Just Pretending

twelve

Riley

We finally pulled into a sweet little house around 2 hours outside of town. It was very foresty and I don't blame James' Aunt for wanting to get married here
"Come on Riley! you have to come meet everyone" Piper said grabbing my hand before I could start helping James grab the bags
"I've got it" he chuckled letting his little sister steal me
It was hard to try and keep up with Piper I won't lie, but soon enough we were inside the house that seemed to be booming with people 
"Mum Dad!" Piper squealed rushing into the kitchen with a tight grip on my hand
"Yes Pipes?" A gentlemen who I'm assuming is James' Dad answered
"Meet Riley, James' new girlfriendddd" Piper said pushing me forward, like I was on display
"It's lovely to meet you Riley, I'm Marco, this is my wife and James' mother Deborah" His Dad, I smiled at the pair of them in turn
"It's so nice to meet you both" I said, before anything else was said, James' mother stepped forward looking me up and down before her mouth turned into a smile pulling me into a hug

"Piper I swear to god! Do you bricks or something in your bag!" I hear James yell as he came out into the back garden where we were all sat, I had met everyone from his Uncle Enzo to the soon to be newly weds
"Hey! No i did not!" Piper whined going inside probably to check on her luggage
"You son, have quite the remarkable woman you know" Marco said placing his hand on his son's shoulder, I smiled at the pair of them as James looked over at me and smiled
"Tell me about it" he chuckled taking a seat on the bench next to me where Piper had once sat
"she's almost to good to be true" Deborah said making Riley smile in her direction
I knew they would all like her, I mean who wouldn't. I didn't know much about Riley when this started but during this last month or so, she's opened up and revealed how amazing she truly is. Alfie was most certainly out of his league 

James

"Riley can you teach me your turns?" Piper whined to Riley a few hours later, we had all been sat talking while Piper bothered everyone about her ever growing boredom 
"Piper it's pretty late" Marco warned her, it was actually dark outside but you wouldn't know with how many lights we have on out here
"It's okay, sure Piper" Riley said getting up from beside me
I turned to watch as she walked over to a tiled area shortly away from the rest of us
"So where did you find her?" Dad asked making me chuckle
"She goes to my school and also Dances at The Next Step" I explained, my mother has has the same proud smile on her face since she met Riley 
"She's great with Piper" Mum said making me look over my shoulder to see her and Piper spinning like tots
"Yeah she is" I smiled 
I have a small feeling that this was going to hit her harder then it would hit anyone else. Part of me is feeling guilty over bringing Riley here, it's going to be hard to watch her walk out of my life

In an ideal world, we could just forget about this pretend bullshit. I really don't know why I was so stupid to be think that pretending was a good idea
Why couldn't I have just befriended her and then whatever happened happens? Instead I feel like I'm leading the poor girl on and I know for a fact she deserves so much more
She deserves someone who will cherish her like they aren't promised tomorrow
Someone who can stare at her endlessly until she catches them causing her to blush and look away
Someone who can keep up with her when it comes to dancing
Someone who can help her be more comfortable in social interactions
Someone who can love her for all her quirks

"I think the whole family are smitten with her" Uncle Enzo says as we watched Riley and Piper continue to dance
"Riley manages to make everyone smitten with her. It's one of her top qualities" I said smiling again
"One of them?" Aunt Kathy asked and I nodded
"She has too many to think of the best one" I said smiling at her
It's different then being with Beth, with Beth I had to try so hard to make her happy, to please her. I even stopped doing thing I loved to please the girl but with Riley, Riley takes everything as a whole and doesn't expect anything from me.
It's easy with Riley, it's almost perfect with her
"Don't let this one go baby" Mum said coming over to kiss my cheek as she went back inside to fill up her cup
Can I really let something go that wasn't mine in the first place?