Avery held my hand as we walked down stairs to breakfast. I was in a blissful state, a smile plastered on my face as we finally made it down stairs. It was a little after 8:30, and luckily, they served breakfast until nine.
Avery pulled my chair out for me. "Wait here, I'll make your plate." I nodded, a smile still on my lips as I watched him walk away.
I couldn't help but swell up with a little pride as I watched other females eye him longingly. He was all mine, and he loved me just as much as I loved him. I smiled as I thought about the special moment we shared just half an hour ago. He was gentle, and sweet, and loving, and just everything I could have ever imagined. I was proud to call him my first.
I saw the Emily girl from yesterday slide in next to him. You didn't have to be a genius to know she liked him. She was probably around 16 or 17 and had this long silky straight blonde hair. Her eyes were a startling silver grey color. She had high cheek bones and a petite frame, and was practically throwing herself right at Avery, I felt my eyes roll.
"So, are you from out of town?" She asked nicely.
Avery turned to be polite. "Uh no, I live over in Greenwich."
Her eyebrows shot up. "With all those snooty people who think they're too good for everyone?"
Avery laughed. "I don't think my friends are snooty."
"Of course you don't."
He turned to face her. "What's that supposed to mean?" He cocked a brow, a breathtaking smirk on his lips.
Emily blinked a few times, unable to speak. And I couldn't blame her, Avery was gorgeous. I could only imagine how she would react to Ryder.
"Uh well...it's just because um...I'm sorry, what'd you ask?"
He laughed. "It was fun talking to you, but I've got my girlfriends plate so..." He smiled as he waived bye.
"Oh right. Uh...ok." She looked in my direction with distaste.
Avery sat my breakfast down in front of me, planting a kiss on my lips. "For you my love."
I laughed a little. "Thank you." He sat down across from me. "That girl is totally smitten by you." I giggled. I wasn't threatened by her, or any other beautiful girl for that matter, I knew Avery loved me, I sometimes wondered why, but I knew he did.
He shrugged. "Eh, I don't think so. And where you listening to our conversation?" He said with a smirk.
"One, that's because you're a guy. And two, it's not like I couldn't not hear you...super ears remember?"
He chuckled. "What does me having to be a guy have to do with anything?"
"Well duh, guys are completely clueless, and they never know what they want."
"I know I want you." He winked, causing my heart to skip a beat. "That has to count for something right?"
I laughed. "You know what I mean."
He smiled, laughter in his eyes. "I love you." He brushed his thumb under my chin.
I smiled and leaned into his hand. "I love you too."
******
"Checking out already?" Emily's mom asked with a smile as we walked down the steps with our stuff. After breakfast Avery and I just cuddled and watched movies, there was an instance where things sort of went beyond that, but whatever.
"Yes ma'am." Avery smiled. "We had a lovely time by the way."
"Well I hope sharing one room didn't mess things up too bad." She said sheepishly as she handed Avery something to sign.
"Oh no, one room turned out to work for the better." He winked at me as he squeezed my hand, setting my cheeks on fire.
"Well good. Come back soon ok?"
"Thank you." We said in unison.
"Oh wait, let me help you with that." Emily came from down the hall as she picked up our bags.
"Em, I've never seen you help so much, keep it up." I heard her mother comment as we walked out. I raised my brows to Avery and he only shrugged.
"Which one is yours?" She asked.
"Really, you don't have to help us." I said kindly. She ignored me as she looked to Avery.
"Uh, the black Range Rover right over there."
"Man you really are loaded." She laughed as he pressed a button to open the trunk.
"Hey, well your home has about ten more bedrooms with a bathroom in each than mine does. So you tell me who's really "loaded" here." He cocked a brow. Why'd he have to be so easygoing with any and everyone? This girl was going to fall in love with him faster then I had!
"Touché." She put the bags in the trunk and then turned to give him a smile, flashing all of her teeth. "I'm sorry, I never got your name."
"Oh, how rude of us. I'm Avery, and this is my girlfriend Riley." Ah, would that title ever cease to amaze me?!
I smiled sweetly as she finally acknowledge my existence. She flipped her long blonde hair and stood straighter as she gave me a smile that could give someone a toothache.
"Nice to meet you." She looked more at Avery.
"Same. But, we'd ought to get going-"
"Oh wait, what school do you guys go to?"
