I woke up before everyone else.
And as my eye lids fluttered open I remembered yesterday and smiled at our fun but discarded the bad parts.
Or...attempted to at least.
Richie bev and I are staying at Tias another night.
But right now I was staring at Richies face, which was perfectly peaceful and making me happy while I waited for hm to wake up.
I woke up to him still being close to me, barely touching me.
I will admit, I was slightly disappointed.
Okay, maybe very disappointed
I got bored of eating for the rest of them to wake up. So instead I flicked Richie in the face three times.
He grunted sleepily but didn't bother to wake up or move.
I sighed deeply and moved away from him.
For him only to grab me quickly and pull me back.
I bitched internally about how I wanted to get up.
But yet, still, part of me didn't.
I tapped his arm and flicked him again.
Earning a small swat in return but nothing else.
Eventually I gave up and slapped him with a pillow.
He sat up, startled.
But when he noticed the pillow in my hands he just payed back down and put his arm around my waist again.
"Richie I wanna get up" I complain, trying to move his arm.
His grip only tightened around my waist and kept me hostage.
I waited a few minutes.
He was almost falling asleep again.
I was losing my patience.
Although not really.
I screamed in his ear.
He yelled and sat bolt upright.
And so did tia and Beverly.
"Aah! What?!" Tia shouted in annoyance.
"He wouldn't stop touching me." I state plainly, gesturing to the arm around my waist.
The two other girls laughed and Richie just once again laid back down.
"Fuck off tozier I wanna get up!" I exclaim.
He doesn't make a noise, just pulls me closer and waits for a cuddle in return.
He pouts when I don't give him one.
I exhale sharply and punch him playfully before giving him a hug.
"Can I go now?" I ask sourly.
"No" he replies flatly as he. Closes his eyes yet again.
I peel his arms off me with more difficulty than expected and jump up.
Bev and tia are laughing happily at us.
"Fuck off" I I shout raising my arms for effect and then flipping them off.
"Ooh. Not very friendly" Tia comments through a laugh.
"Clearly"
I roll my eyes and look through my bag for an outfit.
I pull out a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and think of how I'm supposed to get changed.
I don't even have to say anything before Richie pipes up with a big smirk and raised eyebrows.
"Can I watch?"
I give him a dirty look and flip him off before answering with "no! You cannot look!"
He shakes his head in disappointment and throws the covers over himself.
"Okay go. I promise I won't look!" He says honestly.
"You better not or I swear to god your gonna be freezing your ass off tonight because I will not be keeping you warm." I warn as I start my changing process.
I dint care if Beverly and Tia see.
Cause they both start changing just when I do as well.
When all three of us finish I call out for Richie.
"Hey tozier we finished"
He pulls the blanket off his head and sits up.
"I really wish you'd have let me watch." He smirks while rummaging through his bag for a change of clothes.
"Now you, you guys can watch me" he informs us confidently.
We all shake our heads quickly and duck under the blankets for eye safety.
I am not losing my eye virginity to him.
No way.
When he calls out for us that he finished changing we all cautiously and slowly raise our heads from the blankets.
When we see he is in fact fully clothed, we get up and walk to the house for breakfast.
"Morning girls" were greeted by mine and tias mothers.
We all give our hellos and grab a bowl of cereal before running out towards the stables.
First, we groom the horses. All laughing and shouting to each other through the horses stalls.
Richie was unsure how to do it, so Tia was helping him while I was of course brushing Sizzle.
I talked to him as I moved my arm in circles around his flank and brushed out his coat happily.
I always enjoyed brushing horses.
I don't know why though. I just always have.
I finished off with grooming and went to help Richie with Liger, whilst Tia finishes off grooming Grizzly.
She had showed him the basics but he was pretty slow.
So I grabbed one of the horse brushes from the small bin and started working beside Richie in silence.
He smiled at me with admiration which I hardly noticed.
I just returned the smile and helped him groom her properly.
After we finished I went back to Sizzle's stall and saddled him up.
