Hi Everyone! Welcome back to the 4th Chapter of Reunited. I hope you're enjoying it so far. Sorry I took so long to update, I had so much homework and I was really busy but Im back now. Anyways there's not much to say. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, there's a huge twist. Fav Review and Follow!
Riley's POV
I looked in the mirror as a smoothed out my black dress. My feet were already hurting from the strappy heels I was wearing but it was worth it. I looked good. I looked over to Daniel. He was wearing the same thing he usually wore. His leather jacket. I didn't know why. It was hot as hell in New York but that didn't stop him from wearing it.
"Trying to match me?" He smirked walking behind me as he looked in the mirror at the two of us together.
"Yes actually. Since you didn't want to wear a tie."
I had tried to get him to wear something a little more formal. I knew no one would care about the way he dressed but for some reason I just wanted everything to be perfect. For him to look perfect.
"Don't you want your family to see the real me? The real way I dress? I'd rather stay true to who I am then later them find out I'm different."
He was right. I'm just overreacting because I'm nervous.
"Yes. Of course."
He slipped his hands around my waist and landed a kiss right on the side of my neck, "Good."
He said before looking in the mirror to fix his hair, "You ready?" He questioned.
No. I wanted to tell him no. To tell him that meeting them wasn't a good idea. That he should just leave and wait for me to come back to Canada.
"Yes." I spit out trying not to say the opposite word.
"Come on. Your family is in the car waiting on us."
I sighed as I looked in the mirror one more time before turning my bedroom light off and closing my door.
When we got there Josh was standing by the curve waiting for us. I was wondering why he was waiting for us. This isn't the first day we arrived like last time. That wasn't the only thing I saw. I saw Lucas's car. I wanted to wait outside while they went in. Just to see if he would sneak through the back again and leave. I didn't want him to leave. I wanted to see him.
"Hey Josh." My parents greeted him as we got out of the car. They all gave him a hug followed by me. That's when he stepped in front of Daniel and put his hand out.
"You must be Daniel." He smiled.
"Yes. And you must be Josh, Riley's uncle. Congratulations on your engagement." He shook his hand.
"Thanks bro. Nice to meet you. Riley's told me many great things about you." Josh told him.
"Same for you. You seem to be her favorite in the family."
"Oh Really?" Josh smirked playfully pushing me.
They were both right. Since Josh was the only person I wanted to bring up from my past I talked about him all the time. And since Josh was the only person I could talk to, I talked about Daniel a lot to him. Josh already knew everything about Danule because I told him everything. But when I was talking about Josh, I left out the most important and the most interesting detail. The fact that the whole time we were in middle school and high school together, my best friend tried to get with him. That was the adventure of everything.
I rolled eyes, "Okay guys. You've met. Can we go inside now?"
I was impatient. Impatient as hell. Only because I wanted to see Lucas. I didn't get to see him last time.
"Actually, Riley can I talk to you for a minute. Alone."
I looked at Josh suddenly getting nervous. He looked serious. When was Joshua Matthews ever serious? Why would Josh need to talk to me? I had a feeling I knew what it was about. It either was about Maya or Lucas. Or both.
I put on a fake smile for Daniel, "Follow my parents. I'll meet you there."
I didn't want to send him in there without me being by his side, but I had to anyway.
"Okay." He said before giving me a peck on the cheek then walking away.
Josh watched him walk away before speaking.
"You probably already know what it's about." He claimed.
"Is it about Lucas?" I asked.
He nodded.
Of course it was. I looked around. His car was still here, and my boyfriend was inside. He would have already left when he saw him. Lucas was staying.
"What about him?" I asked.
"He's here, and he's not leaving like he did last time. But Riley he's angry. He has a grudge against you for what you did to him. And he's especially angry since you came with your new boyfriend."
Lucas didn't like that Daniel was here. The word about Daniel had gotten around like I said it would. I got a text from Farkle after 4 years asking if Daniel was going to be with me on Wednesday. I felt bad because that was also the first time unblocking all of their numbers. When I cut them off I blocked all their social media, and every number they tried to contact me from. That's when they got the hint I didn't want to talk to them and they stopped trying. That's why I felt so bad. Believe me, I know how much I hurt them.
"I dont blame him." I frowned.
"I know. I just wanted to give you a warning. And another thing...about Maya."
