About two months later, everything was back to normal. Well, as normal as it could be after all that has happened. Wren and Sara are still as cute as can be, even with the impending doom of college coming their way. Zander, Tucker, and I have been getting a lot closer, especially now that Tucker has come out to the whole school and all his friends and family.
As for my love life, it's back to the same old nothing as it was before I kissed Asher Westfield on that dumb kiss cam. Asher has been taking the breakup quite well, his stream of girls as steady as ever. Cue the eye roll.
I was in love with him, yes. I'm not proud of being in love with him, but it happened. All I've been trying to do these past months is to hate him. It's just not as easy as it seems.
Plus, there's Dexter. There hasn't been any advancements in whatever we have together, but that's probably due to the fact I can't seem to just stop thinking about Asher at all. It's only fair to Dexter if I can love him completely, no distractions. I can't risk hurting him, not when I care so much about him.
Sam is coming home today for spring break. Praise Jesus. As much as I love Tucker and Zander, I need my best friend home.
I can barely hold in my excitement by the end of the school day, knowing Zander and I will be on our way to pick up Sam from the airport as soon as school ends. I sit in my last class with my glued to the clock the whole time.
As soon as the bell rings, I jump out of my seat and run to my locker to grab my things. Zander comes running down the hallway in mere seconds, his smile huge.
"Can you hurry up?" he asks loudly. "The bell rang a whole thirty-seconds ago, Riley! Move, move, move!"
"I'm moving!" I laugh and dump the books I need into my backpack before shutting the locker and running with Zander down the hallway.
Running in the hallway isn't allowed. I never really understood why. If I need to get somewhere fast, I need to run. It seems simple and I don't get why the school feels the need to hold me down like that.
I never understood until five seconds ago when I collided into a boy and hit my face so hard I was sure I died.
"Riley, now is not the time!" Zander mutters as I lie on the ground in searing pain, pulling on my arm to lift me up from the ground.
I groan in pain and try to stand up on my own. Looking to see who the innocent receiver of Riley's-magnificent-run-in-the-hallway-turns-deadly, I swear a thousand different times in my head.
"You okay?"
Trying to stay as cool as possible in front of the boy who broke my heart, I give him a thumbs up. "I'm great!" I say enthusiastically. "So great, actually. I'm doing so great. Aren't we doing great, Z? So great."
Asher nods and bends down to rub his knee that I most likely injured. "That's great." He glances over to Zander. "Hey, Zander."
Zander just continues to tug on my arm, making no attempt to hide his obvious hatred of Asher.
"We have to go," I say and start walking with Zander.
"Have a nice spring break!" he calls while limping over to a group of kids. He has friends? Hm. Not used to that one.
I scoff at his attempted friendliness and start my rant as Zander and I walk to his car. "Have a nice spring break? Who the hell does he think he is? He can't just say that. And 'hey, Zander?' What was that? He can't just talk to you like you're his friend! Did you see how casual he acted? It's like we never even dated!"
"Actually, it's more like you two don't even know each other," Zander comments and unlocks his car. "It was like my conversations with my mom's pharmacist's neighbor's son."
I climb into his car and let out a heavy sigh. "He totally wrecked my mood. And I think I have a concussion."
"Here, answer this simple fact. Who was the tenth president of the United States of America?"
"I don't know.. Polk?" I guess.
"No!" Zander gasps in horror. "I think we should take you to a doctor."
"No one knows who the tenth president of the United States of America is!" I exclaim.
"John Tyler!"
I roll my eyes. "Of course you would know."
"It's no wonder you failed U.S. History," he mumbles
"I didn't fail!" I whack his arm with my hand. "I just retook the Constitution test a couple times."
"How many times was it again?"
I cross my arms over my chest and childishly stick out my tongue at Zander. "Eleven."
After about half an hour later, we arrive at the airport to pick up Sam. Her flight was delayed, so Zander and I had to wait even longer for her plane to finally come in.
"There's her plane!" Zander squeals and points through the glass to the plane landing. He starts to do a break dance type of thing in front of everyone else at the gate. I let it go because I too have the urge to start break dancing.
As the people from her flight start to come through the door, Zander jumps up and down in anticipation. I jump with him, unable to control the excitement.
"Oh no!" Zander gasps. "I have to pee!"
"Go pee," I order. "Sam will understand."
He bites his lip, glancing from the plane to the bathroom. In a sprint, he heads for the bathroom. "Tell Sam I love her!"
I laugh and watch the people leave the airplane. "Sam!" I yell as soon as I see my best friend.
Ready to sprint toward her, I stop immediately when I see she is holding hands with some boy. My eyes widen as I stare at the interlocked fingers.
Without any attempt to hide the hand holding, Sam waves to me with her free hand. "Riley! I missed you so much!"
I stand with my arms crossed against out chests, not moving to hug her when she makes the attempt.
"Um," I point to the boy, "who's the dude?"
She giggles as the boy does the same. "This is my neighbor Beau! I invited him to come to California with me for break!"
"Sam, why do you think this is okay?" I ask her incredulously. "No offense, Beau."
"What? Are you totally against having a fourth member to our posse this break?"
"I'm totally against you cheating on Zander!" I say angrily, earning a few glances at other people in the airport.
She covers her mouth with her hand. "You think I'm dating Beau?" They both burst out laughing.
"Well, you're holding hands!" I point out.
"Beau!" Zander screams as he runs back. He tackles Sam and this Beau figure in a bear hug.
"I'm confused," I state.
