"Riley, you had one job!"
I roll my eyes as my dad comes storming into the hospital room, my mom right behind him.
"How did this happen?" my mom asks, going over to my brother's bedside and touching his cheek. "What happened to his face?"
"He got in a stupid fight," I mutter. "Since he hadn't been taking his medication, it affected him more than usual. The doctor said he'll be fine though."
"Good," my mom says with a sigh of relief and hugs me tightly. "Did you come alone?"
"No. Zander came with in the ambulance. He's helping Sam parallel park right now," I explain.
My mom rubs my arm gently. "You seem upset. Wren is going to be fine, honey. You said it yourself."
"I know." I cross my arms over my chest and lean against the hospital wall. "I've just had a long night."
She nods and continues to give me a much-needed-side-hug. "Tell me about it. Your father was singing show tunes all throughout the restaurant! I was mortified!"
"Hey!" my dad interjects. "I got a standing ovation from the nice ladies in the back."
I smile softly. There's a knock on the door, and the doctor walks in.
"There's a few people waiting outside," he says with a smile. "Wren will probably be sleeping for the next hour or so. I'll have one of my nurses get you when he wakes up."
I nod and step out of the room with my parents. Not much to my surprise, Sam and Zander stand outside of the room with a bouquet of balloons from the party. Zander is holding the birthday cake as well.
"Goodbye, Sam," has been changed to "Get better, Wren."
Smiling, I hug my best friends. My dad takes the cake from Zander, sticking his finger on the side and licking off the frosting. With an annoyed sigh, my mom snatches the cake from him and mutters, "we had dessert at the restaurant."
"How is he?" Zander asks, peering behind my head to try to see in his room.
"He'll be okay," I assure.
Sam takes my hand in hers as we go to sit in the waiting-room. "How are you?"
I shrug and take a seat next to my mom.
"If I were you," Zander says while shoving a piece of cake in his mouth, "I'd be beyond depressed already."
"Zander," Sam whispers harshly.
He gives his girlfriend the puppy eyes, frosting on his chin. "What? I'm hungry."
"What do you have to be depressed about?" my mom asks, concerned and confused.
"A cheating and girl-using boyfriend," Zander answers, which earns him a whack on the back from Sam as he sits next to her.
My dad leans forward in his seat. "What did cake-boy just say?"
I run my hands down my face and let out a small groan. "It's not important right now."
"Wren is going to be fine, Riley," my mom days sternly. "Tell us what cake-boy is talking about."
"Cake-boy doesn't even know what he's talking about half the time he says things," I say, trying to avoid this conversation right now.
"Cake-boy has a name and he doesn't appreciate being referred to as that," Zander interrupts.
"Seriously, mom and dad," I pause, "it isn't a big deal."
My mom rolls her eyes, knowing too well I'm lying. "You know, if you don't tell us what happened, there's a good chance Asher Westfield will suddenly go missing."
"Truth," Zander comments and points to my mom.
I sigh. "Wren just said some stuff at the party about how Asher is in love with Sara. He was drunk, so we don't actually know if he was telling the truth."
But deep down I know he was.
"Two questions," my mom states and pauses for dramatics. "Sara, as in your brother's only serious girlfriend? And, there was alcohol at this party?"
"That's the right Sara. And, that was all your son and I had nothing to do with it. Now, can we talk about something else?"
My mom looks overwhelmed, shaking her head and trying to understand it. Honestly, I don't even understand what happened. I wasn't able to get any answers because of Wren's heart attack.
I'm zoned out for the next half an hour of my parents and Zander and Sam arguing over who should win American Idol.
To be completely honest, I'm absolutely terrified right now. If what Wren said were true, then Asher is not who I thought he was and I fell for him nonetheless. If Asher used me or cheated on me with Sara, my heart would shatter.
I'm just going to be Dumb Riley, falling in love with some boy at age seventeen. I'll be the naive girl who actually thought a boy could be loyal and in love with her right back.
But maybe Wren is all wrong. Maybe Asher didn't cheat on me, didn't use me to get with Sara. Maybe Asher is in love with me just like he said every time we were together.
I just wish I could believe the latter is true. What's the point in lying to myself?
"Hey," my mom shakes me gently, "Wren woke up."
I stand up and follow my parents into Wren's hospital room. He shoots me a half-smile as we walk in.
"Did the doctors give you a working brain this time?" my dad asks, ruffling my brother's brown hair.
"We'll see," Wren says with a smirk. "Hey, mom, am I grounded?"
My mom shakes her head slightly and rubs his cheek. "We'll see."
The four of us laugh, all of us knowing for sure he'll be grounded for a month once he's out of this hospital.
"Sister," Wren greets.
I smile half-heartedly, my arms crossed over my chest. "Brother."
"Is everything okay, kiddo? You look like your brother almost died," he jokes, but stops smiling when he sees I'm not. "Did I do something wrong?"
"You just have some explaining to do," my mom says. "Let's let talk for a bit, honey."
My dad is a bit reluctant to leave, but caves when my mom kicks the bottom of his foot.
Once they're gone, I pull up a chair to sit next to Wren's bed. He waits for me to start talking, but I find it more difficult to just talk about than I expected.
"Uh," I pause, "you sort of said some stuff at the party about Asher.. and.. I-"
"Dammit," he mutters. "What'd I say? I didn't mean any of it."
I nod, though not believing that. "You called me desperate. You said I didn't really love him and that I was dumb for thinking I was in love. Um.. so then Asher punched you."
"That would explain the throbbing in my penis right now," he comments briefly with a head nod.
I squint in disgust. "Anyway.."
