poor baby got sick right into the canal. The poor gondolier had to—”

Lena eyes widened as she realized Annie—sweet, dumb, soon-to-be-dead Annie—had begun to recount her most embarrassing motion sickness episode to a table full of people, which included her very attractive nemesis.

However, the gods smiled down upon her and their waitress blissfully interrupted Annie before Lena could throw a bottle of ketchup at her head in an effort to get her to stop talking.

The waitress seemed to be jumping up and down as she started her spiel and set glasses of water down in front of everyone. “Hey guys! Welcome to Crunchies! Have you ever-–” She abruptly stopped when she noticed Jake.

“Jake?! Look at you! I haven’t seen you since the ski hill. And you have a couple of Conrads with you, too!”

“Hey, Cara,” Jake responded and stood, bumping into Lena’s shoulder on the way up, to wrap Cara in the same bear hug he had given Morgan. Ian and Morgan both smiled in greeting, as well.

Lena felt a sour, unpleasant heat rise within her.Oh, dear god, she thought rolling her eyes,what is it about this guy? This is gross.

Jake and Cara began conversing easily and before long Morgan and Ian joined in to jabber about roads, bikes, and hills. Lena sat awkwardly. A sad, homesick feeling washed over her as she smiled distantly in the direction of their conversation.

She didn’t miss the life she would have led if she’d stayed in Cooper, but she missed Cori, her parents, definitely The Tea Rose, and her friends from the restaurant. She felt tears start to sting under her eyelids. Sweeping her eyes down at the table, she lifted her gaze to her right to see Annie staring intently at her face.

Lena lurched back in surprise, her sadness momentarily forgotten. “Why are you staring at me in such a creepy way?” she asked slowly.

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