He got behind the wheel, and with mischief still in his eyes, he leaned in to kiss me. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter 16
Ben
I’d never felt that “end of an era” feeling as clearly as I did when we started the drive back to Twin Star.
With all the possessions I wanted to keep, little as there was, in the trailer and River by my side, I felt like we were traveling towards our forever.
Maybe we wouldn’t live at the rescue, in that little cabin, forever, but I could definitely see us being together forever. I wasn’t sure how likely that was, just look at statistics and all that, but right then, I couldn’t see us being apart, either.
A couple of hours into the journey back, River’s cell phone rang.
“Oh, it’s my sister,” River said, surprise in his voice. “Hey, Laura. What’s up?”
I knew they didn’t communicate much in River’s family. He’d told me it could sometimes take months between calls, and even then, if he called either of his parents at the wrong time, the call could be cut short anyway. I felt like most times he didn’t bother and had learned to get his family support from his chosen family instead.
“Yeah, still in Illinois,” he replied to his sister, rolling his eyes. “Yeah. It’s an inclusive clinic. Right. Uh-huh.”
He reached over for my hand, and I kept driving, listening to him asking her how she’d been.
“Actually yeah, I’m in a car. Ben’s driving. We’re driving back from Pittsburgh with all his stuff. He’s moving in with me at the rescue.” His hand twitched in mine. “Yes, we’re dating. Uh-huh. Yeah.” Then suddenly he snorted, the sound both affronted and amused at the same time. “I’m sending you a picture.” He pulled the phone off his ear, then scrolled to the image of me he’d taken on the day of the reopening party, where I’d leaned on a fencepost and tried to look cool for him in my stable gear.
I chuckled a little, and River stuck his tongue out at me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this, but I had a feeling I knew what Laura had told him. I’d heard it all before: I’d had a glow up, whatever that meant, and various other things people said when they saw me as an adult for the first time. I’d been a chubby, little, ginger kid, and now I looked like…this. Sometimes it was hard to remember people might find me attractive and act differently around me.
Not because I was stuck up or anything, but because it never played any role in my life before and I wasn’t interested in reciprocating the interest.
“Yes, Iknow.” River laughed. “I’ll tell him you said hi. Sure. Talk to you later. Okay, bye.”
“Let me guess, she was surprised you were dating that ginger kid from our teens?”
“She made this amazing choked up sound at the picture.” He looked gleeful before getting serious. “You do know that looks don’t matter to me, right?”
I laughed through my nose. “Babe, you liked me when I was that chubby ginger kid. Why would I ever think how I look now changed anything?”
He thought for a second. “Valid point.” He grinned, leaned closer to kiss my cheek. “So, want to listen to your playlist again?”
* * * *
We had lunch at a random roadside diner, and toward the end of it, I could tell something was bothering River.
“What’s on your mind?” I asked, reaching for my blueberry milkshake.
He frowned and sighed, gathering his thoughts for a moment. “It’s…I don’t know. I guess what Laura said about you affected me more than I thought it would. Like…we’ve all changed, right?”
I rubbed my forehead to combat brain freeze and shrugged. “You mean she’s not the queen bitch she was in high school anymore?”
River almost inhaled his strawberry milkshake. He coughed and wiped his mouth, widening his eyes at me. “Warn a guy.”
I smirked. “Where would the fun be in that? Also, am I wrong?”
“No, you’re not wrong. She was the quintessential cheerleader queen bitch for sure. Don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t like that at home or to me, but at school…” He whistled under his breath. “In any case, she’s changed. I don’t really know what happened, maybe it was because she went to college where only one of her old friends from high school ended up, so she had to adjust to not being the queen bee anymore, you know?”
I nodded as I thought about it. It must’ve been hard to have to start over after such a long time of being the popular girl. I told that to River and he agreed with me.
“It wasn’t easy and I suppose her roommate was queer, so she learned more about LGBTQ people and all. It’s been easier with her since those days.” He quickly added, “Not that it was horrible or anything. But she’s spoken up whenever our parents are being idiots about something.”
“That’s nice.” I asked him to uncap my water bottle and took a sip, then asked, “How are your parents these days?”
