Kain and Riley made it back to the front gates of the campus with Riley's fingers still intertwined with the firm grip he had on her hand. "I've got a better idea," said Kain as they were just about to head through the gates.
Pulling her away from the brick wall entrance, she resisted with little resistance. Kain led her through to the car park and over to his vehicle. It was a modest-looking college car. Nothing too fancy, but enough to be a nice car. Was it stupid to be following him off campus? Probably. Was the excitement getting to her? Maybe.
"We really should get to class. We're going to be late," said Riley as Kain opened the passenger side door for her, nudging her slightly as she climbed up onto the leather seats of the oversized vehicle.
"We're going to skip class today. I think we both deserve a break."
"But won't we get in trouble?" asked Riley, nervously biting her lip as she glanced back over to the campus grounds and watched the massive crowds disappear into the building.
"I take it you've never skipped class before?" asked Kain, raising his eyebrows with a playful smirk.
Riley turned her head away as Kain laughed, closing the passenger side door before moving around to the driver's side and getting into the car.
It was true; she had never once skipped class before. It never really even crossed her mind. She spent so much of her energy simply completing one task and then the next. There was never really a thought process about doing anything outside of what would get her through the day.
"I know of a place near here. We could grab some food. Are you hungry?"
"I could eat," responded Riley, as she clipped in her seatbelt, remaining unsure if she could actually stomach anything considering the butterflies whirling away inside of her.
She was excited and nervous at the same time as she contemplated what she was doing. Did this classify as a date? The protocols for dating were not something that she had any knowledge about except her brief experience with movies, but food with a guy made it a date, right?
Then the worst thought came into her mind and her lips down turned into a frown.
"Is everything okay?" asked Kain as he glanced over for a moment before putting the car into gear and setting off.
"My brothers are going to kill me for this," blurted out Riley. "I'm putting out a warning now. You could be next."
The laughter of Kain echoed through the car along with the sound of the humming engine as they turned onto the main road. "They won't if you don't tell them about it," said Kain with a mischievous grin. "But don't worry, I'll get you back in plenty of time before they pick you up. And before Noah can kick my ass. After seeing him in the ring, I don't think I ever want to go up against him."
Kain continued down the road, one hand casually on the steering wheel as his other rested on the open window. A deliciously cool breeze was drifting in that was doing wonders in easing the heat radiating from her cheeks. Eventually, they steered off into a side street and parked up next to the curb.
"Hope you like noodles. This place does the best ramen in town." Kain opened the car door, to which Riley followed, practically jumping down from the height of the vehicle as she once again cursed that she wasn't taller.
The noodle shop in question was little more than a rundown hole in the side of the wall, yet the mingling college students already crowded around, spilling out onto the grass nearby, with those on break eager for a good feed.
They pushed past the noisy crowd hovering on the sideway and into the line that was gathering down the sidewalk. It was a pretty big queue, but it seemed to move relatively fast.
"They only do one dish here, but it's damn good," said Kain as they quickly advanced in the queue. Before long, they were already at the front counter, grabbing the bowls of ramen, to which Riley allowed Kain to reluctantly pay for her meal before they gathered over to a nearby wall and sat down.
The taste that hit her lips was exquisite as she balanced the soup-filled bowl on her lap and tried to awkwardly eat the ramen before bringing the bowl to her lips to take a large gulp of the salty broth straight from the bowl.
"This is amazing," she said to Kain, who was already halfway through his bowl and taking a similar approach to Riley in drinking the ramen broth straight from the bowl.
"I know," he smiled.
It was odd having their relationship change into this casual, comfortable friendship or whatever this was. After learning more about him and Kain learning more about her, things made more sense between them than they used to. And it was nice just sitting there, people watching while eating. It felt peaceful.
That was, until a group of girls came over, disturbing the once blissful peace.
"Hi Kain," smiled a pretty-looking brunette, ignoring Riley sitting at his side.
The young woman, however, looked familiar and Riley concentrated hard, trying to figure out where she had seen her before.
"Hi Maggie, how are you today?" responded Kain in a dull but polite tone.
And then it hit her. The leggy brunette she saw when she was at the fraternity party who was pushing her breasts into Kain for most of the night. She chuckled slightly under her breath, which was luckily ignored by Maggie, but some of her group gave off some untasteful sideways glances her way.
"I'm having some issues with my car. Are you able to help me out for a moment?"
"Sure," said Kain, huffing out a small annoyed sigh that few people would have picked up on, considering it was so subtle. He turned to Riley, an apologetic look on his face. "Sorry Riley, are you okay here for a moment?"
"All good," responded Riley, lifting her bowl of half eaten ramen to show she would just continue eating, considering Kain had already devoured his bowl.
