Chapter 41
"Where are we going?" He smirked and got on the highway. "Lucas Friar, you better answer me!"
"You know, you are really ruining the surprise. Relax baby, you'll see soon enough!" She rolled her eyes. "You look beautiful, and that eye roll really was icing on the cake." The brunette giggled and pushed up her matte black Ray Ban's.
"Dresses is all that's easy to put on and I was in a hurry." The brown eyed girl adjusted her denim jacket to cover her black dress.
"I said you look beautiful, i'm not complaining. I love you in dresses. Do I say you're beautiful too much? Does it ruin the meaning?" The cheerleader laughed.
"Absolutely not. I actually believe you and it gives me the feels whenever you call me that." He kissed her hand and got on the 3rd highest overpass, she tucked her face into his arm.
"You okay?"
"Shush." He chuckled and hurried to get off the ramp.
"You're in the clear." Riley sat up and hid her face from embarrassment. "Why are you embarrassed by that? You're in a truck going 50 miles per hour on a ramp that is I don't even know how high. It freaks me out too." She cocked her head.
"I didn't think you were afraid of anything."
"I'm afraid of a few things actually." She smiled, preparing herself to learn something new about her boyfriend.
"Do tell!" He chuckled, showing off his white teeth.
"Well, heights is one of them. Not so much heights but the whole plummeting to your death thing probably is what i'm really afraid of. I hate snakes, I was bit by one when I was fishing one time and ever since then I steer clear. I can handle them like if you were being attacked or something." Riley laughed.
"That's not bad at all. That's 2 things." He smirked. "What?"
"Nothing. What?"
"What else are you afraid of? That smirk is like, 'i'm hiding something from you'." They were at a red light and he looked at her.
"I'm afraid of losing you. Whether we break up, or something happens to you, God forbid that's probably my worst fear."
"You're full of it." She nudged his shoulder.
"No, i'm not. That's the problem with falling in love with someone. You can try as much as possible to keep someone safe but, you can't prevent bad things like, illness, or accidents." Riley stared at him and smiled, realizing yet again how much he loved her. She didn't even realize that they had parked at their destination. "That's a big reason why I like to take you away from everything, ya' know out to our spot. Away from the crazy, speedy and stressful life of daily living. I really savor those moments when we're by ourselves. In the end, those are the moments you truly remember, not if you aced the test or got that raise, but the time you spent with people you love." Riley held a light smile on her face.
"That got extremly deep, extremely fast."
"Because," He grabbed her face, "I love you an extreme amount." He kissed her lips and hopped out of his truck. The cheerleader still hadn't realized where they were.
"Should that worry me?" She giggled when he raised his left brow. "Kidding. You know I love you too." His strong arms lifted her out of his truck and she finally looked at where they were. "THE ZOO!" Lucas laughed and intertwined his fingers with hers.
"Yup, I heard from a little bird that you haven't been this year!"
Riley didn't look at him, she started trying to sprint to the entrance. "Tell Maya thank you!" The running back ran in front of her and stopped her.
"Easy gimp! Slow your roll, we just got here, don't wear yourself out yet." Her smile faded. "What? What's wrong?"
"I can't walk this entire place." His smile made her butterflies flutter.
"Peaches, that's why we have this!" Maya turned around the corner with a wheel chair.
"MAYA!" The girls embraced each other while the guys said hi.
"Hey sweetheart, I forgot to tell you this is a double date. Once I told Maya we were going she wouldn't take no for an answer." The brunette sauntered to her boyfriend and kissed his lips.
"You're wonderful." She sat in the wheel chair and her blonde best friend took off to the front entrance leaving their boyfriends in the dust, which was nothing new to them.
"Well, this should be fun." Lucas laughed.
"You may regret this decision." Josh confessed.
"Why? Look how happy she is, I don't think I can regret this decision if I tried."
"You'll be extremely exhausted, they'll run all over this place freaking out." He chuckled. "This is the one place, besides Great Wolf Lodge where the girls act-"
"Silly?"
"I was going to say childish, but take your pick Luke, they'll both work." His blue eyed girlfriend turned around.
