I had given up on sleep at 3:45 in the morning after waking up every ten minutes and decided to go watch music videos. At around 4:30, my mom came stumbling tiredly into the living room, squinting into the light. "Nicholas?" She asked hoarsely, putting her hand on the side of my face. "Are you feeling alright?" I forced myself to nod and take advantage of the situation.
"Yeah. I just got off the phone with Mandy." I lied.
My mom raised an eyebrow and looked and her watch. "What on God's green earth was Mandy doing calling you at four in the morning?"
I cleared my throat and began to explain the situation. "Well, she's dating this new guy, T-..Thomas. She really likes him a lot Mom. I mean, she's been telling me about him for a while now, and he sounds like a really great guy. He treats her well and everything, I mean."
She nodded. "So, he was so amazing she had to call and explain it at all hours of the morning?"
I laughed. "Sort of. Thomas is really jealous of...Joe. Cause Mandy and him are so close, you know?"
She nodded again.
"Well, Thomas asked her to pick between him and Joe, and she kind of chose Thomas."
Her eyes got wide, and she sat down next to me. "Why?"
I shrugged, like I was completely unaware of why Mandy was 'acting' the way she was. "I guess she just feels like her and Joe are getting older, and it's time to go their own ways, you know?"
"No." She said, shaking her head. "I don't. Someone who truly cares for Mandy would never ask her to do that." She thought for a second. "Nicholas, that's like a girl you like asking you whether her or Riley were more important to you."
When she worded it that way, it seemed like such a stupid question. Of course Riley was more important.
I sighed. "Like, Taylor asking me to choose?"
"Just like that. Mandy is a smart girl, Nicholas. Don't lose sleep over this. She will follow her heart." And with that, she kissed my forehead and retreated back into her room.
Follow my heart. I thought. That's all I had to do. I scribbled a note onto a post it and snuck out the front door to stick it to Riley's mailbox.
I created a new text message that said Meet me for lunch at noon, Papa Frank's. and sent it to Taylor.
I woke up the next morning and peeked out my blinds just as Riley was walking to her mailbox. She tore the note off of it and concentrated on the barely legible scrawl that read; Made plans with Taylor last minute today. I left some stamps in the mailbox. If you could get the invitations done without me, that would rule. Ily - Nick. I watched her open the mailbox and snatch the stamps, before storming up to my front door.
I always forget that Riley isn't afraid of confrontation.
The door shut with a loud thud, and her size 6 converse sounded like an army rolling up my stairs. I began counting down silently in my head. '5, 4, 3, 2 -'
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE 'LAST MINUTE PLANS'?" She asked, throwing up quotation marks with her fingers. My eyes widened with the volume of her voice, and she must have realized it, because she took a deep breath and lowered it. "Nick, we've been planning our entire party together for years. Now, we've hardly planned it at all. Your mom booked the place, my mom did the invitations..." She sighed. "Look, all I'm asking for is a little help with some stamps. I didn't even ASK you to go dress shopping with me, and you have always done tha-"
"Riley, you are such a drama queen. Do it yourself. You are capable of licking a stamp, right? I told you, I made plans." My voice was much colder than I had intended for it to sound.
She looked at me, stunned, before picking the stamps and my note off of my bed. "You're right." She smiled weakly. "It's a stupid tradition, anyways. Do you think you'd be able to go dress shopping with me tomorr-"
I cut her off again. "No, Riley, I don't think so. I don't have to be your shadow." I wanted to go dress shopping with her. Not because it was fun or anything, but because I knew it meant a lot to her to have me there. Taylor's text was fresh in my memory though, and I had to stand my ground.
She nodded again, but I could tell she was irritated. "Are we still going to have matching colors?" Another tradition that meant something to her, and me too, actually.
I shook my head. "I'm going to match whatever Taylor is going to wear. Since she's my date." That didn't matter and I knew it didn't. We both had been bringing dates to our party since we were ten, but we always matched each other.
She rolled her eyes and rested her hand on her hip. "Are you even still ATTENDING your birthday party? Or is that a no too, since I'm going to be there?" She caught her tone, and immediately went to correct herself. "I'll send the invitations. I'll buy my dress. It's not a big deal. What's going on, Nick? Why are you acting this way?"
God, it would have been so much easier if she wasn't always so nice. If she wasn't the most important person in my life. If I didn't have to act like she wasn't.
"Because Riley!" I exploded, more out of anger with myself than her. "We aren't attached at the hip, okay?! Do you think that when we're thirty years old we're going to have houses side by side and have our kids playing together like we did?!"
I knew that would get to her, that had always been our plan. "There's a time in life when you just can't be close to the girl you used to play in the sandbox with anymore!" God, my voice was cold.
The room was quiet for a minute before Riley spoke to me, her tone much softer, but her words much louder.
