Falling Up

30. Number

They pulled into the parking lot in front of the restaurant Laguna, with Liam and Noah pulling up next to them in Tyrus's white Porsche. Eager to get away from Jason as fast as she could, she unbuckled her seatbelt and hopped out of the car, heading over towards Noah.

The group walked towards the front of the restaurant and started piling through the doors. Before Riley could step a foot inside the front door, Jason grabbed her hand and pulled her to the side.

"We'll just be a minute," called out Jason to the rest of the group as Riley felt the bubbling nerves rise in the pit of her stomach.

She watched as Kain passed by, giving her a concerning glance before Jason pulled her off to the side of the building. He pressed her lightly against the wall, placing one hand up behind her to block her escape. A typical Jason move that always had the effect of her spilling her guts out to whatever he wanted. She didn't know why, but she had trouble lying when he was this close to her.

"I heard what Kain said. Are you okay?" asked Jason, looking down into her eyes as his own furrowed in concern.

"I'm fine, Jason," said Riley, keeping her voice as calm as possible.

Jason raised his eyebrow. "You're not giving me that line, are you? Come on Riley. Tell me what happened."

"It's really nothing."

"It's never nothing with you. Kain said you were scared of something. Now tell me what happened."

Riley's weary eyes flickered towards the faint light of the restaurant sign hanging over the carpark. "Can't this wait until after dinner? I'm starving."

"No," said Jason, placing his second hand on the wall behind her as he stared her down.

She gulped. Paused. Then took in a deep breath, fidgeting with her fingernails nervously. "I thought... I thought I saw someone who looked like him," she said, downplaying the scene in her own mind.

It must have been a look-alike. There was no way it was him, and she refused to believe she was hallucinating. It was bad enough having nightmares about him. The last thing she needed was to see images of her step-father while she was awake as well.

"I got freaked out for a moment. That was it."

Jason moved his hands back from the wall, releasing her from his close proximity. He always had a habit of getting too close when he was seeking information, as if to intimidate his prey. And most of the time, it worked.

"You weren't going to tell me, were you?" asked Jason.

Riley turned her head away sheepishly.

Jason exhaled a deep breath, running a hand through his hair. "You need to tell me about these things, Riley. I need to look out for you, but if you don't tell me when something is wrong, how am I supposed to help?"

"And what exactly did you plan to do about this?" asked Riley, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I think you should see April again."

Riley huffed in annoyance. The thought of her going back to therapy when she only just got out a couple of months ago made her feel dejected. She didn't want to go back. She didn't want to feel like a failure. "Please Jason. I don't want to go back to therapy. I'm just starting to get my life back."

"And I don't want to wait until it's too late. I can't see you go through that again Riley," said Jason as the edge of his voice cracked and he turned away from her.

She reached up, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You won't. But please Jason. I'm not ready to go back to therapy. I promise, if the time ever comes, I will let you know. But it's not now. Just let me have some freedom."

Jason spun around, pulling Riley into a hug as his muscular arms encased her. She always felt safe in his arms and she smiled against his chest.

"I'll drop this for now. But please let me know if anything like this happens again. I get so worried about you."

"I promise," said Riley just as her stomach let off a loud growl. "Now please, can we get some food in this stomach before it eats me alive?"

Jason chucked, letting her go. "Come on, then."

They walked together to the front of the restaurant as Jason pushed open the heavy doors, allowing Riley to enter first. She glanced over the restaurant and saw the rest of the group at a table near the back. When they reached the table, Jason took up a seat next to Tyrus. She inwardly groaned when she pulled out the chair to the only remaining seat next to Kain.

To her surprise, the dinner was quite fun. There was laughter at the table and Tyrus and Noah seemed pretty gracious about the fight. Not even Noah rubbed it in, even though she could tell he was high from the win.

The food was delicious and there was always something good about a decent burger in a casual restaurant. Even Kain was tolerable for the evening and she found herself laughing at his jokes. He had this charismatic personality and she could see why people were naturally drawn to him. It was the first time he wasn't either glaring daggers at her or annoying her with his childish antics. He was a normal person for once.

At the end of the night, as they were milling around the front service desk with Tyrus insisting on paying for everyone, Riley stepped out from the crowded area and walked through the front door, with Kain following behind.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," said Kain.

"I know. You were actually bearable for once."

"Come on. I'm not that bad."

Riley raised her eyebrows in his direction as the cool night air cast across her bare arms. She said nothing but her actions spoke for themself.

But for tonight, he actually wasn't too bad. Kain hadn't even glanced at her cuts on her arms at all, which was another rarity. It was like for once he had forgotten that her cuts were even there. She wasn't sure what his issue was with them, but she didn't care. He wasn't paying them attention, and that's more than she could have asked for tonight.

"I'm sorry if I got you in trouble tonight," said Kain. "With your brother. About what I said in the car."

"You didn't. He can just be a bit overprotective at times."

"I know the feeling," replied Kain.

"Tyrus?" Riley narrowed her eyebrows curiously as the cool night air tickled her hair across her neck. She wouldn't have suspected Kain to have similar issues with his brother. Then again, she hadn't met many people to determine if this was just the way older brothers were. Perhaps this was the way all older siblings acted.

Kain stretched his arms into the air, his green t-shirt riding up his body to reveal the noticeable V shaped abs disappearing into the top of his jeans. Riley was entranced for a moment before running her fingers through the bottom of her hair and diverting her gaze away. Damn, that was hot.

"My brother can be a little over the top, but he means well. In his line of work, I guess it's hard not to be."

"What does he do for work?"

Kain shifted his gaze back to her, startled by the question. "He works in finance. Pretty stressful work. He has a lot of pressure put on him."

At that moment, Tyrus, Jason, Liam and Noah walked out of the restaurant and, for a moment, Riley took a good look at Tyrus. He didn't seem like the stressed out type of person, but with the way he was holding Jason's hand, she could definitely see the overprotectiveness coming through. He had barely moved from Jason's side all evening.

As they walked towards the cars to end the night, Riley felt a hand on her shoulder and she flinched unexpectedly before turning around to see Kain slide a phone into her hands. "Put in your number. Just in case I can't find you on Monday for our study session."

Riley looked around nervously, glad that both Jason and Noah were distracted in conversation as she quickly punched in her number and passed the phone back to Kain.

As they continued to the car, she thought about it for a moment. Why did Kain ask for her number? He hung out at the coffee shop every morning, so of course he was going to run into her.

She glanced back at Kain and she could have sworn she saw the corner of his lips curved up in a smile.