Chapter 5
Riker POV
After Kat took a shower, she came downstairs and sat down on the couch next to me.
"Hey," I said.
"Hey…? What?" Kat asked.
"Nothing. Just hey. What did you want to do tonight?"
"I don't know. Something more interesting than sitting on this couch would be nice."
And there's the jerk side of her again… Whatever… I know she's hurting inside…
"Well we could play a board game, watch a movie, go somewhere… Whatever you want," I said.
"Uh, board game I guess…"
She seemed totally uninterested. Whatever…
I got up and walked over to the closet. I pulled out a few board games, and put them on the coffee table in front of Kat, who was too busy looking at her phone to even look at the games.
"Kat?"
"…yeah…?"
"Pick a game."
"…uh…ok fine, how about monopoly…?"
"Ok."
Great. A really long game. Looking forward to your grumpiness… I put the other games back up in the closet, and carried monopoly over to the kitchen table.
"You coming?" I called into the living room.
"Yeah, just a sec…"
Kat came into the kitchen a few minutes later, thankfully, without her phone. Not that I didn't want her texting anyone. It just made it kind of annoying. Even though it seems like it would be easier having her ignore me, it would be more annoying to me… I would rather have her attention and be grumpy, than not have her attention, and not talking to me. I know, weird… I just hoped this night would go smoother than yesterday… Little did I know, I was about to get sucked into Kat's world…
"Uh, you roll first," I said, starting the game.
Later…
Kat POV
Ugh, why is monopoly such a long game!? I was getting bored. Riker wasn't really saying much, we had been sitting here for over an hour, and neither of us was really doing better than the other.
"Can we take a break?" I asked, sighing.
"Yeah, sure."
"Good, because I'm really hungry," I said.
"Me too. What do you want?"
"What do you got?"
"Ice cream," said Riker, a slightly evil smile creeping across his face.
"Sure."
Riker scooped us each a bowl of chocolate ice cream. We sat back down at the kitchen table. One of the kitchen lights flickered, then went out. Riker got up, and got another lightbulb from a cabinet.
"How many Lynchs does it take to change a lightbulb?" I asked, laughing a little.
"Ha ha, very funny," said Riker, smirking.
He got a chair, brought it over, and started unscrewing the dead lightbulb. It fell, shattering all over the floor.
"HA! It takes more than one Lynch to safely replace a lightbulb!" I shouted.
"Oh shut up," said Riker, screwing in the new lightbulb.
Riker put the chair back, and sat down across from me again.
"Aren't you going to clean that up?" I asked.
"I'll clean it up later."
"Ok…?"
I continued eating my ice cream, but I noticed Riker kept looking at me strangely.
"Ok, what is it? Is there like ice cream on my nose or something?" I asked.
"No…"
"Then what is it?"
"Are you ok? Well, actually, don't answer that. I know you're not. I just want to know what's going on," Riker blurted out.
"What!? What do you mean?"
"With your parents and everything, you're not ok! And not to be rushing things or anything, but we both admitted to having feelings for each other, and you haven't said anything since! You seem completely uninterested in monopoly, and I don't understand why you didn't just want to go to the carnival! You don't have to go on the rides if that's what this is about! You could have just eaten cotton candy or played games or something! But no, we're both stuck here, playing a stupid board game, in awkward silence!" Riker exploded.
My eyes widened.
"I'm so sorry! I totally didn't mean to say all that!" Riker shouted.
"It's ok," I said.
"No, that was wrong. I wasn't thinking. I don't know what came over me." Said Riker, looking down.
"No. I've been a jerk. You deserve to know why," I said.
Was I really about to tell him what was going on? Yup. I guess I was…
"You're absolutely right. Everything's not ok. I don't know exactly everything going on with my parents and everything. But for right now, that doesn't matter, because they're not even back yet. And about the whole carnival and dating thing… Well… Uh… I used to have this boyfriend… His name was Tyson. He was just a bad person in general... He took me out to this carnival one time. There was this rollercoaster. He was being really unsafe, and he didn't want to put the bar all the way down. You know, the one that goes over your lap? We almost both died. Halfway through, I ended up freaking out and yelling at him, and he finally let me pull the bar down to where it was supposed to be. But I've been scared to go back ever since. And we ended up breaking up after that. I know it was good that we broke up, because he was a really bad influence on me, but I just don't know if I'm ready to start dating again, and that's why I didn't really say anything since last night. I'm sorry…" I said, hoping Riker would understand.
"Oh my gosh. Kat, I'm so sorry. I had no idea. I-"
"It's ok," I said, cutting Riker off.
Riker got up, and gave me a hug. It felt so good to hug someone that actually cared about me. I loved that feeling. Maybe I should date Riker… Hmmm… I just don't know though…