That Summer (One Direction Fanfiction)

Chapter 25: Pity

“Hey Riley, wanna watch the movie with us?” I called out as Riley walked past the living room. He turned and took in the scene, his eyes traveling from where I was wrapped in Harry’s arms to Marcus lounging on the arm chair to Brad sprawled out texting on the floor to Liam and Susan cuddling on the far end of the couch.

“No,” he said shortly. I watched him disappear down the hallways as Harry nuzzled my neck. I had spent the past week trying to be nice to Riley, but he refused to do anything with the rest of us. It was getting kind of frustrating.

“I’ll be right back,” I untangled myself from Harry and took off after Riley. I tried the knob of his bedroom door, but it was locked. “Riley, let me in.”

“What do you want?” It sounded like he was standing directly on the other side of the door.

“I want to talk to you,” I rattled the knob again. “Please.”

“Well I don’t want to talk to you, so leave me alone.”

I sighed. He had to make everything difficult. I pulled a bobby pin out of my hair and inserted it in the lock, twisting until I heard it pop and the door swung open.

“Hey!” Riley glared at me from two inches in front of my face. “What are you doing?”

“Talking to you,” I slipped into the room and shut the door. “Whether you want to or not.”

“Humph,” he stomped over to the bed and sat down. “Fine, talk.”

I didn’t actually have anything planned to say to him, so I just shifted from foot to foot.

“Well,” he prompted, raising a light eyebrow. “Are you going to talk or not?”

“Ummm, how are you today?”

“Absolutely wonderful,” his voice dripped with sarcasm as he lifted the remote and turned on the TV. “Is that all?”

“Hey,” I walked over and ripped the remote out of his hand, quickly shutting the TV off. He looked at me in surprise. “I’m trying to be nice to you and all you are is rude and I’m sick and tired of it.”

“So stop being nice,” Riley flipped over onto his stomach and grabbed a book of the bedside table. He opened it and started to read.

“Riley!” I ripped the book out of his hand. “Look at me.”

He rolled his eyes and flopped onto his back. “Can’t you just go away?”

“No.”

“Look Brittany. I get that you are trying to be nice and include me in things. I appreciate the effort. But I obviously don’t want to hang out with you guys, so can you just leave it alone?”

“Why don’t you want to hang out with us?”

“Because I like to be alone, all right? So just stop pestering me.”

“What’s wrong?” I could sense that there was more to the store.

“Nothing’s wrong! I know you hate me so stop faking and acting like everything’s okay when I know you hate my guts. I don’t need your pity.”

“I don’t hate you anymore,” I crossed my arms over my chest and glanced down at the floor.

“Well that’s lovely to hear,” there was an edge of anger to Riley’s voice. “But you don’t like me either, so just stop trying. Go back to your stupid boyfriend and leave me alone!”

“Harry’s not stupid! He’s a great boyfriend.”

“Yeah keep telling yourself that.” Riley flipped over and buried his face in his pillow. I stared at him for a few minutes before turning on my heel and stalking out. If he didn’t want to be friends what did I care. I was doing it for him.

Even once I was settled back in Harry’s arms I couldn’t stop thinking about Riley. I realized that what he had said was right. I was trying to be nice to him out of pity. I was doing it because I felt like it was the right thing to do, not because I actually wanted to be friends with him. I was shocked that he had picked up on that when I myself hadn’t even realized. He knew me better than I thought he did.