Ariya

"I brought the salsa. Am I late?" I asked Amara right as she opened the door.

My skinny jeans and graphic tee thriving in their moment.

"You're good, the game doesn't start until six."

"She brought the salsa, boys!" She yelled to a now revealed Khyson and Kameron on the couch.

"I told you she wouldn't be late." Khyson murmured to Kameron. I smiled to myself before following Amara into the kitchen.

"What'd I miss?" I asked Amara while leaning on the counter. She shook her head and turned her gaze from the food to me.

"They had a fight about who'd be allowed to control the tv, it was.. entertaining. Khyson threatened to fire him, Kameron threatened to end their friendship, the usual." I laughed while taking a little of the celery dip on a carrot and biting the end off.

"Khyson got these cookies, mini cookie things for you.. he said you liked them?" She handed the bag to me and I furrowed my brows.

Did he remember because I hadn't eaten any during work.

He remembered.

"You alright?" She asked while moving around the island.

"Yeah."

I've seemed to hear that question at all hours of the day.

"Come on.. let's go sit." She nudged me towards the couch before going to sit beside Kameron.

Third person POV

Making the only available seat next to Khyson. He cleared his throat and scooted aside to make more room for her. Ariya was nervous, nervous to sit, nervous to fucking be here.

"I can sit on the ground-"

"There's no need." He shook his head while patting the seat beside him. Ariya pulled herself down on the couch beside him as the sudden scent of his warm cologne filled her nostrils.

"Do you watch basketball?" He asked her.

"Occasionally." She nodded with shrug.

"Where's Rylan tonight? We miss him." Kameron leaned over to tell us as she itched her head before responding.

"He's with William." She nodded.

"Bring him over next time, he's a good kid." Amara said while cuddling closer into Kameron. Ariya nodded with a smile while pressing herself into the other side of the couch.

-

It's been almost a half an hour into the game and both of them were screaming and cheering.

Ariya knew Khyson had always been passionate about his basketball.

But it wasn't too soon before his elbow jerked back, right into her nose.

"Shit!" She mumbled.

Khyson retorted back in embarrassment as Ariya painfully held her nose.

"Fuck! Ariya, are you okay?" He asked, his hands subconsciously coming up to cup her cheeks.

She felt the heat rise to her cheeks. Ariya pulled her hand back just before seeing the red blood coating her fingers.

"Khyson you fuck up!"

"Kameron you went to med school! Help her!" Amara yelled.

"Yeah! For a week!?" He replied.

Ariya groaned in pain as Khyson held his hands out and the blood dripped into his cupped hands.

"Get a rag, a towel! Something!?" Khyson yelled frantically. Ariya watched through her slit eyes as Kameron scrambled upwards to grab a towel.

Kameron ran back into the room before Amara stopped him, rotating herself to peer back at him from behind the couch with her arm braced on the back.

"Not that one! That's cashmere, get the linen ones!"

"Fuck, why do you have fucking cashmere?!"

Khyson moved back before pulling his white shirt off, he began to scrunch it up and move it towards her nose before Ariya protested.

"It's white." Her voice was strained.

"Who cares, I have more." He held her head down and pressed the shirt against her nose.

"I got the t-"

Ariya just couldn't seem to keep her eyes off him, his chiseled abs, slender lean waist.

"You're late." Amara sighed.

"Come on." Khyson stood up with a firm hand placed on the dip of her back, he led her to the bathroom and waved off Kameron and Amara.

Ariya was afraid, not about her nose but being all alone in an isolated bathroom with Khyson Johnson.

He closed the lid of the toilet seat and helped her down.

"Remove the shirt." He demanded.

Ariya shook her head in an immature protest.

Khyson began to get fed up and removed the now stained red shirt and tossed it in the sink.

Khyson placed his hand under her chin to tip her head up, touching her nose which resulted in a slight wince to escape her dry lips.

"It's dislocated." He stated.

"How do you know?" She whispered softly.

"I've been in enough fights to know, trust me."

Ariya began to remember all the fights she'd have to pull him from when they were kids. The endless nights when she would sit him on the counter, stand between his legs and clean his wounds.

Now the tables had been reversed.

"Look at me." He stated.

"Listen, I have to lock it back into place but you can't move, okay."

"What! No, no, no, no." Ariya began to squirm in an attempt to get away from him before Khyson roughly placed his two hands on each one of her shoulders and kept her in place.

Suddenly his hands shot up but she caught his wrists before he could get there.

"Nice try, Johnson. I'm not dumb."

"Oh really?" Suddenly his hands jerked from hers and locked around her nose, setting it back into place almost instantly.

"Fuck!"

Her scream was piercing, blood curdling, heard from almost a mile away.

"He killed her." Kameron said to Amara as they both ran into the bathroom.

But Ariya was too caught up in his eyes to focus on the pain, his eyes seeming to heal her soreness. She waited for him to look away, and he didn't.

"Guys?"

Both Khyson and Ariya snapped their heads away from each other and glanced at Amara and Kameron at the door way of the bathroom.

"Her nose is okay."