RILEY
TOMMY'S ALREADY IN BED WHEN I GET TO THE ROOM.
"Hey, what book would you like me to read?" I ask the three year old, flashing a look to Asher because I can't believe his son picked me instead of him.
"This one. Daddy reads too fast." Tommy admits and hands the book of his choice over to me. If there's anything I've learned about a toddler is that they're very honest when you ask certain questions.
Asher shrugs when I stare at him again. "It wasn't working out tonight. I'm sorry bud."
I sweep my fingers across the cover. "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff. Okay. Let's read it."
The rest of the holiday went by too quickly. We made use of the time though. Went hiking, more restaurants, and visited a lighthouse. Tourist stuff. The first thing I did on the long journey back was book an appointment for the health center. By the time we made it to Warren on Sunday night, I let Asher drop me off at Dan's diner.
My friends haven't seen the place and they insisted we catch up because I might've unintentionally ignored their messages for the entire trip with Asher's family.
I'm sitting at the huge window with a cup of hot chocolate on the table and my phone in hand scrolling, scrolling and scrolling. Finally, the bell above the door jingles and I whip my head up to see who it is. Mattie enters first, blonde hair in a messy bun followed by Kie who's wearing a leather bomber jacket. From afar, I can outline her laid baby hairs.
"Hey girl hey!" Kie's brown eyes lights up like a bulb when she sees me, head held high. "What's up?"
"There she is." Mattie flickers a hand to me as if I'm the girl of the hour. Man, I've missed my friends. I know I haven't responded to their messages this past weekend like I should but now that we're together again, I feel like nothing's changed. I guess that's our type of friendship. I love it.
"Sorry guys my bag's here." I tell them about the seat beside me. Sutton's probably going to borrow a chair from another table when she gets here.
Speaking of the devil, she pops inside the diner next. "Get a chair from over there. Yeah you're good." Kie directs our friend before she plops down across the table. "So how was thanksgiving?"
Sutton connects a chair to our table. "I like the vibe of this place. I can't believe you're just telling us about it."
"Yup. This is where Asher takes her for breakfast on Saturdays." Kie eyes me. "So spill. Thanksgiving."
"Wait! Am I going to need something sweet or sour for this?" Mattie asks, picking up the menu.
"There's nothing spicy about what I'm about to tell you guys so please lower your expectations."
Kie frowns. "Really?"
"We still wanna hear it." Sutton says, looking at her own menu.
So I tell them everything with pictures to prove it. About the ride there, the house is described in so much detail they can visualize it. I tell them about the nice water and the bath and the places we went like Sugar Creek Trail, the dock, the Van Gogh experience, thanksgiving dinner, the family time I've had that doesn't exist with my own, the lighthouse and last but not least the forest to see the northern lights.
"That looks so cool, oh my god." Sutton slides the screen to look at another picture. It's an off guard picture of Asher with the northern lights in the background.
"Her man, her man, her man." Kie giggles, peeping at the phone screen until Sutton slides the screen again and I'm not stopping her from being nosy.
Neither am I denying Kie's chant however she meant it. I trusted Asher enough to let my guard down and fall asleep in his arms over Thanksgiving weekend and that's all I need to verify. I'm not running and I don't have the urge to do so. It's strange but also not if that makes sense. "That's his Aunt Shirley and they..."I pause, stretching over the table to point out the other two adults in the frame. "are his parents."
"That's Asher's Dad? He looks just like him and he's hot too!" Sutton's mouth literally drops.
I watch Kie nod in agreement. "They do look alike. Damn the genes are strong."
Mattie touches her heart, eyes softening as she melts in her chair. "Aw look at his son you guys. So cute."
I smile. She's right. But I snatch my phone from them because if I let Sutton have one inch, she'll take a mile and skip through my entire photo albums. "That's it. Tell me about your thanksgiving. How was Josh?"
Mattie stares at me like I've said something nasty. Okay maybe the way I said 'how's Josh?' might've seemed that way.
Kie gives Sutton her undivided attention as this topic is a strong suit of hers. "Yeah girl, how was Josh?"