After I finished putting the reins on him I grabbed a sugar cube from my pocket and led it out to him with my open palm.
He took it gratefully and I lead him out to the track to wait for the others.
When the rest got outside we wanted to head to the docks again.
We all had fun yesterday and thought it would be cool to go.
So we saddled up and headed off towards the docks.
The trail being smooth and the easy to follow we had no problems.
Besides Richie complaining that his legs hurt.
But that is besides the point.
It was a nice day with cool autumn breeze brushing my face as the horse walked onward.
Sizzle was such a good horse with a perfect attitude towards riding.
He's gentle and goes slow if he senses your nervous.
He was moving at a brisk pace as his flank moved side to side due to his walking.
We were almost there and I could see the docks through the trees.
When we arrived I slid off Sizzle and lead him towards the water for a drink.
I patted his neck gave him a sugar cube from my pocket. He took it quickly and gave a light snuff, kicking at the ground lightly.
I smiled and gave him one last pat before turning towards the others.
"What do you wanna do?" I ask cheerily, looking between the other three.
Richies too busy feeding Liger al like sugar cubes in his pocket.
Beverly shrugs nonchalantly and Tia offers a reply.
"No idea, I would suggest swimming but I didn't bring my bathing suit and neither did you"
I laugh "really?" I laugh whilst crossing my arms.
"What?" She asks cluelessly.
"At the quarry everyone just goes in their underwear" I inform her through a small chuckle.
She shrugs as if she's saying "makes sense" or "not that bad".
"Then why don't we swim?" Richie suggests eagerly as he looks between Tia and myself.
"Because this isn't the quarry. People can come here any time" Tia says in an obvious tone.
I sigh and take off my boots, then my socks and sit on the edge of the dock, putting feet in the water and splashing for amusement. His face falls and he goes back to patting Liger happily.
I turn back to Tia and she just shrugs and turns to grizzly.
I turn back to Sizzle and give him another sugar cube.
I braid a strand of the horses hair, while he sits there contently while I twist his hair together to form a perfect braid.
When I'm done I take it out and do it again.
We all sit there silence for a little until we richie says something.
"I feel like eddies miserable at home, rearranging his moms dust collection off her back." He speaks absent mindedly, causing the rest of us to laugh with him.
"I believe it" I reply through a giggle.
"Yeah me too" bev smiles happily, playing with Chili's mane.
"I don't know what you are talking about but it was pretty funny" Tia giggles honestly, tucking a strand of her long hair behind her ear.
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure you'll meet him one day and understand" I explain to which she just nods and sits down beside me on the dock.
I had sat down just a moment before Richie made his joke.
Dipping my feet back in the water again I give her a warm smile and look at the water.
A little while later we head back to the stables.
I take off Sizzles saddle, putting it away with the others in a storage room.
I walk back out with the others and decide to watch a movie or two in Tias living room whilst my mom and hers, hang out on the patio.
After watching three movies it's six thirty and head outside to play soccer whilst our moms make spaghetti and meatballs.
Tia runs to her garage I a grab her soccer ball while the three of us wait in the yard for her.
When she returns a few minutes later with the soccer ball, we split off into teams.
Tia as I on a team while Beverly and Richie are on a team.
We made the teams like so, just because Tia and I are the best team when playing two I two soccer.
Trust me.
We start our game and kick the ball off to the side, passing and scoring quickly.
We had two mini nets set up in the yard, they were from when tia was younger but they worked fine.
Tia makes a great pass and I shoot. Nearly missing.
But it makes it in and Tia and I score the winning fifth point.
We cheer and trade the other two shamelessly until we're called inside for dinner.
Once again, Richie and I look at each other and start shoving the other away as we struggle to try and make it inside first.
He grabs me and shoves me backward, running off towards the house.
"TOZIER GET YOUR SCRAWNY ASS BACK HERE!" Shout, sprinting after him playfully.
I grab his arm and pull him backward, shoving him to the ground and running to the door.
