The Back of my Truck

Chapter 7

The weekend flew away pretty fast, at least to James it did.

He spend all of his time working on his truck, even trying to get new wheel caps, though they ended up to be too big for his wheels, so he couldn't put them on.

For Riley though, her weekend seemed to take ages to pass. Sure, it would be more fun if she would have James around, but they didn't really have any reason to hang out those last days, as their chemistry report could wait until the week started, and however, James didn't contact her in any way either.

And Riley wasn't one to pry after a guy either. Well, she technically didn't even have to. She had a boyfriend, for gods sake. Something like a boyfriend, at least.

Marquez never officially asked her out, they just both implied that they're dating, so it didn't have to be done.

For all Riley cared, they didn't even have to get official. She didn't care much about Marquez. He was nice, and definitely a good kisser, but she didn't feel anything out of the ordinary while she was with him.

If she could pick, sure, she would pick Marquez to be the one she felt weird around, as it would be better for her image. But it happened to be him.

James. Whose bare eye contact made her want to throw up. In the good way. Whose rejection hurt her more than she could have imagined that it would.

Well, he didn't exactly reject her. He just didn't really let her kiss him. And she really wanted to.

Not that it would be something weird, he was cute. Really cute, actually, now that Riley thought about it.

On Monday, Riley spent her free period with Chloe, Mike, who was Chloe's boyfriend of that time, and Marquez, laying around in the grass, in front of the school.

Riley couldn't help but notice James sitting in his truck, stealing glances at them every now and then.

She was actually glad that he was looking. Mainly because she wanted to get kind of back at him for rejecting her. It impacted her more than she thought it would. Which scared her. She had to admit that. Only to herself though, she would never admit it to anyone else, yet alone to James himself.

"What's that guy looking at?" Riley heard Marquez voice next to her, his accent present.

"Dunno." She replied quickly, not wanting to get further into the James topic, as Marquez was kind of her boyfriend. Kind of.

Part of her wished her wasn't.

"Oh, Marquez..." Riley started off, wanting to drag the topic away from James. She wanted to push that guy out of her mind. Maybe the feeling would push itself away too. And maybe, if she was lucky enough, and tried hard enough, it would somehow transfer itself onto Marquez.

It couldn't be that hard, could it?

"My parents are wondering if you want to come over for dinner tonight?" They weren't wondering that, actually, but Riley just wanted to distract herself from James. And from thinking about him all the time. Mainly, distracting herself from that sick feeling. Maybe she just hasn't tried enough to like Marquez.

But then again, she hasn't exactly tried at all to like James either.

"Oh, yeah, I'd like to come." Marquez nodded, giving Riley a wide smile, which she returned. It was forced, and rather sour, if you knew Riley's real smiles, but luckily for her, he wasn't that familiar with her, so he didn't notice.

"Be there at like, six." She smiled, before taking her book bag and walking off to the school.

She just couldn't stand it out here anymore. So, the brunette navigated towards the schools library, wanting to be alone.

While she did that, James pulled his truck out of the parking lot it was parked in, and drove it out onto the street.

It was only lunch break, but he kind of didn't care about school, nor education, nor a perfect attendance rate.

All he wanted to do right now was punch something.

He could see that Riley was talking eagerly to her little boyfriend about something, and it made him want to scream.

Not that he thought that maybe the two of them had a chance, because he knew that even if that Mexican boy didn't exist, Riley and him could never work. Because of obvious reasons.

But he couldn't help but feel that way.

His senses seemed to go apeshit on him right now. His blood felt like boiling, his fists clenched slightly, and he felt a heat build up inside of him, which consumed him fully.

Which was another reason why he wanted to punch something.

How the hell could he let himself feel like that towards her?! All he actually wanted to do with her is have fun. Not that kind of fun, but just fun. Hanging out, fooling around a little, make her care. Not make himself care.

James didn't even know why he started it in the first place. He just did it out of boredom. Maybe to get back at her for being the kind of person he always thought she was. But after getting to know her... after her almost kissing him, not the other way around, he felt bad.

James pulled his car into his houses driveway and got out of it, slamming the door shut. Normally he would never do that, his truck was like his child. But this was a different situation.

James was bursting with rage right now.

How the heck could he let himself get so jealous?

//I'm sorry that the last two chapters were rather short. But the next one will be longer, I promise.//