Chapter 9

Riker POV

I ran out of Riley's room, crying. I ran through the kitchen door, crashed into something, and fell down, whacking my head on the kitchen counter in the process.

"OW! Riker!"

I looked up, and realized I had crashed straight into Riley. And Rick, our nighttime bodyguard, was standing a few feet away, looking at us like we were idiots, which we kind of were. I crawled over to Riley, and pulled her onto my lap, hugging her really tight.

"Riker? What are you doing?"

"I thought you were dead!" I said, crying.

"Why?"

"I thought you had pretended to go to sleep early so you could sneak out and go to the woods. And then I let myself fall asleep. I woke up, and you were gone! And then when I opened the door, Rick was gone too, and I thought he had gone with you, and I was so scared I had lost you!"

"Ugh! Riker! You're squeezing me too tight!"

"Sorry…"

"Riker, you said you didn't want me to go, so I didn't, even though I really wanted to. And I just woke up, and was hungry, so Rick came out here to help me find something to eat. I wasn't trying to make you think I went to the woods or anything."

"Please don't scare me like that again!"

"Awww. Riker, don't cry! I'm fine!"

"I know. I was just really scared!"

"Riker."

"What?"

"The back of your head is wet! You're bleeding!"

Riley pulled me to the bathroom.

"It's ok. It doesn't look bad. There's just a lot of blood. You'll be fine."

Riley took a towel, put some water on it, and gently rubbed the back of my head. I guess I had hit the counter harder than I thought…

"How does it look now?"

"It looks alright. It stopped bleeding. But now your hair's wet."

"I can deal with that."

"Riker?"

"Yeah?"

"You look so adorable when you cry."

"What?"

"You look like a sad puppy! The cutest thing is your eyes, and then your nose."

"What about my nose?"

"The tip of it turns bright pink. It's just adorable."

I laughed, wiping my face. Riley could always make me feel better.

Riley pulled me back to bed, and I finally fell asleep, with no fears.

Morning…

Riker POV

"Riker. Riker, get up."

"Mmmm…"

"Riker!"

"Mmmm…"

"Don't make me get the water."

I opened my eyes. Riley was sitting up, staring at me.

"Why is it so important I get up this second?"

"Because I'm up, and I want to go for a walk, and Shane can't protect us if I'm on a walk, and you're here sleeping."

"I thought his name was Rick…"

"No, Rick is our nighttime bodyguard, Shane is the daytime one."

"Oh… Right…"

"Well get up!"

"Riley, I'll be fine here for a little while."

"No, you won't! I didn't go to the woods last night because you made me stay here, and Dylan said if I didn't go, he'd hurt you!"

"Can't we just not go for a walk?"

"Riker."

"Ok, let's compromise. I'll go on your walk, but in an hour."

"No deal. Make it 5 minutes."

"5 minutes? How about 45 minutes."

"No. 10 minutes."

"30 minutes?"

"Less!"

"20?"

"Less!"

"Riley!"

"Ok, final offer, 15 minutes."

"Fine!"

"Well then you better get up."

"I have 15 more minutes!"

"You're going to go for a walk in your pajamas?"

"Riley, wasn't it you that taught me not to care about stuff like that? You said that if we want to go for a walk in our pajamas, then we should be able to, and we shouldn't care what other people think about it."

"Yeah…"

"Well I'm going in my pajamas."

I had my eyes closed, but I could just imagine Riley rolling her eyes at me. All of a sudden, the blankets got ripped off of me, and I felt really cold!

"Riker, get up!"

"No! I still have time! Give me back my blankets!"

"They're my blankets!"

"Ok, give me back your blankets!"

"Riker, if you don't get up now, you'll go over our 15 minute compromise, I just know it!"

"I will not!"

"Yes you will!"

"How much time do I have left?"

"11 minutes, 23 seconds."

"You're legitimately timing this?"

"Yeah…?"

"Riley, can't I just sleep in for once?"

"Maybe, but not today."

I glared at Riley. I was not a morning person, and I just wanted to sleep. Riley left and called out how many minutes I had left, every minute! When it got down to 2 minutes, I finally got up. I walked out to the front door where Riley was standing with Shane. I put my flip flops on.

"Ok, ready to go?" Riley asked.

"No, actually. Hold on. I have to go to the bathroom."

"Well then you better do that in 1 minute, 32 seconds."

I rolled my eyes and ran to the bathroom. Luckily, I made it back before my time was up.

