"Ezra, quit playing with your dick and come out so we can leave." JD rapped on the bathroom door a few times in quick succession.
"I'll be down in a second." I hollered and leaned over to snort the line I had already cut on the counter.
I pinched and pulled at my nose as I stood up to look at myself in the mirror. A small blob of white residue clung to my clammy skin right above my lip. I lifted the collar of my shirt and swiped at it until all the evidence was gone.
I leaned against the vanity and watched the dark pupils of my eyes dilate and constrict like there was strobe lighting flashing behind me. The red, bloodshot rim bled into the light blue, causing a lavender ring to form around the edge.
My eyes always gave me away. I was surprised no one else ever seemed to notice.
My face looked so hollow and drawn under the bright globe lighting. I was a complete mess and it was all Riley's fault. The only way I could make it through one more second of the day was to blur my senses and make myself forget about the trouble we were in.
It never worked. Riley was still the only thing ever on my mind.
The obstinate girl had been ignoring my texts and calls. Dodging me and shutting me out wouldn't make the whole ordeal any easier. Pushing me away wasn't going to magically make this nightmare vanish. She couldn't hide from me forever. Drawing out the inevitable was pointless.
Riley couldn't have the baby and I had to do whatever it took to convince her it was a mistake.
I turned on the faucet, cupped my hand under the water, and brought it to my mouth. I swished the cool water around a few times to cut through the dry sticky feeling on my tongue and teeth. I spat it out into the sink and reached for the light pink hand towel hanging on the rack to dry my hands and face.
When I pressed the fluffy towel to my chin, I caught a hint of a soft citrusy scent. The towel smelled exactly like the warm skin of my green-eyed beauty. Riley always smelled so fucking sweet and sugary. It was one of the numerous things that kept me hooked on her.
I held the cloth to my face and decided I was never going to let it go. I hugged it like it would help the ache subside. It wasn't the same as having her in my arms, but it was the closest thing I could get right now.
There were three sharp knocks on the door again.
"Dude, hurry up. My sister will beat the shit out of you if she comes home and finds you taking a dump in her bathroom." JD warned.
I thought about stuffing the hand towel in my pants to steal it. It would be another thing I could add to my collection of all things Riley. I tried burying it in my pocket without any success. No matter how I folded the damn thing, it was too big to fit.
"Come on, Ezra. I'm not joking." JD pounded on the door again.
I growled as I reluctantly let go of the towel and gave up. I dropped it on the counter and walked over to the door to unlock it. The door hinges complained when I ripped it open.
JD was standing on the other side like his nose was pressed against the door. He leaned over and craned his head to look behind me. He stood back up in front of me with a scowl on his face.
"What?" I snapped, losing my cool.
"You left the towel on the counter." He scolded me.
"And?" I turned off the light and bumped his shoulder to knock him out of the way.
"Riley keeps the towel on the rack. She will know we were in here." JD whined behind me.
"I don't give a fuck. She'll get over it." I brushed him off.
"Your funeral. Don't say I didn't warn you." JD shrugged and gave up the argument.
JD followed me out of Riley's room and down the stairs to where Aiden was waiting for us. He resembled a lit matchstick with his arms crossed over his chest while he sulked. At least, it looked like he was deep in a full-on pout. His mangled face was drooping a bit on one side and was dark purple around the part that was split.
He could have been grinning from ear to ear and I would have never known any differently.
We had been at the Davis' house for a little over two hours now. JD informed me earlier that he wanted to drop by his parent's house today. I offered to tag along with him in hopes of having a potential run-in with Riley. Aiden invited himself to go with us as soon as he found out where we were headed. He practically bungee-corded himself to the hood of the car as we were driving away.
Aiden was an opportunist. He wasn't going to miss out on another chance to put himself between Riley and me again.
What was supposed to be a quick in and out turned into an all-day event. Anytime JD mentioned leaving to go home, I found another reason to drag out our stay just a little bit longer in hopes of seeing my girl.
The last excuse I used was the bathroom. That bought me about twenty extra minutes of uninterrupted time.
I plopped down on the couch in the living room and made myself comfortable. I was determined to wait Riley out no matter how long it took. We weren't going to go anywhere until I talked to her today.
I would camp out in the front yard tonight if that was what it took to get her to talk to me again.
"What are you doing? We have to go. Mark is waiting for us to get back for band practice." JD reminded me, attempting to hurry me along.
"Your dad asked me about a tuning issue with a guitar the last time I was here. I wanted to hang around until he got home to see if he still wanted me to fix it for him." I lied. "Mark won't care if we are late. He is probably still asleep."
Aiden shot me a sour look since he knew I was stalling. I dared him to try to tell JD about my real motive. The other half of his face was still a blank canvas. I could even his new look out a little bit if he needed me to.
He wouldn't need his whole mouth to sing the crap songs we played.
"Damnit. Fine, just a little bit longer." JD grumbled and plopped down next to me on the couch and placed his hand under his chin like he was bored.
