Chapter 43
"Alright Riley. How are you feeling?" The brunette was sitting on the doctor's table as he pulled out the scans they took on her knee.
"I'm feeling fine. Thanks." Cory smiled. "I guess, what's more important is how's my knee?"
"Still loose. But, you do have another week of wearing that brace full time. Next Monday we start a little physical therapy." She rolled her eyes, Riley always hated physical therapy. It wasn't therapy, it was a form of legal torture. "I will set your first appointment with them." The doctor started to tighten her brace. "Morning or afternoon?"
"Morning please. I have work in the evenings. What time in the morning could we do it?"
"Well," He applied a little pressure to the brace and it made her wince. "the office opens at 8. It will last for an hour." The cheerleader looked towards her father.
"Dad, i'm going to be a little late to first period." She completely forgot about Thanksgiving break. The doctor laughed and stood up to fill out some paperwork. "How long do I have to endure the torture for?"
"Just a week. After that they'll give you some at home excercises to do, and you will do them. Isn't that right?" She shook her head. "Do you need a medication refill?"
"No, thank you. I'll just take tylenol."
Cory, didin't like that idea. "Riles, are you sure? Once you start therapy you'll be extremely sore. I'm sure you can recall from your ACL." The doctor interrupted.
"How about I write you out a prescription. It will expire next month, but if you need it. Take it in." Riley agreed with reluctance.
"Thank you for your help." The brunette pulled out her phone when it vibrated.
This whole not seeing you in first period thing, isn't working out well for me. How's the doctors?
-This isn't a doctors appointment, it's hell with fluorescent lighting.
Lol. What happened?
-They want me to go to physical therapy next week a.k.a. torture chamber.
I'm sorry babe. But, what did they say about your knee?
-Still loose.
That's bad? Right?
-Yeah, but I still have another week of wearing this brace and he tightened it. Which made it even harder to walk.
Someone's tense this morning.
-Not tense, just very, very aware of what's going on. I went through therapy with my ACL and it blew.
Lol i'll see you in a bit sweetheart. Love you.
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"Hello gorgeous!" Riley limped towards him and knew he was lying. Her hair was in a ponytail, she was wearing sweats and a t-shirt and was hating life.
"Shut up." He automatically started laughing.
"Oh, hello cranky! You're a ray of sunshine! Have you taken any medicine today? Want some advil?"
"Yes i'm cranky. And, no I don't want advil. I have a freaking iron leg Lucas!" He rolled his eyes and pulled the advil he kept for her out of his bag, then passed her his water bottle.
"Take it, please. Before I strangle you." Her brown eyes rolled as she swallowed the medicine. "Now, don't make me crush it up and hide it in your food like a dog." The brown eyed girl took that offensively.
"YOU! OFF MY PLANET!" The brunette tried to limp away quickly but was caught up to with ease by her boyfriend.
"Why are you so upset today? Was it the doctor? Does going there for a check up put you in a bad mood?"
"Yeah." He wrapped his arms around her.
"Excuse me, sassy Riley? Can sweet Riley come out to play?" She smirked and nodded her head.
"I think I just needed a hug."
"Awe, there she is." Their lips touched and they continued to walk to class when Riley's phone went off.
Hey it's me, Charlie. Just texting you because you wanted my number.
-Great, I haven't talked to my friends yet but, I will let you know.
"Who was that?"
"Charlie. He was giving me his new number, in case I convinced everyone to let him hang out." Lucas rolled his eyes as he opened the door.
"I'm having second thoughts."
"Yeah, so am I but, forgiveness is more than saying sorry." The green eyed man bit his lip and started going through the files in his mind.
"Just Friends?" The couple air fived and after a good laugh, he just stared at her. "You're so beautiful, even though you may not feel like it, you are."
"Thank you." Riley raised her leg on a chair. "Back on topic, if I am giving him a chance then why can't you?"
"Fine. Fine, if you can convince Josh and Maya, good luck, then yes we can hang out. What would we even do?" The brown eyed girl shrugged her shoulders.
"Start off slow, where we wouldn't have to talk. Like a movie or something?"
"Maybe." He inhaled heavily remembering what he was going to ask. "Are you still going this weekend?"
"Absolutely. Why wouldn't I?" His gorgeous eyes were directed towards her knee. "Oh, i'm fine. I'll do what I do now."
"Having the whole weekend to ourselves will be fun." The brunette smiled at his mischevious grin.
"We have to behave ourselves, the manager's are trusting me." He bit his lip. "Don't! No sir!"
"I won't do anything swear, I just like messing with you." She smiled and Lucas' butterflies woke up, fluttering around his stomach.
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The next day Lucas was waiting in second period. "Hey Missy."
"Hey Lucas. How are you?" She took her seat to the left of him.
"Have you talked to her yet?"
"Generally the response to 'how are you?' is like, great. But, to each is own." Lucas cocked his head to the side. "No, I haven't talked to her yet."
"Do you really want to go on Thanksgiving break, having this eat at you?" Her hand hit her forehead.
"No, but you don't understand how incredibly hard it is to tell someone something that they may not want to hear."
The running back scoffed. "You're kidding? I told Riley about us kissing and it literally felt like I was dying."
"Sorry. I'll do it soon, I just am worried that she'll make me feel worse."
"Riley wouldn't do that. As long as you're genuine with her and she can see that, then she'll take it easy. Promise." He mumbled.
"Hey, how's the venture for a guy coming?" He laughed, flashing his brilliant smile. Originally it was to hide the fact that he hadn't talked to Zay yet but then he thought about someone else.
"Have you talked to Charlie lately?"
"No why?"
"Well he's homeschooled now, quit drinking and doing drugs, maybe you should try to give him a chance."
