“Are these seats taken, ladies?”
The two girls looked up to see Hudson and Marco standing next to their table.
Tabitha and Amanda both looked at each other for an answer until Amanda rolled her eyes and started to scoot over with Tabitha following after. Hudson sat next to Amanda while Marco slid in next to Tabitha. Marco rested his arm on the back of the booth as Tabitha tried to suck in a breath and act normal.
Tab: Why are you here?
Marco: Hudson and I were out for a walk and decided to get something to eat.
Ugh. She didn’t really believe him, especially since she had told Hudson that she was having dessert with Amanda at the diner. There was only one that was close to the theater and campus.
Tabitha could feel the heat coming from Marco’s body as he sat next to her, and her world was going insane. She took in a deep breath which allowed her to suck in the scent of her mate to calm her wolf down for just a bit.
“What can I get started for you tonight,” they heard the waitress ask when she stopped at their table.
“Can I get the double cheeseburger meal with a strawberry shake?” Hudson asked.
“Can I do the same but with a chocolate shake instead?” Marco asked.
“Mm-hmm. I’ll get the order started right away for y’all. Girls, do you need anything else?”
Both Amanda and Tabitha shook their heads. The waitress just nodded and headed to the kitchen to put the order in.
They all sat there for a moment just looking at each other, not sure who was going to start up a conversation.
“I guess introductions are in order. Tabitha, this is Hudson and his friend Marco. We used to go to high school together. Guys, this is my friend and roommate, Tabitha,” Amanda said.
“Hey, so this is Hudson,” Tabitha said with a hint of humor in her voice. Even though she had a bad feeling that this was all going to blow up in her face at any moment, she tried to play it off like she didn’t know Hudson.
Amanda narrowed her eyes at Tabitha.
“Ow!” Tabitha cried out and rubbed her shin.
“I’m so sorry. Did I kick you? I didn’t mean to,” Amanda said with an unapologetic look on her face.
Marco placed his elbows on the table and hid his smile behind his hands.
Hudson turned in his seat and stared at Amanda.
“So, she’s mentioned me?” Hudson asked.
Amanda tried really hard not to look in Hudson’s direction but knew, in the end, she would lose the battle and look. She could feel the heat of his stare and felt the flutters that warmed her insides but also made her warm somewhere else making her squirm in her seat.
Hudson just smirked. He enjoyed making his mate squirm by just watching her.
“So…” he started.
“What?” she asked.
“What’d you think of the movie?”
Amanda was not enjoying whatever this was that Hudson was doing.
Amanda shrugged. “It was okay.” “wasn’t that the guy from the party last night?”
Amanda nodded.
“And when did that happen?”
Amanda let out a huff and turned toward Hudson and said, “What does it matter? We’re not dating. So, whatever this is? Just stop.”
Hudson threw his arms up in surrender and stayed quiet. “I was just trying to be nice and ask how your night went, just like a friend would.”
Amanda huffed under her breath and then shook her head before bringing her attention over to Marco. Marco was the only one from that group that never picked on her but that might have been because she was tutoring him their senior year and needed her help in order to pass math and graduate.
Marco looked over at Amanda and smiled before saying, “So, no more Mandi, huh? Nice job handling the guys back there.”
Amanda smiled.
“Well, I did have someone telling me in high school that I needed to learn to stand up for myself more.” She shrugged before saying, “I guess it kind of stuck.”
Marco laughed.
Hudson just looked dumbfounded as his eyes shifted back and forth between his mate and his buddy.
“Am I missing something here? When were you two friends?” Hudson asked. He could feel his wolf getting jealous, but he needed to know exactly what was going on before he decided he would have to hurt someone, and most likely it would be Macro.
Amanda answered, “I tutored Macro senior year. He was one of the only few that would talk to me and not make me feel so alone.”
Hudson narrowed his eyes at his good buddy. “Is that right?”
Macro nodded and shrugged. “It wasn’t a big deal, I needed help, and the teacher asked her if she was willing to help me, and she did.”
Hudson sat back in his seat and just stared at Marco. Marco leaned back and crossed his arms. He stared right back at Hudson with nothing to hide.
Amanda rolled her eyes but continued to eat her sweet treat before it melted. Tabitha followed but was able to yell at them through their mind link.
Tab: Both of you, knock it off. You are both juveniles.
Marco relaxed his arms and looked over at Tabitha. She shook her head nonchalantly, and Marco turned to look around the diner.
Hudson didn’t want to let this go.
“So, did you know that Marco was going to come here for college?” he asked in an accusing tone.
Amanda froze while she was picking at her dessert. It had started to melt, and with the guys sitting here, it became less appealing. She looked at Marco and then at Hudson before answering, “I don’t remember if we talked about which college he was going to.”
“What did you talk about then?”
Amanda continued to push her dessert around her plate. But she was glaring at Hudson.
Why was he acting like this?
“Why does it matter?” she asked him.
Hudson shrugged. “Just curious is all.”
Amanda started to get annoyed at the situation. It was none of Hudson’s business what they talked about in high school, and she knew better than to ask one of Hudson’s good friends why he was such a bully to her and didn’t like her.
“What do you want to hear? That we talked about you?” Amanda continued as she felt her anger grow. “We did. We talked about you all the time. How you are such a jerk and only think about yourself.”
Macro was confused at what Amanda was telling Hudson. The two barely talked unless it had something to do with math.
“Uh, Amanda, why are you telling him this?” Marco asked. He was afraid that Hudson was going to believe her, and he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of Hudson’s punches.
Hudson let out an annoyed growl and grabbed Amanda around the chin and pressed his finger and thumb into her skin.
“Why are you trying to piss me off right now? You should know how pissed I can get.”
Amanda tried to pull away from his grip, his stare drilling into her and stirring up old fears. She reached for the side of the plate and then mushed it in Hudson’s face.
“Screw you!” she yelled at him.
Hudson released her chin as he wiped the dessert off his face. Amanda quickly stood up on the bench, crossed over the back part of the bench, which thankfully didn’t have anyone there at that moment, jumped to the floor, and ran out of the diner as fast as she could.
“Shit, look what you’ve done now,” Tabitha said as she pushed Marco out of the booth and followed Amanda out of the diner.
Tab: AND PAY THE TAB SINCE YOU RUINED OUR DESSERT!
She screamed in their heads.