The sound of the doorbell makes me jump out of my skin. No one is home on this lovely Wednesday night, my parents went out on a date they try to do it weekly but life tends to get in the way so any chance they get they sneak out. Auggie is over at a friend's house, I'm assuming for the night seeing as it is already 8:30. So I wasn't expecting anyone home, especially not ones that don't have a key to get in. So I do the responsible thing, first I put on pants. No I wasn't wearing pants, do you wear pants when you're home alone in your room? No. I didn't think so. Secondly I look through the peep hole and I swear my eyes could have bulged out of their head. I press my hair down in an effort to not make it look like a rat's nest and open the door. "Hey Riley."
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
A pair of azure eyes meet mine, "I just wanted to talk to you for a little bit." I open the door wider and gesture for him to step inside. He could have called but, oh well he's here.
"Do you want something to drink? Water, tea, orange juice?" I offer on my way to the kitchen.
"No it's fine thanks though." I close the fridge and meander back towards the living room, "I guess I'm just worried about you?"
I fall into the oversized love seat and furrow my brows. "Worried?" I repeat, "About what?"
His dark wash jeans connect with my leather sofa and he scratches the back of his neck. "You and Lucas have gotten awfully close lately." I smile and lift my hands off my stomach in a gesture for him to continue, "I'm just worried that you're going to get hurt." Why on earth is he being so vague? "Lucas is my cousin and as I'm sure you are aware kind of a player."
I don't really know what to say to that. He's been back for 3 weeks and hasn't so much as went out on a date. He's texting me constantly or with Josh, or with me… I don't think he knows his cousin as well as he thinks. "I appreciate the concern but I've always taken care of myself Charlie. Lucas won't hurt me."
He rubs his eyes in an almost frustrated manner, "See Riley you say that but I think you forget what all he put you through."
I start to bitterly laugh, "No I remember. I remember everything about those years. I remember who was there for me too." I arch my brow indicating I'm talking about him. I can tell there's something else he wants to say but I don't pry. And then I'm like what the hell did I just say? "I'm sorry-"
"No, I deserved that." He mumbles, "I didn't say or do anything when we were younger and I regret that. I was an ass." Well I wouldn't necessarily put it in those terms, but in a way… "Missy and I have been fighting a lot lately."
Ugh, am I supposed to care? "About?"
"I was trying to get her opinion on what I should do about you and she just gets pissed."
That doesn't surprise me, "I understand you're worried but don't be. Lucas is my friend and has done nothing wrong." In fact he defended me against your meanie head girlfriend. "If you don't count the time he force fed me a fry dipped in a chocolate milkshake." I quip and sit up straighter, "Look Charlie I'm assuming if she gets pissed about you talking about me, she'd get even more mad that you are here. So I think it's best if you leave."
"Riley I'm just trying to protect you."
My hand rests on the door knob and all of a sudden tightens its grip. I hardly get angry, in fact it takes a lot for me to get angry at a specific person. At the situation, yes I get mad at the situation but I consider myself a very even tempered woman. But right now I'm mad, like fuming mad. He didn't care all those years ago, he's going behind Missy's back to help one of his friends. "Leave." I don't want to say something I'm going to regret later. I've had a crush on him for as long as I can remember, I always thought he was cute but as previously mentioned 8th grade is when the infatuation truly began.
"Riley-"
"Charlie leave before I say something I'm going to regret."
Charlie sighs and steps outside, "I'll talk to you in the morning Riley."
And the door is closed in his face. I didn't slam it, there's no hostility no matter how much I want there to be. I've said before I'm an independent woman and I don't need his worry or his pity. I have never had it before and I don't want it now. Especially when Lucas has been a better friend to me the past 3 weeks then Charlie has well…ever. And that's including the years of Lucas' pranks. I was infatuated with him so I assumed he was my friend, but the friendship was very much one sided.
I strip my clothes off once I make my way back to my room. Maya won't be coming tonight, her mom has the night off and I collapse onto my bed. My phone dings and with heavy eyes I click the home button on my Samsung.