The three of us sat in deafening silence for about ten minutes before the front doorknob clicked.
My heart began racing the moment the door began to open.
I started praying that Riley's bright curls were about to walk through the door. If it was Mr. Davis instead, I wasn't sure how to keep my lie going. Hopefully, he would go along with it since he already knew how much his daughter meant to me.
That was probably too much to hope for.
After how I behaved the last time I was around him, he would probably kick me out of his house and forbid me to see her again. He seemed to be able to sniff out my intentions for Riley like he was a bloodhound. There was no way he would trust me with her after I showed up to the house high and threatened to break down the door to get to her.
Fortunately for me, today wasn't the day I was going to find out what he thought about me.
Riley strolled in through the door like she didn't have a care in the world. She spun around and froze awkwardly as soon as she saw the three of us sitting in the living room together.
Her panicked eyes darted around the room-- first to JD, then to Aiden next, which burned me alive. After studying his corrupted face, she shifted her gaze over to me.
Her green eyes widened in fear.
"Um, hey." She whispered low and slow as she bore a hole directly through me.
"Hey, Lil Bit. We were just in the neighborhood and dropped in to raid the pantry." JD cheerfully greeted her.
My eyes never left Riley for one second. She moved her small hand down to the bottom of her stomach like she was soothing the baby inside her. She was doing it on purpose to get a rise out of me.
I flicked my eyes back up to the side and motioned my head to her to let her know I wanted to talk. But instead, she ignored me and turned away to stare at Aiden as she held onto her stomach even tighter.
"How was your weekend?" Riley asked JD with a false chirpiness in her voice. She kept looking over at me out of the corner of her eye. She was still on her guard, afraid that I would jump up and announce the news about her being pregnant to the room.
"Better than Aiden's. I can't believe he got sucker-punched at Bannon's. Crazy, right?" JD vomited out the lie that I overheard Aiden telling him about how he got the bruises.
"Real crazy." Riley agreed nervously. She was a terrible liar. Her whole body was spasming and I wanted to jump to my feet to hold her still before she gave away our secret. Her anxiousness was shaking the entire house. "I'm going to get some water. I'll be back in a second."
"I'll come with. I need some too. Anybody else want anything?" I was up on my feet, following right behind her. My long legs closed the space between us and I practically ran her over as we disappeared into the kitchen.
Riley rushed over to the sink and turned on the faucet before I had a chance to even say anything to her.
"What are you doing here?" She spat out as she turned around to face me.
"You are avoiding me." I inched closer to her so she could hear me over the thundering water.
"Ezra, I am not ready to talk to you right now about this." Her hand lowered back to her stomach to mock me again. I hated how she kept throwing the thing inside her in my face. From the way she was acting, Riley was never even considering getting rid of this pregnancy.
"You're keeping it, aren't you?" I frowned as she cradled it gently.
"Ezra, I..." She fumbled around, looking for an argument she could make to justify her decision.
"Do you even care what I think or what this will do to me?" I hissed at her through clenched teeth.
"You don't have to be involved if you don't want to. I don't have to let anyone even know it is yours." She came back at me.
"That's bullshit and you know it, Riley. You are not ready for this. We are both too young." I pleaded with her to use her head for once.
"Ezra, this is my decision. I'm not going to change my mind about this. You can accept it for what it is or you can leave." Riley performed her signature little arm cross and tapped her foot like that would end the conversation.
My whole world was collapsing around me.
I went for her wrist to unwrap her from the pissy move. Riley didn't get to just shut me down this way. She performed an exaggerated jerk back from me and backed up against the kitchen counter. I stepped into her and she shoved at my chest like she wanted to fight me.
I stood in front of her and took it even though holding myself back from retaliating was making me physically ill.
We would never be able to stay together if she kept this baby. It wasn't even here yet and I was already fighting with myself to keep from hurting her. I wasn't going to put a kid through the same pain I endured while growing up and I couldn't watch her go through it either.
This thing between us would never work if she didn't change her mind.
All I was doing was trying to protect her and she couldn't even be bothered to consider my feelings at all.
I was so angry at her for doing this to me— to us.
I leaned down close to her ear and whispered to set her straight.
"I can't even look at you. You are being a selfish bitch." She shivered when my breath hit her ear.
"Then get the fuck out of my house!" She screamed back at me.
JD and Aiden burst into the room, ready to go on the attack. I stepped back from Riley in shock. I never expected her to kick me out. We weren't even finished with our conversation.
Nothing was resolved between us.
"What is going on?" JD's hair was standing on end.
I should just tell him right now what his little sister had been doing every time he took his eyes off her—someone needed to talk some sense into the hormonal girl before she ruined both our lives.
"Nothing," Riley huffed and crossed her arms over her chest again.
All eyes were on me like they were ready to go to war for her. No one was ever going to be on my side.
It was a losing battle.
"Fuck this." I spun around and walked out of the house, slamming the door behind me.
If Riley wanted to keep this little game going, she could do it by herself.
We were done.