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Riley
Under normal circumstances, arranging an eighteenth birthday shindig would have been fairly straightforward: locate a venue, post the deets on social media, get my mom to buy a keg (which, not to her credit, she would), create a playlist, turn up. The end.
So, when my eyes scanned Danny’s packed yard, adorned with countless streamers, maybe a hundred balloons, handmade banners and blown up photos of Liss as a baby, I figured I might have run just a little too far with this distraction. Danny, with the biggest square footage and frequent socializers for parents, was the logical choice for location, and conveniently for me, he didn’t give a rat’s ass—his words—how I decorated the place.
It looked good. People came, some unwelcome—enter Raya Mitchell—but causing a scene given my current state seemed downright juvenile. Liss was having a blast, albeit completely avoiding Leon… who did the same. Whether they thought they were being sneaky, I hadn’t decided, but they were failing. Their gazes strayed to each other, on average, every three point five seconds. It was both humorous and frustrating to a bystander watching. That bystander would be me, the sober girl hiding out in the smallest corner of the backyard, trying to fade into the background. The amount of times someone had tried to hand me a drink was worrying. We were all destined to suffer from serious alcohol abuse problems in the not-too-distant future. Some were blatantly already there. So, I’d held on to a cup. If my hand was empty, people appeared like ninja waiters, armed and ready to remedy such an unhappy occurrence.
It wasn’t a conscious choice I’d made—not drinking. I’d held a cup of beer to my lips and just... never drank it. It scared me to look deeper into my actions, to decipher what they might mean. So, I didn’t. I just kept on not drinking. And hiding.
“Hey, there you are. Ren's been looking for you,” Jason said as he rounded the corner of the house, dumping a bulging bag of trash into the garbage.
“Oh,” I replied. He was the second person who’d told me that. The phone wedged in my jean pocket indicated the same.
I’d seen Reno since.... yeah, that. Each time, I'd tried to act normal, but lying to him, or rather withholding information from him, was hard. It seemed easier to just avoid him altogether, but he didn’t seem happy about my standoffish behaviour. Our arrangement was supposedly casual, so it shouldn’t have been a problem. But every time I told him I couldn’t meet up, it seemed to bother him. I was trying not to read too much into it. He didn’t know everything yet.
“You coming in?”
I didn’t notice Jason had paused, the bag discarded, his puzzled eyes on my face.
“Oh, uh... yeah. Be there in a minute.” I offered a forced smile to counteract the weird.
His brow furrowed, head tilting as he bent his knees to peer closer. “You okay, Wiley?”
I couldn’t even muster up the drive to clap him around the head. It was our thing. His concern appeared genuine, for once. He earned himself a pass. “Yeah,” I murmured.
“Whoa,” he uttered, straightening. “You just gonna let that fly? What the fuck is up with you?” The saucer eyes would have been funny, except my world was due to implode any day now, and laughing felt like a luxury I could no longer afford.
“Just got a headache, Jase. Don’t worry... I’ll owe you that head slap, and you know I’m good for it.”
A huge grin broke out over his pretty face. Jase was way too boy band for me, but those baby blues and styled sandy blonde hair didn’t hurt his appeal with the rest of the student body. He was a big goofball though, rarely without a silly smile on his face.
“’Kay, Ri.” He emphasized my name, tipping his head as he did, brows up. “You see... you see how I didn’t rack ‘em up?” His pointer finger tapped his temple twice, before circling his face. “It ain’t all about this baby. I got the brains, too. Full package right here.” His arm swept the length of his body, and I couldn’t resist a smile. He was good people.
“No need to tell me, Jase,” I said with a chuckle.
“Aaa-ight,” he drawled, swivelling on the balls of his feet. “See you inside, yeah?”
I nodded with a proper smile.
I should have guessed he’d give away my hiding place. Strong arms wrapped around me from behind, locking at my waist. An open mouth rested in the hollow between my neck and shoulder, soft breaths tickled my skin. A shiver traveled down the length of my spine, all the way to my toes.
“Been looking for you,” Reno murmured into my skin, his teeth nibbling. There was no preventing my body from sagging back into him, or my heart racing to a gallop. “I missed you.”
His quiet admission brought tears to my eyes.
We'd done the hard part, fought our way through the desert, ocean, and wilderness. Overcome every obstacle in our path. And right when the other side was in sight, one l
ast hurdle appeared in our path. This obstacle was by far the biggest. I knew this one would trip us up. That it was probably insurmountable. I turned into him and pressed my lips to his mouth, anyway. His hands gripped me immediately, lifting me up. My body fit against his like we were two parts of a puzzle, and my back collided with the wall as our kiss turned heated. Like kindling, one spark and we were up, flames soaring into the night sky.
He might surprise you.
My eyes flew open, limbs locking. Reno pulled back, confused gaze searching mine. “You okay?” He asked, breathing hard.
“Yeah,” I said, slowly.
His forehead dropped to mine. “Why does it feel like you’ve been avoiding me?”
“Because I have,” I said, legs dropping to the ground. Unease crept over his features.
