The Back of my Truck

Chapter 8

Riley sighed, taking a look at herself in the mirror in her room, examining her outfit for the dinner, to which she invited Marquez over.

A huge part of her didn't want him around. At least not as her boyfriend. She liked him, he was nice, and seemed to care about her, and their conversations weren't completely crap either way, but the spark wasn't there. It never was. Not even when they kissed.

She could slap herself for even inviting him. But now it happened, and she knew that she couldn't cancel that again.

"Your boyfriend is here." Her brother came up, his head lurked through her door again.

"Alright." Riley replied, forcing a smile onto her face. She knew that if she wouldn't act one hundred per cent happy, while Marquez was around, her family could definitely tell that something was off. And she did not want there to be questions. She just didn't want to deal with the hard stuff right now. She just wanted the rest of her high school year to fly away easily and smoothly.

The dinner went pretty well. Riley's family seemed to find a liking to her boyfriend, and Riley wasn't going to lie, and basically saw what they did too. The problem was that she didn't want it to be him.

Her parents and her siblings went to spend time together in the living room, after dinner, which left Riley and Marquez to spend time together.

Of course, the planned tour around the house ended up in a make out session in Riley's room, which started to heat even more up as soon as Marquez hand slowly went up Riley's shirt, which caused her to pull away from the kiss.

"I haven't- I haven't done that before." She started off.

"Kissing?" Marquez furrowed his eyebrows, a mocking laugh followed his words.

"No, I mean, I haven't done anything further than kissing." Riley groaned, moving a little away from him.

"Oh, thats okay. We don't-" Marquez got interrupted by Riley's brother opening the door.

"Uh, Ri, the truck guy left something for you." He spoke, before fully entering the room, a seemingly heavy box in his arms, which he set onto her desk, shooting Riley a look, which she could read pretty well.

Aiden wasn't one to be that protective over his younger sister, probably because the two of them mainly had a friendship-like bond, than anything else, and Aiden did have problems with showing his affection, but he knew how to read this situation. And he knew what kind of situation he just walked in.

Riley looked down, feeling her face turn red, as she got up from her bed, walking over to the desk.

"What is that?" She heard Marquez's voice right behind her, which probably meant that he was standing behind he right now.

"I really don't know." She replied, not really paying any attention to him anymore, as she opened the box, a bunch of metallic parts revealed themselves, along with an instruction, which Marquez took out and examined it, giving Riley a chance to see the backside of the white paper.

Meet you at midnight at the lantern to our non-date. :)

She took a sharp breath in, before taking the paper out of his hands, minding not to let him see the backside of the instruction.

"Don't even worry about it though." She used James's line. Great. Riley shot him a wide, yet sour smile, but Marquez didn't seem to notice that, as he just returned it.

"Are you gonna be at the Brick today, though? I could drive you." Riley heard him ask, as she turned back to the box, a little smile on her face, as she looked down onto it.

She had no idea what this thing was, but she hoped that she would find out as soon as she would build it together.

"Riley?" Marquez's voice made Riley jump up a little.

"Uh, no. I'm not gonna go today. I need to- uh, study. I got a French exam next week." She replied. It wasn't a lie. But Riley wasn't going to study for it. She didn't need to.

"Okay. I'll leave then. I'll see you tomorrow?" This sounded like a question, though, the both of them knew that he would see her tomorrow, which was why Riley didn't get why he was wondering, but she just nodded, looking up at him.

"Should I walk you out?" She asked, pointing towards her door.

"No, I'll find my way." Marquez smiled, before leaning in to her.

Riley knew he wanted to kiss her, of course, they were dating after all, but she couldn't help and turn her face only one moment before he would get in touch with her lips, so that his ones met her cheek. Thankfully.

She didn't know why, but she didn't want this to go any further. Mainly for Marquez. As she didn't care about him in that sort of way anyway.

A few hours passed, and Riley was looking at her alarm clock every two minutes, checking the time, to make sure she wouldn't be late for her non-date with James.

Though, she had two more hours to kill, which caused her to sigh slightly, her eyes wandering across her room, and got stuck on the box, that was still on her desk.

Riley decided to start building the thing, whatever it was, so she would probably know what this whole thing was about. She knew that James was a little weird, but giving something like that to a girl, without explanation was a little odd.

Though, part of Riley thought it was cute. Really cute actually.

The two hours passed, and Riley, unlike she thought, didn't finish the thing, whatever it was.

Riley got ready, just pulling a hoodie over the outfit she was already wearing, and took her shoes into her hands, before sneaking out of the house.

As she was on the front lawn, Riley took on her shoes and ran down the street, slowing down halfway, as she didn't want to seem like she was looking forward to seeing James again.

She did. But she didn't want him to know that. Not after he rejected her. She didn't want to seem like she was prying after him.

There he was.

His truck parked next to the lantern, he leaned against it.

Riley slowed down more, a light smile on her face as she approached him.

James looked up at her, a smirk on his face, just like always.

And right in the moment their eyes met, Riley felt it again.

The sick feeling. The light fireworks in the pit of her stomach.