Forever and Always His

Chapter 30

                Despite how cheesy Everett’s words were, I couldn’t help but feel my heart swooning inside my chest. I let out a chuckle of disbelief before standing on the tip of my toes to give Everett a light peck on the cheek, my lips barely brushing against his skin. “I’ll be back, Everett.” I whispered.

                Leaving Everett’s bedroom, I made my way down the hall, where Maria’s door was closed. Raising my fist, I gently knocked on the wooden door, waiting for a response. “Come in!” Maria hollered as I twisted the doorknob.

                Stepping inside Maria’s room and closing the door behind me, I found her frowning at the screen of her phone, tapping away furiously, nails making a light sound as they pressed against her phone. I let out an exaggerated sigh, unimpressed that just like Everett, Maria was also deeply involved with her phone. “Riley, just give me a second,” Maria muttered, biting her lower lip, “Max has been annoying me with something all day.”

                I raised an eyebrow, taking a seat on the edge of her unmade bed. “Max?” I asked confusedly. As far as I was concerned, Max and Maria weren’t exactly close. They might’ve been friends, but I didn’t know that they chatted outside of school. “Why is he texting you?”

                “He’s just trying to get me to warm up to Cassandra again.” Maria groaned, rolling her eyes. “Frankly, it’s quite irritating. Wouldn’t you agree?”

                “Well not exactly-.” I started, ultimately being cut off.

                Maria silenced me, tossing her phone on the other side of her bed, shaking her head as she closed her eyes. “I mean, let’s consider all the shit she put you through; the shit that she put Everett through. She teamed up with Katie against us, hid the fact that her sister killed Everett’s-.”

                “Maria.” I hissed, shooting her a glare. Maria instantly stopped speaking at my sharp tone, giving me a frown. I let in a deep breath of air, calming myself down before speaking to Maria. “Can you stop it already? Can’t you consider the fact that she was manipulated?”

                Maria looked shocked at my words, letting out a breath of disbelief. “What Riley?” she asked quietly. “So you’re saying that it’s okay that she tried to hook up with my step brother- your boyfriend.”

                I felt myself clenching my fists, my nails digging into my palms. “She was put into a tough situation by Katie.” I snapped. “It shouldn’t be Cassandra you’re so pissed off at, it should be Katie.”

                “Cassandra could’ve easily done the right thing and said no to Katie. But instead, she chose to fuck everything up before she realized she was wrong!” Maria’s voice grew loud, giving me a demeaning stare.

                My expression immediately softened when I saw that Maria’s face began to slowly crumple. I finally took notice that there was a lot more to whatever anger Maria had against Cassandra. “Maria,” I started off slowly, “is there something wrong?”

                Maria’s jaw was clenched, and there was a faraway look in her eyes; as if she was recalling a memory. By the way her eyes grew wide and dark, I could tell that it wasn’t a very good memory. “I know that I might’ve blown things out of proportion when I found out that Cassandra was deceiving us this entire time, but it just brought back a lot of crap that happened to me a few years ago.” Maria whispered in a barely audible tone. “I guess I was just so defensive because I didn’t like being lied to. A few years back before my dad and my mom split up, my dad used to disappear off into the middle of the night and not come back home for a few days in a row. He used to tell my mother and I that he had emergency calls from his law firm and we were dumb enough to believe him. I came home with my mom one day from the mall and we found my dad in bed with some slut that worked as an intern at his work place. When I found out that Cassandra was lying to us, it just brought back memories of how my father lied to me and ruined our family.”