Four letter word

4. Cold (Riley)

"Oh my fucking god, it's freezing!" Riley shouted out as her and her friend walked down the street near their university, "seriously, I can't feel my ass cheeks. Are they there? Are they not there? Who knows?!" She spoke with a high, dramatic tone as her friend tried not to laugh.

"Pretty sure, everyone heard you" the boy walking next to her said with a smile on his face.

"Good! That's the end goal here" she nodded, seriously, agreeing to her words.

"Should we sit down in the park, over there?" He suggested.

"Sure. Oooh I think they're selling pretzels at the stand. Be right back" she said and took off, leaving the boy at the entrance of the park.

Riley made her way to the food stand and ordered two large pretzels. When she turned around, she found that the boy had already taken one of the seats and went to join him.

"Here" she handed him the pretzel.

"Oh, you didn't have to buy me one as well. I'll pay you back right now" he said, his face going red, and went to reach both of his pockets, searching for the money he owed.

"Oh, fuck off. I wanted to buy it, so just take it and eat it" she said, rolling her eyes. The boy smiled, but still felt uncomfortable about not paying her back.

"You know... you're a lot nicer outside of school" he said, but before he could add anything else, he was grabbed by the neck of his jacket and pulled forward, ending up inches away from the girl's face.

"Do NOT ever call me nice, got it, spiky hair?" She said with a threatening tone and ruffled up his spiky hair. The boy went even redder if that was physically possible and nodded hurriedly out of fear.

"S-sorry!" He let out. Riley finally let go of his jacket and he jerked back, almost falling over.

"Sorry, I just prefer if you didn't call me things I'm not" she said, fixing her jacket cuff.

"Okay... um... I won't. You're rude, you're really rude. And you just scared the crap out of me" the boy said, chuckling a little. This made Riley laugh as well.

They both went quiet for a second. Riley was looking out at the snowy fields and finishing her pretzel.

"Hey, um... I've been meaning to tell you something..." the boy with spiky hair started. She looked at him sideways and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Em... the thing is... I've sort of had a crush on you for a while now..." he spoke, awkwardly.

Riley sighed. She hoped that wasn't what he wanted to say, but she had been wrong. Why did this always happen? Why didn't boys just wanna stay friends? Stupid boys.

"Oh, well, that's nice, but umm... I don't really feel the same way. Sorry, dude" she said and fist bumped his arm. He nodded awkwardly and looked at the ground.

"Oh... I kinda thought it was mutual. I could swear you were sending me signals..." he said, quietly.

"Woah! What signals?!" She said, jerking her head back. Wtf was going on. She felt she needed a cigarette and reached into her bag to get one.

"Well you're usually really mean to people and you've been kind of less mean to me" he explained. She raised an eyebrow and put the cigarette in her mouth.

"You got a lighter?" She asked. He quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter for her, "first of all," she started, letting out a gush of smoke, "those weren't signals and I'm not mean to everyone, just the annoying people and you're not one of them, but that doesn't mean I like you" she said, handing him his lighter back.

"Okay, but today you called and said you wanted to hang out, just the two of us. I thought maybe it was a date..." he spoke, feeling embarrassed.

"A date?! Which part of today felt like a date to you? The part were I discussed how my ass was freezing off, or the part where I openly flirted with the worker at that electronics store, or the part where I took you to an electronics store in the first place?" She started, making the boy more and more embarrassed.

"What about that pretzel you just bought me?" He asked, nervously.

"Pretzel?! Oh, boy, you keep making it worse for yourself" Riley said and sighed, "look, this was not a date. I'm sorry you thought it was. I was just being friendly and clearly it backfired.... We should probably say goodbye now, plus I've got places to be" she finished and got up, throwing away the napkin she was holding her pretzel with in a bin. She grabbed her bag and watched the boy stand up as well.

"So I really don't have a chance?" He asked one last time, "not even in the future?"

"Nope, sorry, dude" she said and held out her arms. He hugged her and the two parted ways. She decided never to try and be friendly with the opposite sex again.

After the awkward encounter, she decided she needed to talk to someone about it. All of her friends were probably sleeping off their hangovers and the only person she could think of that would be awake at this time was the girl she had sort of gotten close to in the last year.

Afterwards, Riley decided to visit Lindsey at her work. She walked all the way to the supermarket but was unable to find the girl in the building. She then asked one of the workers if they knew were she was and found out that Lindsey had been fired and had left the building a few minutes ago.

Riley left and was about to take off when she noticed someone's legs on the left side of the building. She got near whoever was sitting on the cold ground and found her friend with her face buried in her hands.

"What happened?" She asked as red faces and puffy eyed Lindsey looked up at her.

                                              ~*~