Chapter 8
Riley sat on the biggest rock and watched Lucas lay out a blanket and light a few candles. He's so full of himself. But God he was so cute. He moved with haste as if he couldn't wait to talk to her about something in particular, he was silent the entire ride and she had no idea why. The only time he would look at her was when he'd search for her hand. It had become a funny little game for the star quarterback. Her brown eyes traced the sky, the part she could see through the leaves and branches. The stars shone brightly tonight, hardly any clouds and man that moon, is that a full moon? "Oh my God Lucas look. It's a full moon."
His emerald eyes traced the sky and back down to the beautiful brunette, "yeah gorgeous." He sauntered towards her, and lifted her hand off the rock, "come on let's sit."
"Technically I am sitting."
"Come here gorgeous." She bit her lip and she was almost seductively drawn towards him. "Let's talk." Riley pulled her hands away.
"Yes as friends." She giggled and turned her head to the quarterback who was only inches away from her face, "friends." She whispered. "What do you, excuse me," The brunette cleared her throat, "what were you wanting to talk about?"
"I just, I wanted to let you know why I fought the other day." Her eyes narrowed, I really want to point out that he could've told me all of this without coming out here but, I'll play along. "I lost my temper, I've had one ever since my mom and I left Texas in the middle of 8th grade. When men are rude to, or hurt women it is something that I literally cannot handle Riley." Okay why do you have a temper? Why did you get one once you left Texas? The look in his eyes was so intense and incredibly truthful. How is that possible? I know he's telling the truth by his eyes. "He was being a jerk to a group of girls who weren't interested in him, and he got a little handsy. I saw red."
She nodded her head slowly and licked her lips, "I understand your reasoning, I think it's great how protective you are, but wouldn't it have been more efficient to escort him away."
"That was the plan until he swung. Riley, I know you don't want me to stop fighting for you, but you just make it so much easier." The quarterback inched closer and brushed his fingertips against her cheek. Her eyes closed and her chest collapsed from the shaky exhale. The brunette could feel the warmth of his lips close to hers. "Riley." The jade eyed man whispered, she gulped and let out a small sound, "can I kiss you?"
Riley completely melted into his hand that was cupping her entire cheek. "I don't know if that's a good idea."
"I think it's a great idea." Lucas lightly brushed his lips against hers. Oh God. Her entire body tingled, the only other time she felt that way was when he kissed her the first time. Her first real kiss, she assumed it was because it was her first kiss. Riley you were so wrong. "Can I kiss you again?" Lucas whispered in her ear.
She didn't hesitate as her lips quickly found his and took the lead, practically begging for that feeling again. His fingers intertwined in her hair after caressing her jawline, their lips continued to move in sync while the brunette inched closer to his body. His hands wrapped around her waist, and she let out a small giggle. "God you're adorable." The quarterback laid her on her back and crashed his lips on hers again, you should stop this Riley. You should but you aren't going to because this feels amazing. She was almost counting on the fact that something would pull them out of the sensual euphoria she found herself in. "Damn it!" Saved by the bell.
Zay what do you want?
Whoa grumpy much?
Seriously dude, what do you need? I'm busy.
Oh getting busy with Missy?
Riley darted her eyes towards Lucas who looked like a deer in head lights.
I don't know what she told you but nothing happened. I drove her home yesterday.
Mhm, alright well I was going to see if you were coming to my party tomorrow.
Yeah maybe, I'll talk to you later. Bye.
He hung up the phone and Riley was blowing out the candles and folding the blanket. "No Riley, please don't."
"Lucas it's really for the best, I swear. We can still stay and talk but without all this romantic stuff, it just makes everything so much more difficult."
The quarterback scratched the back of his head and meandered towards the brown eyed girl. "I swear nothing happened."
She shook her head with a simple smile. "You don't have to defend yourself to me, even if you did. But for what it's worth I believe you. Now, I'm going to walk in the creek and you are going to talk to me about what we were talking about before we kissed."
"I'd be okay with kissing some more." She glared her chestnut orbs and he let out a light chuckle, "okay fine. What do you want to know?"
