He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

My Mistake

I'm so glad that Riley wanted to hang out today. I felt like we hadn't spoken to each other in a long time. The last time I talked to him or even seen him was the night he let me stay over at his house.

"Thanks for the ice cream," I said to Riley.

"No problem," he said grabbing his chocolate ice cream from the lady and paying for it.

It was nice out today. The sun was shining, kids were off playing ball in the fields. Such a great day to go to the park.

I took a lick from my strawberry cone. Yum. I noticed that Riley wasn't eating his ice cream, he was staring off into the distance playing with his lip piercing.

"You ever going to get rid of that thing?" I asked pointing to his lip.

His head turned so fast that I thought he was going to get whiplash. "What?" A little bit of black hair fell into his eye.

"Your lip ring. Are you ever gonna take it out?"

Riley grinned. "Not unless Sage says so."

"Sage? She actually likes that thing?"

He nodded. "Surprised?"

"Not really. She's like what ten?" I asked jokingly.

"Funny. But no."

"Oh, right. She's fifteen."

He stayed quiet as we walked through the park. A few kids were crying while others were running off ignoring the shouts from their parents. There was even one kid who was crying because he dropped his ice cream on the floor.

"I'm sorry, Riley. I'm not trying to be mean. It's just a little weird you know?"

"Why?"

"Because I'm just so use to seeing you with Rhiannon."

"Are you sure that's the reason why?"

I looked at him confused. He glanced at me then looked straight ahead with a wicked grin on his face.

"Yes."

"Are you sure it's not because you have a crush on me?"

I felt my cheeks burning red. I've never told him about my little crush, not even Rhiannon! I turned my attention to the floor, thinking of what to say next.

"I had a crush on you when I was like ten, okay. That was a long time ago."

Riley burst into laughter.

"What?" I asked.

"I was kidding. I know you don't have a crush on me but I didn't know you did."

My cheeks burned now and so did my ears. "Jerk!"

"Call it even?" He held his hand out to me.

I shook it. "Even."

We walked on in silence. I kept thinking about what Tristan said to me in the kitchen. Who did he think he was? Asking me about my personal life. He decided that he wanted nothing to do with me and that's the way it was going to stay. Tristan can't have it both ways.

"You thinking about him?" Riley asked.

"Kind of. I ran into him at the movies when I went on a date with Jack."

"That must've been. . . Weird."

My head shot up "Running into you teacher at the movies is weird but running into the guy your supposed to be with while he's with another girl and you're with another guy is awkward!"

Riley's eyebrows grew close together as he thought over what I had just told him "Wait. He was on a date with another girl?"

"Ya. And you'll never believe who it is," I said focusing my attention back onto the floor.