Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
ALEX
“Do you want to go to a wedding?” Javier asked.
I closed the trash bag and pulled it out the can. “A wedding?”
I heard shuffling through the phone, then Eli spoke. “My sister is getting married, and she wants it to be this super big event with tons of people, so she told us to invite our friends.”
“Uh…” I walked down the hall to the trash chute, keeping the bag a good distance from my face to avoid getting a whiff of the stench. “When is it?”
“In a few months,” Eli drawled. “If you come, you get to meet my family.”
“They’re lovely.” Javier emphasized “lovely” a little too hard.
I’d only heard little about Elias’ family, but from what I had heard, they weren’t the most pleasant people to be around. Eli seemed to tolerate them more than anything, but he was at least content.
Well, Anna was always saying I need to get out more. “I’ll come.”
“Cool, you get a plus one.” Eli then gasped, and even though he was out of my sight, I could tell he had a look of realization. “Maybe you can bring River.”
I froze at the doorway of my apartment, then lurched forward as it struck my back. “Why River?”
The boys chuckled. “What’s going on between you and the guy on the basketball team?”
Well, after the nightmarish doctor’s visit with my parents three weeks ago, I’d spent almost every afternoon with him. We mostly went by his place so that I could get away from the slob—I meant Salem—and I stayed over on the nights he didn’t have practice.
It was just like when we were kids. We’d be together during the day, find each other at night, and text when we were apart. The only difference was that instead of just playing video games every time we hung out, sometimes we would make out for hours and take turns giving blow jobs.
Yeah…. things were different.
“We were best friends in grade school and… we got separated. We just found each other again, and it was a rocky start, but I think we’re finally friends again.”
“Just friends?” Javier asked slowly.
I mean—we weren’t just friends. We couldn’t be, not with all the complicated shit that we would do. Even before then, most of the time we didn’t feel like just friends, though I couldn’t fully understand what it was. Now?
I still couldn’t understand it.
“I don’t know.”
“Oh, well, are you—huh? I’m not asking him that.” Javier’s voice grew distant on the phone, and I couldn’t make out what he was saying. Seconds later, he sighed heavily. “Eli asked if you’re fucking?”
I leaned against the door as I laughed sheepishly. Then, quietly, I said, “Yeah.”
“I knew the tension I felt when he showed up at your door wasn’t fucking nothing,” Eli declared, as though he’d just won the game that was my arduous love life.
My body took a screenshot when the door vibrated against me, the knock almost giving me a heart attack. I turned around slowly, hoping it wasn’t my sister here to drop off her kid unannounced.
Forgetting I still had the phone pressed to my ear with my friends on the line, I opened it. A delighted smile spread across my face at seeing River on the other side, his hands on his hips boldly.
“I’m taking you somewhere,” he stated, leaving no room for protest.
My first instinct was to say no. My doctor's advice was to stay on a routine until my first cognitive behavioral therapy session. Anything too spontaneous could lead to stress, which could lead to another breakthrough, and that was not what we wanted.
“I have snacks and drinks. I even bought us dinner. I’m assuming you haven’t eaten yet. It’s in the car already; we can eat it on the way.”
“Where are we going?”
River took a step backward, making room for me to squeeze past him. “Come and find out.”
“That sounds like a date,” was the sentence spoken by Javier into my ear. Hastily, I pressed the big red button to hang up the call I forgot was still on.
I ignored my friend’s words lingering in my head. “I don’t know, Riv… I’m still trying to catch up on the lessons I missed.”
A groan escaped him, and he slapped his hands together in a pleading motion. “Please, Alex? Do you really want to spend another second cooped up in this place when you can instead be on an adventure with me?”
How could I say no to those big, pleading eyes that had always had a way of sucking me in? The same eyes that got me into little bits of trouble as a kid, yet sent my parents into spirals.
River practically did a dance when I gave in.
He didn’t even give me time to change before we left, claiming I already looked perfect for wherever he was taking me.
