Chapter 7 #2
Stepping into the elevator, River pushed the button for floor five. “She’ll love that. I found three articles, but between you and me, I skimmed two out of the three.”
River kept quiet for the rest of the ride, making the faint hum of the elevator the loudest sound between us. When we made it to the room, Lola greeted me with a sudden hug, practically kissing my feet for finally showing up.
As the three of us worked, River and Lola effortlessly went on tangents about irrelevant stories and jokes, only to lock back in seconds later. While it was working for them, it was distracting me. Being the type of person who needed dead silence when working did not fare well with group projects.
River also interfered with my focus just by being himself.
I wasn’t sure how long Lola and River had known each other, but the way they bantered and joked was like people who had known each other for years.
They pushed each other’s buttons, insulted each other, but it was always apparent that it was just the way they bonded.
Could there be something going on between them? The thought made my stomach churn.
The growl of my stomach interrupted their laughter, practically causing Lola’s jaw to hit the floor. “I thought that was thunder outside.”
River eyed me with a playful grin. “I’m guessing you’re hungry.”
I had meant to eat before I arrived, but then Rory called, and it slipped my mind. While my mind didn’t notice, my stomach sure did. “A bit, but I can wait.”
“Or,” River drawled. “We can all eat now.”
“I don’t want to ruin the flow.”
“You’ll ruin the flow if all you can think about is how hungry you are,” he replied with a yawn. “That’s why I’m not focused; I’m too hungry.”
Lola hopped off her raised bed, shaking her head as she put on her shoes. “You know, if you weren’t athletic and cute, you would struggle in life.”
“I could say the same for you,” he quipped.
She smirked, amused. “I volunteer to grab food because if anyone here needs a break, it’s me. You guys keep working.”
Lola was out the door before telling us where she was picking up food from, leaving me with my ex-bestfriend with amnesia.
Naively, I thought we would stay productive until Lola returned with the food.
It was like I’d forgotten who was sitting next to me.
Save for the fact that his mere presence distracted me, River’s humming of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star as he spun around in the swivel chair made it near impossible to do anything productive.
Fed up with the concert, I shut my laptop forcefully. “Must you do that?”
“Does it bother you?” he asked calmly.
“Yes, actually, it does.”
River pressed his lips into a line. “You realize we are ahead, right? We probably don’t even need to work on this right now.”
I shook my head, reciting my father’s words aloud. “A mindset like that leads to procrastination.”
“I procrastinate all the time, and I’m passing. Right now, anyway.” River shrugged. “What’s your major?”
“Biology pre-med,” I spoke as confidently as I could.
River’s eyes flashed with something I couldn’t quite put my finger on, then he blinked it away. “Damn, no wonder you can’t procrastinate. You wanna do that?”
My eyes flicker to my lap, and my tone softens. “I’m doing it, and that’s all that matters.”
With my father being a surgeon and my mother a nurse, it was the most logical path for me. Truth was, I was okay with doing it because I had no clue what else I wanted to do. Deciding for myself had always been a challenge, and I liked to stick to what was easy.
After a second, I looked up and met River’s brown eyes. The way he squinted told me he wasn’t satisfied with my answer, almost as if he could see right through me. I thought he was going to press it, but he broke eye contact and began twiddling his thumbs and spinning in circles again.
“After we eat, I’m probably gonna head out. Coach added a morning practice since the scrimmage is in two days,” River mentioned. He was speaking more to himself than to me.
“There’s a scrimmage Friday?”
“Yep, and I’m a starter,” he vaunted.
I didn’t understand basketball beyond the basics, so I had no idea what that meant. I didn’t have to ask; he could see the confusion written all over my face.
“Oh, it’s not a big thing.” He waved his hand casually. “It’s just the strongest five players who start every game, and I made the lineup even though I’m only a sophomore.”
It shouldn’t have surprised me. River used to eat, sleep, and breathe basketball as kids—it was honestly a tad concerning.
Sometimes while he played, I’d sit at the edge of the court and watch just to be near him, and he loved it.
Said it made him play better. It was good to know that all of his hard work in basketball as a kid paid off.
“Yeah, definitely not a big deal,” I chuckled, forgetting why I was even upset with River in the first place. “Isn’t it a lot of pressure?”
River scrunched his nose. “A bit, but I manage. The confidence I get when I score, and the crowds’ cheers make up for the nervousness.”
I pursed my lips. “Yes, I’m sure your ego skyrockets when that happens.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You and your friends already prance around school like you’re the shit, flirting and winking with everyone you see, and you specifically act mysterious.
Once you start playing, and hopefully winning, you will get cocky just like the rest of them.
” When I finished my rant, there was a smug grin painted on his face.
I cleared my throat. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, just telling you what I know is going to happen. ”
The smug grin turned into a smirk. “Ah, so you do watch me.”
Dammit.
Rolling my eyes, I silently hoped that my tinted cheeks weren’t giving me away. “Not really, I only noticed.”
I heard the rolling of the swivel chair against the floor, and suddenly, River was in front of me. “I hope you’re planning on taking the personal invitation to the scrimmage.”
“What personal invitation?”
“The one I’m giving you now,” he spoke smoothly, and it was only when this close that I could make out the soft mustache shadow above his lip. “I want to see you at my game, front and center, Alex. Can you do that for me?”
His arm rested on my thigh, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t sending pulses straight to my dick. It threw me off, and I was sure I was hearing things, but the determination in his eyes told me otherwise.
I swallowed the abundance of saliva in my throat. “You don’t even know me.”
The confidence in his eyes faded into something uncertain—scared, even. Sorrowful?
His arm stayed draped over my thigh, and his fingers rested there, too. My leg hairs stood up when his fingers lightly brushed over my thigh, the motion not calculated and seemingly unintentional. It was absentminded, like River knew what he was doing, but not enough to know what he was doing.
“We aren’t strangers anymore. We’ve been working on the project together,” he said, as if it were a simple fact.
River’s fingers continued dragging in a small motion over me, and his eyes searched mine like there were answers written behind them. Too bad I didn’t have an answer, but I was looking for one on how to suppress the growing of my pants subtly with him this close to me.
“Please, Alex? If you didn’t know, I just started at this school and would love to see a familiar face in the stands.” He was practically begging.
I could hear my sister in my head screaming at me to say no.
Accepting this was the beginning of something, and I did not need the emotional stress of letting in a guy who was actively pretending he didn’t know me.
A guy who hadn’t been my friend in years, and refused to give an explanation why that was.
But how could I say no to River Moore?
“Okay, front and center.”