"BOYS! WE NEED MONEY!" The guys laughed and jogged to the front of the line to pay for the tickets. "That's why we brought you."
Lucas cocked his head to the side. "You brought us? Josh what vehicle did you drive?"
"Um, that would be my jeep Lucas. What vehicle did you drive?" Josh had his hands behind his back and rocking on his heels.
"Well Josh, I do believe that was my truck." The girls rolled their eyes.
"That's what we're really using you for, transportation." Riley joked.
"Yeah and money!" Both of the girls laughed and after flipping their hair behind them in unison they told eachother to "Stop it." They winked and took off inside the zoo.
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The group of 4 ended up laying on the floor of Riley's house. "Luke, I tried to warn you."
"I am a stupid man." Riley giggled at her boyfriend.
"My eyelids are heavy." The brunette was laying on the couch with Maya on the floor beside her. "Imma go night night." Lucas smiled he loved when she played cute.
"Me too." The girls blew a kiss simulatenously and were asleep within minutes.
"How do they do everything at the same time?" The running back whispered.
"Friends for well, 10 years. Inseperable for 9 and a half of those 10 years." The friends sat in silence for a few moments, looking at their girlfriends and smiling. "Luke?" He raised his head to show he was listening. "Movie night? With the girls? We can make dinner and get their favorite snacks." Lucas' grin looked almost mischevious as he slowly picked his keys up off the table to sneak out of the house.
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The friends arrived at HEB and grabbed a basket. "What are we making our lovely ladies?"
"I can only cook meat!" Lucas divulged. "Riley and I used to cook all the time, she'd make the sides and i'd make meat."
"Great, because I can make mac 'n cheese and microwave vegetables." They knocked fists and started their adventure through the store. "We'll grab some snacks for the movie."
"Cool, cool. What movie?"
"I'll get the mac 'n cheese, and veggies along with snacks for Maya. You take care of the meat and snacks for Riley. We'll meet to pick a movie."
"Break." The friends went seperate directions. Lucas couldn't decide whether or not to make steak or chicken. "Steak is the way to Riley's heart." The running back set the chicken back down and got a few strips of steak, he was proud of himself and the day that he and Josh put together. The green eyed man walked to get his girlfriend some cookies 'n cream when he caught sight of a familiar face. Lucas acted nonchalant, like he didn't recognize her.
"Lucas?" He had almost crept by.
"Hey Missy." The running back turned on his heels to face her. "What's up?"
"What are you doing here?" He looked at his shopping cart then back at her.
"Well, I mean I work here but Josh and I are cooking for the girls tonight so while their napping, we're here." She nodded her head. Missy had been ignoring him lately, which was nice, he didn't really know how to talk to her anyways. "So what are you up to?"
"Shopping." She laughed. "I guess that was obvious." The cheerleader glanced towards the ground. "How's Riley?" He furrowed his brows, she wasn't kidding or being sarcastic.
"She's pretty good. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, why?"
"You've ignored me since my rant on Tuesday or Wednesday? I don't remember, and now you're genuinely asking about Riley."
"Speaking of your rant, I have been thinking a lot about that. I'm sorry." He leaned backwards, shocked at what he was hearing. "Don't look so surprised. You had some very good points and I hate what I did. I really do. At first, I was like yes my time to shine. But after your speech, I got to thinking about Riley when we were friends our freshman year. She was everything you said; smart, funny, and hard working, and apparently still is."
"I'm glad to hear that. I really am. Have you told Riley that?" She shook her head no, while she looked at the ground. "I would. She'd love to hear it."
"I'm also sorry about breaking y'all up and continuing to sabotage your relationship." Lucas laughed. "I just, I want a guy that looks at me the way you look at her." The running backs smile faded and saw her sad expression.
"If you show this side of yourself to people, I promise you will. Riley showed me every side of her, even the sweet side, the one no one sees and that's what makes me love her more." Missy didn't say anything. "Talk to her, I promise you'll feel better. Because I know that look, I had it right after I kissed you, no offense. The look of disappointment in yourself. Making amends definitely helps with the guilt."