FryRuinerFriar
You okay? You haven't responded.
And I don't intend to. It isn't his fault, well tonight wasn't his fault. Why all of a sudden does Charlie care what his cousin does to me?
My phone dings again but I don't even look at it. I fall asleep, and quickly.
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Knock. Knock. Knock.
Maya I swear I'm going to slit your throat. Wait, Maya? Why would she be here? I don't even bother turning around, why is she even knocking? I'm too tired to care. "Come in!" I hear the window slide open and I instinctually toss the comforter up for her to crawl in. "Did you and your mom get into a fight peaches?"
"Shit." That is not Maya.
I squeal and fall off the bed, taking the blanket with me. "Lucas?!" I turn on my bedside lamp and bunch up the blanket to cover my body. "What the hell are you doing here?!"
He blinks aimlessly several times before turning around, "Please get dressed." Gladly. I scurry to my closet and slide on a pair of shorts and a tank over my bra and panties. Thank God I don't sleep nude, partially my fault. I should have known Maya doesn't knock. "Are you decent?"
"Yes." I muster and toss my blanket back on my bed, "Now you're turn to answer a question why are you here?"
Lucas turns on his heels and gulps, "First of all I swear I didn't see anything below your um, below-"I put my hand up to get him to stop talking and to shut the hell up. "Sorry." No he's not. Pervert. "You didn't respond to any of my text messages so I kind of got worried considering you stopped replying before 9 o'clock."
"Everyone's just so worried tonight!" I snap and immediately regret it, I put my hand over my mouth and drop my head. "I'm sorry Lucas you didn't deserve that. I'm just a little cranky."
Lucas saunters towards me and with 2 fingers he lifts my chin so I'm looking into his. He's studying me and I'm just waiting for his question. "You've been angry tonight." I cock my head to the side, how the h-e-double hockey sticks does he know that? Oh right I just bit his head off with my words. "What happened?"
"Nothing." I mutter under my breath. The tension between Charlie and Lucas is already so thick I am not going to make whatever it is between them worse. "Stupid drama that is unimportant." I gently remove my chin from his grasp and fall back on my bed. "Hey Lucas?" Curiosity getting the better of me. He hums in response and I feel a dip in the bed. "Why haven't you pranked me?" I don't dare look at him, I am unsure as to what I was afraid of seeing but I didn't even add 'not that I don't appreciate it'.
Lucas sighs and fell back on my bed giving me a small bounce in the process. "Riley please just listen to me okay?" I nod my head, my nose running across the fabric of my comforter. "You honestly have no idea how sorry I am about everything that I did. I was an idiot, I shouldn't have done that. I would like to blame it on me being young and not knowing anything but truth is, I knew exactly what I was doing."
I slightly lift my head off the comforter and stare at his form, hands covering his face. He's ashamed, and though I can't see his eyes I know he's waiting for me to say something, anything from the way his muscles are slightly twitching from the tension. He didn't answer my question, but I wasn't going to ignore the apology. "Lucas, I'm not mad at you anymore." I don't think I was ever mad at him, annoyed…definitely but I was never really that mad. As soon as the last word escaped my mouth his large hands fell from his face.
"Are you serious Riles?"
Shock. From both ends, "Well yeah." I sit up on my knees and give him a small smile, "I don't think I was ever really mad at you no matter how bad I wanted to be. At first I was like wow, impressive a 5th grader pulling these top of the line pranks." Oh good he laughed, breaking the awkward tension. "And then I just got annoyed mostly. Do you know how long it took me to pull all of those feathers off?"
He sat up and gave me that boyish grin, it seemed as if a weight was taken off of his shoulders and before I know it I was in his arms. "I was such an ass sweet cheeks. I don't deserve you." I don't really know what to say to that so I tighten my hug to show him no ill will. "Thank you." If it wasn't so silent then I wouldn't have heard it.
I don't ask what for. Because I already know, "You're welcome."
