The Back of my Truck

Chapter 11

While James and Riley were driving to God knows where, Riley never actually been in this part of the town, she found out that Paula was actually James's truck.

She was relieved, not gonna lie. Riley was actually kind of jealous at first. And worried. That Paula might be James's girlfriend, or some girl he liked. Although she knew that the two of them would never probably get together, she did not need to see him with another girl, or hear him talk about another girl in front of her.

Of course, she would never admit that, let alone to him, but she did admit it to herself. And it actually made her feel kind of bad. Not about liking James, or anything like that, but about being with Marquez, kind of, although she was completely aware that she had fallen for someone else.

As they came to a stop on a red light, a red VW pulled up next to them, a little boy, about the age of nine getting out of the car, and jumped onto the back of James's truck.

Riley thought he was going to freak out, but instead James got out of the car and it seemed to be that he knew the little boy well.

"Hey, James, can we go play Xbox tonight? I got some new games." The little boy said, a little too fast, and too excited.

"I can't buddy, I got something to do." James let out a slight laugh, and my attention got caught onto a guy, about the age of forty, getting out of the red car.

"Come on, Sean, we got to drive you home." He said, a little annoyed. "Hey, James. How you...how you doing?" He asked, his attention turned to James, and his tone was actually kind of worrying. As if James would be doing bad.

"I'm great, isn't that obvious?" James said, a laugh followed his words. "Oh, that's Riley, by the way." James pointed to Riley, a slight smile appeared on Sean's face as he waved at her.

"I'm Sean." He said, before he got cut off by the elder man. "Come on, we really gotta go."

Sean was groaning but he still got into the car.

"James.. I'll see you next week, right?" The elder mans voice was worrying again, and Riley could tell that he really needed to see James, but for some reason James didn't want to see him.

"I think I'm good, thank you." James said, a light laugh on his face, as he got into the car.

"What was that about?" Riley asked James, as they were driving again.

"Oh, nothing. Those were just family friends." He said, and Riley could tell that he didn't want to talk about them. But she also didn't want to force him, so she just chose to believe his answer for now.

"We're here." James told her, excitedly, as they came to a stop at a mechanic. Riley was still trying to process what was happening, while James was already outside, the thing that Riley built together, in his hand, while he was already talking to some guy in a mechanic uniform.

Everyone seemed to be completely familiar with James, and Riley actually thought it was kind of nice to see him around a place where he felt comfortable. He seemed a lot more confident in himself, than he is normally in school. And Riley liked that.

A small smile appeared on her face, as she kept looking at James. And there it came again, the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, and the butterflies.

"Okay, so you got the turbo machine all done?" The mechanic, Julien, asked James, as he took the device that Riley built together into his hands, examining it, nodding a few times. "Looks good though, good job." He added, patting James onto his shoulder. "I'll get this ready, and then you can build it in." Julien said, before he turned around, walking into another section of the place.