Did she ask a lot of questions, or was it just me?
"Uh, we go to Bellwood Prep. You?" I answered before Avery could.
Against her dismay, she looked at me. "I'm homeschooled."
"Poor child." I said sympathetically. And I really meant that.
"Ever thought about private school, or even public?" Avery asked.
"I do but my mom won't budge. I'm nearly 16 and I've never even been to a school football game."
"Really, that's terrible. We have a basketball game tonight, some of our friends are going, you should come too." Avery offered. Both of our eyes widened.
"Sure that'd be great!"
"Good, we'll pick you up around six."
She nodded as she practically skipped back inside. "I'll be ready!"
"What was that about? And who the heck is going to a game?!" I said once we were in the car.
"What? I was just being nice Ri, I'm a Whitelighter remember? And I guess we all are now. The others won't mind."
"But what about Lexi? I've spent long enough putting her off." I snapped.
"Love, calm down. I you told everyone has been working around the clock to get her back. The others would love to go to a game for an hour."
"I don't think you guys really realize how valuable a single second is. We've wasted who knows how long, Lexi could be dead! You all don't seem to understand that!" My temper was flaring. The past couple of hours I was living in a pretend world, now I was back to the reality of my life.
"Riley look, just have a little faith ok. And I was just being nice. If you could see how sad and lonely that girl really was you'd understand why I put the offer on the table."
"She didn't seem sad to me." I huffed with my arms crossed.
"On the inside Ri...she's hurting on the inside."
"How do you know?" I asked quietly as I took a deep breath, twisting and untwisting my key on its chain.
"I'm a Whitelighter Riley, I'm supposed to know these things."
"Why do I always forget that you aren't human?" I finally sighed.
He laughed as he as he squeezed my knee cap. "It's going to be fine love, I promise."
******
"Where have you been?!" Ryder stood at his door giving Avery an annoyed look.
He pushed passed him, tapping his friend's shoulder as he walked by. "Out."
"You were supposed to be here two hours ago." He bit as we met up with the others.
"We're here now, what's with the tude?" I crossed my arms as Ryder rolled his eyes at me. He was ruining my blissful state. "Why aren't you guys in school anyway?"
"Same reason why you aren't." Ryder was being short with me and it was starting to get on my nerves.
I rolled my eyes. "Anything new?" I felt Winter's eyes on mine as I stood with my back to her. I knew full well she was picking up on my giddy state.
"Not really. We spent all last night checking old books my parents had. The best we could come up with was that there is in fact, a hole in every glamour, we just have to find it and push our way in." Ryder answered with a sigh.
"I thought we already knew this." I said in exasperation.
"We had a hunch, and it was confirmed." Ryder corrected harshly. I didn't understand why he was being such a jerk.
Avery stood and paced around the room, clearly in deep thought. "Where would we start to find this hole?"
"Well we'd first have to go back to Riley's place and check for imprints, we'd have to find the seam of the glamour and rip it up from there." Blythe answered.
"Ok, now you've lost me." I pinched the bridge of my nose.
Ryder sighed. "Look, we're late enough as is. We still have time to make it to second hour on time so let's just go, we'll finish this conversation later."
"What? No, we just got here!" I objected. We were wasting too much time already.
"Well maybe if you got here when you were supposed to that wouldn't be a problem now would it?" Ryder snapped.
I let out an irritated growl as I stomped away from him.
"Ryder, seriously, lay off a little." I heard Avery sigh as he caught up with me. "Ignore him ok? He just hates not being in control of things."
I shrugged. "Whatever."
We went about the school day as normal, I felt like I blinked once and we were already heading to fourth hour.
"So..." Winter started. The two of us were finally alone for the moment. I knew she had been dying to say something to me.
"So?" I pushed a strand of hair behind my ear knowing full well what was coming.
"How was it?" She asked casually.
I cleared my throat. "Um, it was...relaxing." I breathed.
Winter cocked a brow. "Riley come on, you're practically glowing, do I really have to beat it out of you?"
I sighed. "How'd you know?" For some reason, I didn't want others to know the fine details of our relationship.
She tapped her head. "I know these things."
I covered my face. "Once again, I forgot you guys aren't human."
She chuckled. "Well...are you happy at least? I mean...it was your first time."
I gawked. "How'd you-what makes you say that?"
