18 Days ➳ Riley McDonough/ Before You Exit Fanfic

17.

March 18th // 10th day

R Y A N

Riley called all of us up at quarter to one in the morning for some odd reason. He said it was really important and if we didn't go, he'd drive to all of our houses and pick us up himself.

Connor and Toby had it easy, at least all they had to do was go down a bunch of stairs to listen to Riley's announcement. Braiden, Thomas, and I actually had to get out of the comfort of our own homes and drive to the McDonough household. So, whatever Riley had to say, it better be worth the midnight drive.

Braiden and I pulled up in front of the house at the same time, shooting questioning looks at each other from behind our windshields, asking if the other knew what was going on, but he just shrugged and so did I. He knew just as much as I did, which was severely close to nothing.

I walked up to the front door with Braiden trailing behind me and gave it three good knocks, and within milliseconds, the door flew open and Riley stood there with his hair disheveled and his eyes were still slightly red from any crying he'd done the day before. I wouldn't blame him for crying, honestly.

"Hey," I said, sending him a tiny salute, before walking further into their house. I spotted Connor right away, in all his blonde glory, seated down on the dining table with his nose in his phone. "Hey," I said again and he looked up, his mouth agape like it always was.

"Oh, hey," he replied, a smile on his face as he nodded at me.

"Where's Toby and Thomas?" Braiden asked, plopping down right next to Connor on the dining table. "And Jade?"

"Toby's right here!" the youngest of the three exclaimed, emerging from the kitchen with a bowl of cereal in his hands and some milk dripping down his chin.

"Really, Tobes?" Connor said, gawking at him. "Cereal at -- " He checked the time on his phone. "1:02 in the morning?"

"Yeah, why not?"

Before anyone could respond, Thomas burst through the door with a box of chicken nuggets in his hand.

"You went to McDonald's?" I asked, sounding just as amazed as Connor did when he found out Toby had just made cereal.

"Yeah, why not?" he replied, looking at me, his expression innocent and I just shook my head.

"That's what I said!" Toby half-yelled, raising his hand up for a high five, which Thomas returned instantly with a smile on his face.

"Alright, so what's this all about?" I asked, returning to the situation at hand. I looked around to see everyone's faces were blank before I focused on Riley, all of us waiting for him to answer the question.

"Okay, well, Toby made a suggestion about a week ago," he finally said

I shifted my gaze towards Toby as he bit his lip, fighting the urge to sing the song, like he usually would, because this was unraveling to be quite a serious situation and he didn't want to interrupt his big brother. It was hilarious seeing him in such restraint.

"And what exactly did I suggest?" Toby asked with his arm raised as if he was in school.

Riley simply smiled at the question and looked at each one of us in the eye. Although, his smile faded when he got to Braiden before he averted his gaze to his feet, then back up at us.

"I've been pretty greedy with Jade lately," he started, trying to find the right words to complete his next sentence. "So I've decided that you'll all get a chance to spend one whole day with her. Starting with Ryan."