33. Monday Week Thirteen

"How are you feeling, Rei?"

My hand stopped moving across the pages of my sketchpad as I met Tori's eyes, "I'm okay."

She gave me a small smile, "are you sure?"

"You know we are always here to talk right?"

I nodded then the charcoal that I was clenching in my hand smeared across the page as I let myself get immersed into my drawings.

"Chica," Lana's hand came to rest atop of mine, "all you've done is draw and listen to music for two weeks now."

Careless, I shrugged. They knew what had happened with Eli and Noah that day. They just didn't know whether it was losing Eli or Noah which was hurting me so much — I guess I didn't know either.

Removing the one headphone from my ear, I tried to make the most sincere face I could, "I'm fine, really. I just don't want to talk about it," I looked over at Kinsey, "how are things going with Derek?"

Her face lit up, "he is honestly so cute. He's so funny and kind and he can be so sweet sometimes. Sometimes he's a bit thick but it's all good."

Kie snorted, "so basically he's like Kyle but without all the annoying bullshit."

Everyone laughed in agreement and even my smile felt real as I thought about our dumbass friends.

"How did dinner with Jasper's parents go, Lana?" Tori asked.

Lana frowned, "not as well as I wanted it to."

"What do you mean?" Kie questioned

A strand of black hair was tucked behind her ear before she continued, unsure of herself now, "uh, they don't really approve. They come from money and well, I-uh, I don't."

"Then they are conceited assholes who don't even deserve a minute of your precious time, gorgeous," Kinsey stated from across the table, she always was good at making people feel better as proven by the smile and nod of confidence from Lana.

"What are you girlies gossiping about?" Kyle wiggled his eyebrows as he took a seat next to me, "anything you would care to share."

Kins leant forward onto the cafeteria table, giving Kyle a heated look, "the only thing I want to share with you, Kyle, is your bed."

I kid you not, he didn't breathe.

But then Kinsey burst out laughing and his look of shock transformed into a scowl.

"You should've seen your face, man," Arik stated through chuckles as he took a seat by Kiara, "you looked like you were going to piss yourself."

Kyle's scowl deepened, "I was not going to piss myself. Will you all stop laughing?"

And surprisingly, some of them did as their eyes flickered to something behind me, I turned — Eli.

The smile that was on my face, melted away as he took a seat opposite me with Jasper who had come in with him.

Eli's cold stare met my dull eyes and a shiver ran down my spine at how harsh and unfeeling his look was; he had never looked at me like that before. No one spoke as we peered at each other. But then he broke eye contact and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Did you know that Nemo could change gender?"

"What the fuck, man?" Arik stated, everyone gave Kyle confused looks and Jasper just looked exasperated.

Kyle shrugged, "what? It's a fun fact. I thought it might break the tension."

Arik growled, "shut up, Kyle."

Kyle did as he was told and his arm rose to rest on the back of my chair like it often did. My eyes flickered away from Kyle and I noticed Eli staring at Kyle's arm as if he was willing it to burst into flames right before his eyes. I ignored it and looked at Kiara as she started speaking.

"I know that Noah isn't here but seeing as this is the first time in ages we have all been together, I was thinking. Why don't we all go away for New Years? I know it's ages away but if we want something for a group as big as ours, we should probably book something now."

Kyle grinned, "as long as we go to a country where the legal drinking age is 18."

Kinsey frowned, "dumbass, you'll still be seventeen at New Years."

His grin turned into a pout.

"That would be good actually," Jasper sighed, "it would be nice to get away for a bit."

Lana nodded and then smiled at her boyfriend, leaning over to kiss his cheek which made him smile — my heart clenched but I refused to look at Eli.

"Ryker?" Arik question, Eli gave a short nod in agreement, "okay, I'll ask Noah at practice tonight then."

"Tor? Kins? What do you two think?" Kyle asked them

Kinsey nodded and Tori said, "yeah, I guess if we are all going."

But then all eyes looked over at me and I shrugged, "sure."

Kyle grinned at me with a wink and I couldn't help but smile back at him. The bell rang and everyone grabbed their things, everyone buzzing with excitement about the upcoming trip with Kiara already listing of plans and places.

"Reillyn," a deep rumble called from behind me as I made my way out of the cafeteria. My eyes clenched closed as his soothing baritone sent shivers down my spine.

I stopped and turned to face him, "what do you want, Ryker?"

Something flickered across his eyes at the use of his last name but it was gone as soon as it came.

"We need to talk about training."

"What about it?"

"It needs to stop."

I sighed, "isn't that a given?"

"and Riley?"

Tugging my bag up my shoulder and quelling the urge to scream at him for talking to me and thus opening up wounds that I had been working tirelessly to close. "What about him?"

Eli narrowed his eyes at me, "if you're still tutoring him, that needs to stop too."

In return, my eyes narrowed also, "I tutor Riley for Riley and me, it has nothing to do with you. When he asks me to stop, then I will stop."

"I don't need to see your lost puppy face around my own house every week, I can't be fucked with it."

My chest tightened at his harsh words, "your father's house, Ryker, and I don't really care what you can or can't be 'fucked with.' If it's so difficult for you, why don't you hide out at your apartment like the goddamn coward you are."

And with that, I swivelled on my heel and stormed out of the cafeteria confused about whether I was angry, hurt or sad as my emotions ran riot inside me.

— — — — —

By the end of the school day, I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was go home, eat, paint and sleep. Just like I had been doing for the past two weeks.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover Cayden in the school car park.

"Cayd?"

He looked up from his phone and a wide smile stretched across his handsome face when he caught sight of me, he pulled me into a hug, "Rei!"

Laughing, I hugged him back, "what are you doing here?"

"Picking up Ryker."

I frowned, "where's his car and bike?"

Cayd shrugged, "I dunno, he just asked me to pick him up today. How've you been? Raven was talking about you the other night, she misses you."

Smiling, I replied, "I'm good, I miss her too though, I haven't seen her in a while."

He cleared his throat and shuffled on his feet a little, "yeah, we've all been busy with work."

"Is everything okay?"

He gave me a soft smile, "yeah, Rei, we're all good."

"Okay," I motioned over to Tori who was waiting for me by her car, "I should go, my friend is driving me home."

Cayd looked to where I was gesturing and his eyes widened. Tori was leaning against her car, leafing through her book and gnawing on her bottom lip harder with every page she turned. Her strawberry blonde hair was flowing against her back in the French plait she often put it in and her tortoise shell glasses were perched on the end of her nose. I couldn't help but grin when I caught sight of the look on Cayd's face.

"Cayd?"

"Huh?" He shook his head, "what did you say?"

Chuckling, I repeated myself, "I should get going, my friend, Tori is waiting for me."

"Tori, huh?"

I grinned wider, "Yeah, I'll see you later."

He looked back at me and gave me a hug whispering, "We all miss you, Reillyn."

I pulled away, confused by his words but I didn't have time to dwell on it because Tori called my name and I made my way over to her to drive home and continue with my new, mundane routine.

★★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

✅

Thank you for reading, lovely people!

Please LIKE and COMMENT! XX