As we ate, it was quiet and none of us could stop staring at each other. I look at Marcel, and when he catches me staring I quickly look back down at my food. He chuckled but continued to eat. It was silent, that is until Shay's son began to cry and she took him to the living room to try and calm him down. Minutes later, she was carrying him in his baby carrier.
"I'm gonna get going. It's past his bed time and the last thing I need is for him to be grumpy tomorrow." She smiled. "Riley, it was nice to properly meet you. Thank you for dinner, it was amazing. I hope you and Marcel figure something out and just talk it through."
"It was great to meet you too. And yeah, hopefully." I smile and she leaves. She did this on purpose. She really just left us alone on purpose. I play with my food and avoid eye contact. I couldn't help it, I had to look at him. When I did, he was staring at me. "So um," I clear my throat and set my fork down. "Do you work?" I try to make conversation and he laughs at me. I roll my eyes and sit back in my chair.
"I'm actually in college to become a doctor."
Fuck that's hot.
"Oh, that's nice. I used to want to be a doctor." I smile to myself as memories of me wanting to grow up and be a doctor flash through my mind. "Aren't you already a doctor, though?" He asks. I look at him in complete shock.
"Kidding. I know you're not a doctor. You're a ultrasound technician. You look cute in scrubs." He smirks and I let out a sigh. "Whatever. I'm always cute." I bite my lip to hide my smirk and he chuckles. "You've got a point there." He drops his fork and takes a drink of his tea. "Stop flirting." I look up at him and his eyes widen as he tries to keep the tea in his mouth and a smile forms on his puckered lips.
"You're the one who said you were cute all the time. You knew I couldn't do anything but agree because we know it's true." He grins. I couldn't help but laugh at him as I stand to take our bowels to the kitchen. I run water over them to wash away the remainder of food. I turn on the garbage disposal and jump when Marcel tickles my waist. I smack his hands away and turn around, witnessing the smile I missed out on in the past three years. I look at the ground and shake my head. Evie runs up to the both of us and tugs in his jeans with her mouth. Marcel bends down to get her, but I warn him.
"She's going to bite yo- ah, too late." She bit him and he snapped his hand away.
"Fuck! Damn she has sharp teeth. She's like a damn shark!" He shouts as blood gushes from the holes she had torn through his skin. I quickly turn on the warm tap and pull him closer to the sink, putting his hand under it. "Ah, what the hell! It's hot!" He pulls back.
"Oh, sorry." I mumble and make it warm. I hide my face and laugh at his reaction to the hot water.
"Are you laughing at me, Riley Bale?"
"Yeah I am, Marcel Styles." I giggle and walk to the bathroom to grab a bandaid. When I walk back into the kitchen, he is sitting on the counter with a paper towel pressed against his hand. I pull it away and stand in between his legs and put the bandaid over the broken skin. "Does it still hurt?" I look up at him and he shakes his head. "No. But has she had her shots?"
I nod my head and walk off to the living room. "So, can we talk about what happened? Why didn't you tell me that Shay was your sister?" I ask as he plops next to me on the couch. He puts his arm over my shoulder and I moved it. "So why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't tell you because I wanted to surprise you, I guess? I wanted you to come with me but you wouldn't so I was stupid and told you that I was going. It's stupid, I know. I thought you would have ended up coming, but we got into an argument and I said some hurtful things and you threw that damn frappe at my head, which I was not expecting," he laughed. "I wish we could go back to that day. Everything would be different. We'd still be together for sure." He says barely above a whisper but loud enough for me to hear.
I couldn't quite comprehend what the hell he just said. Tonight, my mouth has a mouth if its own.
"Well why couldn't we get back together than?" I ask.
"Because I hurt you by saying what I said."
"A simple sorry could have made up for it. I would have apologized too." I explain and he shakes his head.
"No, I know, but that's not the point."
"Well than what is the point?" I am becoming aggravated and I just want to yell at him, but I can't bring myself to it.
"The point is, I promised that I wouldn't hurt you... and I did." He fiddles with his fingers and I just want him to look at me.
He broke a promise. A promise that I could have easily forgiven him for breaking...
"You mean to tell me, that you kept us apart for three years because of a stupid promise? A promise that is broken in every relationship someway, somehow?" I ask, completely dumb founded by his reasons.
"Riley, I'm sorry, I-"
"No Marcel! How many times did you cry because we weren't together? I'm sure not as much as I did." I cross my arms and stare straight ahead.
"You think that it didn't hurt me, not being with you?" He is obviously offended but I don't care one bit.