I had on a tank top and pajama pants, my entire outfit saying I was about to go to bed.
It was easy for him to say it was fine when he was in casual clothes—jeans, a t-shirt, and the silver chain he never took off his neck.
We ate dinner in the car, which was merely takeout, but it tasted like heaven since I hadn’t had it in a while.
River drove while we ate, and I was desperately trying not to fall asleep during the long ride.
The continuous hum of the car made me sleepy, and I felt like a toddler refusing bed time. Eventually, I drifted off.
I woke up at least forty minutes later. Once he parked the car at our secret destination, River’s eyes fixed on me with a greater thrill than he’d ever had during his time on the court.
River’s finger brushed behind my ear. “How was the nap, Sleeping Beauty?”
Ignoring his teases, I squinted, hoping I’d magically gain night vision to see into the darkness. Was it too much to invest in some streetlights?
I couldn’t make anything out. “If I didn’t trust you, I’d be pretty concerned right now.”
“Then it’s a good thing you trust me.”
It would make a great horror movie scene. Pitch black outside, ominous creaking that I couldn’t figure out the source of, and the main character having absolutely no clue where he was. Perfect.
River flashed his phone flashlight to guide us, and I could finally see more than shadows. The crappy fence that could poke you if you touched it wrong, the fading white paint peeling off the building, and the giant playground with stuff that definitely shouldn’t be safe for kids…
Did he seriously take us to—
“School,” I whispered, resisting the urge to run my fingers along the fence.
My childhood friend was not beside me anymore, instead further down the sidewalk and picking the lock.
“River Moore!” I half-whispered, half-yelled as if we were not the only two idiots outside of an elementary school in the middle of the night.
River gave me a noncommittal shrug as he continued fumbling with the lock. “We used to do this all the time.”
“Keywords ‘used to.’ We aren’t eleven anymore. We’ll face real consequences if we get caught, and you can probably get kicked off the team. Aren’t you trying to qualify for the NCAA?”
His brows furrowed. “I’m surprised you know what that is.”
“Did my research.”
A proud smile graced his lips. “No one checks this place at night, so we aren’t gonna get caught. I’ve been here twice this semester.”
With one sharp hand movement, the lock clicked, and the gate creaked open. River held the bobby pin in his hand as he waited for my answer, with only crickets chirping filling the silence. What we did next was completely up to me.
My lips pressed together as I pushed open the gate and made my way inside, and I didn’t have to turn around to know River was following behind me. What could I say? Nostalgia got the best of me.
The moon wasn’t bright enough, so I used my phone’s flashlight to move around the playground.
Though, I didn’t really need it. Navigating our childhood playground felt like muscle memory.
We jumped over the same crack in the sidewalk where kids twisted ankles during recess, we passed the wobbly blue slide, and I nearly ran into the palm-scarring monkey bars.
When the swing sets came into view, I almost broke out into a sprint. My unease disappeared when I felt the childlike feeling that I hadn’t felt in ages. I felt free.
Great minds thought alike, because we were both gunning for the same swing without uttering a word. I dove into the swing with winning in mind, and my stomach hit it just before River slammed into my back, nearly flipping us into the rocks.
Our laughter echoed through the quiet night. My chest felt tight, but I couldn’t tell if it was because I was laughing so hard or because he was crushing me.
“Get off me, you oaf,” I grumbled between wheezes.
River’s limbs, long and crushing, lingered on me before he grunted and pushed up. I sat my butt in the seat and smiled at River’s jealous scowl. “I got here first.”
Rocks scraped against the ground as he dragged his feet to take a seat at my feet, defeated. “Not fair.”
Chuckling, I began pumping my legs to move the swing. River batted at my feet, but I kept going even though they nearly hit his face each time. It was his fault for sitting directly in front of my swing.
I assumed he would eventually move so I could swing in peace, but when my feet came flying to his face again, he gripped my ankles and held them there. Now my feet were stuck in the air, and he was holding them hostage.
