Swallow

Chapter 1.76:

"Your funeral. Don't say I didn't warn you." JD shrugged and gave up the argument.

JD followed me out of Riley's room and down the stairs to where Aiden was waiting for us.  He resembled a lit matchstick with his arms crossed over his chest while he sulked. At least, it looked like he was deep in a full-on pout.  His mangled face was drooping a bit on one side and was dark purple around the part that was split.

He could have been grinning from ear to ear and I would have never known any differently.

We had been at the Davis' house for a little over two hours now.  JD informed me earlier that he wanted to drop by his parent's house today. I offered to tag along with him in hopes of having a potential run-in with Riley.  Aiden invited himself to go with us as soon as he found out where we were headed.  He practically bungee-corded himself to the hood of the car as we were driving away.

Aiden was an opportunist. He wasn't going to miss out on another chance to put himself between Riley and me again.

What was supposed to be a quick in and out turned into an all-day event.  Anytime JD mentioned leaving to go home, I found another reason to drag out our stay just a little bit longer in hopes of seeing my girl.

The last excuse I used was the bathroom.  That bought me about twenty extra minutes of uninterrupted time. 

I plopped down on the couch in the living room and made myself comfortable.  I was determined to wait Riley out no matter how long it took.  We weren't going to go anywhere until I talked to her today. 

I would camp out in the front yard tonight if that was what it took to get her to talk to me again.

"What are you doing? We have to go.  Mark is waiting for us to get back for band practice." JD reminded me, attempting to hurry me along.

"Your dad asked me about a tuning issue with a guitar the last time I was here.  I wanted to hang around until he got home to see if he still wanted me to fix it for him." I lied. "Mark won't care if we are late. He is probably still asleep."

Aiden shot me a sour look since he knew I was stalling. I dared him to try to tell JD about my real motive. The other half of his face was still a blank canvas. I could even his new look out a little bit if he needed me to.

He wouldn't need his whole mouth to sing the crap songs we played.

"Damnit. Fine, just a little bit longer." JD grumbled and plopped down next to me on the couch and placed his hand under his chin like he was bored.

The three of us sat in deafening silence for about ten minutes before the front doorknob clicked.

My heart began racing the moment the door began to open.

I started praying that Riley's bright curls were about to walk through the door.  If it was Mr. Davis instead, I wasn't sure how to keep my lie going. Hopefully, he would go along with it since he already knew how much his daughter meant to me.

That was probably too much to hope for.

After how I behaved the last time I was around him, he would probably kick me out of his house and forbid me to see her again. He seemed to be able to sniff out my intentions for Riley like he was a bloodhound. There was no way he would trust me with her after I showed up to the house high and threatened to break down the door to get to her.

Fortunately for me, today wasn't the day I was going to find out what he thought about me.

Riley strolled in through the door like she didn't have a care in the world. She spun around and froze awkwardly as soon as she saw the three of us sitting in the living room together.