Chapter 30

Rocky POV

My heart started pounding. Riker was gone! The whole reason I was down here was to keep an eye on him, and now he was gone! What if he was only pretending to be asleep? What if he had a whole plan to do something? What if-

"Rocky! He's fine!" Ross whispered, pointing down the hall.

Riker was leaving the bathroom with a sleepy look on his face. I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. Riker walked over and laid back down on the couch without even looking at us. Guess he wasn't feeling any better…

I laid back down on my couch, looking in Riker's direction. His eyes were closed, but I knew he wasn't asleep. I knew he was thinking.

Ross stood there awkwardly for a minute, staring at Riker too. I ended up letting him squeeze onto the couch with me. I didn't sleep very well. I was paranoid about Riker and two guys can't really sleep on a couch together too confortably.

The Next Morning…

Rocky POV

I woke up as soon as I heard movement. It wasn't Riker though. He was still asleep on the couch in the exact same position he was last night. It was Ross. He was making himself a bowl of cereal. I looked at my phone and it was barely 7:00. We were never up this early. It felt weird. I got up too, since I was now wide awake.

"What are you doing up?" Ross asked.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I couldn't sleep."

"Me either. I was so scared last night. I thought he'd left."

"Kat wants to talk to him."

"You think that's a good idea?"

"No. But she feels really bad. She thinks it's all her fault!"

"It is all her fault!"

"She did nothing wrong! People are allowed to break up with other people! People are allowed to date whoever they want! There aren't written rules about this! Riker overreacted and you know it!"

"I can't believe you're taking Kat's side on this!"

"I can't believe you're taking Riker's side!

"Ross, how can you say this is Riker's fault!?"

"I'm not saying it's his fault. I'm saying he overreacted a bit. You know he bottles everything up! It was only a matter of time before he exploded!"

"Well I'm glad you feel that way about me. Now I know 2 people who hate me!" Riker shouted before storming out the front door.

"Riker wait! You're not allowed to leave!"

"I can do whatever I want to!"

"Riker stop! You're only hurting yourself even more!"

Riker rolled his eyes and turned to keep walking to his car.

"Riker stop!" I shouted.

He ignored me, and opened his door. I ran over to him as he tried to close it, but I stopped him. I grabbed the keys from his hand and threw them as far as I could away from us.

"Riker. You need help."

"I don't need anything unless it's Kat, and since we all know that's not going to happen-"

"Riker, stop! You need to move on from this! But first, you need to come back inside."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"So you're just going to sit in your car then!? You don't have keys!"

"Well I would, if someone hadn't thrown them into the street!"

"Riker, stop. You know just as well as I do, that you're not making smart decisions, and it's a good thing you don't have your keys!"

"I called Kat. She's coming over!" Ross called.

"Why!?" I screamed.

"They need to talk this out! I think it'll help him!"

"You think it'll help me!?" Riker shouted, pushing me away from his door.

"Riker calm down!" I said, grabbing his arm.

"Let go of me! Let me talk to her."

"Wait. Why do you want to talk to her?" I asked, confused.

Riker sighed.

"Because I love her."

My eyes widened.

"What!? How can you still say that!?"

"RIKER! ROCKY!" Kat shouted, sprinting down the road in her pajamas.

"Come on Riker. You guys can talk inside."

"I said I'm not going anywhere. If I'm talking to her, it'll be right here."

Kat finally got here, and ran over to Riker, throwing her arms around him.

"Riker, I'm so sorry! I had no idea what was going on! Please don't hate me!" Kat cried.

Riker slowly wrapped his arms around her, and rested his chin on the top of her head.

"I could never hate you."

"Ok, I do not understand this!" I shouted, throwing my arms up into the air.

"Rocky, be quiet. Let them talk."

But they didn't talk. Riker held Kat to him while she cried. After 10 minutes of this, I was frustrated.

"You know what? You guys do what you want. I'm done trying to protect you!" I shouted at Riker.

He just didn't understand that Kat was no good for him. She didn't love him, and he needed to move on. I stormed up the stairs, probably waking people up. But I couldn't care less.

Kat POV

I could hear Riker's heartbeat as I cried into his chest. I was so scared he would hurt himself. I was just glad he was ok. I couldn't imagine my life without this moment, right now. I loved the feeling of being loved by someone. My parents always loved me and Cody, but sometimes it just didn't feel like it. I was glad I had Riker in my life. He's changed me in so many ways.

"Riker?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Yeah?"

"Can we talk? At my house?"

"Sure."

"Riker, dad isn't going to like this!" Ross shouted.

"I don't care what dad says! He wasn't there for me when- well you know… But Kat was."

"I still don't think this is a good idea. Riker, you're still hurting."

"I need to hear what she has to say. This is just one of those things I have to do."

"Ok, but you're going to be in big trouble."

"Whatever!"

Riker grabbed my hand, and started pulling me towards my house. Once we were in my room, I sat down on my bed, and Riker sat down next to me.

"Riker, I just want to know how you can still love me. After all this! After everything I've put you through! I've put you through so much! I just don't understand!"

"Kat, when you fall in love with someone, you'll always have feelings for them."

"So?"

"That's part of how I'm still hanging on. I know, somewhere… you still love me. I've just been hoping… that you can find that place again."

Riker POV

Kat buried her face into my shoulder.

"Kat, please don't cry…"

"No one has ever loved me like you before. I… It's just… hard to understand I guess…"

"Why is it hard to understand? I love you Kat. What more is there to be understood about that?"

"Everything! You don't know about my past. I've been told "I love you" before, but it was a lie. He didn't love me. And it hurt so much. And when I thought you were cheating on me… It hurt because I felt like I wasn't good enough. I wasn't good enough for you, and I was being replaced!"

"But I didn't cheat on you!"

"I know! But I still went through that! And even last night! You had me so scared! Ross came over and told me what happened. I thought there was a chance I would never see you again…"

I don't know how exactly, but Kat had gotten on my lap, still crying into my shoulder.

"Kat-"

"How could you do that to yourself!?"

"Do what?"

"Starve yourself like that!? You were hurting yourself!"

"I was just upset!"

"Well do you know how upset I was when I thought you had cheated on me? But I didn't do anything crazy like that!"

"Kat, I know, I just-"

"And then to find out it was because of me! That was the worst part of it all! Knowing that I caused you to hurt yourself!"

"Kat. Calm down!"

"No. You need to promise me, you won't ever do anything like that again."

"Kat-"

"Riker say it!"

"Kat-"

"Say it!"

"I can't!"

"Why not!?"

"As long as I don't have you…I just…"

"Well then maybe that needs to change."