Tristan: New rule: no making rules in my house. Because you won't like the ones I come up with.
I furiously type out a response.
Remy: You're an ass. I'm not engaging in a prank war with you just to appease your childish inability to be a decent person. You remember what happened the last time we did this.
Tristan: I still cringe when I see a hair trimmer. But that was a while ago. You wouldn’t win now.
Tristan: But I won’t continue without your retaliation, or at least without any newly declared "rules."
I angrily throw my phone on the couch. Any semblance of a peaceful morning has completely vanished, leaving me irritated and unhappy. I discard my plans of lounging around with a book and instead stomp upstairs to take a shower and get ready for work. Getting a head start on my workday is better than sitting around here and fuming.
It's a shitty start to an increasingly shitty day. It takes me twenty minutes to catch a bus to work, and then when I finally get to the office, I realize there's construction going on in the building right outside my window. The sounds of machinery give me a migraine that only gets worse throughout the day. That coupled with the fact that the company's engineers have apparently taken asshole pills today, and my whole day has become an increasingly frustrating hump day.
My only savior is knowing I'll be able to punch my frustrations out at the gym later. I leave the office late, so I only make it in time for an hour cardio bagwork class, but it's better than nothing.
I leave everything on the mats. I put my anger into every punch, every kick, until I'm drenched in sweat and struggling to catch my breath.
"Damn, girl, who pissed you off?" Aiden grumbles next to me.
I shake my head, too tired to answer. But then I hear Lucy start to laugh. "She's pissed because she's stuck in the same house with Tristan for almost two weeks," she laughs.
The guys around me look startled. "Tristan? Why?" Aiden asks.
I aim a glare at Lucy for finding amusement in my pain, but answer Aiden's question anyway. "I'm in between apartments for a little bit so Jax offered me his room while he's traveling for work. Unfortunately, that also means dealing with Tristan's annoying ass." I pause, then grumble, "He sprayed the floor with whipped cream this morning so I'd step in it when I woke up."
The gym fills with raucous laughter.
"I'm glad you guys find it funny," I snap. "I hate all of you."
"Can we take bets on who's going to make it out alive?" Aiden grins.
I scowl at my so-called teammates and stomp toward the showers.
* * *
It's almost 10:00 when I finally get home. I'm exhausted after my less-than-stellar day, and all I want to do is eat my dinner and go to bed.
I drag myself into the kitchen and onto one of the barstools. I stopped to grab a burger at one of my favorite burger spots in the city and I groan happily when I'm finally able to bite into it. A little bit of joy seeps into my atrocious day.
I'm barely three bites in when I realize I can hear voices coming from upstairs. I pause my chewing and strain my ears to listen.
It only takes a moment for me to realize that what I heard… is exactly what I thought it was.
The red haze from this morning clouds my vision again.
This motherfucker actually has a girl over right now.
I'm fuming when I hear the girl's laughter drift down the stairs. The sound is clear enough that I have a feeling Tristan's bedroom door is wide open. Which he only would've done if he wanted to make this even more awkward for me than it already is. He’s probably trying to piss me off by making me stay downstairs until he’s done, since there's no way to get to Jax's bedroom without passing Tristan's first.
I let loose a low growl. I cannotbelievehe could be this infantile.
It only takes me a second to decide that Tristan can no longer go unpunished. I tried to be nice—even my house rules were meant to make it easy for us to avoid each other—but between this and the morning prank, I've had about enough of his games.
I can play games of my own.
I walk quietly up the stairs so they can't hear me coming. Just before I reach Tristan's bedroom, I plaster a shell-shocked expression on my face.
"Oh my god,Tristan!" I shriek. "What are youdoing?!"