Maya. I was worried about Maya. I couldn't predict what she was going to say or how she was going to react.
"She wouldn't say anything rude or disrespectful towards you. She knows better. You're my niece. She knows her boundaries. Not only that I think she wouldn't do that to you after how much you were there for her before you left."
I nodded. To be honest I felt like I didn't know what they were going to do. Its been too long to predict what they were going to do. I used to know them.
"Is that all?" I asked.
"No. There's one more huge thing you don't know. But I'm not going to tell you myself because I dont know how you'll react. So I want you to find out for yourself. And you will once you walk in there."
I panicked. Why would he even tell me that if he wasn't going to tell me right now?
"W-w-what is it? You cant do this to me, you can't not tell me." I stuttered getting more nervous than I was.
"I tried to tell you over the phone so many times. I felt like you should know. But now you will. Youll be fine Riley. They're lovely girls. They both are."
Girls? Both? Now he was just trying to confuse me even more.
"Who is-"
I couldn't finish my sentence. He walked away. Leaving me speeches.
"Come on." He stopped at the porch to turn back at me and went inside. I followed behind. I was tired of being nervous. I was tired of being afraid to walk up these steps. It's only been two weeks out of 6 months here and I still couldn't enter their house without wanting to turn around. I needed to get used to it. Not only did I have to worry about how they would like Daniel, but now I have to figure out who Josh was talking about.
"There you are." I jumped as I felt a grab on my hand. Everyone looked at me.
"Are you okay?" He whispered in my ear,
"You okay there Riley?" Shawn asked me sitting on the couch.
I put on a fake smile, "Yes, just got a little startled that's all."
I wasn't okay. I was paranoid. Paranoid as hell. I was still thinking about what Josh couldn't tell me. I wanted to look around for Lucas but I was too nervous to even move a muscle.
"Okay good. Why dont you introduce us to your boyfriend?"
That's when the whole room went quiet and everyone looked at us. I finally moved my neck. Looking around the room to see who was in here. It was the same people as last time just new people. I saw Zay, Farkle, Smackle, and Jade. Shawn and Katy. My grandparents, the new people, and Maya and Josh. They were all staring at me and Daniel. The only person I didn't see was Lucas, but I knew for a fact he was here.
I gulped not knowing what to say, "This is my boyfriend...Daniel."
"Hey everyone." He smiled at them. I could tell he was uncomfortable as well. There were about 20 people looking at us. He didn't like attention and neither did I.
"Hey Daniel. Nice to meet you. Welcome to the family." My grandparents smiled back.
I heard someone laugh. Not a good laugh. A petty laugh. It was Maya.
"Family. Yeah ok." She rolled her eyes and walked away. Josh looked at her in disbelief and followed behind her,
I looked up at my boyfriend and grabbed his arm to motion him not to say anything. He looked back. He understood.
"Dont mind her," Zay awkwardly said.
Daniel nodded, and then turned to me. Everyone went back to what they were doing.
"Your family seems cool." He told me.
"Yeah I guess."
I remember the last time I did this. Lucas and I started dating in Middle School. Since we were still kids and didn't know what we were doing we broke up. We then got back together in the middle of Freshman Year. I couldn't stop talking about him and eventually, everyone wanted to have a formal dinner with him. My parents always knew who he was, but since we were in a more serious relationship they wanted to get to know him better. Now this time it wasn't Lucas. It was Daniel.
"Woahh." Daniel looked over to Zay and Farkle. They were playing the PlayStation.
"Can we go over there?" He asked so amusingly.
"Actually I think I'm going to go catch up with everyone but you can, they'll let you play." I smiled at him.
"Alright cool. Talk to you later?"
I nodded. He kissed me on the cheek and walked off. I looked around. I still saw no Lucas. Maya and Josh had disappeared into another room. Farkle and Zay were playing with Daniel, and Jade and Smackle were talking to some unfamiliar girls. I walked up to them hoping Smackle would remember who I was.
"Hey!" I greeted her from behind.
"Hey Riley!" She gave me a huge hug. One I wasn't expecting. Smackle was always a kind person. We used to be science buddies all the time in Middle and High school. We had a few run-ins where she thought I was trying to steal Farkle away from her. Same for Maya. Sooner or Later she realized Farkle was not our type and that he was definitely all hers. At the end of senior year, she went to prom with him, I went with Lucas, and Maya went with a friend named Chad.
