By Chance | Book One |

Chapter Twenty Nine

River

"You're a scary driver." I mumbled as Sasha pulled out of the parking lot.

"I am not, shut up."

"You're lucky you're driving." I sat back and ran a hand through my hair.

"I know I am. You're an even worse driver."

"Oh please."

"Teddy let's me drive his cars, not you." She pointed out.

She wasn't lying, Teddy didn't let me drive any of his cars. But I let him drive mine.

"Yeah yeah. That's just became he's your boyfriend and he's all in love with you and stuff."

"Maybe you'd be a lot nicer if you had someone. You were a lot nicer when you were with Emily."

I almost laughed at her. She wasn't serious, she knows the shit Emily and I put each other through. Sasha was the one person, other than Teddy, that I found myself opening up to.

Sasha had become both of our best friends long before her and Teddy were ever together. She always kept what I said between her and I.

"Maybe you and Teddy wouldn't fight so much."

I looked over at her. "It's my fault."

"I know." She gave a small smile. "Teddy doesn't fight. If he's arguing back with you, he's had enough."

Teddy ended arguments, he never continued them. Teddy and I had argued more these past couple weeks than we had in the last seventeen years. He and Sasha hardly fight, the only time they had an actual fight was when Teddy couldn't hide his feelings for Sasha any longer.

"You don't have to tell me I'm an asshole. I'm very aware. We fight about Lyra, I always start it. He gets sick of my shit." She already knew though. Even though Teddy probably hadn't told her.

"Be nicer to Lyra too, Dickface." Her hand smacked my upper arm.

Hard.

"I'm trying." I muttered.

"Try harder to tolerate her. She's going to be around for the rest of our lives."

Sasha hated bull shit drama. She was never interested in any of the stuff Emily tried to talk to her about. Emily thought she could bond with her over that.

By now, I was almost sure Lyra hadn't told her about the other night. About me driving her home. Or the fact we fucking kissed.

Lyra and I kissed on Sunday night. And I don't even know how it happened. It happened so fast, I felt like I wasn't even in control of my body.

Her body was like a magnet, pulling me close to her without giving it a second thought. Every touch, graze of my fingertips against her worked against me. Reasoning went out the window. But It wasn't like I was sober, I had smoked with Teddy before leaving. I got high, and then we fucking kissed.

I hated myself for it. I swear I spent a good ten minutes brushing my teeth in order to kill and get rid of the DNA we swapped.

"I've realised this." Unfortunately.

"Good. So she is coming with us too for Christmas. You need to be on your best behaviour." She warned me as she pulled into the book store parking lot.

"Yes, Mom." I mocked her.

"You need to get laid, River. You're so grumpy."

"Why are you always telling people they need to get laid?" I raised a brow at her.

The thing was, she wasn't wrong. Everytime she said that, she was right. It had been too long. The last girl I slept with was in September at a party, it was November now.

"Because I'm always right."

"Mmmm." I mumbled as we got out of the car, walking around to the front of the building. "Thanks for talking earlier."

She gave me a smile. "I won't tell anyone you're a heartless asshole with feelings sometimes."

That made me chuckle. "I'll send a purse to your house tomorrow."

"You don't have to give me gifts for listening to you. I'm your best friend, River. That's what I'm here for."

As soon as we got through the door, Sasha was already in Teddy's arms. It took her almost no time to go over to him.

Watching them always made me nauseous. I have grown used to them being all over each other and It rarely bothered me. But sometimes it made me nauseous.

My eyes shifted over to Lyra who just came around the corner, sitting down at the front desk. Her eyes were on them before Sasha hugged her.

She hadn't noticed I was here yet. My eyes dropped to her chest, making my blood rush to my cock. Her low cut long sleeved black shirt clung to her body like a wet t-shirt. And her tits were perfectly round and plump.

Christ.

I wanted to smack myself so bad. Her cleavage made my cock swell.

Sasha was right. I was down so fucking bad if Lyra Williams tits were turning on me right now. The same thing happened in the car when we kissed. I have never, ever, gotten that turned on by a single kiss. I've never gotten hard from a single kiss.

I snapped out of it and sat down before I felt her eyes on me.

I knew I fucked up. I hated her and now we've kissed.

I looked over at her before looking at Teddy.

"You done closing?"

"Yeah. We're basically ready to leave."

When I went to make sure the back door was locked, I noticed Lyra go into the back office. I slipped in after her and closed the door.

She turned around and her eyes trailed up to me. "What the hell, River?"

I took a step close to her and I towered over her as she backed up against the desk.

"You don't tell a goddamn person about the other night. I don't want to hear the whole school talking about you kissing me. You're not going to get popular through spreading lies. If you tell Teddy or Sasha-"

"First of all, I don't want to be popular. And I definitely don't want anyone knowing you kissed me. Having to live with the fact we've kissed is torture all on its own. I have no interest in being tied to you in any other way than having to tolerate you while being in the same friend group." She cut me off. "Save your breath and don't try to threaten me."

I stared down at her. "The spoiled principal's daughter has a mouth on her."

Her eyes narrowed as she stood up straight. "You must really have a tiny dick if you're that insecure about everything. I'm sure a girl someday will be okay with your size." She shoved past me, her shoulder smashing into mine. "Corner me in a room again and my knee and your balls will become new friends very fast."

~

"I need to party this weekend." I told Teddy as we sat on the back porch. "Has anyone talked about throwing one?"

"We could go up to August's school. They're having a party Thursday night. Their week break started Thursday and we could go up for the party. The four of us." Teddy twisted off the cap to his water bottle and took a sip.

"You and I can't just go? I need to hook up with someone."

"You can do that even with the girls there too."

There was no way I was getting one night to party with my best friend alone. I mean I'd be fine if Sasha came with us, but I didn't want Lyra there. I wanted one night with just them. One night. That seemed almost impossible to ask for.