I run inside and grab a plate, him coming in not long after myself.
He too, grabs a plate and we pretend it didn't happen.
We put our spaghetti on our plates and eat in silence. And while everyone else is talking we play footsie under the table.
Kicking each other's feet and trying not to laugh about it while the others give us weird looks.
After dinner we play hide n seek inside the house.
At the moment Beverly is the seeker and Richie and I run into the basement in search of a hiding place.
We sit behind a pile of old boxes and under some bags in the back corner.
I'm pretty sure it was a good hiding spot because Richie and I could hear people moving around us, but no one moving the bags or finding us.
Around ten minutes of playing we hear tia complaining to Beverly about being caught.
We sit silently, unmoving and holding our breath.
Hoping not to be found.
But a little while later, maybe five minutes.
We hear them heading upstairs again.
We giggle a little but try not to move too much.
Just Incase we ruin the ruin the perfect set up of bags and get caught.
We've been playing for twenty minutes and we hear shouting for us.
"Y/n! Richie! You win! We're bored of looking!!"
So we jump up and run upstairs laughing at the two who failed to find us.
"What's so funny?" Tia says flatly, raises eyebrows and her hands are on her hips.
"Nothing. It's just that you two are horrible seekers!" Richie laughs exaggeratedly.
"Shut up. Where were you gits?" Tia laughs, and yes she meant gits, not guys. She's half British you see. Although she doesn't have the accent her dad did.
I chuckle lightly.
"You'll never know"
"Never" Richie repeats mysteriously, bursting out into laughter after he speaks.
A little while later we head back out to the tent and tell 'scary ghost stories' for two hours, which turned out to be Richie making up a garbage scary story and then relating it to something else and turning it into a two hour condom conversation.
We play a few board games and then by twelve Richie falls asleep beside me. We wait till two thirty and Bev Tia and I go out for a midnight ride.
That's always been tia and I's thing.
We would go out for rides at midnight or later when it's pitch black outside, with flashlights and go to the river.
So we walk to the stables, and grab the horses saddles and Reins.
We gear them up and ride out towards the river.
The river, is a river.
Tia and I always ride to the river at night because it's calm and you see more animals on the way.
The trail is longer and Richie would've complained so we just kept going I the docks instead.
Don't get me wrong, it would've been fun to come to the river with him.
But we just didn't.
We reach the dark river and the horses immediately take a drink.
I smile at the three horses, necks craned and drinking from the water flowing river.
Beverly sighs, and pretty much right on cue the three of us sit down on the river bank, looking out into the continued land of forest across the stream.
"So, how long are you gonna be staying with Y/n, bev? please say a long time! that means we all can hang out more often!" Tia asks excitedly as she looks at beverly hopefully.
"Actually I'm staying with them permanently" Bevvie informs her happily. I nod and look at Tia who's smiling even brighter.
"YAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY" She shouts ecstatically as she practically falls onto her back.
Beverly and I giggle and also lay on our backs, so we're all staring up at the sky in silence. Just happy keeping each other company.
all we can hear is the sounds of nature.
and the odd horse neigh or snuff.
we lay in silence for a long time, taking in the beauty of the scenery, of the stars and almost invisible clouds.
and we just listen for the sounds of wolves howling and giggle.
but after a long time we decide to head back. unsure why, we just thought it's a bad idea to leave Richie alone for more than an hour.
but he's asleep. so nothing to worry about.
he's perfectly fine.
He can't cause trouble if he's asleep right? No, he can't.
I take hold of Sizzle's reins, and we start off back down the trail, towards Tia's house.
Our flashlights are on, and we're all taking our time to return. Looking around the forest to see who can spot different animals.
"ooh! look a bunny!" Beverly exclaims, pointing to a small cotton tail, sniffing a plant.
"awe, how cute" I chirp dreamily, turning to look at it.
"yeah, it's too adorable" Tia cooed, a faint echo to be heard from all of our voices.
we all grin and keep a lookout for many more woodland creatures.
