The girl next door

Chapter 12

Riley-
I'm really surprised I managed to go to sleep last night. What happened between James and I replayed a million times in my head. Every time I'd close my eyes I'd see his face. Hear the words he spoke to me. The feeling I had in my stomach. The butterflies. I don't know what's gonna happen today. I put on a long sleeve crop top, leggings, my hair down, and my foot in a cast of course. "Bye em!" I say to my sister eating cereal on the couch before I head out the door and down the road.

I hear footsteps behind me and know exactly who it is. I really just want to be honest with him, not awkward or weird. "Hey riles." James says catching up with me. "Hey." I respond with my arms crossed so I won't fidget with the j necklace like I usually do. We walk in silence for a little bit. I can tell we're both trying to figure out what to say. "Um so about last night." James finally says. "Yeah we should talk." I reply relieved that he spoke first. We slow our speed until we're stopped on the sidewalk, I sigh and try to find the words.  "look. I really don't want what happened to affect our friendship. I really like having you in my life. I don't want that ruining it." I admit to him. He takes a couple seconds to process my words. "Oh ok yeah it's no problem." He says back. But his face doesn't have the smile I thought I'd see. I remove my eyes from his expression and re cross my arms. He starts walking again, looking at the ground. I try hiding the confusion on my face and walk with him. The awkward silence continues as we make our way to campus.

James-
School was really rough for me today. Riley said she just wanted to be friends? I don't. I want to be more than that. Way more than that. I thought she wanted to be with me. Last night was a weight off my shoulders. We both felt the same way. But I wake up and she's changed her mind. I feel stupid. But I have to pretend everything's fine I guess. Math sucked.

She's a few rows ahead of me so she's in my direct eye line. Physics was torture too. We got assigned a project together, which normally I would be thrilled that she was my partner, but now I have to work on it with her and spend so much time with her while just being a friend. That kiss meant a lot to me. But I guess it didn't mean as much to her.

Riley-
At lunch I'm glancing over at the boy's table
Like usual. I see James, smile and look down as I remember our kiss. When I look back up he's gone. I scan the cafeteria looking for him and then I see it. Him sitting down talking with Amanda. I can't believe it. I thought he hated her. He knows I hate her. I thought our kiss meant something, but I guess it didn't mean anything to him. I look back at my food, on the verge of tears. "Um I gotta go to the bathroom." I announce to the table as I get up and leave. I walk past James with the tears in my eyes, making eye contact with him. He looks so bored, but when he sees me and the water in my eyes his face gets an emotion. I run to the bathroom, which is fortunately empty and break down into tears.

James-
Riley wants to be friends. So I figured I'd give it another shot with Amanda. I go over to her table and start talking to her. She's had a thing for me for a while so she doesn't hold what happened at the dance against me. On the other side of the cafeteria is Riley's table. It's torture glancing at her and not being able to go over there and kiss the crap out of her.

I'm sitting zoned out thinking about Riley while Amanda rants about the cheer team. That's when I see Riley walk across to the door with her eyes full of tears. She looks at me vengefully, and walks out the cafeteria. I immediately follow her out. "Uhh I need to go, sorry." I say to Amanda before I run of the cafeteria trying to catch up with Riley.

"Riley what's wrong?" I say walking into the bathroom I saw her go in. "James what are you doing this is the girls restroom!" She says wiping away the tears falling down her face. "What's wrong?" I say again. "What do you mean what's wrong!? Your talking to Amanda not even 24 hours after we kissed?" She says. "Your the one who wanted to be friends!" "I never said that!" "Yeah, you did!" "I said I don't want our friendship to be affected. I don't want us awkwardly walking to school together, and barley talking! I don't want to lose you!" She says still sobbing. I get it now. "You could never lose me Riles." I tell her. "I can't stand Amanda, you know that. I just didn't know what to do. These couple hours of thinking we would never happen was awful." I admit to her with a sigh. Now I'm on the verge of tears. "I wanna always be there for you. But not as a friend. As more than that." She wipes away a tear strolling down her cheek. And as the words in speaking stop she puts her hand on my shirt collar and pulls me into her lips. I process what's happening and wrap my hands around her waist as the kisses get more and more passionate, smiling in between them. We held each others eyes with our arms wrapped around each other and our foreheads touching until the bell rang. "I gotta get to 6th period." She says pulling away. "Just one more." I tell her pulling her back in and placing my lips on hers again. Her adorable giggle erupted as I pulled her back into the kiss. "I really gotta go." She says before she pecks my cheek, and walks out of the bathroom. This is the greatest feeling. It's one I never want to lose.