[onhold] Through All Seasons

15│Winter: 'Meet me in the afterglow.'

I could just knock him out, I thought. I glanced around, we were pretty much alone. Something held me back and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. So instead, I gave in. I got 10 dollars out of my jeans and handed them over to pimple face. 

He made a huge deal of printing out the ticket. "I'm in a hurry," I said with gritted teeth. Unfortunately, it made him even slower. "This can't be happening. I'm trying to do something good here." 

"Here you go, Sir. Enjoy the movie." He handed me the ticket after what felt like ages and smirked mischievously. I wanted to punch this face so badly. 

Without another word, I continued storming into the hall. It was dark and I had a hard time distinguishing people from seats. But yeah, in the back row, that must be them. 

Wait, Collin, hold on a second and think. Do you really want to risk a black eye by putting up with Mason, for River? Do you really want to go through with this? We've come this far and now your placing doubts in my mind? Thanks, brain. 

But then, barely, I saw Mason making a move and I stopped arguing with myself and acted immediately. 

"Let's get you out of here." I grabbed her arm and started pulling. She was surprised but didn't fight me. I got her off the seat, out of Mason's embrace, and pulled her in the lobby where I finally let go of her arm. 

Of course she asked, "What's going on here?" I really didn't think this through, my plan only went to me getting her out of Masons reach. Her confused eyes watched me carefully. 

Instead of explaining, I simply said: "I'm sorry, River." And that was the truth. I felt incredibly sorry for putting her in this situation. She took a few steps back, bringing distance between us. A distance I didn't seek because I felt a strong urge to protect her from what's coming next. 

"What did you do?" Her big green eyes looked at me. 

"Collin, you prick." Right, there was another one I had to deal with. And he was not cute and beautiful. In fact, he looked a lot like a bull that had seen red. I was 'red' in this scenario in case you wondered. "This was not part of the deal." 

Did you have to mention the "deal" in front of her, prick? I thought. This is getting worse each second passing by. I had no clue how to keep the damage as little as possible. 

"I know, the deal is over. There is no deal, Mason. The deal just fell through." I stated firmly, watching the bull carefully, daring to stare in his eyes. I wondered if I could take him on. I moved my body swiftly to hide River behind it. Just to be sure that she was not getting any hits if it came this far. 

Mason was coming closer and, keeping my metaphor, his nostrils flared up. It was not nice to watch, trust me. 

As he moved even closer and apparently decided, it was worth a punch by lunging for me, River quickly stepped in front of me, parried the hit and struck him on the Adam's apple. Mason ruckled and stumbled a few steps back. 

I was speechless while River glared at him in disgust. As my muscles start to relax, I took her hand and said, "Now, let's get out of here for real." 

She nodded and turned away from a coughing Mason who still hadn't recovered from her firm punch. 

Pimple face was watching the entire scene, but was, now, too scared to interfere.  

"River," I said as we stopped outside the building, "I can explain." 

"I stop you right here," she puts her hand on my chest, "I don't want or need your explanation." She turned around and searched her handbag. 

"Wait, let me take you home." I rushed after her. "It's the least I can do after I messed up so badly," I pleaded. But wait, I didn't beg. I was Collin Harris. Its the other way around. But my mouth didn't shut up, "please." 

This was really new to me and it made me uncomfortable. I have never chased something or someone. Usually it came to me. But here, with River in this scenario, the roles somehow switched. 

"Also; I don't want or need your ride home," she said coldly. "You know, whenever I think I figured you out, to, let's say, at least 10%, you always prove me wrong. Always." She paused. "Stay away from me, I mean it. The only interactions we should have in the future are in our roles of Lily and James." 

Then she unlocked her bike and rode off. I stared at her back until I couldn't see her anymore. I really fucked up. And for some reason it mattered to me. 

"Collin, you jackass, that was quite a show." Mason appeared laughing, "but I still got a score to settle with you." He hit me on my upper arm. It did hurt but I didn't move a muscle. 

"Fuck off Mason," I said and left him where he was. I was not in the mood to settle this now.

I got in my car and drove back home. On my way, I passed River on her bike. 

I'm such an asshole, I told myself. 

Back home, back on my bed, I pulled out the drama script from my bag. Initially, I was super pissed that Ms. Howard put me in there as a punishment and I blamed Rowan and his stupid bet. But I think I started to enjoy this more and more, even though I was probably too stuck up to admit this fully to anyone. The only thing I could do for River was to give my best for the play and act the hell out of me. 

*****

I hope you liked Collin's point of view. Let me know what you thought during reading 

ෆ╹ .̮ ╹ෆ

I'm genuinely curious.