"Sorry." He reaches to touch my arm. "Look, Riley, I was drunk. I don't know how you really feel about Asher. And you're not at all desperate. I'm sorry if I embarrassed you."
"Yeah," I mumble. "You didn't stop there. You sort of told the whole party that Asher was in love with Sara and not me."
He frowns, his eyebrows pulling together. "I-I.." He lets out a heavy sigh. "I wasn't going to tell you like that."
My stomach drops when he doesn't deny it like he had with the other points. "It's true?"
"Riley," he says softly, "I'm sorry."
I cover my mouth with my hand, fighting back tears. Shakily, I stand from the chair and pace around the room. "But how do you know?"
"Sara told me about her past relationship with Asher," Wren sighs.
"Past relationship?"
"They dated over the summer and broke up before the school year," he explains. "Sara said he always texted her and tried to call her, even when you were two dating."
Asher lied to me. He told me that Sara was only his tutor that day he got her the bracelet for secret Santa. Had Asher purposely switched names with Tucker to get Sara, to give her that meaningful bracelet in an attempt to win her heart? Was Sara the girl who Tucker said still, "had his heart?"
"Riley, are you okay?"
"How the hell am I supposed to be okay, Wren?" I snap. "I was in love with Asher! He-he used me to make my brother's girlfriend jealous! He didn't even love me, but I believed him, I loved him. God, I feel so stupid right now."
I kick the leg of the chair and sit on the edge of his bed, covering my face with my hands in a heap of emotions.
"I don't want to see you like this," Wren says in pain. "Don't cry, Riley." He tries to move in the bed, but falls back down in defeat. "Can you do the boy who just had a heart attack a favor and look at him?"
I lift my head, wiping a tear from my cheek.
"Here's the thing, Riles," he starts, "we're in this together, you and me. Sara and Asher dragged us into their little game and now we're the ones with broken hearts. Well, mine is both literally and figuratively broken but you have shotgun on the figuratively heart broken train."
I smile slightly. "Yeah."
Zander bursts into the room, frosting on his chin. "Riley, we have a tiny problem on our hands. It would've been under control if Sam hadn't gone with your mom to get Wren clothes and if your dad hadn't gone to pee."
I sigh and stand up from the bed.
Zander peers over at my brother with a victorious grin. "Oh, how the tables have turned."
I roll my eyes and push Zander out of the room. "What's the problem?"
Instead of answering, he just gestures dramatically to the right. My eyes follow where he points, landing right on Asher.
"No," I decide. "No way." I turn to head back in Wren's room, but Asher grabs for my hand. "Not happening."
"Riley," he sighs.
I turn the other way and start marching down the halls of the hospital. "Nope."
Asher is reluctant to stop following me, keeping a steady jog. "If you could just let me explain!"
"Just stop!" I snap and turn to face him, not daring to look him in the eye. "I'm so tired of this Asher. Wren is right. We don't work. We keep trying to make this work, denying that the truth in the matter is our feelings are made up. I never loved you and you never loved me."
"No, he's not right!" Asher yells back. "I made mistakes, Riley. I was selfish. But-but that doesn't mean my feelings for you aren't real now. I do love you."
"Oh, go fuck yourself," I mutter and start to walk away.
"I get that you're mad, but that's because you've only heard half the story. Listen to me!"
"No, Asher, you listen to me." I stand with my hands on my hips to look as intimidating as a girl half his size can be. "I don't care whether you have feelings for me right now, whether you liked me before, or whether you ever had feelings for me. You used me to make Sara jealous."
"Riley, I-"
"Shut up!" I scream. "You used me! I put my heart out there and told you how scared I was and you.. you just.."
"I liked you, Riley. I liked you so much. When I realized I still had feelings for Sara, I ended things with us."
I hold the sides of my head in disbelief that this boy really thinks what he did can be justified. "So everything after our breakup was a lie? When you made me fall in love with you, all you wanted was Sara?" I rest my back against the bland hospital walls. "Bastard."
"I was jealous," Asher admits. "Sara and Wren were so happy together. I just, I didn't expect that. And I wanted to make her jealous, so, yes, Riley, I used you to make Sara jealous. I did. And I hate myself for that because somewhere along the way I really did fall in love with you."
"You have no right to say those things to me," I say with my eyes on the portrait of a horse in rain boots on the wall in front of me. "None of that matters anymore. I'm done."
"Riley, don't do this," Asher pleads.
Unwilling to satisfy him with how much my heart is aching, I push myself off from the wall and head back towards the waiting room. My dad is waiting for me, his arms wide open. I fall into his lap, crying against his shoulder unremittingly.
"This is all my fault, baby girl," he sighs and rubs my back. "I should've never let you kiss that damn boy on that damn kiss cam."
"But you did go viral because of it," Zander points out.
"None of that is worth it if I have to see you hurting like this, Riley," he says as I continue to cry against his shoulder. "No basketball game, no number of views of YouTube, no yacht, no amount of money can take away the pang in my chest seeing my daughter like this."
"The yacht though..."
My dad whacks Zander on the head.
~~
AN:
sweet little father-daughter & Zander moment for ya
raise your hand if you wanna slap Asher Westfield for Riley
the new cover was made by @oblivionscars ! I love it so much & hope you guys do as well
recently, I've been getting covers sent in from all you beautiful people and I want them to be seen! so each chapter I'll attach a different cover and give the creator a shoutout for being so cool :)
I hope there's not too much confusion on what happened between Asher and Sara and Riley and Wren and sort of the timeline. if so, I can maybe clarify in the comments or hopefully next chapter will help as well.
ps WE GOT TO #4 ON TEEN FICTION WHICH IS OUT OF THIS WORLD SO ILY ILY ILY
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