I didn't know where to start so I just walked in and placed the card and cupcakes on the fancy kitchen counter. He didn't say anything, he just sat across from me and waited for me to speak. I pushed the cupcakes and card over to him across the table.
"I'm sorry." I apologised and he looked up at me in the way he did when he knew something I didn't. "For today."
"You don't have to apologise." He concluded, analysing my facial expressions as though he were trying to read me.
"But I do, I was jealous," I confessed and he lifted an eyebrow in confusion,
"Of me?" He asked,
"Always of you." I assured him, "I'm not used to losing to anyone, and when I heard Eloise call out your name instead of mine I freaked out and I was an asshole to you and you didn't deserve it, I'm sorry."
River reached his hand over to me, painfully slow.
Firstly he ran a single finger down the side of my face, and then he used his hand to caress my cheek and I leaned into his touch instinctively. Like my body had never known any other way, I closed my eyes and I was safe in the darkness.
"Are you mad at me?" I asked in anticipation, as his thumb slid over my eyelids, my nose, then the fullness of my lips,
"All the time." He replied, his voice honest and deep, "But not for that, or any of the reasons you may think."
"I'm mad at you all the time too," I whispered against his touch,
"I know." He cooed, "I know..."
I opened my eyes as I was released from his touch. He opened the card and smiled with amusement.
"You didn't have to do all of this, no one's ever done anything like this for me." He disclosed looking up at me, God I could look into those eyes forever.
"You deserve it," I assured him,
"What if I don't?" He countered and it scared me that he was genuinely asking me this,
"You deserve all the good things, you just do," I assured him, we all do. "Here, try this."
I took out one of the salted peanut butter cupcakes and I swore it took me forever to find a spoon from one of the many,manykitchen cabinets. I scooped some frosting onto the spoon and fed it to him, he tried to protest but I told him to stop being such a baby about it and he tasted it anyways.
"Mrs Lyon's?" He asked knowingly,
"Of course," I replied, I dipped my finger into more icing, and just as I was about to put it in my mouth River took my hand and licked the icing off of me, his mouth was oddly pleasant against my skin.
"Fuck you for that." I laughed, slightly flustered,
"Only at your request." He teased with a devilish grin.
River and I studied in the living room for our history test tomorrow in which I was convinced I was going to fail but he assured me that wasn’t going to happen. He was good at doing that, reassuring me.
"I'm hungry and there's nothing edible in your fridge," I whined afterwards, I grabbed his car keys on the counter and he dared me with his eyes, it was a fucking Porsche.
"I'm driving!" I insisted,
"You'renotdriving my car." He protested,
"Hell yeah, I am." I declared but he somehow managed to fight me for the keys.
Afterwards, we decided to go downtown to an elegant restaurant called the Heirloom Café, in which I had a lovely steak dinner and River ate literal grass as per usual. I wondered how he managed to not eat meat or any animal-made products likeever? It was odd but then again so was he.
It was nice to see this side of him that wasn't so caught up in everything, it was nice for him to just be River. He drove me back to campus and I nearly fell asleep in his car. A song by a band called The Neighborhood played as I watched him stare out at the open road.
Chapter 15
