| That Late Afternoon. . .
Riley couldn't stop staring at the number Michael had given her—that was now safely imputed in her phone—for what felt like forever. She had to pinch herself a few times to realize this wasn't a dream. During the time that she had been here with her aunt, she hardly used her phone except when her best friends and parents checked up on her. She still had to act like she was uninterested or her aunt would become more suspicious than she already was.
When she gained the nerve, she finally sent Michael a text to let him know it was her before trying to focus on a cheesy kid show that CiCi was watching. Her phone vibrated seconds later and she was screaming in pure excitement on the inside.
AppleHead ❤️😘
Hey beautiful. I missed you so much.
3:17 PM
She bit the inside of her cheek and tried to fight the blush that warmed her face.
I missed you more. I want to see you again.
3:19 PM
I want to see you too. We'll figure something out soon.
3:20 PM
She blew out a breath of air and slumped back against the couch. She felt like she waited forever to see him again—alive and well—and now she had to somehow get past her aunt just to be with him for a few minutes.
"Psst, Ree." CiCi whispered from beside her on the couch. She was sitting on her knees, facing her.
Riley turned toward her and playfully mocked her, "Psst, CiCi."
She giggled. "I gotta tell ya somethin'."
"What is it?" Riley watched as her cousin scooted closer and leaned into her ear.
"I saw you and that teacher kiss." CiCi whispered and Riley's eyes nearly popped out of her head. She gasped and gently grabbed her arms as CiCi innocently asked, "Is he your boyfriend?"
She nervously bit her lip, then answered, "...yes. But CiCi, you can't tell anybody this, okay? It has to be a secret between us."
Her eyes widened with excitement. "I like secrets. You can trust me, Ree."
Riley kissed her forehead and smiled. "You're the best secret keeper ever."
CiCi grinned, her adorable gap on full display, then moved off the couch to continue watching TV on the floor as if their conversation didn't happen. Riley's head plopped back against the cushion of the couch and she quietly exhaled before running her hands over face.
🥀
Much later that night, Riley's eyes landed on the red digits displayed across the digital clock next to her bed and she frowned from being unable to sleep peacefully. This night was one of many nights her restless mind tortured her with relentless memories and nightmares,
It didn't help that Michael still occupied her thoughts for every second of the day and she was struggling to fight the urge to somehow end up back in his arms where she instantly felt safe and comforted. Every time she closed her eyes for a few moments, snippets of flashbacks regarding Javen would wrack her mind and tears would streak her cheeks as soon as she opened them. The thick blankets over her overheating body were the last straw as she annoyingly tossed them off her body, then sat up to move to the edge of the bed.
She grabbed her phone from the nightstand and scrolled through her contacts as she left the room and walked down the hallway. The thought of texting Michael had crossed her mind, but she decided to call him instead.
"I didn't know you were still up." Tia suddenly said as she emerged from the kitchen in her robe with a cup of strawberry yogurt. Startled, Riley nearly dropped her phone before plastering a fake, small smile on her tired face.
"Oh, uh, yeah... I couldn't sleep. Can I sit outside on the porch for a few minutes?" Riley stammered a little as she swept her disheveled curls away from her sweaty forehead.
Tia slightly narrowed her eyes, then stepped forward to place the back of her hand against Riley's forehead. "You're burning up. What's the matter?"
"Nothing, the room is just a little too hot and I need some fresh air. I'm okay." Riley said. She wasn't completely lying since her room really felt like it was cooking her alive and the cool air could help clear her active mind.
Tia still felt skeptical, but let it go. "I'll tell your uncle to adjust the vent so it'll be cooler. You'll let me know if anything is bothering you, right?"
She silently nodded.
"Okay... don't sit out there all night. I'll check on you in a bit." Tia said while scooping up a spoonful of yogurt.
"Alright." Riley replied, then quickly walked past her and shut the front door behind her. She sat on the porch steps and closed her eyes as she deeply inhaled. Almost instantly, the gentle breeze cooled her heated skin and fluttered some of her tight curls that tickled her face.
Opening her eyes, she found Michael's number in her contacts and called him. As the phone continued to ring several times, she was quickly growing impatient and anxious.
"Hello?" His soft voice finally answered, causing Riley's heart to jolt in mere excitement.
