the way I loved you | conrad fisher

eighteen

So she thought he'd at least have Jeremiah to talk to, or Belly, or Steven, or even her own brother but it seemed like since last summer, everyone had fallen apart, and she didn't like that at all.

"Do you want me to come to Cousins with you?" Riven offered.

"I didn't need you to come here." Jeremiah spat, "I think I can handle things on my own."

"Wow." The pain in her chest was stinging, like a thousand wasps were attacking her heart, "Okay, fine. At least text me when you find him."

She wasn't going to stand there and be talked to like that, especially without an explanation, one he obviously wasn't going to give her. How had she fucked something up so badly that her once best friend was now being a completely different person to who she knew? She hated it.

Riven grasped the strap of her bag, trying to relieve the hurt running through her. She spun around and began to head back in the direction of the bus stop.

"Riven, wait." He exhaled. She probably should've kept walking but she stopped and turned back around. Jeremiah pulled open the car door, "Get in."

The brunette took several steps back towards him, her eyebrows pulling together, "Are you gonna stop talking to me like I'm a piece of shit you stepped in?"

She watched his jaw tightened but she couldn't read his eyes. It was like there were a hundred emotions running through them all at once, and he couldn't pick one.

Jeremiah swallowed, gesturing to the vehicle, "You coming or not?"

"I asked you a question."

He exhaled a deeper breath, his eyes failing to meet hers, "I'll be quiet."

In any other situation, that wouldn't have been good enough but this was different. They weren't joking around, or close anymore. This was the most they'd spoken in months. Plus, Conrad was still M.I.A and she wanted to see with her own eyes that he was okay.

So she got in the car.

✧༝✧

They drove in silence for quiet some time with the radio on a low volume. Riven had been fidgeting with her phone and staring out the window at the views they were passing by.

She thought Jeremiah was about to speak so her head turned to glance at him, but all she saw was Conrad, and they weren't in the red jeep anymore, they were in his car.

In the quiet of the night of mid-December, Riven had stuffed a couple of belongings into a bag and left her house. Down the street, sitting in his car and waiting for her had been Conrad. They'd planned to sneak off to the beach house in Cousins in the middle of the night to spend some time together.

"Aren't you cold?" He'd asked, seeing she was wearing only a thin sweater.

"Oh, I forgot to grab a coat on my way out." Riven had told him, having been too excited to see him. "I'll be okay. I'm not cold."

"Here." He was already taking off his own thick grey sweater and handing it to her.

She had laughed, shaking her head at him, "I said I'm not cold."