River held my legs like a trophy. “Why won’t you stop?”
I shrugged. “Maybe I want to make you ugly so that no one else will ever want you.”
“Why? So you want me to be single forever?”
I shook my head. If you stay single forever, how will you be mine?
River let my feet go, and this time I didn’t use the opportunity to kick at him again. Giggling, he began tracing delicate patterns along my leg muscle.
I squeezed the metal chain connected to the swing. “Does your mom remember me?”
“Does she…” he drawled with a scoff and eyeroll.
Our eyes met, and I tried hard to read his tone. “Why do you say it like that?”
“Like what?”
“In that tone.” I sat up, deepening my tone unnaturally low to mimic his. “Does she...”
It made him smile, and I had to grip the chains of the swing tighter to stop myself from kissing it off his face. Still tracing along my leg, he said, “Ever since she found out I found you again, she asks about you every time we talk."
Knowing she still cared enough to ask about me made my heart swell.
I didn’t expect her to forget her son's best friend for half of his life, but part of me wondered if she still felt as much endearment for me as she had all those years ago.
She used to call me her second son. I still wanted to be that.
I let my fingers roam through his hair. “How is she? And your dad.”
River paused. “Momma’s been good.”
“Does she still call you her star boy?”
He chuckled. “She never stopped.”
“You used to get so flustered when she’d call you it in front of everyone.” My head fell back as I laughed. “And your dad? I thought I would’ve spotted him coaching you in the stands like he used to.”
River wasn’t laughing. I glanced down, and he was still there, head in my lap, but completely frozen. A heavy, serious vibe floated between us, one identical to the troubled River that burst into my apartment a bit ago. Suddenly, I regretted bringing up the topic of his parents.
I could feel my pulse pick up as my fingers ran through his hair. “Riv?”
In the dark, his face shifted, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on in his head. He kept silent, as if the words were too painful to speak, and my heart dropped. What happened to his dad?
I gently took his head from my lap, got off the swing, and knelt to be at eye level with my best friend. “River, you’re scaring me.”
The only time I had ever seen him this crushed, besides the tragic day with his goldfish, was after he confessed to losing my favorite stuffed animal in second grade. It took him months to forgive himself for that.
I held his hands in mine, looking into his eyes that were glistening with worry. Squeezing my hands, he turned his head, blinking away the feelings. “Mom still tries to come when she can, but Dad can’t.”
I braced myself as I asked, “Why not?”
My hands squeezed his, and it was supposed to be a comfort thing for River, but I think it was more for me.
“My dad’s been in a coma for almost two years.”
I think I gasped audibly, stunned as River freed my death grip on his hands. Hands now free, he ran his fingers through my hair, playing in it and scratching at my scalp. It was like he knew how hard I’d take it, but I should have been the one calming him. Not the other way around.
Mr. Moore had heart disease when we were kids, and there was a period where he was in and out of the hospital because of it.
In the months before River stopped talking to me and moved away, he said his dad’s condition was getting better.
I expected him to fully recover; he was the strongest person I’d ever met.
“Why?” I whispered.
A heavy sigh. “An accident.”
River struggled to find the words, but his eyes said it all. His accident.
“I was being dumb. There was a fire, and my dad got the worst of it.” His eyes squeezed shut. “And he’s been in it so long that my mom wants to… y’know.”
My words fell short. River had been carrying this burden for so long, and I wished I could take it off of him. I wanted to say the right thing, but what was there to say?
So, I promised him the one thing I could.
“Riv.” My palm cupped his cheek. “Know that every time you look into the crowd at a game, I’ll be there. I won’t miss a single one for the rest of the season, I pinky promise.”
The corner of his lip tugged upward. “Pinky promise? You really mean it?”
“More than anything.”
His eyes shot upward as the wheels in his head began turning. His sad smile, while still present, had a slight smirk behind it. “Then I know my wish.”
The wish. I was beginning to think he’d never cash that in.
“What is it?”
“You have to wear my jersey at every game.”