Three's a crowd

55

There was a conversation I remember Riley had with his parents when we had first started dating. Of course back then neither of us were thinking that we would ever be more than a fake couple. Still I remember the conversation as we were over at his grandmas house sitting in the kitchen as lunch was brought to us.

"Riley you know we can just pay for you to go to college?" Averleigh said supportively.

"I know, I just really want to see if I can do it on my own. Maybe if I get a scholarship for football I could study for free and then you can put that money to use."

"I agree!" Spencer smiled as he sat down at the table. "You will appreciate it a lot more if you feel like you earned it.

The conversation had ended with all the adults talking to Riley about college applications and Scholarship deadlines. I could see in his face that he was excited for it, and reminiscing on that gleam in his eye I decided that as much as I wanted to keep him to myself forever, we needed to have the talk.

"Riles, can we talk?" I shifted from beside him so that I was sitting facing him on the bed.

"Yeah what is it?" He asked.

"It's our college plans," I announced as he opened his mouth and I cut him off. "I know you got a scholarship and I know you worked hard for it. I think you should go!" I felt as if the air was leaving my lungs, but I refused to let my face falter.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"I'm talking about you're dreams, your ambition. Riley I love you with all my heart but I don't want to be the reason you have any regrets. I think you should go to college. We can keep in touch and then I'll transfer next year like we planned. I just can't let you throw away your hard work, your dream for me." I sighed.

"Britt you are my dream!" He smiled.

"You know what I meant!" I protested.

"I'll consider it, but what about you?" He asked.

"I'll be fine. Your family is here, Kyle is staying in town and we can talk all the time. I want to be the girlfriend that helps you chase your dreams, not prevent you from doing them." I sighed.

"I love you Britt, I'll think about it okay?" He grinned as he leaned back and pulled my arms causing me to lose my balance and fall flush on top of him.

"I love you more." I grinned as I kissed his lips and we fell under the sheets.

...........

"You good Britt?" Dad asked as I winced trying to walk in the small heels on my feet.

"Yeah, just think I pulled a muscle in my leg." I lied.

Riley picked that moment to come downstairs with a smug grin on his face. Of course he knew the reason I was walking funny and it wasn't a pulled muscle. More like three naked encounters that have exhausted my body and left me sore.

We had never done that before, had sex multiple times one after the other. I'll be honest it was fun at the time but now I am regretting it, especially since we have to walk the graduation ceremony in a few hours and I can barely move without aching.

"Maybe you should put some ice on it." Riley grinned kissing my cheek as I blushed at the thought of putting ice anywhere near the real spot of discomfort.

I was so going to get him back for that comment.

A short time later we all arrived at the graduation ceremony. We took our seats and then one at a time walked on stage as the principal announced our names. I was first behind Ava in our group of friends as we all took our turn stepping up to receive our diploma.

When it was Riley's turn the principal took the microphone.

"Riley Millington graduates with full scholarship and will be attending .." the mic cut out at the last part of the announcement as Riley smiled and took his diploma and just walked off stage to sit beside me.

When the formalities were done, caps were thrown and then all our parents took a string of cheesy graduation pictures. Perhaps my favorite ones were of all our friends together pulling silly poses, and the one they took of me and Riley kissing under the celebratory graduation balloon arch after he had lifted me up and spun me around in a circle.

We all went to dinner after that as all of our families; mine, Riley's, Avas, and even Brett and Kyles parents celebrated us all crossing the milestone of high school.

"So Kyle why don't you introduce me to your friends?" A blonde woman I assumed to be his mom asked from the other side of the table.

I was sat between Kyle and Riley at the table as Kyle put his drink of soda down and began listing off everyone's names.

"So which one did you say was your girlfriend? Brittney?" She asked as I almost choked on my water.

I was about to protest when Ava started laughing hysterically. "No auntie Claire it's not Britt. Britt is with Riley, the guy beside her on the other side. Kyle is dating Sierra but her family had to leave for her graduation trip so they couldn't come." Ava tried to stop laughing.

"Well that's a shame, Britt is a beautiful young girl, you guys would look adorable together." She smiled as I felt my cheeks heat up. "Maybe I can meet your girlfriend next time?" She asked as my parents suddenly distracted her into some other conversation about her job.

Dinner only got weirder after that. Kyle spent the rest of the evening texting on his phone while Brett and Riley talked about sports with their dads before whispering between themselves. Me? I just sat and tossed a piece of lettuce around the plate, ready to go home while Ava entertained the adults.

I was relieved when we finally said goodbye and went home. There was a lot to work out over the upcoming summer weeks, on top of all the going away parties for our classmates, not to mention the annual family vacation.

"I'm exhausted!" I groaned, tossing the house key into the basket by the door.

"Hey." Riley said as he grabbed me around the waist from behind. "Everything is going to be fine, We are going to be fine. No college, distance, or anything else inside your head will ever change how I feel about you Britt."

"I know." I closed my eyes and held onto his arms. "I just don't know how I'll survive not seeing you everyday."

"I promise, we can FaceTime every single night. There is nothing more important to me than you." He kissed the back of my head.

"I'm going to clean up and lay down, I'm really tired." I sighed pulling out of his arms.

"I'll be up soon. I'm going to grab a drink real quick." He replied as I walked away.

I brushed my teeth and wiped off my makeup before changing into some pajamas and slipping into the bed. I knew I had two choices and I knew that either one led to the same result.

The first option was to save myself the heartache later and just break it off now. What's the saying if you love something set it free..? Perhaps that's what I needed to do, set him free.

The second option? Enjoy each and every moment I had with him this summer and try to make long distance work. Some people make it work for years, surely we could manage it for a year?

I weighed the pros and cons with both options. It was inevitable that either way I was going to be upset when he left, the decision was more whether to do it now or later.

My head was screaming at me that option one was best. Rip off the band aid and use the summer to move on, let him move on. My heart on the other hand, was raging a war for option two.

Eventually as my eyes began to close involuntarily my mind flew the big white flag against the raging in my heart. It was decided, not only was I being a coward, but a selfish one. Option two was the winner of my internal battle and thus I would spend the summer making the most of what I could get from Riley. Prolonging the heartache was the only way to enjoy the summer, to face him during all the events planned, the family vacation.

There was also the small glimmer of hope in option two that my heart was clinging too. The hope that even miles apart we would survive this storm together.

Too bad reality and hope we're not the same thing.