River pressed on the gas pedal as the light turned green. I leaned my head against his shoulder and let out a heavy sigh, thankful the tightness in my chest had faded from earlier. He rubbed small circles on the back of my hand.
“And, Alex?” His eyes fell on mine. “You are with me.”
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’relovely.” 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.
