The Skylar Experiment : Dead Ending (second draft)

94. The Movies with Raymond

RILEY

"EVERYTHING OKAY THREE MILES DOWN?"

I let the phone slide into my lap. Taking a deep breath, I gazed out the window and around the theater's parking lot. "Luc's fine. He said he's bored."

"That's great news," Raymond answered. "Don't want to have to ruin a good movie and run up there for his sorry ass."

We still had about twenty minutes before we needed to buy tickets. Not sure I could calmly sit through the whole movie with my stomach ready to burst, but there was nothing else I could do in the moment. I rubbed my palms down my jeans. A laugh resonated in the car. 

"What?"

Raymond rested his elbow on the console. "The hairpiece reminds me of that girl in The End of the Fucking World. What was her name again..."

"Alyssa?" I smiled a little. The hair was the same color, even the same cut now that he pointed that out. 

"You've seen it?"

"Yeah, I've..." I stopped short, chest squeezing until it reached my throat. "I've seen it with Ben when I was sick. That and Breaking Bad. God... I miss him. I even miss Devin."

He stared out the windshield. "It was nice seeing them while I was back in town. I met others I haven't seen in a while. That was cool."

A moment passed between us. I wondered what it must have felt like, returning to a place he rushed away from, that probably left a bad taste in his mouth, only to confront it back. He'd been so helpful ever since I met him. All he'd done was look out for Luc and support us despite having NIO on our tail. I didn't think we could count on many others like with him. 

"Did you... always love Lauren?" When his head spun around, I held his stare. "Or was it more of a slow thing?"

I might have imagined it, but I thought I saw the tips of his cheeks flush over his medium skin tone. He had a defined neck, broad shoulders and striking features in a 90s hearthrob kind of way which told me he had a lot of luck with the ladies. 

"When we were kids, she was more the little sister to my friend that we tended to ditch so we could go do our own stuff. I don't remember a time in my life without those two." His chest stilled completely, eyes lost in the distance. "I'd grown to care for her more than any other girl I was dating but differently somehow... Plus, I always thought she was looking for something else. Someone on the outside, someone like..."

"Emma?" 

"Yeah, maybe." He stroked his chin and grinned. "We were all concerned that might be more than a friendship. I really didn't know what we'd do if she was seriously dating a human, God forbid. And well, Lauren always said I was Luc's friend first. I always had to settle disputes between them, being the older kid and all. I regularly had to choose which one to piss off."

I scooted back into my seat, unable to stop a grin of my own at the image forming in my brain. "That must have been tiring."

"It was," he approved. "I didn't realize at all what I was feeling until she started seeing people. Let me tell you... that got me fucked up. She was just exploring, and I hated it. I was already wrapped around her little finger and had no idea. Oh, you should have seen how horrified I was when I realized." 

I bit my lip to punch down the grin. His face twisted theatrically, and I knew he was doing this to make me laugh, but it also sounded like a fond memory. "But she reciprocated, right?"