"Can I come over?" She immediately asked before nibbling on her bottom lip nervously. At this moment, she didn't care about how her aunt or uncle would react. Just being in his presence again was what all she wanted right now.
Michael raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Um, yeah. Where am I picking you up?"
"Don't worry about it, I can walk." She tried to say, but he instantly shut that down.
"Walk? Ry, I'm not letting you walk here. God knows what is out there waiting to snatch you up." He said as he wasn't feeling the idea of her walking the streets this late at night, not knowing what could happen to her between here and there.
"I'll be fine, Michael." She tried to assure him, but he wasn't having it.
"No, I'm not taking any chances. Either you stay where you are or you're letting me come over to get you."
She rolled her eyes and sighed, though she appreciated his concern. "Fine. But don't park close to the house."
"Okay." He said and the call between them ended. She sent him her location right after.
While she waited for him to come get her, Riley got up and went back inside the house quietly. She peeked around in the living room and the kitchen and didn't see a sign of her aunt. She grabbed her Nike's nearby and went back outside while quietly closing the door shut behind her. She slipped on her shoes and sat back down, nervously bouncing her knee. She didn't know how long he would take and she didn't know when Tia might pop out of the blue, demanding her to come back inside.
As she was becoming more anxious as time wore on, she saw a pair of headlights suddenly flash at her in the distance. Then she got a text from Michael saying he was here. She looked back over her shoulder for any signs of shadow movements from behind the blinds, then darted from the porch to his red Camry as quickly as her body would allow. She got in, then leaned over to kiss him.
"Hi." She smiled and he chuckled.
"Hey. You didn't grab a bag or anything?" He asked as he began to pull off.
She shook her head. "No... I didn't really want to risk getting caught by going back for my bag. Thanks for coming to get me."
"It's not a problem, babe. Everything's okay?" He asked as he reached over and held her hand.
She looked down and slowly intertwined their fingers. She missed small moments like these so much and almost wanted to cry that they still were able to have them.
"Not really. I called you because I couldn't sleep."
Michael looked over at her for a few seconds, then focused back on driving. "Why couldn't you sleep?"
She laid her head back against the headrest and gazed out the window. "I was having nightmares about... him."
"You're talking about Javen?" He asked, noticing her wince at the mention of his name. "Sorry, I was just making sure."
She nodded with a defeated sigh and turned her head further toward the window. "Yeah, him. Anyway, I couldn't get you out of my mind either, and I really wanted to see you. The last time I saw you, you were... were just laying in bed like a vegetable and I was so scared that I was going to lose you like I lost my brother."
He looked at her again and saw that her hair shielded her face from his view. But he could tell she was upset from the passing streetlights revealing wet residue on her wrists from when she wiped at her face and he could hear her sniffles. Without a word, he pulled over on the side of a residential street and put the gear in park, then got out. She watched in confusion as he walked around the car and to her side of the door.
"What are you doing?" She asked when he opened her door, and he didn't answer as he managed to slide in beneath her and hold her in his lap after closing the door back.
He simply held her close to him and she rested her head against the crook of his neck, breathing in signature cologne and his freshly washed hair. He soothingly rubbed her back and kissed her cheek, then wiped away her tears.
"I'm sorry I scared you." He whispered against her skin. "I'm so sorry."
She held tighter onto him and was afraid to let him go as if he would somehow materialize in thin air. "Please don't ever leave me like that again."
His thumb caressed her wet cheek as he stared at the tears lining the bottom of her lids, a nearby street light reflecting off her brown eyes. "I won't, I promise."
She weakly smiled, then leaned in to feel his soft lips against hers. The tips of their noses lightly brushed against each other just before Riley tilted her head to the side and slightly parted her lips. Michael took her bottom lip between his teeth ever so gently, then enclosed his mouth onto hers. Their warm breaths mixed as his tongue amorously stroked hers, her fingers tenderly grazed the side of his face while his hands lingered at her waist, and she pressed her chest harder against his.
Eventually his tongue retreated, and only their lips moved slowly and tenderly as his hands began to gradually venture up her spine, sending that familiar chill through her body. The soft smacks of their moist lips mingled with the sound of the running engine, and Riley could feel the beads of sweat on Michael's jaw beneath the pads of her fingers.
Michael was slowly but surely becoming dizzy with arousal and he had to stop here if he didn't want to go any further. He knew he couldn't anyhow since Riley was still in such a vulnerable place and she more than likely wasn't ready to go past that point. Especially not in a car on the side of a street.