"Thanks, I'll just be a moment." Kain got up and disappeared with the group of girls who were now hanging off him like a group of monkeys and she chuckled again at the sight. Although she wasn't overly familiar with Kain being nice to her, she did witness from afar that he was pretty generous to everyone. And that was probably one of his best qualities. That and the look of his muscular arms and tight ass in those jeans. She shook her head at the thought, turning away to blush and thankful no-one was around to see it.
People watching turned out to be a fun type of sport as she watched a group of guys trying to break-dance on an open space of grass nearby. The keyword being try, but at least they were having her fun. The most interesting group of people were those gathered around someone in a giant chicken outfit. For what purpose she was unsure, but it was entertaining to watch.
Slowly, she came to the bottom dregs of her ramen and placed the bowl next to her on the wall with Kains. She looked down at her shoes dangling off the edge of the wall and noticed an untied shoelace on her sneaker.
She reached down, close to grabbing the edge of her shoelace, before the backpack of a nearby student bumped harshly into her back. The backpack swung fast, crashing down on her, which caused her to topple off the edge of the wall and land on the ground. Luckily, she wasn't completely klutzy this time and landed on her feet with only one of her knees scrapping against the ground.
As she turned around to check who had bumped into her, she got whacked in the face again with the same backpack from some jock looking guy who was roughhousing with his friends, right where she was sitting. He didn't even turn to apologise before jumping on the wall she was just sitting on and claiming himself as the victor of whatever game he was involved in.
"Um, excuse me," said Riley in an annoyed tone.
At this point, the jock turned around, looking down at Riley, who was rubbing the dirt off her knee.
"Why hello there, pretty lady." The man jumped down from the wall, knocking the empty bowls of ramen on the floor, which were luckily plastic throw away containers. He sat down on the wall in front of her, grabbing her unexpectedly around the upper thighs and pulling her in close.
The suddenness of his actions sent her stumbling into him as she placed her hands on his chest to avoid head-butting the guy as she felt his creepy hands squeeze tightly on the back of her thighs.
"And what can I do for such a pretty lady?" he breathed into her ear as she smelt the distinct smell of weed coming from his breath and clothes. Who in their right mind would be stoned in the middle of the day?
"You can get your greasy hands off me for a start." Riley pushed back on his chest, trying to get out of his grasp as his grip only tightened.
"Oh, come on, why would you want me to do that?"
"And then you can apologise for knocking me off the wall," continued Riley, who was getting frustrated as his friends stood back, laughing at the situation.
"Aww, did I hurt the little one's feelings?" he laughed.
"The lady asked you to get off and apologise Wyatt," came a deep voice from behind them.
"Oh come on Kain, I'm just having a little fun," said Wyatt.
Before she could even process what had happened, Kain rushed forward, jumping over the wall they were sitting on only moments ago and grabbed Wyatt in a choke hold. His grip eventually loosened on her and Riley stumbled back, only to watch Wyatt grab at Kain's arm, trying to free himself as he was pulled backwards and thrown off the wall.
It was at that point, Riley saw the anger radiating in Kain's eyes. He was furious and even though Wyatt was down on the floor, it didn't stop Kain from kicking him in the side, picking him up by the shirt, and dragging him over the gravel onto the grass. Wyatt continued to kick and grab behind him as his footing scrambled along the pathway before Kain reached down, picked him up with ease, and threw him into the nearby fountain.
The surrounding crowd, who were following the fight, let out fits of laughter and cheers as Wyatt was now breathing hard and drenched from head to toe with a scowl on his face.
"Touch her again and you're fucking dead," seethed Kain before turning around and walking back to Riley who was still standing there a bit stunned at the whole incident.
"Are you okay?" said Kain, finally reaching her again and reaching up to rub her cheek where a slight pink mark was quickly fading from the backpack that was whacked in her face.
Interrupting the semi-sweet moment, if you exclude the fight a moment ago, was a shrill voice that sent an unpleasant shiver down her spine. "Kain," called out Maggie. "I still need your help with..."
"You can lift the bag yourself Maggie, it's not that heavy," replied Kain without taking his eyes off Riley. "Come on," he breathed. "Let's get you back."
"Are you okay?" asked Riley, as Kain grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the crowd and back towards the car. His breathing was strained, but not from the fight. More likely from the effort it was taking him to not go back and completely pummel Wyatt into the ground.
"I'm fine," replied Kain, as he relaxed his hand further against hers. "But I would rather not get into another fight today and if we're late, I'm sure I'll be having one with your brothers this time," he smiled.
Kain, however, got her back in plenty of time, just like he promised, and they waited together on the bench. When Noah's car came into the carpark, he stealthily gave her a kiss on the cheek before disappearing out of sight well before Noah's car was in distance.
She blushed hard, hoping that her cheeks would die down and Noah wouldn't notice anything before she hopped into the car. Smiling back through the window as she kept her face away from Noah, it gave her some more time to cool her cheeks as she watched Kain walking away.
Once she was sure she had composed herself, she turned to Noah, who was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't seem to notice how flustered she was. "So, where's Jason? I thought he was picking me up today?"