During our walk, which wasn't very long because Riley had to stay on our road, I felt like I couldn't say anything. At least not anything… relationship related. It just felt awkward with Shane behind us. It wasn't obvious he was there, but at the same time, it kind of was… But Riley felt like talking. She talked all about how today was beautiful, and it was warm, and these particular flowers looked nice. But all I could think about was last night. Riley didn't show up, and Dylan said he'd hurt me. What if he wanted to go farther than hurt? Farther to… murder… I knew we had Shane and Rick, but if we're out for a walk, and Dylan has a gun, who's going to win? Not me!

We got back from our walk, and I sunk into the couch. I didn't have a great night last night, and I was still exhausted. And the back of my head still kind of hurt.

Riley came over and sat on my stomach, which didn't feel too good.

"Riley, do you think you could move down to leg territory?"

"But then I can't do this."

Riley leaned down and kissed me, making me turn red, like usual.

"Riley, please. It kind of hurts."

"Fine."

Riley moved down, and sat on my legs instead. Shane sat down on the chair kind of diagonal from us. We had kind of made a deal with Rick and Shane. We paid them less because they got to slightly take advantage of being here. Like they could use our bathrooms, they ate meals with us, and they could use our internet and stuff. Just random things as if they lived here. And I'm not complaining, I'm just saying it's kind of weird to have someone follow you around and live in your house and stuff. Actually, it was annoying… I felt like I had no privacy! I felt weird talking to Riley, and I felt weird doing anything! The only time I really felt somewhat normal was when Riley and I were in her room, but her door had to be cracked open so they could listen to us and make sure we weren't getting murdered or anything. I was starting to hate it. A lot. And it was only day 2.

"Riley, I need to talk to you," I said, pulling Riley into the bathroom with me while Shane wasn't looking.

I closed the door, and pulled Riley away from it.

"Not that I don't like Shane or Rick or anything, but this is starting to get really annoying!"

"I know, but we're safe!"

"Riley, it's driving me insane! How can you deal with this!?"

"Riker, it's only the second day. You'll get used to them."

"It's not that I'm not used to them! I'm just sick and tired of them always being in our business!"

"What are you talking about!? They barely even say 2 words to us!"

"I know, but they hear everything! That's why I'm talking to you in here!"

"Ok, I get your point."

"I'm just so tired of them!"

"Why don't we watch a movie or something?"

"We've watched movies already! We've watched a ton, and I've slept over, and I've talked about feelings, and blah, blah, blah! I'm ready to be done with all of this!"

I left Riley standing in the bathroom, and stormed over to my house, yelling at Shane on the way out, not to follow me.

Riley POV

I walked into my bedroom and exploded into tears. I couldn't believe he just said that! Fine, if he wants to be done with this, then it's over. I just won't talk to him anymore, and he can get himself killed for all I care.

I hid under the blankets for the longest time ever. I just didn't understand. I wanted to go last night and give myself up to Dylan. He said he didn't want me to, but now he's saying he wants to be done with all of this. If I had just gone last night, he would've gotten his way, and I'd already be gone.

Riker POV

"Where's your bodyguard?" Rocky asked.

"At Riley's. And he's not my bodyguard."

"I thought he was both yours and Riley's."

"Not anymore."

"Whoa, what happened?"

"Those bodyguards are driving me insane! We have no privacy because they're always there!"

"So what did you do exactly?"

"I think I… I think I might have broken up with Riley…?"

"Really!?"

"Yeah…"

"Dude! What were you thinking!? You and Riley have been inseparable! I know how much you love her, and what if now she tries something because of what you said?"

"Like what?"

"Like calling Dylan and handing herself over to him because that's what she thinks you want! Girls overreact like that!"

"I've made a huge mistake, haven't I?"

"Yes! You love her, Riker. One little fight shouldn't be enough to break you guys up!"

I sighed. I did still really love Riley. And I felt really bad about what I said.

"Riker, go back over there and get your girl back."

"Alright…"

It sounded so simple when Rocky said it. But it was anything but simple! I knocked on Riley's front door, and Shane answered it. I apologized to him, and then went down to Riley's room.

"Riley?"

Nothing, like usual when she was upset with me. I sat down on her bed, and pulled the blankets off of her. Obviously she was crying, and I would expect nothing less because I acted like a jerk.

"Riley, I'm sorry, ok? I didn't mean any of that stuff. I had a really rough night last night, and I didn't get much sleep. I'm really sorry for what I said. I acted like a total jerk. Will you still please be my girlfriend?"

Riley got up and walked to the door. She turned around before walking out, and stood facing me.

"No."