"Stop looking at me like that ah!"She covers her face and breathes into her palms. After a giggle, she stares at us again and this time her cheeks are blazing red. "We stayed at this beautiful lake house and don't ask me where exactly because I have no idea and we watched the sunset in chairs. Josh would read my favorite books and I don't think you guys understand how attractive that is to me. He reads the smut scenes and everything and yes he's my dream guy. I still can't cook mac and cheese. How can someone mess up Mac and cheese? I did but his family loves me so it was okay." She rests an elbow on top of the table and the look on her face surely tells me that she's had a good time. "It was nice. I needed the break because now it's time to focus on finals."
Finals. Something to look forward to. The ache. The stress. I'm on the fence for all of that. Why do I miss it?
"Kie, you're up."
"I feel so single now." Kie laughs when the ball ends up in her court but she continues, "I fucked up my Mom's mac and cheese and collard greens. When I tell you my plate was spotless. It was spotless. I don't have a person so I didn't do as much as you guys but it was nice seeing my family again. I fought over Uno all weekend. That game always ends in tears and yes it's that serious."
"My turn. Lots and lots of snow. We went skiing and I might've taken a couple pictures with a bikini on with those high boots." Mattie slips her phone on the table and shows us exactly what she's talking about. Our mouths drop. Damn I got attractive friends. "The picture came out pretty but I was freezing. I had to be covered up and babied but I liked it. Mainly I went skiing, ate some good food, quality time and you guys know that's my type of thing."
"Sounds like everyone had a good time."Sutton perks up. "Are we ready to order? The spinach and feta omelette sounds so good. I'm getting that." She waves over a waitress at our table. I don't recognize this one as she scurries on over tucking a strand of fiery red hair behind her ears.
Guess we're ordering breakfast for dinner.
While everyone tosses their orders out in the open, Kie decides to direct a serious question my way. "So, how's the copy cat thing going?"
——
ASHER
I drop my stuff at the foot of the refrigerator and open the door to grab a drink. Beers that I'm sure belong to Tyler stand out at the top shelf followed by sports drinks, soda and water. When I'm downing a bottle of water to quench my thirst, a familiar voice pops up. "How long have you been fucking my sister?"
I almost choke. Wasn't expecting that. "She's the one that was starring in your shower fantasies isn't she?"
"Hello to you too Cole,"I clear my throat, greeting my teammate. "We haven't fucked. We're enjoying each other's company right now. Things got heated before Thanksgiving that's all. A little info for you, I'm sure you don't want the details."
Cole's face scrunches up. "Save it," he says and I laugh. "I knew it when you showed up to her door. I'm not going to be weird about it I promise. I won't say my sister is off limits nor will I threaten you about hurting her. You know better and you're way better than me when it comes to real relationships anyway so I'm thinking I have nothing to worry about here."He approaches the fridge and grabs himself a bottle of water. "Just a heads up because you are my friend and I think you should know that she disappears sometimes."
My eyebrows knit. "What does that mean?"
Cole gets honest, his features softened. "I love my sister and everything but she's terrified of lasting relationships. She can cut people off when it gets too serious for her. Trust me, I've had a guy in my space about her, begging to see if I can tell him how to get her back and make her stay. And this is a true story. She's been savage all her life."
Oh.
I know but hearing the aftermath is... I wonder if Riley knows they go to Cole for her.
"Thanks for the heads up. I already know that's a thing she does because she told me."
"Seriously? Then you must be doing something right." He admits, straight with it. "I think she's just scared though. But if you can catch her? It's gotta be special, just be gentle with her? She hasn't felt safe."It occurs to me what Riley told me about that Julian guy is exactly what Cole means. "She must really like you. She's never went with a guy for thanksgiving anywhere so that might mean something special to her. How was it this year?"
I don't know why I'm smiling like a fool because he trusts me with his sister and he's not mad about it. Hearing all of this from Cole's mouth means more than he knows. He's a forward guy who he doesn't lie.
"Uh, Good. Good. A bunch of tourist attractions. That's all we did and it felt like a mini vacay. How about you? How was it being at your Mom's?"
Cole sighs, chugging the entire bottle of water before he comes up for air. "Torment. All we did was talk about Riley. Riley, Riley, Riley. That was basically it."