Sam laughs. "Beau is my neighbor who also happens to be into guys."
"Beau is the man!" Zander says in a deep voice and slaps Beau's back.
I nod. "Okay.. Confused no more. Welcome to California, Beau."
"Thanks, Riley," he says with a warm smile. "I hear you get down with a lot of those Californian beach hotties. Mind setting me up sometime with any hottie who bats for the other team?"
I laugh and hit Sam's arm lightly. "You told him I do what with Californian hotties? That's a past life, Beau. Hate to break it to you."
"You're not everything I dreamed you'd be, Riley." He leans in a little closer, staring at my nose in concern. "Does your nose hurt?"
"What?"
"Does your nose hurt?"
I touch my nose a little, hissing at the immense pain. "Okay, yeah.. How'd you know?"
"It's clearly broken."
~~
So after going to the hospital to find out that Asher Westfield indeed had broken my nose, we return to my house where Wren and Sara had prepared a meal for Sam's return. It was cute, just like their entire relationship.
"Riley, what happened?" Wren asks, pointing to the bandage on my nose.
"Asher Westfield," I mutter and sit down at the table.
"What?" Wren gasps. "He hit you? Oh, just wait and see what I'll do to that punk-ass, jackass, ass!"
"He does have a nice ass," Sam says with a shrug and sits next to me. I give her a look and she holds her hands up in defense. "Joking."
"He didn't hit me," I sigh. "I ran into him in the hallway and broke my nose."
Wren nods and hands me a plate. "This really doesn't surprise me." When the doorbell rings, he sends Sara to answer it as he's busy serving us our plates. "I invited Tucker.. and Georgia overheard so she's coming too."
"You really didn't need to throw me this party," Sam says.
"Your last party kind of sucked because of me and drama, so I thought this would make up for it," Wren explains.
"Aw, this almost makes me want to forgive you for poisoning my boyfriend!" she gushes and gives him a side hug.
Tucker and Georgia walk in, bickering about some random topic to no surprise. I smile at the fact they carpooled to this, my friends becoming friends. It's a cute little world.
During dinner, Sam tells us about her life in Nebraska. She has made a few friends, though Beau is her closest friend as of now. She misses California a lot, but I know that was a subtweet to missing me a lot. Since Wren is considering going to college out there, they talk about the school for a bit. I drown out school talk. Hey, it's spring break. Why would I want to hear about that?
"What's your name, cutie?" Beau asks Tucker.
Tucker glances at me, an awkward look on his face. "Uh.. I'm Tucker."
"Beau," he introduces and reaches his hand across the table.
Tucker doesn't shake it.
Georgia does instead. "I'm Georgia!"
"Yeah, that's great, sweetie," Beau comments and turns his attention back to Tucker. "So, what's your favorite thing to do around here?"
Tucker shrugs. "I just chill."
"He also likes to go to the beach," Zander adds. "Riley, Tuck, and I try to go to the beach as much as possible."
"I miss the beach," Sam sighs. "Can we watch the sunset tonight, Z?"
"Yeah, yeah, sure. But Beau, did you know that Tucker also is a whiz on the skateboard?"
"I didn't know," Beau says. "Maybe he can give me a few lessons."
"You two should make it a date!" Zander exclaims. "Tucker hasn't had a date in all the time I've known him. Right, Tucker?"
"I could kill you," Tucker says seriously to Zander.
Beau laughs. "Nothing to be embarrassed about. It's common for men who have just come out to not jump into dating."
"How-how'd you know I just came out?" Tucker asks uncomfortably.
He points to Zander. "He told me all about you because apparently we'd be soul mates. Oh, that reminds me, if you ever need to talk to someone, I've also struggled with drug addiction."
"Zander!"
All eyes move to Zander who is sitting with his entire dinner stuffed in his mouth. "What'd I do?"
"Z, you can't just tell whoever you want Tucker's life story," I say. "No offense to Beau, but you don't even really know him."
"I just don't want Tucker to be lonely."
I glance at Tucker who is staring at his lap. "Just apologize."
"I'm sorry for telling strangers your entire life story," Zander mumbles with a mouthful of mashed-potatoes.
"It's okay," Tucker decides. "But if you guys don't mind I think I'll excuse myself."
I sigh and follow him out of the kitchen. He walks out the front door, stopping to sit on the step. I sit next to him.
"Well, I don't think we can be very surprised at Zander's actions."
"I'm not," he laughs. "I'm just.. I don't know. I'm very embarrassed for one thing."
"What do you have to be embarrassed about?"
"I'm a struggling drug addict who finally grew enough courage to admit that he was gay and don't even know how to handle someone flirting with me in the Beau was."
"Tucker, I still don't know how to handle someone flirting with me," I laugh. "It's normal. And you have nothing to worry about. It's admiring to see you're trying to work on your addiction and you did come out and you are confident."
He sighs. "I didn't act confident in there."
"Will it make you feel any better if you hear how I broke my nose?"
"Probably."
"I crashed into Asher in the hallway."
He laughs. "That did make me feel better. Got any more embarrassing stories?"
"Do you know who you're talking to?"
~~
AN:
it's spring break!!!!!! so I thought it was relevant for Riley to break her nose lololol
I know that you guys really wanted me to update sooner and that's all the comments became and I'm sorry it took so long but I was super busy so please try not to attack me with update comments I try my best
also it makes chapters eh and not as well crafted when I feel pressured which is what happened with this one
I hope you enjoyed nonetheless! this story is coming close to ending so I'm slowly pulling everything together!
thoughts on Beau?
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