She scrunched her nose. "I don't know, I have heard some things." The cheerleader pointed to her wrist and Lucas cringed at the memory of that night.
"Yeah, he used to be that way. But that's why he left, or that's what Riley said after she talked to him. He's trying to change, but you know what, nevermind."
"What? Why?"
"Well, he doesn't want to drink and doesn't need to. But, that means he couldn't go to parties. And, well you like them a lot." She glared at him.
"I wouldn't have to go to them." He smiled.
"Well, Riley has his new number. I'll get it to you-"
"Great!"
"After you talk to Riley. Let's build some bridges, instead of leaving them burnt." Class was starting but they continued to talk in hushed tones.
"Lucas?" He raised his head to let her know he was listening. "Are we friends?" The jade eyes locked on to his desk and got lost in thought for a moment.
"Yeah, we are." Missy smirked. Lucas had taken on Riley's new attitude of forgiveness and had to admit that he loved the feeling.
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"Hey Riles, how did the appointment go?" Darby sat in front of her and began stretching.
"As good as to be expected, I start therapy next week, and the brace is on permanently for another week." The captain's bottom lip popped out. Missy entered the gym and as usual they'd smirk at each other and then ignore each other for the rest of the period. Her frenemy exhaled and sauntered towards Riley. "Well, this is unusual." D laughed and removed herself from the situation. "Hi Missy. How are you?"
"Can I talk to you in private? Just for a few minutes?" Her brows furrowed while she raised herself off of the chair. In silence the girls walked to a corner of the arena, away from the squad.
"What's up?" Missy looked towards the ground, she gulped and slowly raised her head.
"I'm sorry." The brunettes lips seperated just slightly. "I really am. I feel terrible about what happened and I would do anything to take it back." She blew her cheeks out to prevent her voice from cracking. Riley continued to look at her, not really knowing what to say. "After Lucas' speech the other day about how great you are, I got to thinking about freshman year and how close we were. Which made me recall why we were such great friends."
"Can I ask why you hated me after I came back sophomore year? You said yourself that we were great friends. What happened?"
"I really don't have a good explanation besides jealousy, which is no excuse for what I did to you." Missy gestured to her leg. "You came back after summer, and you weren't in that awkward stage anymore; you were beautiful, funny, smart and all the guys in school wanted you. Riley, you're so talented at everything you do," The brown eyed girl was fixing to interrupt when Missy stopped her. "And most importantly, you didn't care about any of that. It didn't change you which made you even harder to take. I know that doesn't make sense but I was always behind you in everything we did." Riley's frenemy began to cry quietly and the brunette's long ivory arms wrapped around her. "I'm really, really sorry. I could've blown your knee out, or worse i'm so sorry."
"I'm sorry too Missy. I didn't make it easier to like me. I mean, I was rude to you a lot."
"Because I was rude to you first." Riley shook her head from left to right.
"That's no excuse. I see that now." The girls were still hugging, Darby was about to start practice when she saw them and decided to wait. "Look at us, we're all mature now." Missy started to laugh and pulled away, hurriedly drying her face.
"Lucas was right." The brunette cocked her head to the side. "He told me you'd take it easy on me, when I was afraid to talk to you."
"I should've known he was involved." Both of the girls smiled. "I'm not mad at what happened anymore, until I have to go to the doctor or therapy. I'm not saying we have to be best friends again but, maybe when we get back from break we all can hang out sometime."
"Maybe, you may have forgiven me but I don't think Maya or Josh will." Riley's eyes rolled.
"I have to talk to them about Charlie, it can't hurt to throw you into the batch." The brunette put her arm around Missy's shoulder and they sauntered back towards the center of the arena. "Charlie's changed a lot, at least i'm hoping it's for real. It seems to be that way. I only hope that you and I can change too."
"I'd like that too."
Riley sat down in the hard plastic chair and watched her squad practice. She couldn't believe what just happened, Lucas, the man who truly despised Missy put his feelings aside to make me happy. He knew I wanted to patch things up with her, that connivin' little thing. The brunette smirked and realized that things were really falling into place, her and Charlie, her and Missy, her and her perfect boyfriend Lucas. She'd have the brace off by Thanksgiving, and therapy was only a week, fingers crossed.
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"Hey sweetheart!" Lucas' strong arms wrapped around his girlfriend. "How's your day been?"
"Oh, I think you know how its been." Riley giggled and kissed his lips. "Thank you for talking to Missy."
"Oh, okay. I had no idea what you were talking about at first. It's no problem at all." The couple intertwined their fingers and walked to class. "How'd it go?"
"Pretty great. I haven't seen that side of her in years. I said she could hang out with us when we hang out with Charlie. So he won't have to be a 5th wheel." Lucas nodded his head and she could tell that his lips were withholding information, Riley stared at him with her left eyebrow raised.
"What?"
"I feel like you're hiding something." The running back's jaw dropped and over exagerrated his look of shock.
"WHAT? I'd never." His laugh made her snicker. "It's not a big deal. I told Missy i'd try to find someone to date her. She said that she wanted a guy to look at me the way I look at you."
The brunette's mouth opened and then she shut it again. "I was going to think of something sarcastic to say, but i'm out of ideas. What the heck is happening to me?" He laughed and kissed her hand, the brown eyed girl smiled softly. "That's very sweet baby, thank you. She'd be very lucky to find a guy like you. Let me reiterate, like you!"
"Don't worry babe, i'm all yours. For as long as you'll have me." Riley's shoulders dropped and revealed her smile.
"Hmm.. I wonder how long that will be." His green eyes turned to a glare. "Kidding, I love you enough to keep you for awhile. It's holiday season, I need a date till at least Valentine's Day so that's what? 4 months give or take."
"I love you too beautiful. That's probably the nicest thing you've said." Both of them rolled their eyes and started discussing the upcoming weekend.
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