Then I Found You

Chapter 13

Picture of Donovan >>>

Three weeks.

It had been three weeks since Jayden had started to ignore Riley. She felt hurt, betrayed and simply confused as to why he was behaving the way he was. At first she would try to talk to him in English class or in the halls but he blatantly ignored her. She tried to ask Ghost for his input but he didn’t know why Jayden was behaving that way either.

Riley stuffed her hands in her pockets as she tried to ignore the cold air. Everyone around her was buzzing with excitement, holding shopping bags in their hands. The sounds of Christmas carols filled the air but Riley wasn’t in the mood for any of it.

She sat on the bench in front of one of the famous toy stores. The sounds of children laughing and having fun filling her ears. She watched as people passed so she didn’t notice someone sit next to her. She turned around and saw Remy sitting down next to her giving her a calculating look. She and Remy never really communicated because he doesn’t talk as far as she knew so she didn’t bother with him. They were just around each other a lot because she talked to Jayden and Ghost.

“Uh hi?” she said awkwardly, giving him a small wave.

“You should talk to Jayden” he said and her eyes widened at the sound of his voice. She always assumed that he was mute but she never bothered to ask. His voice was raspy from lack of use she was assuming and it was soft and throaty.

“You….you just talked” she mumbled in shock. He smiled and nodded his head at her.

“I can talk you know. I just don’t like to talk around people I don’t know well. I don’t know a lot of people in the school well apart from Jayden and Ghost so why talk there?” he asked. She understood him completely except she loved to talk she just didn’t want to make any friends which is probably why she warmed up to Ghost and Jayden so quickly.

“I understand” she said. “And he hates me” she mumbled sadly, referring to his comment about Jayden.

“No he doesn’t. He hates Donovan” Remy confirmed.

“Why?” she asked, cocking one eyebrow. As far as she knew, Jayden didn’t know Donovan and he didn’t show any signs of knowing him.

“You’ll have to ask him and find out” Remy said, giving her a sleepy smile. He stood up suddenly and held out a hand for her. “C’mon.”

She stared at his hand for a second before hesitantly taking hold of it. She didn’t bother to try and figure out where they were going. They walked in a comfortable silence until she heard the sound of a ball bouncing. She looked up and saw Jayden playing basketball by himself on an abandoned court. How long were she and Remy walking? Jayden didn’t seem to notice their presence until Remy cleared his throat making him look up from the ball.

“I’m leaving now. Bye” Remy said, letting go of Riley’s hand and stepping away from them. She gave him a look which asked him to say but he just smiled at her and walked off and she narrowed her eyes at him even though she knew he wouldn’t have seen her.

“What are you doing here?” Jayden asked in an annoyed voice as he threw the basketball from hand to hand. Riley sighed and walked over to him, taking the basketball from his hands. She needed his full attention.

“To talk to you. You’ve been ignoring me for the past three weeks and I don’t know why. I know I didn’t do anything” she said, bouncing the basketball. She looked up at Jayden and saw him pulling his famous snapback lower down his face.

“I haven’t been ignoring you” he said, he was still looking at the floor and the rim of the hat was hiding his face.

“Yes you have” she told him, throwing in the ball to him and he caught it easily.