side of the living room. Seth, however, had been cornered.
He'd made the mistake of sitting on the couch. Gabby was on one side of him, Samantha on the other, and Olivia had wedged herself into the corner, making sure it was a very tight fit. The problem was that Samantha was pressed up against him a little too intentionally. Poor Seth looked horrified.
"Girls!" I snapped. "Leave him alone. I won't invade your party if you don't invade mine."
"But we wanted pizza, and Seth said he'd order," Gabby told me, explaining the dogpile on the sofa. "That's ok, isn't it?"
I looked at Olivia. "Does your mother know where you are?"
"Yes, ma'am."
So I smiled. "Are you staying just for dinner, or all night?"
Gabby grinned, all but bouncing in place. "Can she spend the night too?"
"If her mom says it's ok, then sure."
Ian spoke up from behind me. "Text her, Olivia. I want to see it."
"Yes, sir," she replied, reaching for her phone. "But you know she'll let me."
"And while we wait for pizza," I told them, "you three go hang out upstairs."
Seth lifted his phone, his eyes on me. "Still not sure what I'm ordering."
"Alfredo," Samantha said.
Seth made a face. "On pizza?"
So Gabby requested, "Hawaiian? With pineapple?"
The poor guy looked like his stomach didn't feel well. "Anything else?"
So I added on, "Pepperoni, meat lovers, and something sweet, like cinnamon sticks." Then I opened my purse - the one I still hadn't managed to set down.
He waved me off. "My treat. Guys, anything else?"
"Soda," Pax said. "A lot of it."
"Ok," Seth told us. "I got two of everything, and four bottles of soda."
Samantha smiled at him. "Thank you, Seth."
I just pointed at the stairs. "Begone!"
With a squeal of giggles, they went, sounding more like a herd of elephants being chased by a pack of hyenas than girls. The moment they were out of sight, Trent couldn't hold it in anymore. He laughed, and hard.
"Oh, Seth," he teased. "I love your hair. And you're going to buy me dinner?"
"Fuck off," Seth told him. "See? This is why I'm not nice to people."
Lane finally made his way out of the kitchen. "They're just girls."
Seth pointed at him. "And you ran off with your tail between your legs, so don't give me that shit!"
"Language," Ian reminded him. "Because they're still girls."
Pax couldn't help himself, he had to add, "And Samantha wants a piece of that baby face you got going on."
"Kill me now," Seth grumbled, looking up at me. "I wouldn't do this for just anyone, you know."
"Thank you, Seth," I told him.
His eyes dropped back to his phone. "I don't mind doing it for you, though."
"Oh!" Pax replied. "And the little man throws out the first attempt. Nice one."
"Fuck off," Seth grumbled.
But I'd noticed it too. For the first time, he made it clear that he didn't mind this crazy situation at all, and that made me smile. I still wasn't sure what I'd gotten myself into, but I was just going with this. Insanity was clearly my new normal.
The easiest way to handle dinner was to send the girls away with half of the pizzas. The rest of us piled into my living room. The mom in me wanted to play hostess, but the guys wouldn't let me. I ended up sitting with my legs curled beside me in the middle of the couch with Ian on my right and Pax on my left. Trent was on the floor with his back where my legs should've been. Lane had claimed the chair, and Seth was lying in front of the TV, using one of the throw pillows to hold his head up.
Suddenly, a squeal drowned out our movie. Pax grabbed the remote and turned down the volume, his eyes looking up to the ceiling. "Are they dying?"
"No," Ian assured him. "That's the playful howl of the teen girl. Get used to it."
"Wow." Pax rubbed at his ear. "It's almost painful."
"Oh, it gets worse around three in the morning," I promised. "When the exhaustion giggles hit? Yeah."
Seth tilted his head up to look at the second floor. "What are they laughing about?"
"Boys," I said. "I have no idea which ones, but I'm willing to bet it's all about boys. Might be musicians, movie stars, or someone at school. We're safe so long as they don't start asking for Scrabble or apples."
Lane shook his head as if trying to rattle that into place. "Huh?"
Suddenly, I had all of their attention on me. "Scrabble, for the letters.