the way I loved you | conrad fisher

eight

"I shouldn't have said that the other night." He finally said, barely lifting his head, "And we shouldn't have showed up at the drive-in."

Her eyes narrowed, "Is this your way of apologising?"

Conrad remained staring at the corn he was holding, "It was a bad idea. I just... I don't trust Zac."

Riven let out a humorless laugh, "And you expect me to trust your judgement on him? When all you've ever done is be cruel to me when I've never done anything to you."

He let his hand drop, his gaze moving away from the corn. Conrad's eyes shifted to Riven but before they could reach her he turned away again. He felt unable to look at her, like if he did something inside him would crack open.

A quiet sigh left his lips, "I know."

"Why?" She asked.

It was silent for a moment. A wisp of wind dancing through their brunette strands. Conrad looked straight ahead, still not risking looking at her, "Because I'm an asshole."

Riven exhaled and nodded, "Yeah, you are."

Conrad's jaw briefly clenched as he swallowed, his eyes finding the half-shucked corn again. He began to pull at its leaves, "I'm trying not to be."

"Well, you need to try a little bit harder." Riven said with no malice in her tone. She was still annoyed at him for everything he'd done, but in that moment she knew he was trying to apologise.

It had started to become obvious to Riven that Conrad had a hard time doing that, apologising. Or even just talking to her. Maybe she needed to start cutting him some slack, not a lot but some.

The right corner of Conrad's lip tugged upwards, a soft huff of air escaping through the gap. His head slightly turned and his blue eyes finally met hers. Conrad couldn't hold her stare for more than a second, his gaze falling down to her cherry balm covered lips and then back to the corn.

He nodded once, "Yeah. Maybe I do."

Riven stared at the side of his head for a moment, seeing a different boy than she had seen a few days ago. Very different from the one who had argued with her in the kitchen. Entirely different from the one who had picked a fight at the beach party.

That brought her thoughts to Nicole. Riven started picking the leaves off again, "How's Nicole's head?"

"She's okay." Conrad told her. He cleared his throat and stretched his back straighter, still focusing on the corn, "She's throwing a party tonight, a little surprise for Belly, if you, uh, wanted to come?"

Hold on. He had not only started to apologise for his actions but he was now inviting her to a party? Who was this boy sitting beside her?

"Come on, guys." A voice shouted from the doorway of the house. Nancy was calling out to them, "We're ready for the corn now."

Conrad threw the last of his leaves into the paper bag and placed his corn onto the pile of others. Riven followed suit then watched him pick up the plate of corn, his eyes briefly glancing over her.

"Sure." Riven replied to him, "I'll come."

A ghost of a smile floated on his lips before he wandered back towards the house and then disappeared inside. Riven pulled out her phone. Zac hadn't read her previous text yet.

Sorry, change of plans. No guests for dinner.

That might have been true, as she hadn't asked the Moms about inviting Zac, but it hurt like a lie.