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C H A P T E R T H I R T E E N

C A D E N K I N G

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SMILING AND LAUGHING, the group and I walked alongside each other, grins gracing our lips and a relaxed aura surrounding all of us in a big unpoppable bubble.

Riley and I stood next to each other, hands joint tightly and fingers intertwined, our arms care-freely swinging up and down, causing rushes of energy to shoot up through my body, clouding my mind with mixtures of thoughts.

The bright colours of an array of lights beamed throughout the busy atmosphere, illumining the ever so slightly dark sky.

Rides and booths and stalls were lined up across the once empty large acres of grass- the original look of the park now unrecognisable.

The carnival was the best place to be as of this moment. The liveliness of the chatter amongst young children and teenagers and even young adults that roamed around filled the air, becoming slightly drowned out by the screams from those who sat on the rides and experienced the rushes of adrenaline, just like we had, after a long day of fun and enjoyment.

Slightly looking down, my eyes wandering down to my hand- the hand that was linked with Riley's to be exact- I couldn't help but let the smile I tried to keep down widen even more.

I don't know what it was about her, but it stirred something within me and the very thought of what that thing was scared me. A lot.

Getting lost in her enticing features, I allowed myself to take the time to observe her.

Riley Adams was no ordinary girl. She was amazing for one. She was absolutely gorgeous. She was intelligent. She was witty and she had this habit of challenging me at almost everything. It kept me on my toes and the idea of her trying to be right every time brought this sense of unimaginable amusement to me.

But last of all, unlike anyone else. She didn't judge me. In the beginning, she did just a little, but I couldn't blame her for that. I expected her to continue to judge me but to my downright surprise she turned to face me with those big beautiful eyes and that breathtaking smile and in a heartbeat she told me that she'd like to get to know me. The real me.

No other girl wanted to get to know who I really was. They didn't care for that, not one single bit.

But she did.

It was no surprise that I was growing fond and attached to Riley- it was hard not too.

Words couldn't simply describe how much she was beginning to mean to me because the more I told her things about me that no one else knew, I found the 10 foot tall wall that surrounded me, slowly crumble, piece by piece.

I wasn't always like this. A heartless heartbreaker. Once upon a time, I did have a heart and so much happened and after all that pain it enough to break me. To make me heartbroken.

People aren't just born in one particular way. Things have to happen in order to mould that person into the way they are. Sometimes those moulding factors are the best things in the world that change everything for the better but in other cases, those factors are the worst possible things. They leave you heartbroken.

I guess that's how I dealt with my own pain and suffering. By leaving others just like I was and I hate myself every day for being like this but not everyone can change. It's just not that easy.

But then, Riley Adams literately walks into me- that itself is a debatable issue though. Cue the eye roll.

But this one girl. This fiery tempered, sarcastically fuelled, eye rolling girl appears and it all changes for me. As each day passes I feel the pain in my chest fade ever so slightly and the hole in my heart mend with each second I spend with this one girl.

Riley Adams, the girl who caused the weirdest of feelings to erupt within me. The girl who brought my defences down with just one look. The girl I found myself wanting to spend every second with. The girl who was fixing me. Helping me and she didn't even know it.

"Caden. Caden." Snapping out of my daze, a sheepish smile spread across Riley's pinky coloured lips, her head cocking to the side, in an almost childish way.

"Yeah." I replied, coughing to clear my throat, witnessing the way she threw her head back as a short series of laughter escaped her lips, eyes twinkling in the most magical way.

Recovering from her laughter, she turned her body to face me, grinning like a child on Christmas morning. "I asked you if you could be a typical and totally cliché boyfriend and try and win me a stuffed animal." Cracking a grin and without thinking, I pulled her towards me, noticing the way her smile wavered and eyes widened at the sudden close distance that was now between us.

'Oh god, what am I doing?' I thought, eyes searching her own as they soon lingered down to her parted lips.

Shaking away the nerves, I released my arm that pulled her towards me and made sure to mask my astonishment at the feelings that stirred in the pit of my stomach with a devilish grin.

"Of course, princess." Moving from her view towards the stall, I released a breath that I didn't even know I was holding in as I handed over some money to the man that ran the stall, receiving 3 balls that I had to use to knock over the 3 stacks of milk bottles.

Concentrating hard after feeling Riley's soft stare, I narrowed my eyes and with a deep breath, I throw each ball, successfully managing to knock over each milk bottle which surprised even me since usually these games were rigged to purposely make the competitors fail.

Squealing with joy, Riley rushed towards me, hugging me from behind as I held her newly won plush toy in my hands.

I jerked forward at the way Riley's arms wrapped around me from behind.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Riley squealed out, as the rest of the group's eyes were attached to us, all of them staring with grins of glee at the way Riley hugged me, my body turning in her arms so I could wrap my arms around her small frame, only to burry my head into her wild brown curls. I couldn't help but grin like a fool.

And what a big fool I was as thoughts were now planted into the back of my mind. It frightened me more than anything because Riley was just a friend. So why the hell were these thoughts trying to convince me otherwise?

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