"Thanks Lucas. If you know anyone for me let me know." A grin approached Lucas' face.
"I'll keep an eye out. But, don't measure your self worth on a guy." Her eyes brightened. "I gotta go, but do yourself a favor and talk to her." The green eyed man ran and jumped onto his basket to get to the ice cream and hurriedly sauntered to the movie section.
"There you are. This ice cream was numbing my arm." Lucas laughed and saw him place vanilla ice cream and a package of nutter butters in the cart, beside Riley's cookies 'n cream. "Well, this should be interesting." After many arguments the guys decided on Terminator: Genisys and left to check out.
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"Maya, wake up!" Riley threw a pillow on the floor which landed on her best friends head.
"I hate you." The blue eyed girl mumbled.
"I love you too."
"Why are you waking me?" The brunette tried to open her eyes unsuccessfully.
"I smell food." The blonde inhaled deeply and let out a sigh as she exhaled.
"Yeah me too!"
"I can't open my eyes, they're still heavy." Riley admitted. The guys were cooking in the kitchen and laughing quietly at their conversation. Riley adjusted herself.
"Use your fingers and open them. Because I am not opening mine unless absolutely necessary." Josh snickered and Maya heard it. "Josh, I feel like you're making fun of me."
"Always baby." He replied sarcastically.
"Riles, how's it going with my suggestion?" Lucas turned around to look at her and she had fallen back asleep, for now. Maya slapped her in the face with a pillow.
"HEY!" The cheerleader yelled.
"Now you know how it feels. Are your eyes open?"
"Yes." The brunette snapped.
"What do you see?" She blinked a few times to regain her focus.
"It's hard to explain, but I like what I see." Riley winked at her boyfriend who turned around to check the steak. "Open your eyes peaches." She picked herself up off of the floor and rubbed her eyes.
"Yep, I like it a lot." The girls giggled and air fived. "Hey guys, what are y'all doing?"
"Cooking." Lucas said.
"For our girlfriends."
"Steak." The running back whispered.
"And a movie night." The girls kept laughing at the fact they kept switching between each other to talk. They felt like the ball in a pin ball machine, moving their heads from left to right.
The brunette clapped her hands. "I'm very happy with this situation." She stood up and immediately sat back down. "Maya will you get me my medicine off of my side table." The blue eyed girl sat up immediately and ran to get her medicine.
"Has it been 12 hours?" Lucas asked glancing at the clock.
"More like 30." The blonde handed her the pill bottle and she dry swallowed her medication.
"Riley Grace, let's go have a conversation." No matter how much she hit him he picked her up off of the couch and carried her into her room. "Josh, watch the steak."
"Why did you middle name me?" She stared at him sadly and he looked so cute. Blue jeans, a gray thermal with his sleeves pushed up and a black belt. The thermal made him look even more muscular and hugged his cut stomach.
"Why aren't you taking your medicine. I thought we discussed this."
"Grumpy pants."
"Not grumpy Riley, concerned. You have to take your medicine, and to make sure you do i'm going to be in charge of it."
"No you aren't."
"Bet." His arms were crossed while he stared down at her, he saw that she was sad about how serious he'd gotten and unfolded his muscular arms. "Babe, you needed to take them at least this week, right? You just hurt yourself on Tuesday."
"I don't like the way it makes me feel. I'm tiny, it doesn't take much to get me to feel weird."
"Okay, so don't take the heavy stuff, take regular tylenol or cut your prescribed medicine in half. I don't like seeing you in pain. You're so stubborn."
"Yeah."
Lucas laughed before he replied. "You aren't going to deny it?"
"No, I know I am." She stood up to leave her room.
"One of your perfect imperfections." He smiled and his expression immediately turned to a look of worry. "The steak!"
"GO!" He took off into the kitchen and the brunette limped her way back out to the living room. Maya was still on the floor and Lucas was trying to salvage the steak.
"Sorry baby, I should've-"
"No it's okay, it's steak I get it. I would've done the same thing." Lucas laughed.
"Of course you would've." He mumbled.
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