The Boy Next Door Is Not What He Seems

Chapter One: It's Not What It Looks Like.

Chapter One: It's Not What It Looks Like.

•.⌯.•River's POV•.⌯.•
"River!" My best friend, Ryan yelled, averting my attention from the television to him.

"Ryan!" I mimicked as I hugged a nearby pillow.

I stared at the brown haired boy beside me. It had been the third time he had whined out my name during this movie we were watching and I knew from his cries that he was getting bored. 

Ryan had always been the one to be dramatic when it came to everything in his life, but that's what I loved about him. His extra personality always brought smiles to my face countless of times and I wouldn't trade anything else in the world to change him. However, right now, I just wished he would pull through and watch this movie without protests, but I knew in my heart that that was not going to happen tonight with the amount of retorts he had given me prior to and during the movie.

"Can we watch something else?" He asked, the inevitable question he always asked when we watched a romcom movie I chose.

"Ryan!" I whined, "This is the last movie I'll be able to pick before we go back to-"

"Don't say it." Ryan groaned, grumpily burying his head into my pillows. 

I sighed as I rolled my eyes at his overreaction. I paused the movie and turned towards my best friend. It was that time of the year again; the time of year when all students have to go back to school and trudge through another year in hell. We all dreaded it, especially since the beginning of our senior year was about to commence in the coming weeks.

"You know what? Let's do something else," Ryan proposed as he turned off the tv, making me grumble. 

"But we were so close to finishing it!"

"Well, you can finish it later." He said resolute as he adjusted himself in my bed to face me, "Let's do something else." He whined. 

"And what would that something else be?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"How about—the question game!" He suggested.

I groaned, not really in the mood of playing that game again. The last time we played, we were beginning our freshman year of high school. I was a wide-eyed freshman, very clueless to the world of sex and all its details, so when the question game was brought up, I had the sheer audacity to have the first question I ask him to be about how babies were made. Instead of giving me the very short description he could've provided me, Ryan gave me a very... vivid... explanation of how we were conceived. Let's just say I couldn't hold up a conversation with my parents for about a month until I inevitably cracked under the uncomfortableness I was in to confront my parents about it.

Let's just say that it was a very, very interesting time of my life because of that game.

Ryan raised his eyebrow with a small smile on his face at my protest to his words, "Did you want me to lie to you?" He asked, knowing the exact reason to aversion of the game..

I thought about it for a moment, then shook my head.

"Then let's play the game."

I rolled my eyes in annoyance, "Fine." I groan in reluctance.

My answer made his eyes light up, "Yay!" He cheered, "Now..." He rubbed his hands together, "What do you think about Charlie?" He asked, almost immediately as if he had already thought of his question beforehand.

I looked at him with a confused stare, "What about Charlie?"

Charlie was Ryan's other best friend who also happened to be my next door neighbor. The three of us had been going to the same school since Charlie had moved in during our 7th grade year, however, I didn't clicked with Charlie as much as Ryan did when we all had first met in school. He was quiet whenever I was around, so I never was able to have an actual conversation with the guy. Nonetheless, I had no ill feelings towards him. Truthfully, I just thought he was cute and never thought anything else of him, but of course, I would never admit that to Ryan.