He pressed his forehead against hers after ending the kiss and gently smiled. He rubbed his thumb across her bottom lip, then pecked it one last time.
"We should get going." He said softly.
She nodded and fully sat up. "Okay."
Moments later, the car was moving back down the road again and within almost an hour, they finally reached his neighborhood. The garage door opened as soon as he reached the driveway and the car slowly pulled inside to its rightful spot.
Right when Riley was getting out of the car, her phone began to ring in her pocket. She felt like her heart was about to fall through her ass when she saw Tia's caller ID. Taking a deep breath, she swiped her thumb across the screen and walked toward the back of Michael's car.
"Riley, what the hell?" Tia immediately scolded her on the phone. "You told me you were going to sit on the porch, but when I went outside to get you, you weren't there. We have near the whole damn neighborhood looking for you!"
Riley's face flushed as she sighed back in response. She knew she was in hot water. "I-I'm sorry, I just needed to get away. You wouldn't let me go if I told you I was going to a friend's house."
"You're damn right I wouldn't. It's past midnight; who else is up this late besides liquor stores and streetwalkers, huh?" She lectured. "Your parents trusted me to look after you and they would kill me if they found out that you walked probably halfway across town to see a so-called 'friend' at this time of night."
"It's nothing like that, Tia. It was a personal emergency. I'll tell you more about it later."
"You don't really have a choice, young lady." Tia squeezed her eyes shut and her lips were in a straight line. "Today's been a long day and I'm tired as hell, so we're going to handle this shit in the morning. By then, you better have texted me the address of where you're at or be standing on my front porch by the time I wake up."
Before Riley could respond, Tia hung up. Judging by her angry tone, use of foul language, and the abrupt call ending, she knew her aunt was beyond ticked off at this point. She looked up to see Michael standing by awkwardly on the opposite side of the car.
"I'm assuming that she's pissed, hm?" Michael asked after a moment of silence.
"More than that..." She muttered as she shut off her phone for the night.
He ran his hand over his hair, then approached her. He wasn't in the slightest surprised by her aunt's reaction since he knew the consequences of accepting Riley's offer in the first place. "So there's no point in taking you back then."
She shook her head. "Is it okay if I just stay here with you?"
"Yeah, you know you can stay anytime." He gave her a soft smile and took her hand to lead her into the house. They walked through the kitchen and past the dark living room, then went straight up the stairs into his room.
She stood by his bed and silently observed his room after he flipped on a lamp. Nothing much had changed since she last was here; it was still neat with little decorations speckled throughout the room. She glanced down at her sleep attire of sweatpants and a long sleeve top; that was probably one of the reasons she was blazing hot earlier despite the house being cool to some degree.
"Um, do you mind if I sleep in one of your shirts? I get hot easily now." She softly asked.
"No, not at all." Michael rummaged through one of his drawers and pulled out a large red t-shirt, then handed it to her. She quietly thanked him, then quickly went to change in his bathroom.
After coming back into the bedroom and placing her folded clothes on top of his dresser, she turned to him sitting on the edge of the bed and met his kind eyes.
"Do I need to sleep downstairs or—" She started to ask, but stopped when he looked at her with a confused face.
"No. I'm not letting you sleep alone downstairs like you're one of my brothers."
A smirk she was unable to hold back glossed over her lips as she went to get into the bed. "So, that's how you treat your brothers?"
"They're grown men. They'll be okay." He chuckled as he got in after her, and she shook her head in amusement.
For a while, they laid there in each other's comforting presence and swirling thoughts before Riley turned her head to look at Michael with that same smirk from earlier. He looked back at her with a raised brow, then rolled onto his side to face her.
"What is it?"
"I was just thinking of all the girls and guys that wanted you." She suddenly sat up and gave a gentle push that made him lay flat against the mattress before straddling him. "And I'm the lucky one that got to have you."
"Funny, I was thinking the same 'bout you." Michael matched her smirk, now rubbing her arms that sparked goosebumps. "All the guys you could've chosen and you decided on 'lil ol' me."
She sucked her teeth, then let out a small sarcastic laugh. "Oh, please. They're like shit on the bottom of my shoe compared to you."
He laughed. "Damn... I've never heard that comparison before."