"How have you been?" She asked me.
Different.
"Good." I answered, "And you?"
"I've been great. Honestly, college was the best experience ever. I'm sad it is over but onto bigger and better things right?" She smiled at me.
"Right." I smiled back.
"This is Zay's girlfriend, Jade."
Jade smiled at me, "Hey. You must be Riley. Nice to meet you, I've heard a lot about you." She said.
I didn't know how to feel about that. How did she hear a lot about me and from who? What could anyone possibly be saying? Everyone hated me before I came here, and some still do. The only person who could've possibly said something positive was Josh, and if it wasn't him then she must've heard all bad things about me.
"Ohhhh….Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" I questioned scared wondering what she was going to say next.
She tilted her head back and forth, "Well...I've heard bad things about you and I've heard really good things about you."
"Yeah...I know they probably made me seem bad but I swear I not a bad person. I only did what I did for a reason." I tried to explain to her.
She laughed, "Dont worry Riley. I can tell you aren't a bad person. Besides, I dont judge people based on what other people say."
"Good." I let out a breath relieved. I looked over to the other two girls who were standing beside Jade and Smackle. One was a blonde, she was holding a toddler. The other was a redhead, who looked mean.
"This is Katherine and Payge."
"Hey." The redhead greeted me.
The blonde just looked up and smiled at me then looked back to the baby.
"Katherine is one of our friends, and so is Payge." Smackle told me.
The redhead had two piercings on her lower lip, one by her eyebrow, and one in her nose. She had a couple of tattoos. Even though she looked scary she greeted me with kindness. The blonde gave off a weird vibe. She had probably heard some bad things about me. She then looked at me, down from my toes up to my head, and quickly went back to playing with the baby. I wondered whose baby she was holding. She looked too young to have a baby.
"Um, Jade can you watch Lily for me? I'll be right back." Payge told her.
"Sure." Jade picked up the baby. Lily looked about two years old, and she had brown hair with green eyes.
"She's beautiful." I smiled admiring the baby.
"Yeah she is." Jade smiled too.
"Can I hold her?" I asked.
Smackle Jade and Katherine looked at each other. I immediatelly regretted asking. It was a risky question after all. I didn't even know whose baby it was.
"I'm pretty sure you can…" She said awkwardly then giving me Lily.
"Who are Lily's parents?" I asked looking into her green eyes. She looked like someone. Someone familiar. I just couldn't come up with an answer.
"Payge is her mom."
So she was a mother. I thought she was just holding the baby. She must've been in love to have a baby or maybe it was just teen pregnancy. She had to look just like her father because she looked nothing like her mother. I wasn't going to ask who the father was. I didn't want to get in anyone's business.
"Oh." I softly said and kept holding her. She was adorable. She had her little pink bow shoes on with a pink dress. She also had a bow in her hair. She didn't do much, just stared at me and chewed on her fingers.
"Smackle, Jade, I need-" Maya had finally come into the living room. She stopped talking. She stared at me. Stared at me with such confusion, such fear. I looked around, maybe I was missing something, but no. She was staring at me.
"Hi," I said not knowing what else to say. I knew she didn't like me. But she's seen me here before, so this wasn't her first impression of seeing me. I was confused.
"Maya-" I tried to talk to her but she walked away.
"What's wrong with her?" I asked them.
"Fuck. I think I know what she's about to do." Katherine groaned running away to find Maya.
"What-what is she going to do?" I asked. Scared of not knowing what was about to happen,
"I dont know. I swear I have no idea." Smackle told me.
I turned around, breathing heavily. I didn't want to show my feelings. I didn't want them to see me panicking.
"Dada." I heard Lily's soft voice say.
I had no idea she could talk, and I didn't know who her dad was.
"I'm sorry Lily. I dont know where he is." I patted her back.
"Dada." She said again this time holding her arms out in the opposite direction.
I turned around. Surrounded by a tall figure. Before I could even breathe. Before I could even blink, I no longer had Lily in my arms. His big hands had taken her away from me.
"Dada." She hugged him.
I stood there. Frozen. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The brown hair, the green eyes. The way Payge was acting around me. The two girls Josh was talking about. It all made sense.
"Lucas?"