My Neighbour

twenty eight

James

"What about here?" I asked pointing to a small diner that was still open, Riley smiled and nodded allowing me to pull over. It was now 10pm and we were still yet to eat anything today
I'm a growing boy and today has been hard as hellll!
Riley and I walked in and headed straight to a sofa at the back of the diner. It was pretty quiet here but given the time. I'm not surprised
"This place is cute" Riley said
"You haven't been here?" I asked and she shook her head
I guess that goes to show you can grow up somewhere and still uncover new things

Sitting here eating with Riley I couldn't help but there is something she is wanting to talk about but can't seem to find the words
Like when you know someone has something to say by the way they are looking at you? Yeah that's the case here

"Spill" I chuckled taking a bite out of my burger
"What?" She asked
"There is something you are wanting to talk about. I'm not stupid Riley" I said as she began to push food around her plate
"Am I essentially as bad as my mother?" She asked making me look at her confused
"What?" I asked 
"She cheated on my dad, I helped you cheat on Beth. Am I like my mother" she asked making me sigh
I looked at her before taking her hands in mine
"Riley, I mean this in the nicest way possible but when your mother did was completely different
"She tore your family apart, she knew what she was doing. I was never officially with Beth, there are no hard feelings between Beth and I. What we did was in no way close to what your mother did" I said trying to explain
Riley bit her lip in the attempt to try and cover up that she was still not believing me 

"Look listen" I said making her look at me again
"I know this isn't nice, hell I know this isn't easy on you at all but the last thing you can do is try and make sense of what happened. Everything happens for a reason" I said making her sigh and nod
"But my point still stands. It was not a mistake" I smiled making her smile too. Something tells me that is what she needed to hear right now 

--

"You know, we go for walks a lot" Riley laughed as we started to walk through town, I chuckled throwing an arm around her
I was half expecting her to push it off but to my surprise she didn't
"Maybe walks are our thing?" I asked and she smiled up at me
"Yeah Maybe" She replied 
I chuckled continuing to walk. I won't lie, this place was pretty nice. It's a slightly bigger version of our town but I can see the interest. It has a lot more to offer 

"Can I ask something" Riley asked making me hum in her direction
"What's up?" I asked
"What did you tell Beth?" She asked making me raise an eye brow to her
"About the kiss?" I asked making Riley nod
"I didn't go into much detail with her I won't lie, I essentially broke it off and she pieced two and two together and told me not to fuck it up" I replied making her bite her lip signally she was thinking about something
"How come the girls were hanging with you guys anyway?" Riley then asked finally clocking on that her friends had been the ones to tell me
"Eldon and Thalia are talking, I think that's what they are calling it" I replied making her laugh
"That makes a lot of sense" She continued making me look at her a little confused
"What?" I asked
"Well, out of all of your friends. If Thalia was to go for one, it would be Eldon. He's the nicer one of you four" She said making me pout
"I'm nice" I said making her look up at me and laugh
"Sure you are" She said pinching my cheeks