"And the food?" I'm curious to hear about this given what I know. Or at least what Riley's mentioned.
Cole lets out a breath. "Man I haven't had meals like that in ages." Sounds like his mother cooked up a storm. He doesn't get into much details though, instead he asks. "Did you two really find evidence for that girl that copied Riley?"
"Yeah, we did," I try to explain what happened and subtract the part where I fingered his sister on her classmate's desk. It'll all sound unsanitary if I say it out loud to someone who wasn't there to get it. "Your sister's worried though. She really thinks it might not be enough or she might still get kicked out. Stakes are high."
To the point she can barely sleep at night. It's funny how Riley being affected and unsure of her future also affects me in some way. I care about her and what's going on in her life and I want to fix it and find all the solutions in the world and it's a shame I don't get to make the final judgment.
Cole shakes his head. "I'm not letting that happen. She's not getting kicked out on my watch. My twin? Gotta be crazy."
I'm with him on that. "Neither am I. Which is why I told her that we'd walk out of our classes, protest, do something if that's the direction the Dean chooses to go with. I don't think she's going to be kicked out, I'm really not thinking negatively even if that's realistic it's just not something I see happening. Her classmate Jade has done this before."
"Let what happen? What's going on?"Rhett walks into the kitchen with Tyler and Eric following him.
Tyler raises an eyebrow. "Who's protesting?"
"Us." Cole answers without a second thought.
"What do you mean?" Eric speaks up, making his way to the fridge where he grabs himself one of Tyler's sports drinks.
"If Riley gets expelled—
"Riley's getting expelled? Your Riley?"Tyler interrupts with wide eyes. "No way bro."
"She might, yeah. I don't know what the dean's decision will be so if it happens we will be. A chick called Jade plagiarized her work and she's paying for it. Will you guys participate?" Cole asks, looking among all of us.
Tyler gives him a look. "Is that even a question bro? She's like a hockey sister. Of course we're helping. If she's wrong or right we don't care."
Rhett nods in agreement then he spills out a question. "Who is this Jade girl anyway? Should we go find her, get her to confess? Would that help?"
"We could. I don't know if she'll confess to anything knowing that she's needed on Tuesday. I know my sister and she won't want us to go and do that. She hates asking for help." Cole emphasizes the word hate. He's right. I've gathered that much.
"What's the point of copying? I haven't done that shit since high school and it's no use when you know nothing." Tyler chuckles, grabbing himself something to drink, preferably one of those sports drinks.
"True that." Eric states, "the time taken to cheat or copy could've been spent doing your own thing."
"Riley's got this. She just needs to believe that she's got this." I say, leaning over to pick up my bag from the floor. "She won't be getting expelled, it's bullshit."
Fifteen minutes after unpacking in my room, I get a text from Riley.
RILEY:
What are you doing tonight?
I type a response and sit down on my bed.
ME:
Not much
Did your friends like the diner?
If my brain serves me well I dropped her off at Dan's diner earlier when she asked me to. Before I can wrap myself in a web of words or thoughts that might not be useful, Riley replies.
RILEY:
Yeah
We didn't take any pics though
I'm just gonna get to the chase
I need you
I pause right there on the message. 'I need you' sucks me into its own stratosphere. I know I can't dwell on one part of the text so I continue reading before I let my facial muscles get the chance to crack a grin.
RILEY
I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight and I kinda want you to do that magic thing with your hands in my hair again and cuddle me
Another message rings in.
RILEY:
And yup I admit you are
good with hugs
I grab my keys and let her know that I'm on my way. My feet hurry downstairs where I can hear my teammates from the kitchen when I open the front door. A whoosh of wind strikes me in the face on the way out. I just know she needs me and I need to get to her. That's the only thing playing in my head like a mantra.
Moments later, I'm outside the apartment door with my hands in the pockets of my jeans. I don't get much time with my thoughts when the door opens and reveals my teammate's sister on the other side. This time she traded her outfit for comfortable nightwear, a long sleeve top that covers her beauty marks and flannel plaid pajama pants. Through the shirt, I'm seeing her nipples pointing in my direction. Jesus. Focus. I should focus.