Long after I had sent that text message I was still standing at my door, smiling like the idiot that anyone could mistake me for. I was soon snapped out of my thoughts by the barking of my neighbor's dog, and I then fished for my keys in my bag. I unlocked the door and before I could even get my whole body through the door frame, I was attacked with a hug by Rhys. What the heck?
"Rhys! What the-"
"Oh My God! You're alive! You're here!"
"Rhys, you're making it incredibly hard for my lungs to do their job right now!"
"Sorry!" She said letting me go. I stumbled back after she released me, but then I walked back inside my house, only to find Mason, Christian, and Mackenzie sitting around my living room with worried expressions on their faces.
"What the hell happened? You all look like someone's fish died or something!"
Christian was the first to speak. "We saw Zachary carrying you over his shoulder, and after what happened earlier, we weren't sure whether this time he would really kill you."
"What happened?" Rhys chimed in, this time with tears streaming freely down her face.
"Oh God.....did he hurt you?" Mason asked through gritted teeth. "If he hurt you I swear to God I will-"
"RELAX! ALL OF YOU!" I started. They all looked at me with concerned faces. "First of all, you guys see him taking me away, and you guys do nothing?! And second, he didn't do anything bad. I promise. In fact, tonight, he made me feel.....alive." I said with a smile on my face.
They were silent for a while, until Christian decided to speak.
"Did he give you drugs?"
"Did he like inject anything funny looking into you?" Mason asked.
"Did you guys do anything.....scandalous?" Rhys asked. We all turned our heads toward her in disbelief that she would actually say that. "'What? She said she felt.....alive."
Cue the pregnant horse/hippo groan again!
"Did you?" Mason asked curiously. I scoffed at his statement.
"There's no way she did." Christian stated. "We all know she's saving her virginity for like after marriage."
"CAN YOU GUYS STOP TALKING AND LISTEN!!!!" That seemed to have caught their attention, because after that, they finally shut up.
"We didn't do anything bad. He took me on his motorcycle and-"
"Motorcycle!" Mason started. "Ray, those things are dangerous!"
"First of all, I love motorcycles. I've been on them plenty of times, Mason. Secondly, Zachary is an experienced driver. I could tell because when I stood up on it, the bike didn't rock or waver." As soon as I had said this, Mason looked up at me wide-eyed, and began to speak, but I cut him off.
(I love Mason. He's a really good guy, and a really good friend, but sometimes, he can be a bit....what's the word......safe? I mean, it's great that he wants to protect others and whatnot, but I want to live my life being free, and that's something he'll have to understand.)
I cut him off and continued. "We rode to another town fifteen minutes away. We ate at some diner, and we basically talked."
"Was this place at Redsville?" Rhys asked.
"Yeah....how'd you know?"
"I've been there before. It's pretty good."
"Cool. Anyway, we ate there, and on the ride back, we saw all these beautiful stars in the sky, and he let me stand up on the bike......It felt amazing. I felt like I was flying, guys! I felt free! Then he took me home, and somewhere throughout that entire day, he stole my phone, but I didn't care, because I was enjoyed myself too much."