"It obviously didn't hurt enough!" I shout and look at him. He grabs me and slams his lips onto mine, kissing them slowly, and passionately. Before I could get sucked into the kiss, I push him away. "What the hell are you doing? Don't, do not kiss me! You wanted nothing to do with me three years ago, so you don't deserve to kiss me." I wipe my lips and I can see the hurt in his eyes. I run my hands over my face and point to the door.
"Leave. Please." I say sternly, but to be honest I don't want him to leave. I've been away from him long enough. I want to be near him even if it means we are arguing every second while being together.
"No." He says flatly. I look at him as a smirk appears on my face, "What?" I chuckle and he takes in a deep breath.
"I said no, Riley. I've been away long enough. If we can't be together, then we will be friends. We need to be friends. I'm not going to let some stupid situation from three years ago stop us from being friends at least. Ok? Understand?" He asks sternly. I stare at him with a small smile on my face.
"You've gotten really brave." I admit. He shrugs his shoulders and my attention is brought to my phone as it begins to ring. An unfamiliar number shows on the screen and I tell Marcel to hold on a second.
"Hello?"
"Um, hey. It's Zayn."
I smile, "Oh hey! What's up?"
He sighed before saying, "Nothing much. Just put Mia down to sleep. What's going on with you?"
"Nothing, sitting here um.. with an old friend."
"Oh, did I call at the wrong time?"
"N-No, but can I call you when they leave? Maybe if you don't mind?" I ask.
"Sure, I don't mind at all." I could hear the smile in his voice. "Talk to you soon, Ri."
"Ok, bye." I smile before hanging up. When I look over, Marcel is staring at me. I knit my eyebrows at him. "What?" I finally ask after almost a minute of silence. He shrugs his shoulders, but then asks, "Who was that?"
"It was Zayn. I ran into him today and I told him to call me so we could catch up a bit, I guess. I miss everyone from high school. You know, he has a daughter now." I answer casually but he looks at me like I'm insane. "Zayn Malik? My bully? The boy who put you and I both through hell?" He asks.
"Yeah.." I scratch the back of my head. "It's nothing serious though. We're just friends." I assure him and he shakes his head.
"Ok, well if you ever become more than friends, and he hurts you, I will murder him." He lets me know and I laugh. "We aren't going to be more than friends. I could never date Zayn."
"Whatever you say, Riley." He smirks.
"So how is your mom? If you're gonna be here for a bit, I would like to catch up at least." I sit Indian style and face him. He sits up and does the same but I instantly push his feet off the couch. "What?" He asks, looking at his feet. "No shoes on the couch, fool!" I yell playfully and he chuckled while taking his shoes off and sitting Indian style again.
"Anyway, my mum is good actually. She's got herself a boyfriend and everything. She asks about you all the time." He looks at his lap when he begins to fiddle with his fingers once again.
"Well the next time you see or talk to her, tell her I said hi." I smile. "Oh, and my mom, is still a bitch. I don't talk to her. Mike and her got a divorce and she thought that once he left, I could move back in. I just laughed at her." I chuckled as I pick Evie up from beside the couch and place her on my lap.
"How come she didn't bite you? That's not entirely fair, you know." He says, ignoring what I had just said.
"She didn't bite me because I'm her mommy." I smile and hold Evie up to my face, letting her lick my nose. "Plus, Evie doesn't like boys. She thinks they are all assholes." I smirk and put her back in my lap. "She bit Austin the last time him and Brit were here." I assure him and he chuckles.
"Nice. So um, I was wondering.." He was very hesitant. "W-Where did you go.. You know after I.." He couldn't finish his sentence.
"After you kicked me out of your house? I went to live with Jessie. I lived with Jessie for not even a year and I got a job at Hallmark, then I went off to college and I was in a dorm but I soon bought my own apartment and yeah. That's how everything worked out." I smile. He has a blank expression on his face and he nods.
"I really am sorry.." He says softly. I stare straight past his head and try not to look at him. All the memories with Marcel from day 1 start playing through my head. "Hey.." He brings his hand up to my cheek gently, causing me to look him in the eyes. "Riley I'm sorry." He whispered and the familiar minty breath of his hits my lips.
"I'm sorry too."
He pulled me into a hug and nothing was holding me back from hugging him back.
Don't cry.
Don't cry.
Don't cry.
Don't cr-
Too late. I'm crying.
I scoot forward so I'm sort of sitting on his lap. I lay my head on his chest and just cry. Just like I used to three years ago. It isn't supposed to be like this. We aren't supposed to be like this. We're supposed to be together and we're supposed to love each other. I wanted us to be the type of couple to cuddle on the couch every night, just talking and maybe watching TV. I wanted us to be the couple to hold each other in bed while being asleep. I want us to be couple.