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"Would you look at them?" I gesture my head towards Robot 1 and Robot 2 who were standing so close to one another. Smackle is blushing at something he said as he cocks his head to the side to get a better look at it. "Why are they so blind?"
Maya chuckled and rubbed my shoulders. "Easy peaches." She shook out my frowns with her pointer finger, "You'll break your face if you aren't careful. Secondly, I know. I want to do something. They're so adorable, I seriously ship them."
I can't help but roll my eyes at her lingo. But it's true, I ship them. "What if we-"
"Conniving! I'm in!" Darby whisper yells and causes me to yelp from the sudden intrusion. Where the hell did she even come from? "Let me guess the other 2 of the 5 musketeers?" Groan. Did everyone hear that?
"What's up ladies?" Josh joins in our huddle and smirks before pecking Maya's cheek.
"We're going to come up with a plan to get Farkle and Smackle to at least go on one date." I whisper. "We're sick of them beating around the bush. Oblivious." I murmur.
"Yeah, they're oblivious." Maya rolls her eyes and I'm assuming she means Charlie.
Darby taps her lips a few times and cocks her head to the side, "What if we all plan a get together and we all have a convenient excuse not to show up?"
We all ponder on it for a few moments, "That's really… cliché isn't it?"
It's when I see a mischievous glint dancing around in Maya's eyes that I know she has a plan. And if I know my best friend, and considering her title I think I do she's going to act on it before consulting any of us. "YO FARKLE!" He seems to be awoken from his daze and saunters towards me. "Saturday night we're all going bowling. Josh and I, Darby and Yogi, you and Smackle, and Riley with Lucas." I open my mouth to protest but Josh pinches my side causing a small yelp to escape my lips.
Oh, just wait Josh. I have pinchers Joshy, I have pinchers. "Yeah." I mutter out agreeing with Maya.
"Yeah what sweet cheeks?"
I turn on my heels and smile, "Apparently we're all going bowling on Saturday." I muster out and widen my eyes so he knows to play along.
"Let's call it a quadruple date." I whip my head around to a smirking Maya.
"Date?" I blubber out.
"Date?" Farkle questions wide eyed.
"Date?" Smackle glares at us.
"Yes a date." Maya always so fearless, if only she knew the thoughts that were running through my head right now. Lots of punches to the boobs… lots. "Everyone dress nicely." And with that she's practically skipping away with Josh in tow.
Smackle, Farkle and I both seem a little dumbfounded. I was not even remotely prepared for the word date to be thrown around like a baseball. "Come on sweet cheeks." I will my feet to move so I can ensure him that this will not be a date. Once we're a good distance away he's the one to stop me first, "Hey this isn't a date." My mouth opens and closes like a fish, I want to say something but the words won't come out.
I should be insulted, right? I should be mad, right? "What am I not good enough for 'the Lucas Friar'?" I snap. And then I'm like, now he's going to take this the wrong way.
Lucas takes a step forward and in an effort to seem courageous I don't even move. "Do you want to go on a date with me sweet cheeks?" I open my mouth to say something when he interrupts me, "It sounds an awful lot like you do." He knew I was going to say no.
"I do-"
"If you want a date-"
"I don-"He interrupts me again while taking a step forward, what a surprise. I swear he loves making me uncomfortable.
"I'll be more than happ-"
"I don't want-"
"Just a little thing Riley, I was saying this wasn't a date because-"
"Riley." My eyelids flutter closed and I groan. He did say he'd see me in the morning, I didn't think he was serious though. Especially because I was sure Missy wouldn't allow it. "Can we talk?"
No. No. No. No. No. Lucas stares directly at me, practically burning a hole into my face. "Sure." I muster out.
When Lucas doesn't move a centimeter to leave Charlie says, "Alone?"
"I'm not leaving unless Riley asks me to."