"Why'd you start fighting in the first place?"
He shook his head, "when you're my girlfriend I'll explain it all. But, that's personal and took lots of money to dig out of my head so no." The brunette stopped in her tracks. Money to get out of his head? Therapy? "Personal reasons."
"Okay, um do you know what's happening when you're doing it or do you kind of black out?" Holy crap I just got light headed. She quickly and casually sat down.
"You alright?" Riley nodded with a smirk, "Okay. Um, it's actually weird I normally kind of black out, and only know what my fist is doing. No one can really get me out unless I'm pulled off but oddly enough even hearing your voice draws me out of my frenzy."
"Lucas can you take me home?" What the hell is going on with me right now? My hands are shaking.
He saw her swaying from left to right and quickly lifted her off the rock. "Come on beautiful, let's go." The quarterback let out a happy sigh when she buried her head into the crevice of his neck.
"What you said was sweet by the way, don't think I ignored it."
Lucas lightly laughed and kissed her forehead, "I promise Riley I'm going to try and get better. I will only fight for defensive purposes."
"Thank you."
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"When is the athletics fundraiser?" Riley pulled out her planner and searched through the numerous pages of dates. "I know you're a busy girl take your time." She smirked at Coach Rutherford's remark, I'd find it a lot faster if this damn head ache would go away.
"The Craft Fair is 2 weeks from Saturday. I'll need some volunteers the night before to help set up, tape off the rented out spaces, move tables and chairs, etc." The brunette closed her planner, "that's our bi-week, so it works out perfectly."
Coach Rutherford marked it off on his calendar, "wonderful. I'll have you delegate the night before with the volunteers and schedule what the guys do the day of. As a matter of fact do you have the signup sheets ready?"
"The ones for like who wants to work concessions and what not?" The coach agreed, "Yeah, they're right here."
"Perfect, all the guys are in the film room. Why don't you come with me and you can answer any questions, if any." Riley gulped and agreed, you can't tell him no, besides he is incredibly intimidating. The brunette straightened out her leather skirt and followed him into the room full of football players. "Gentleman, gentleman listen up. HEY!" His yell startled her, "the annual fundraising craft fair is-" Coach Rutherford turned to Riley. The brunette was trying not to stare directly at Lucas, he seemed to be doing the exact opposite.
"2 weeks from Saturday."
"Right, 2 weeks from Saturday. We need a few volunteers to help with set up the night before and all of you are required to work 2 hours the day of. Riley's going to post the signup sheets and we'll collect them a few days before." The brunette moved quickly to tape up the sheets, hoping to get out of here as soon as possible. "Are there any questions?"
She turned around and smiled, and found Lucas again who calmed the nerves almost immediately. "What are the options of things to do the day of?"
Coach Rutherford gestured towards her, "there's concession, photographer, a photo prop as I call it, whoever does that will just take pictures in their uniform, there's assistants and then there's a time slot from 1 to 3 where you teach kids to play football." She saw several eyeballs looking her up and down, and she became uncomfortable fast. "The night before it will just be me here, I know it's a bi week but if anyone can spare the time please consider volunteering to help me." Pretty sure the entire room heard you gulp Riles.
"Also, everyone say thank you to Riley. She worked through the summer to find vendors so we can afford to do little things like get your dinner on game days." Lucas couldn't take his eyes off of her, which was a normal thing for him now. The team thanked her, and she got a cat call which was something incredibly new to her.
"You're welcome." The brunette sauntered into the hallway and inhaled deeply, releasing all the nerves. She leaned off the brick wall and continued to move down the hallway.
"Riley?" The brown eyed girl turned on her heels and came face to face with a pair of blue eyes. "Riley, right?"
She nodded, "yes. Does coach need something else?" Dem eyes doe! They are gorgeous but they aren't Lucas'.
"Um no, I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Charlie, Charlie Gardner."
Riley smirked, "Riley, Riley Matthews. It's nice to meet you." Realizing this conversation was over with she trudged away, going over how weird that was in her head.
