A disastrous book

Chapter 18: Secrets

Riley's POV

I hold up the papers that I never thought I'd show to any living person ever. The only eyes that roamed these pages are mine and the goldfish I once owned whenever I'd put them near his bowl.

Rest in peace, Mr Gold trousers.

Alex looks at the papers, then at me.

Right, I should probably start explaining.

"Ok so, back when I was fourteen, I tried to write my first ever novel." I start slowly, wary of any signs of mocking or judgement from him, but so far, his expression is neutral.

"As you know, I like writing. Always been my favourite subject."

"Yeah, I still remember all the essays you wrote for me because I always left them to the last minute." He smirks as he recalls the endless times I've wrote his essays for him right before class started. "Never got an A though." He playfully narrows his eyes at me.

I scoff. "Well sorry I wrote it in such a hurry and saved your ass from failing at the last minute."

"You could have at least put some style into it" He infuriatingly shrugs, "I expected more from a writer like you, Riles. Really."

I throw a pillow at his face.

I'm starting to highly regret sharing my deepest secret with his unbothered flat ass.

"Alex, focus. I'm about to share with you something I've never had the guts to share before." I plead with my eyes, hoping they look a bit serious because, for once in my life I am being serious.

Ughh, it takes so much effort.

"Okay, okay, I'm all ears." He takes a seat next to me as I hand him my unfinished novel.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I want you to read it."

He stares at me for a moment.

"What, like right now-"

"Yes right now!" I roll my eyes as he mumbles something incoherent under his breath and picks up the first paper.

I sit there impatiently staring at him to decipher every expression that adorns his face.

He flips a page.

He snorts.

Another page.

He furrows his brows.

Another.

He gasps.

It goes on like this for God knows how long. After what feels like a painful eternity, he rearranges the papers and hands them back to me.

"So... what do you think?" I hesitantly ask.

The reason I decided to finally let Alex read my novel was because I've had enough of the secrecy. During these three days we spent without talking, I've been contemplating on telling him the truth, and when he told me the reason why he thought I was pushing him away from Riley, I knew I had to let him in on my secret. I couldn't keep this to myself anymore. But to do that, I needed proof, because without it, it was gonna be hard to believe what I had to say. Heck, I even tried telling him at first, but of course he didn't believe me, and I don't blame him. If the roles were reversed, I probably wouldn't either.

And I hoped this book would be convincing enough.

Alex gets up from the bed and scratches the back of his head.

"It's... something." He vaguely answered, only making me feel more uneasy.

"Meaning..?" I ask him to elaborate.