Well that just put me in an awkward situation. I could ask Lucas to leave and get grilled about it later, because FryRuiningFriar being himself won't let it go. Or I could just say 'go on ahead Charlie let's pick up the conversation we began last night' and either punches will be thrown or he will leave. Quoting Jane from Twilight, 'Decisions, decisions'. I like avoiding this conversation, for now at least. "Riley I just want to finish our conversation."
"Finish?" Lucas snaps, "When did you start one?"
So. Much. Testosterone.
"Is that any of your damn business cousin?"
"When it involves Riley you bet your ass it does." I am in the middle of a tug of war. What's worse is I don't even know why.
"I went and saw her last night Lucas." Things became extremely still, so did the 2 men. The only thing I was moving were my eyes.
But in the moment where I'm not moving, I process the words he used and the way he phrased them, and the way Charlie said it was vindictive with his small smirk, as if he knew that would get a rise out of Lucas. I'm not sure why though. And for whatever reason that infuriated me, he's acting like I'm a little hussy. Like he just swings by my apartment on the regular. "I don't appreciate the insinuation." I snap after gathering my thoughts.
His glaring softens when he looks at me, "Riley you know I didn't mean it that way."
"This is between you and I no need to ruffle unnecessary feathers of your cousin." I step in between the two and cross my arms, "I told you I was fine last night and I am. Thank you for your constant concern."
Charlie sighs and grips my wrist to pull me into him. "Let. Her. Go." His dazzling emerald eyes are a dark black as he grips onto Charlie's wrist. His jaw is clenched making him even more attractive. No wonder girl's like bad boys. It's their clenched jaw! REVELATION!
"Lucas it's fine." I reassure him but he doesn't seem to buy it. Realizing that this isn't going to get any better until Charlie gets things off of his chest I make direct eye contact. "Lucas I'll meet you in first period." I know he's going to be mad at me. I'm very much aware of what's about to happen, especially when he punches some lockers on the way down the hall. I wince at the noise and make a quick glance to the only man I've ever had a crush on. "Please say whatever you're going to say fast. I have to go mend a friendship."
"I don't like that he's all over you all the damn time. He's being possessive Riles."
"Protective." I correct and tug my arm out of his grasp.
"Oh really? Him saying, if it involves you then it's his business or trying to control what happens between you and I, demanding I let you go that isn't possessive?"
"What the hell is your problem?"
Why did I have a crush on him? Wait, did? Past tense? "My problem is the minute my cousin comes back into town you two are all over each other all the damn time!"
"And since when do you freaking care? You and Missy have been together for 3 years!"
He looks like a dying fish but I am just waiting on him to answer instead of commenting. "That's not the point! Are you saying that there is something going on with you two?!" His voice is steadily rising and I'm getting more and more uncomfortable.
"Even if there were it would be none of your business. What goes on between Lucas and I has nothing to do with you. And it has everything to do with it. You didn't care the Monday after the 8th grade dance when you two became official, you didn't care even when Lucas was pranking me or Missy humiliated me during Sophomore year! You didn't care then, so damn it you will tell me why you care so much all of a sudden!"
He doesn't say anything. He just stands there. Our gaze extremely focused on one another, deep blue against auburn brown. Neither of us are backing down and I don't plan to. "I just don't like it."
I cross my arms after adjusting my book bag, "You may not like it, but you are going to have to get used to it! Lucas isn't going anywhere." If Lucas were here I'd be teased relentlessly for the rest of my life.
"Think this through, I was young and an idiot and I should have done something other than just sit in the sidelines-"
"YES!" I interrupt and I can feel myself losing control of my emotions, "You should have! Everyone should have but you didn't! No one did! Even my own uncle helped out Lucas, but I'm not mad! It may be naïve to put so much trust in a man who picked on me so much but I'm a firm believer in second chances and he deserves one." I inhale deeply, "And so do you. When you apologize to me for this whole situation." I gesture to the space between us, "I will be more than happy to forgive and move past this as friends."
And with that ladies and gentleman I mimic doing a mic drop and walk away. "Did Lucas apologize?"
A small smile toys at my lips and without stopping, and without turning around I say "Yes."
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