"I guess I never got that memo." I heard her close the front door quietly a few seconds later, and I didn't even peek out my window to see if she made it to her porch.
I sent Taylor a text. Plans with the worse half have been cancelled, definitely. See you in a half hour.
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I showed up to the small Italian restaurant a couple minutes late to a smiling Taylor who was rolling her new necklace between her fingers. "Hi, baby I already ordered for us." She greeted me, standing up and giving me a kiss on the cheek.
"I'm really sorry I'm late." I said sincerely. "I tried to avoid Riley with a note on the mailbox, but she just barged into my house like she lived there and cause a scene."
She shook her head sympathetically and grabbed my hand. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I always knew that girl would be trouble. She's done nothing but drag you down, when as your best friend, she should have been lifting you up."
I nodded. I wasn't exactly sure how Riley had been dragging me down, but it was enough for Taylor to notice. And thinking about it, what had she done to lift me up, lately? Nothing.
"You're right." I said. "She treats me like she treats everyone else. Which, I guess is okay-"
"That is definitely not okay!" Taylor exclaimed while twirling noodles that had been set down in front of her seconds earlier. "You are much more than an ordinary, every day boy, Nick! You should be treated that way."
My head was telling me how right she was. I wasn't an ordinary 14 year old boy, if anything, I was extraordinary. I had hit singles and sold out concerts. I hardly call that average.
We finished our pasta, and I paid the bill without question. "I should probably get going home" I said checking the time on my phone. "I promised my mom I'd be around for some family time tonight."
Taylor pouted, miserably. "Family time? Don't you get that…all the time?"
I laughed and put my arm around her waist. "If you call flying from New York to California three separate times in one weekend, surviving off of Starbucks and airplane packaged peanuts family time...then yeah. We have a lot of it."
Just about anyone could have caught the sarcasm in that statement, but in response she hopped up and down a couple times and shrieked, "Great! I was really hoping that you could come with me to help pick out my dress for your party." I started to protest when she ran her thumb across my lips and played the puppy dog face card.
"I guess I could spare an hour for an amazing girl."
An hour with an amazing girl turned into several hours, and with at least four rejected phone calls from everyone in the immediate family, riley and her mom and 11 voicemails, I knew I what was coming before I even opened my front door at 7:30 that night.
That's probably cause my very angry mother opened it before I could. In a strangely calm voice she said, "We're all in the living room, watching a movie. I suggest you go in there, sit down and mind your manners."
"I think I'll actually just go to my room." I wiggled past her and started up the stairs. Man, I had nerve. I closed my door behind me only for my mom to open it a couple seconds later.
"Nicholas, you're coming down stairs."
"Is Riley down there?" I asked, avoiding eye contact.
That got my mom's hopes high. I'd usually jump off a bridge with sharp rocks at the bottom if Riley was at the bottom. We're in inseparable. Well, correction. We WERE inseparable.
"Yes, she is."
"Then I'm DEFINITELY not going down there."
"She mailed 150 invitations by herself today. She's going dress shopping with her cousin tomorrow, and says it's not important to get a color you like because you won't be matching her this year. Is there any reason for that?"
I made eye contact with my mom for the first time since I'd been home. "Other than the fact that she's an obnoxious little witch who wants to do nothing but drag me down? No."
My mom backed out of the doorway, shaking her head. "Goodnight Nicholas. I think it would be wise to add some thoughts to your prayers tonight."
Normally, Kevin and Joe would wander into my room at some point during the night and ask how my day went, but instead, they murmured I love you's through my door. I was glad. I didn't really have the energy to talk to them, either. After all, what were they doing to help me? Singing along side me in our band? I was the reason there was any band to begin with.
The light in the window across from mine flickered on. I didn't want to look over, but my curiosity got the best of me and I glanced over. All of Riley's glue sticks and sheets of paper were out again. She was such a loser.
My phone vibrated as I got a text from Taylor.
Nick, I wanted to tell you this for a while now, but I know what Riley told you about Max. About him hitting her and all. It is all such a bogus lie. I overheard her telling a girl down at the gas station about it today, about how she had you totally fooled. - Taylor
I didn't even respond. My immediate reaction was to know that Riley would never, ever make something like that up. But the more I analyzed it, the more it made sense. Since I was gone so much, since I had bigger and better things to do with my time than to be there for her…she had to make something up.
My phone vibrated again, this one from Riley.
Goodnight, Nicholas. I love you. Always and Forever? -Riley
I looked into her window to see her looking at me, expecting the same ordinary boy who was always going to be there.
I closed my blinds and responded without a second thought.
Go to hell, Riley.
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I have pink eye, lol. I can't really see the screen, so hopefully there won't be any grammatical errors (:
Tell me what you think by reviewing, of course.
