12 | bar brawl

                                    

                                          
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Roman's hand stayed rested on my lower back as he led me past the raging party upstairs to the more mellow mood down in the basement. It was less crowded down here, some people milling away at air hockey and ping pong table while others smoked up a storm of weed. Music played softly from the speakers, merging well with the pleasant air that saturated the entire room. I jumped at the cheers that broke out from the corner of the room, cutting through the relatively quiet atmosphere and turning heads to the sound before people soon returned their attention to their activities. 
                          
He leaned in, his lips finding my ear as he whispered, "It's okay. Ben gets a little too competitive at these things, that's all." I nodded, the comfort of his hand and voice spiking my heartbeat erratically as we approached the group in the corner. A guy with his arm slung around a girl who was snuggled into him, spoke up first when he saw us. 
                          
"Rome, where have you been, man? Ben has been making us play preliminaries since you took so damn long getting drinks." He looked down at Roman's empty hands. "Which you cleary opted against since you brought a girl instead." 
                          
Roman flipped the guy off before he started the introductions. "The loud one with the ill-advised man bun is Martins, the girl with him is his girlfriend Macy, aka the only person who manages to tolerate him." He pointed to the boys who sat before the TV arguing about the basketball game they were playing. "Ben, you briefly heard me tell him to fuck off upstairs, and Nick is the sore loser." The one named Nick flashed Roman the bird. "Guys--" Macy raised her hand --"and girl, meet my friend, Addy."
                          
Ben paused the game and was met with many complaints from Nick. "Friend? How come we haven't met this friend before?"
                          
"Because I didn't introduce you before." He led me to the only unoccupied chair. Which so happened to be a one-seater, forcing Roman to take the armrest.  His thigh brushed against mine--but he didn't make any attempt to pull back-- as we sat down, watching Ben and Nick resume their game. 
                          
"So, how do you guys all know each other?" I asked Roman.
                          
"Well, Martins and I grew up together as neighbours, but Ben, Nick and I all played rep together growing up, and Macy is Ben's sister."
                          
My eyebrows ticked up at the last tidbit of information. "Macy is Ben's sister? How did she and Martins happen?"
                          
"It almost wouldn't happen. Ben didn't want to have to choose between his best friend and sister if they ever broke up so, he gave them an ultimatum. Macy didn't cave and told him to get off his high horse. He did a few months back, and the rest is history." Roman shrugged his shoulder and tipped back the beer bottle Martins had handed off. "Well, except on the court. Ben likes to display his bitterness on the court."
                          
"I'm gonna go on a wild guess--" I looked at him "--and I'm gonna assure you that it's only a wild guess, but I'm gonna go on a wild guess and say that kind of contention isn't particularly helpful on the court."
                          
"No." He laughed softly. "It's not. But we figure out a way to make it work whenever Ben decides to be a diva."
                          
"His tongue spends more time inside my sister's mouth than her toothbrush does, I deserve my time to be a diva," Ben called out, barely averting his focused gaze from his game.
                          
Roman leaned down and whispered in my ear, "Like that."
                          
I bit down hard on my bottom lip to prevent the outburst of laughter threatened to spill over. Roman wasn't as effective though, and his loud snort earned him one piercing glare from Ben before he returned back to his game without missing a beat as he pulled up for a three-pointer.