By the time we reach the Stables, we've gotten off our horses and are having crush talk.
"But Beverly, you like Bill! Why are you judging my choice of crush!" I accuse playfully, punching her shoulder lightly.
"sorry, sorry" she apologizes with a roll of her eyes.
"heh, you should be" I tease.
"oh yeah cause she was being sooooo offensive! And y/n what about your crush? He obviously likes you back!" Tia teases in return to me teasing Beverly.
"Oh please, hardly a crush" I defend, shrugging off the truth.
"Your right!" beverly agrees. "Your in love with him!"
I gasp fakely "How dare you suggest such a thing in my good christian household!" I scold, holding back a laugh. failing at it as we walk through the stable doors. "I am not in love with him!" I lie obviously. These two are my best friends. Of course they know I have a major crush on Richie. It's too obviously painful.
"You are so in love with him!" Tia shouts, teasing me so totally shamelessly.
"Also, do you like Zane?" Beverly asks. Curiosity, clear in her voice when she speaks. I laugh nervously.
not because I like him, but because it's an awkward question when being asked if I feel that way about Zane.
"You do!" Tia shouts.
"You like Zane!" Beverly shouts too. "I knew it!"
Richie's POV
I had woken up, it was around four thirty in the morning, I was cold and am assuming that's the cause of my waking. I looked around but the girls were nowhere to be found.
I left the tent and to the stables, only to find that Sizzle, Grizzly, and Chili were all gone. I walked around the stables for a little longer until I heard the sound of hooves and laughter.
I ran outside the other way, but kept the door open to know when they were coming out. I wanted to scare them.
I could hear what they were saying.
I hear y/n gasp. "how dare you suggest such a thing in my good christian household!" what are they talking about? "I am not in love with him!"
what? are they talking about Zane?
"Also, do you like Zane?" Beverly asks with curiosity.
So they were just talking about her being in love with some mystery crush?
my heart is pounding a mile a minute in my chest as I wait for a response.
"You do!" I hear Tia's voice echo. my heart drops. i feel like the beat of it stopped completely and I'm just gonna die right now.
"you like Zane! I knew it!" Beverly shouts excitedly.
I feel tears sting my eyes and I just want to go home. I'm gonna cry. no.
I just run, back to the tent.
I'll just pretend to be asleep. maybe they won't bother me. Maybe they'll just leave me alone. Maybe I won't wake up.
Your POV
"No! I don't have a crush on Zane too! he's just friend. I only like Richie" I explain. thoroughly.
"okay, good I would be excited, but it would ruin my ship" Tia breathes.
"I know right! and that can't happen!" Bev chuckles sweetly.
"my god" I shake my head, sighing and carrying Sizzle's saddle to the storage room where we keep them.
We walk back to the tent giggling like fucking Greta.
but whatever, at least our laughter isn't fake, much unlike her boobs.
kidding.
kidding.
I swear.
I open the tent, and Richie is right where we left him. asleep in his bed.
The three of us are pretty tired and decide to go to bed too.
I crawl into bed beside Richie, but of course, away from him. Not even bothering to change out of my clothes. screw it I'll do it in the morning.
When I got into bed, I was genuinely disappointed when Richie's arm didn't snake around my waist and try to pull me closer to him.
He just stayed where he was, peacefully asleep.
I fell asleep not long after I went to bed.
Richie's POV
The girls came into the tent and went to bed not long after I got back to tent.
I heard y/n whispering to the other two and them whispering back, but I didn't catch what they had talked about.
But when she came to bed beside me I had to refrain from grabbing onto her.
I wanted to.
So badly, but I didn't because she has a crush on Zane, just like I suspected. And I didn't want to make her uncomfortable.
Because...because...I can't even say it. I know what it is. And it's obvious, but I just can't bring myself to admit it.
It took me a while to fall asleep again. But as I heard y/n's breath even out, it got easier to want to sleep.
So I forced myself to just stay where I was, and wait for sleep to take me. And hopefully, never give me back.