He looks at me funny..

Chapter 11- Who else can say they fought with Darth Vader?

Riley's POV:

Wailing loudly, the shrill ringing of my phone woke me up. I could feel the drowsiness weighing down my eyelids like heavy weights, so I reached to my phone and picked it up. "Hello?" I sleepily questioned (A.n: Put your hands up if you started singing Adele.. me). " RILEY THANK GOD!" Bailey screeched down the phone. Here's the thing any other time of the day I wouldn't have cared that Bailey was making me go deaf, but this was not any other time of the day. It was the morning, so early in the morning that not even the sun had come out which in my opinion is an ungodly hour to be awake at. "Bailey this better be important. I've only gotten.." I quickly checked the time on my phone "three hours of sleep!" I groaned incredulously. "Yeah sorry about that. My car broke down and I need a ride to school. My parents would have driven me , but then work stuff came up." She said sheepishly. I sighed. "THIS is what you woke me up at 5 in the morning for? Yes I'll pick you drive you!' I snapped and pushed my phone away from my ear. And within seconds I had dozed off, dreaming about my adventures on the death star fighting Darth Vader.

The next time I woke up the sun had come out and my appetite began to increase. Sleepily, I made my way towards the toilet, narrowly missing the sharp edges of my desk. It wasn't often where I got a peaceful night's sleep, maybe it was all the horror movies I was watching. It wasn't long before I had unsteadily taken my place at the table. I could never stay away from food to long and with that thought I began to inhale the golden stack of pancakes neatly lined up in front of me. From the corner of my eye I could see my parents staring at me wide-eyed, I guess they never got over how much I actually ate. "On Wednesday night, my colleague and his family are coming over for dinner. So Riley we need you to stay home that night" My dad announced. Here's the thing everyone knew that if you wanted me to do something, ask me in the morning because my brain hasn't started to function properly yet so I agree with anything to make people shut up. And without a single ounce of hesitation I quickly agreed and hugged my parents goodbye, before driving to go pick my needy yet lovable best friend.

As I rounded on to Bailey's street I could see her sitting on the drive way reclined on to her bag, reading Eleanor and Park. I honked and laughed when she jumps. Bailey gathered her junk and agitatedly opened the door to my car. "You know a little warning would have been nice!" She complained. "Hey you are getting a ride from me, now shut up and put on your seat belt." I joked. With a huff, Bailey swiveled around, pulled down the belt and buckled it in with a soft click. I expected her to begin her stream of endless chatter, but to my surprise not a peep came out of her mouth. Bailey had a habit of shutting up when she was thinking really hard about something and that was never a good sign.

"Whoa there, concentrate any harder and you'll pull something." I nervously said. Giving me an unamused look, she hesitantly proceeded to ask me the one question that I had locked into the deepest corners of my brain. "Do you think Mason will be by your locker?". The truth was I didn't know. Mason didn't seem like the type to ditch his commitments, but then again I didn't know him all that well. There were a lot of things I wanted to say, but instead I responded with "I hope so". And she seemed to understand.

The entire drive I couldn't help but worry, what if he wasn't there? What I didn't get was why was this affecting me so much. If he didn't show, I'd live. But I wanted him to be there so that I could confirm that maybe by some miracle he wasn't repulsed by being around me. A warm group of familiar fingers coated my hand, as I parked my car a few meters away from the doors. I looked up at Bailey was giving me a knowing smile. "You'll always have me to walk you to class Riles. Don't worry about it too much". Before leaning over and encasing me in a loving bundle of warmth.

As soon as we walked through the threshold of school, Bailey had ditched me and immediately gravitated to Connor. And here she was saying how she always had my back. Yup. Okay. I quickly moved to my locker so that my chemistry teacher wouldn't have a chance to give me yet another detention for being late. Here's the thing though Mr. Darcy just despises me. Maybe it's because I'm one of the loudest people in his class or because I somehow manage to pass his tests without paying attention in class. Hey in my defense though, anything else in the world is more interesting than Mr. Darcy's class. I could literally be thinking about beetroot and it would be much more exciting than chemistry.

I turned the corner and looked up towards my locker. My heart dropped. He wasn't there. My pace began to slow, I hadn't realized how fast my pace actually was. The marble floors reflected the piercing lights that hung above my head. The squeaking of running shoes echoed through the hallways. Involuntarily, I gazed up and automatically my heart beat began to pound. A flushed Mason caught my gaze and he waved at me, while trying to catch his breath. "Hey" I breathed. "Hi, sorry I would have gotten here quicker, but I woke up late and then my car decided to die on me." He explained as I quickly got out my textbooks for the day. "It's fine don't worry about it!"I laughed as we began the long haul to our chem class. Easy conversation flowed between the both of us and slowly he reached for my hand. And I let him.