Sitting on the bus the next morning, I couldn't help but worry about River and Heath. Once River had finished his story, he had gone down to apologize to my mother before asking me to give him a lift home.
The ride had been filled with loaded silence, him obviously thinking about his past while I worried about the fact that anything I did to help River would potentially hurt my relationship with his family.
Whatever it was I had hoped for in regards to Heath might be finished before it even had a chance to start.
But he was my friend and in the end, my loyalty was to him first.
It may hurt but I couldn't live with being the type of person who chose an unsure romantic relationship over assisting River in whatever way I could.
As the bus pulled up to the school, I couldn't help but smile as I noticed River waiting at the curb with a flock of Junior grade girls fluttering around him.
No matter how many times he told them that he had no interest, there was always that following even though he refused to believe that they wanted him and not his brother.
I cursed that bitch Camilla for destroying that piece of his self-confidence – River Daimon was a gorgeous specimen in his own right. The legend of his brother's achievements were not the reason that he managed to turn so many heads.
I could only hope and wish that sometime in the near future, something happened to convince him of that.
I waited until everyone else had unloaded before stepping down and smiling at that pained look on his face.
He grimaced at me before stepping lightly around the thinning crowd, "I was about to abandon you. They seem to be getting worse."
I laughed and straightened my bag before looping an arm through his, "That's because they want for you to notice them. I reckon that they'll resort to flashing soon just to see if that gets a reaction."
"I'm sure the guys here would just love that," he muttered with a drawn face.
Stopping, I waited for him to face me, "What happened?"
He sighed and pushed his free hand to his forehead, "Heath locked the doors to his gym and has refused to come out and speak to me while my parents are understandably concerned with the prospect of me having contact with Camilla again."
"I'm worried about you speaking to her," I admitted honestly.
"Yeah," he looked away, "I just...I can barely remember what she looks like to be honest but some part of me wants to look her in the eye and try to figure out what the fuck made me so crazy."
"That's fair but what are you going to do about Heath?" I squeezed his elbow, "He's going to be really angry."
"Yeah and I hate that but it's my life and I want this closure." He moved out of my hold so that he could drop his hands onto my shoulders, "You don't have to be involved – Heath will be pissed for a while but once he sees that I'm not going to start drinking again, he'll get over it."
I squinted up at him for a moment, not paying any attention to the sudden silence of the students around us, "Ok. I will help you meet up with her but I want you to promise me that if anything happens to make you want to drink again, you tell me honestly." I leaned in closer, "Please don't let her hurt you again."
He smiled, the strain around his eyes lessening slightly, "She doesn't have that power anymore."
"Good," I stepped back, my eyes widening as I saw the frozen expressions on the teenagers around me. "Umm...River..."
He looked up, his smile dying as he obviously spotted something behind me, "RiRi, you might want to turn around."
I whipped around, almost tripping over my own feet.
What I had been expecting didn't even come close to the sight of my father standing on the curb next a black SUV.
Sitting at the breakfast table this morning, he had been tight-lipped about what he had decided to do about the principal and Miranda.
I definitely hadn't expected him to simply show up in an expensive black suit surrounded by four members of Blackbourne Investigations, a private security firm which was regularly hired by my father and his associates for a variety of different purposes.
As many times as I had met them, I knew each and every member – had even invited them all over occasionally for dinner.
"What's going on?" River hissed, his gaze obviously taking in the foreboding expression on all of their faces.
"I have no idea," I whispered back, "Daddy never even mentioned coming here today let alone bringing bodyguards."
"Should we go over there?"
I shook my head, "I think that if he wanted me to get involved, he would have mentioned it before I left this morning. Let's just go inside for now."
"You're not curious?" He asked, as we slowly started to back away, hoping to avoid bringing attention to ourselves.
"Of course I am but I don't really want to deal with everyone's shit if they see me walk up to them." We made it to grassed area before looking back.
All of the men had disappeared into the main building, the silence suddenly destroyed as the hundreds of witnesses started to hiss and whisper, each one obviously trying to reason out what might seem like a visit from the Men in Black.
"I hope Mathison comes out in a body bag," My friend muttered seriously as we sank onto the crisp ground.
I rolled my eyes, "Be serious. They're not going to kill him."
"One can only dream," he chuckled before pointing at my arms which were covered by thin satin sleeves, "How are you feeling?"
I looked down, "Pretty good. I don't hurt as much as what I thought I would considering that fact that she was kicking me."
"Bitch," he breathed almost silently.
"Yeah."
"Hmm, hopefully they'll as least consent to dragging her out by the hair." His facial expression suddenly changed to one of mischief as an eyebrow rose, "So... changing the subject - I never got the chance to ask but what happened yesterday when Heath went up to your room?" He smiled slyly, "You took an awfully long time."