evergreen ↠ harry styles ✓

+28

Considering that it was eight in the evening for River, it had to be somewhere around two in the afternoon for Alden. At least, if River chose to trust Google, then—

"Hey, Riv," she heard before she saw the face of her brother on the screen of her laptop. The sun brightened Alden's face as he walked directly into the sunlight because wearing a hat backwards seemed much more practical. Men.

"Listen, I had a quick question."

Alden laughed, and adjusted his phone. "I'm well, thanks for asking. How are you?"

"I'm pretty tipsy, and I think I drank one of the bottles you got for your graduation," she let it slip, ever the loose mouthed woman when alcohol, more specifically wine, entered her system. Precisely why she stuck to champagne ninety percent of the time.

Her brother groaned in response. "I hope it's not the one I wanted to save for my wedding day."

"Will you ever even get married?" she laughed as she teased her brother. With the way the wedding plans were going, River doubted her brother would be a married man before next year. In fact, with the speed Jade was growing that bump of hers it was a miracle she was able to walk.

"Will you?" he fired back, and it froze the grin off of her face. Instead, she pouted and her brother smirked because he won. Purely because she was drunk, she reasoned with herself. Otherwise, she would've wiped the floor with him.

"I actually think Jax will tie someone down faster than you and I combined," she commented, and the fact that it held truth to it was slightly terrifying. Marriage scared the living hell out of River, and Alden liked his job schedule too much to give up any time for planning or even attending the goddamn occasion. River couldn't blame him—if she ever found something she loved as much as Alden loved racing, she wouldn't pay any attention to much else, either.

"Jax is a lot like your friend, Aaliyah, so I highly doubt he will ever get married," he reasoned, and that, too, made a lot of sense. Jax had serious commitment issues. If he stayed home for more than a month, he started to show withdrawals of being too far from the ocean and the sand and palm trees. "I suppose this is not what you had a quick question about, though, so please—take it away."

With raised eyebrows, she asked, "Do you have somewhere to be?"

"I do, actually, thanks, Riv," he gave her a forced smile and the middle finger. It made River laugh and Alden chuckled, too. He now walked in shadow and what appeared to be his garage. "Seriously, is everything alright? Are you alright?"

"I am. I wanted to ask something about Harry."

Alden's laugh was all the response River needed to hear she was out of luck there, too. "If you can't ask your boyfriend whatever it is you have on your mind, that's already a terrible sign."

"Firstly, he is not—"

"Sure," he gave her a teasing look. "He is not your boyfriend."

"We didn't discuss what we are. We are enjoying each other's company."

The way Alden rolled his eyes was perfectly shown on the screen of the MacBook. "Whatever it is you are doing with him, it doesn't sound like it's going well. Why can't you ask him the question, instead of coming to me?"

"Because it has to do with his father, and he is not comfortable talking about it."

Once the words were in the open, and Alden froze the exact same way Harry did when Harry's father came up in a conversation, River knew immediately that nothing good will ever come from that man. Her brother physically rooted himself into place, and if she wasn't worried before she most definitely was now.