Three's a crowd

5

Its strange to think that the boy in front of me, the boy I love more than anything else, only became mine because I happened to run into him after the worst experience of my life so far.

Of course when we first started our fake dating we didn't do more than hold hands and go to the occasional movie for appearances with Ava and some of the guys from the team. They always made fun of us for how slow we took things, but that's because they didn't know that at the time it wasn't real, or at least we didn't think it was.

Only three people knew what happened that day, Me, Riley, and Carl. Honestly I had expected him to break up with me the night after we found out he had moved across the country to live with his moms new husband.

I had spent that whole day building up to what I thought was inevitable. When he walked me home that night I felt relieved that he had decided to do it in private. At least this way we could keep the gossip to a minimum. Tell everyone that we were still friends but that we didn't work out.

When we got to the door we fell into a silence where we just stood looking at each other. I could see him struggling to find the right words to say, and a part of me was silently sad that I knew it was coming to an end.

He leaned forward to hug me and I knew the words "lets just stay friends" was coming. As his arms wrapped around me and I breathed him in one last time I realized just how much I was going to miss him. So when he pulled back just enough to press his lips to mine I froze.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have.." He began, as I finally found my courage and pulled his face back to mine.

That kiss, our first kiss, was the start of all of my happiness. It sounds stupid to put all of your happiness into one person, but as his lips traced mine and our tongues found the fluid motion that was our rhythm, I finally understood what it meant to be truly happy.

Standing on the beach with him now was a lot like that night. We walked back towards the house along the shoreline as the sun set over the beach and I could feel it in my bones. True Happiness.

He pulled me into a breathtaking kiss before lifting me up until my legs wrapped around his waist. I smiled into the kiss, enjoying each tender stroke of his tongue as I felt him moving us both.

"You know what makes Hawaii better?" He asked in between kisses.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Getting in the ocean." He said as I pulled away from his kiss in confusion.
"Getting in the No Riley Wait!" I squealed as he ran us both into the water and sank us both under the water.

I wiped my face when we resurfaced and splashed water at him.
"That was not cool!" I laughed.
"Maybe, but it was fun and you still love me!" He smiled pulling me into another kiss.
"I don't think I will ever not love you Riley Millington!" I gasped.

When we finally climbed out of the water Riley chased me around for a while as we stayed in the bubble of just being us. Each time he caught me he would spin me around in a circle before kissing me, or tickling me. Each of us perfectly content in just being with each other.

Eventually it got dark and we knew we needed to get back and change to keep our promise of being back for dinner. When we walked into the house we were met with a room full of eyes, watching our wet clothes as they dripped onto the hardwood floors.

"Don't ask!" I laughed "I need to change." I smiled grabbing Rileys hand and pulling him with me to our room.

I grabbed some clean clothes and quickly showered, before changing into my red summer dress that sat just above mid thigh. I grabbed my wet clothes and put them in the laundry basket before sitting on the bed while Riley got ready.

When he reappeared a short time later in his Hawaiian shorts and shirt I couldn't help but smile. Riley really could pull off anything, even complete Hawaiian attire. He really was the perfect person inside and out, and every day I spent with him made me feel as lucky as the last.

"Britt? You're staring, is there something on my shirt?" He asked looking down.
"No, I'm just admiring the view!" I smiled standing to wrap my arms around his neck and hug him.
"Well, Do you like what you see?" He asked with an amused tone.
"Mmhmm, I love it." I whispered, "But I think we need to get to dinner before they come looking for us."
"Yeah or revoke our room privilege's." He teased as we went and joined everyone in the dining room for Dinner.

"We don't have enough space at this house, so feel free to eat in the living room." Spencer smiled as he handed us both a plate filled with spaghetti. Not exactly Hawaiian food, but since the group had a lot of picky eaters I wasn't completely surprised.

Once everyone was sat down and eating, Averleigh began explaining the plans for tomorrow.
"So I was thinking that tomorrow we could all go see the volcano, and then after that we could do a day of shopping, and then leave the rest of the trip up to everyone to do whatever they want." She smiled and I couldn't help but grin at the thought of only having to spend two days with our families and the rest of the trip just me and Riley.

Maybe I was a clingy girlfriend, but its only because being with him was better than anything else. It was the time where I could be myself, to feel loved and cherished beyond my mistakes, but more than that it was where I saw my future.

As the night wound down and everyone started to get tired the adults resorted to their ways of directly telling us it was time to go to our rooms. Even though we weren't little kids anymore, we had learned that most of the time it was better to obey, than to have to listen to their conversations, especially when none of them had any issue embarrassing us whenever they could.

When we walked into our room the reality of spending the night in the same bed as Riley finally hit me. The nerves coursing through me as I stared at the bed which seemed as if it was growing big enough to swallow me whole.

I grabbed my pajamas and quickly ran into the bathroom to change, washing off my makeup and trying to calm myself down. I must have lost track of time as I sat behind the door crying silently to myself over how silly it all was.

"Britt, you okay?" Riley said softly as he lightly knocked on the door.
"Yeah." I sniffled.
"Open up." He said.

I scooted forward enough to crack the door open as he walked into the bathroom in his Mario Kart pajama pants and knelt down in front of me.

"Britt what's wrong?" He asked wiping the tears from my cheeks.
"Its nothing." I sniffled.
"Clearly its something, talk to me." He said softly.
"It's just, I'm scared" I admitted.
"Why?" He asked concerned.
"I've never slept with anyone before, I don't know. I was excited but then it became real and it freaked me out." I sighed as he pulled me to his chest.

He rubbed my back up and down for a while before he stood up and grabbed my hand, taking me to the bed.

"Look at me Britt." He said as I looked up at him. "I love you, but I'm never going to force you to do anything. If it makes you more comfortable I can sleep on the floor."

As he offered my fear was suddenly replaced with guilt as I reminded myself that Riley was not Carl. He would never hurt me or try to force me into anything.

"No I'll be okay." I half smiled.
"Oh thank god." He chuckled dramatically "This floor sucks to sleep on!"

I laughed at him as he took a seat next to me on the bed. He laid back on the pillow and put his arm out as I cuddled into him. I could feel my face flush as he pulled up the blankets and turned the light off, leaving the glow of the moon to light up the room.

I put my hand over his chest as he wrapped his other arm around me and kissed my forehead.
"I love you Britt."
"I love you too Riley." I replied before letting my eyes close as I listened to his heart beating in his chest.