Chapter 13

Riker POV

Riley didn't say anything for a minute, and I was starting to get worried for 2 reasons. Was she mad because I asked that? Or did she still have feelings for him? Or both?

"Riley, please tell me. I want to know, even if you still have feelings for him."

"Riker."

"Yeah?"

"I don't have feelings for Dylan."

I wasn't so sure I was convinced…

"Well then why wouldn't you tell me that when we went camping?"

"Riker, I was totally messing with you! How on earth could I still have feelings for someone who's trying to murder me and my boyfriend?"

I guess that made sense…

"Really?"

"Riker, yes! I have no feelings for him at all. I promise."

"Why did you have to mess with me!?"

I could feel myself wanting to cry, and I could feel my face turning red.

"Awww, Riker! I was only messing with you because it seemed so obvious to me! How could I have feelings for someone trying to kill me? I'm sorry! I didn't want to make you upset!"

"I've been thinking about this all the time! I was so scared you still had feelings for him!"

"Riker, I swear, I don't. Please don't cry."

"I'm not crying!"

"Yes, you are! There are tears running down your face!"

I sighed, closed my eyes, and tried to steady my breathing. I could feel Riley wiping my face, and then hugging me.

"Riker, I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were so upset about this. I only have feelings for you, and I'll only ever have feelings for you."

"Really?"

"Really."

I squeezed Riley tight. I believed her, but I was still a little upset. I needed to calm down. But luckily for me, Riley could always make me feel better, and make me smile.

"Riker?"

"Yeah?"

"You look so adorable."

"Why, because I'm crying?"

"Yeah… You don't know how hard it was earlier when you were crying. It was so hard to be mad at that face!"

I smiled, and Riley kissed me.

"I actually planned that," I said.

"You planned what?"

"I remembered that you said I was cute when I cried, so I was trying to use that against you."

"Riker, you did not!"

"Yeah, I did…"

"That's so devious!"

"I know…"

"I like it."

I smiled.

"Well you're devious too! Remember when I tried to push you off the raft, and you ducked? I went flying into the water instead!"

"Yeah… That was really funny. I don't think Shane liked us doing stuff like that out there."

"Yeah, but who cares. Ok, I have a truth question for you."

"You didn't even ask me, and it's not even your turn!"

"I don't care, I want you to answer this."

"Fine, what?"

"When we were out there on the raft, you said there were a bunch of things I didn't know about you. Well… Like what?"

"I don't know…"

"Riley, come on! After I just totally embarrassed myself, you have to answer that."

"How did you embarrass yourself?"

"By crying over nothing!"

"It wasn't nothing, and it wasn't embarrassing!"

"It was to me!"

"Fine. You don't know… that I can play guitar."

"What? Really?"

"Yeah."

"Are you serious!?"

"Yes! I'm serious!"

"Why didn't you tell me!?"

"Because I know you're all musical and what not, and I'm self taught, so I'm like horrible compared to you."

"Where's your guitar?"

"Downstairs somewhere. I don't really play it much anymore. I stopped around the time I met you and the whole Dylan thing happened."

"Why?"

"I don't know…"

"Could you play any songs?"

"Not really… I don't know… I wasn't even that good."

"Can we go look for your guitar?"

"Why?"

"I want to hear you play!"

"Riker, I can't play anything!"

"Well then I'll teach you! You have to remember some stuff, and I'll just help. Here, I'll text Ross to bring over his guitar, and then I'll teach you some stuff."

"Wait. You better text Rocky instead."

"Why?"

"Because Ross is blond and looks like you. Oh my gosh! What if Dylan does something to him, thinking it's you!?"

"Ok, calm down. Let's just think about this for a minute."

"What is there to think about!?"

"There's a ton to think about! My brother might be in danger, now! Ugh! I was so close to doing the thing I love with the girl I love, and now we have a problem! Riley, I'm sorry, but we need to go over there and talk to Ross about this."

I grabbed Riley's hand, and pulled her over to my house, with Shane following us.

"Ross!" I called.

"What?"

I led Riley to his room. He was doing something on his laptop.

"We have a slight problem."

"What?"

"You know about Dylan, and everything?"

"Yeah?"

"We think you might be in danger."

"Why?"

"Because you're blond, and you look like me."

"Oh… Well what kind of danger, exactly?"

"Dylan wants to kill me."

"Kill you?"