Winter cut her eyes. "Riley, seriously?"
I scowled, trying not to smile. "Okay fine, it was perfect. Winter...I'm seriously in love with him."
She nodded understandingly. "That definitely complicates things...seriously complicates things in fact." Her face was sad.
"What's that supposed to mean? Why does everyone keep saying things like that?" It was starting to become a real pain.
"It's not my place to tell Riley."
"Winter come on, you're my best friend." I pleaded.
She frowned. "Nope." She covered her ears. "La la la, you're not going to guilt me into this." She said as she clicked away on her heels. "I'll see you after school!" She called out.
I growled and headed in the direction of my next class.
"Riley!"
I turned to see Tildon walking towards me. My blood began to boil the moment I laid eyes on him.
"If I were you I'd stop right there, turn in the other direction, and walk away." I said venomously.
"Look, I know you probably hate me but-"
"That's an understatement." I growled. I was having a hard time not ripping him to shreds right then and there.
He continued anyway. "Look, I just wanted to know if you were okay, with...you know." He trailed off with sad eyes.
"No I don't know." I snapped. "Why don't you enlighten me."
"I wanted to approach you sooner, but...after the beginning of the week...I was a little scared." He said nervously. "Look, I don't know what you heard about me, but...your sister...she really means a lot to me."
"Oh really? Is that why you spread all of those rumors?" I placed my hands on my hips, smothering the urge to smack him in the face.
He hung his head. "I know, I'm sorry, it's just...I was trying to counter what everyone else was saying. I didn't want people labeling her as "one of those girls", so I figured if I made it seem like I was the only guy she was seeing, "physically"...the others would lay off."
"I don't believe you. What happened at that party last weekended?"
His face paled a little. "You know about that?" I gave him a look. He gulped hard and continued. "Look, things kind of got out of hand, but...I didn't want to disrespect your sister like that, I would never do that to her...I care about her too much." I turned on my heel and walked away, to fed up to listen to anything he had to say. "Riley!" He was ignored.
How dare he try to make him self sound all nobel? My sister was missing and pregnant with his kid. He had the audacity to try and make me believe that he actually cared about her? I was seriously on the verge of strangling him to death.
Avery caught up with me after school. "Hey, you alright?" He wrapped an arm around my waist.
"No." I bit.
"What's wrong?" He asked sincerely. I gave him a rundown of the stint Tildon had pulled. That had really gotten under my skin. "Riley." Avery took my face in between his hands. "Calm down, maybe he really does mean well."
"Did you not hear what I said?!" I snapped. "Avery he lied right to my face and all but flat out said he didn't sleep with her. Last time I checked...babies were the result of unprotected sex!"
He flinched a little, placing a hand over my mouth as he pulled us out of ear shot of others. No need to give them the wrong impression about us right?
He sighed. "Ok, you're right about that part, but...just try to keep an open mind about all of this." He said calmly as he brought me into his embrace.
I sighed as I inhaled his scent. "Alright, fine."
******
"Whoa, basketball game? When did we all decide on that?" Aspen flipped her hair as we all sat together at a coffee shop.
"Actually, we didn't. I kind of just...put the offer on the table?"
"Avery?!" Aspen groaned. "You know I hate being in sweaty gyms!"
"Oh don't be such a sour puss." Soren smirked.
"Yes, I could use a breather." Blythe put his arm around Winter. "Besides, I heard we've been going undefeated since the start of the season."
"Why exactly are we going to a game all of a sudden?" Pippa asked. Her long red locks were curled in neat tufts as they waived down her back gently. She was unnervingly beautiful. How I fit into this group was beyond me.
"Because every invited a girl who practically raped him with her eyes and lip biting." I said with a roll of mine. The others snickered.
He cut his eyes as he gave me a sour look. "I invited her because I could tell she was lonely and hurt. Her parents just got divorced and she's just longing for a friend. She doesn't get outside the house much because her mother is a bit overbearing." He looked at me pointedly.
I shifted in my seat a little. "And just how do you know all of this?" I was still convinced otherwise.
"Because we can read people." Ryder answered as he sighed. He knew he had no reason to object.
"You can too if you want." Winter offered. I shrugged, did I really want to know people's problems when I already had so many of my own?
My answer was no, probably not.
"Then I guess it's settled...we're going to a basketball game tonight."