"Well, it's true." She shrugged, then grabbed one of his hands. Thinking back, she wished she brought the book Tia had given her. "Guess what?"
"What?" He watched her place his hand on her stomach. Through her baggy t-shirt, he could feel how hard her stomach had become and it felt rounder than the last time he touched it. It brought a smile to his lips.
"Sooo, my aunt let me have this book, right? And according to how many weeks I'm far along, it says that Casanova here is about the size of a pear." She sat back on his thighs as he sat up and caressed her growing stomach with both of his hands.
"Wow, he's sprouting in there." He lifted her shirt and kissed her stomach, causing her to deeply blush. He looked back up after a while. "How are you feeling?"
"About the pregnancy or how is it making me feel?" She asked for clarification.
"Both."
She sucked her lips in as she thought briefly. "Well, some days I get nauseous as hell and I feel like I have to pee every five minutes. As for how I actually feel about being pregnant..." She took a deep breath. "Honestly, I'm scared."
Michael held her gaze as he moved his hands to gently rub her sides. "It's okay to be scared, babe. But you're not alone in this."
"I know." She frowned, trying her best to keep the creeping unwanted thoughts and feelings away. "I keep wishing this was your baby, instead. What if he grows up having violent tendencies and acts just like him?"
"He won't because he'll have his family to guide him and I know you'll be an amazing mother, Ry. Don't think negatively, okay?" He kissed her chin, then her stomach again. "He's not going to be anything like that asshole, I promise you that."
She smiled from his encouraging words and wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him briefly before moving off his body and laid next to him on her back. He faced her again as he pulled the covers up to her chest and comfortingly laid his arm across her stomach. The ceiling fan above them endlessly spun to keep them cool.
"Y'know," Riley spoke after several quiet seconds, "back in October, if someone told me I would be in your house, laying in bed with you right now, I would've laughed in their face."
Michael's contagious laugh was like sweet music to her ears. "If someone told me a year ago that I would be falling for a young woman that just graduated high school, I would've called them sick."
Riley glanced over at him, meeting his doe-brown eyes. "Do you think us being together is taboo? Are you okay with us?"
"Some people may think that, but it's not like I was purposefully lusting after my students. I'll be real with you though, I did try to fight these feelings I developed for you. Obviously our relationship isn't supposed to exist, but I can't help how much my heart yearns for you." He softly admitted. "So, yeah... I'm okay with us. Are you?"
She nodded with a small smile. "Yeah. I was a little hesitant, too, but I wanted to take that chance. It kinda gassed my head up when the finest teacher at Blue Ridge was into me." Her smile grew wider from his lighthearted chuckle. "But forreal, I'm glad we ended up together. I was worried that this was just gonna be a fling between us."
"Nah. I've had my fair share of flings after my divorce and none of them excited me. When I first saw you and got to know you better, I realized I wanted something long-term with you, and only you."
Her heart swelled when she could see the sincerity of his words through the soft expression on his face and the way he looked at her with such admiration and love. She turned on her side to fully face him, then closed the gap between their awaiting lips to kiss him with mere passion.
The kiss didn't last long, but the intensity of it left their faces flush and their breathing heavy as they shared the same dazed look between them. She reached over and gently pressed her hand against his warm cheek.
"I'm glad we still get to have these moments." She whispered into the quiet air of the room.
"Me, too." He replied back, then pecked the tip of her nose. "So, what made you decide to stay at your aunt's this summer?"
She gave a little shrug. "Change of scenery, I guess. Besides, I hadn't seen my little cousin for a good while." A frown spread across her plump lips at the thought of CiCi. "I hope that she doesn't need me tonight..."
Michael slightly furrowed his brows. "Need you how?"
"She has nightmares sometimes and can get scared of the dark, so she comes to my room to stay with me. I don't mind since it helps me sleep better when I have her near me." She sighed.
With his fingers suddenly beneath her chin and raising her gaze back into his eyes, he said, "I'm sure she's okay, Ry. You may not be there physically, but you're there in spirit protecting her and making sure she's sleeping peacefully tonight. C'mere." She slid closer to his body and he wrapped his arms around her, then raised the covers up to her shoulders. "Let's get some rest."
She nodded and pressed the side of her face into his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat like old times. Her fingers reached up and grazed against the cool metal of her brother's old chain necklace. A soft smile graced her lips before she slowly fell into the arms of sleep.