Ding Ding
Please wait for me. We're watching film and then we'll be done. :)
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Riley finished up some homework in the library when she got the text that they were done with practice. She hurriedly gathered her items and practically jogged across the school to meet him at her car. The doors opened and the wind blew her hair back, her brown eyes caught glimpses of a few not so friendly faces and she slowed down, hoping to not cross Missy's path. "MILEY!"
"Crap." Please just go away. She tousled her hair, the brunette continued to walk to her car, pretending like she didn't hear her.
"I'm talking to you."
"I'm ignoring you, that's usually what not responding means." Lucas was still nowhere in sight and she was hoping like a knight in shining armor he'd come to her rescue. Granted, they weren't dating. They hadn't even talked about what happened last night, but she knew he'd help her out.
The cheerleader scoffed, "do you honestly think you have a shot with Lucas Friar?" Riley felt her heart sink slightly, "he needs to be with a head cheerleader. Not with someone who gets sat on in the cafeteria."
She whipped her hair around, "how'd you know about that?" Crap that was only the most embarrassing time of my life. Please just go away.
"I made it happen, it was hilarious." Her brown eyes glanced at the ground. "Do yourself a favor and leave him alone." Lucas stepped out of the athletic hall and couldn't contain his smile knowing he was about to see her. He laughed at the fact he was running, the heavy doors allowed him to enter into the dim daylight and instead of seeing a smiley Riley, there were 3 girls surrounding her. "Just do us all a favor Riley and leave everyone alone. You are nothing, and you will always be nothing." The brunette got into her car and started the ignition. Save the tears Riley, save them. Never let her see you cry.
"HEY! GET AWAY FROM HER!" She already drove off, never feeling worse about herself than she did right now. She'd always been bullied by Missy but it hurt more now that she was using Lucas against her. "RILEY!" His hands dropped to his side as she kept driving.
"See you later Luke." Missy and her gang sauntered away.
"STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM HER!" The quarterback ran to his truck and sped to her house.
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"Hey gorgeous." Josh landed on the couch and leaned over to kiss Maya.
"Hey, how was practice?" His head landed on her shoulder, "that well huh?"
"I keep dropping passes, so coach gets pissed obviously. But game day I'm fine, it's just practice. So, it's only twice a day every day that he gets angry." Maya giggled, "It's not funny."
"No that's," she cleared her throat, "that's not what I'm laughing at. You're just cute when you're whiney."
He furrowed his brows and pretended to pout, "hey so can I take you to the party after the game on Friday? Then a date on Saturday? Then kidnap you on Sunday?"
The blue eyed girl laughed, "You're incredibly needy."
"So that's a no?"
She made a playful smile, "If I become your girlfriend then yes."
"Is that an ultimatum? Can you make those?" He sat up off of her shoulder and gazed into her breathtaking eyes.
"I'm a hot commodity honey, it's your choice." She winked to let him know she was kidding, "Do you want me?"
A contagious smile made its way to his lips as she placed her forehead on his, "of course I do."
"Then have me. Since you supposedly spent years with a crush on me, don't stop your momentum." Her hand stroked his hair and she inched her body closer to him. "No pressure or anything." Josh's lips crashed onto hers, everything about her drew him in, even the way she spoke.
"Would you like to be my girlfriend?"
"Finally." She whispered and kissed him again, placing her hand on his stomach, feeling his abs underneath the pads of her fingers. His hands found their way from her long hair to her hips and worked to move her in his lap when the front door opened, and he quickly but gently shoved her off.
"LUCAS! Great timing bro."
"Is Riley here, I didn't see her car." The dark haired man shook his head and the door slammed before he could ask what was going on.
Maya bit her lip and glanced down at his hands that held her waist just 30 seconds ago. They sat in silence for a few moments, until they couldn't take it anymore. Her lips pressed against his again and he wasted no time putting her back in his lap. "Wait, should I call Riley?"
"Nope, no, no. Lucas has it." She giggled and leaned back into his embrace.
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