"Yeah. But we have a bodyguard, so we're fine. But I just thought I'd tell you to be more careful because we had the thought about him thinking you were me."

"So what exactly should I do?"

"Just hang around with everyone all the time. Try not to be alone, like you are right now. Basically, use the buddy system. And lock your door at night. Oh and don't go outside!"

"Uh… Ok…"

Riley and I walked back to her house, now that we'd told Ross to be careful.

"Riker, he's probably not in much danger though. I mean, he sleeps with Ryland in a different room than yours, and remember? Dylan threw a rock in your window, and Ross doesn't sleep in there."

"Yeah… But I just want to lower the risk."

"I know. It's a good thing to do, warning him."

I sighed.

"I just want this to be over already!"

"I know what you mean."

"You know, we could always just go to the police and let them use you in their plan to catch Dylan, and then this could all be over."

"Riker, I really don't want to do that. If something goes wrong, I could die."

"Riley, something could go wrong today, or tomorrow, and you could die!"

"I know, but… I just don't want to, ok?"

"Ok…"

"I'm sorry."

I hugged Riley. I didn't think anything would go wrong if we went to the police. They were the police, for crying out loud! They wouldn't let Riley be in any danger. But if Riley didn't want to do it, I wasn't going to try to make her.

Later… Middle of the night…

Riker POV

"Riker! Riker, wake up! Riker!"

I opened my eyes, and I could barely see Riley looking down at me, obviously worried.

"What?"

"Riker, were you having a bad dream or something?"

"Why?"

"Because you woke me up, and you seemed really scared about something."

"What do you mean?"

"You were making these faces, and I knew something was wrong. Did you have a bad dream?"

"Uh… Yeah…"

"What happened?"

"I don't really want to talk about it."

In my dream, Dylan killed Riley. And I was just standing there doing nothing to help because I was too scared! I was too embarrassed to tell Riley about my dream.

"Are you sure? I always tell you about my nightmares, and I always feel better after telling you."

"No, I just really don't want to talk about it."

"Fine. Are you ok?"

"Yeah. Just a little… shaky still…"

Riley hugged me, and I instantly felt a lot better.

"Come on. Why don't we try to get some more sleep," said Riley.

"Ok."

Riley held onto my hand as we both fell back asleep.

Morning…

Riker POV

"Riley, come on! I'm starving! Get up!"

Riley didn't budge, but I knew she was awake.

"Don't make me get water."

"You can't. We're roped together."

"Oh right… Well then… Can you just get up?"

"Carry me."

"Riley."

"Please?"

"Riley, it's too early for this."

"Ok, then let's go back to sleep."

"No! I'm hungry!"

I gave in from the hunger, and decided to just carry Riley to the kitchen. We had cereal because that was fast and easy.

"So what do you want to do today?" Riley asked.

"I don't know. We pretty much do the same things every day. Are you sure you can't leave this road? We could do so many fun things if we could actually go somewhere."

"Riker, my dad doesn't want me leaving."

"Well… What if he didn't know you left?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we sneak out."

"Sneak out!? Riker, if my dad catches us, we'll be in such big trouble!"

"That's why we're going to be careful."

"Where are you even planning on going?"

"I don't know. I think our first attempt at sneaking out should be something simple. Like… going to get ice cream."

"How exactly are we doing this?"

"We leave now while it's still kind of early, I'll drive us to Lake George, which is only like 10 minutes from here, we have ice cream, and I drive us back before your parents get home from work."

"I don't know about this… And won't we look kind of suspicious in Lake George all tied together and what not?"

"I'll ask Shane if we can take this off yet."

Later…

Riker POV

So Shane agreed to let us be done with our rope. He got a call from one of his relatives, and something happened apparently. So Riley and I were going to be alone until tonight. And we still wanted to sneak out. Well… I did.

"Ok, it's about noon right now. Your parents come back at 5:00. That should be plenty of time to go get ice cream, and come back without them knowing."

"Riker, if we get caught, I'm seriously going to kill you if Dylan doesn't get to you first."

"We won't get caught, now come on, let's go!"

It was weird not being roped to Riley anymore. We got in my car, and I started driving to Lake George.

"Riker, I'm starting to feel really guilty about this."

"Riley, we're not going to get caught. We're just getting ice cream. We'll be back way before your parents come home."

Riley sighed. And then I realized something was really wrong.

"Riley?"

"What?"

"WE HAVE NO BRAKES!"