18 Days ➳ Riley McDonough/ Before You Exit Fanfic

18.

March 19th // 11th day

T H O M A S

It was my turn with Jade today and when I went to pick her up at the McDonough house, Riley sent her off with a tight side-hug and a kiss on the temple like what Ryan had told me he did the day before.

Apparently, yesterday, all Ryan and Jade had done was eat at KFC and that didn't sound exciting at all, so I had set it upon myself to make my day with her fun and memorable. This would be her lasting impression of me. I needed to show her how fun I actually was. She'd only seen little snippets of my personality, but today, she was going to get the full package and I hoped she was ready for it.

"So," she said, looking at me questioningly from the passenger's side of my car. "What're we doing today, Thomas?"

I glanced at the time displayed in the car clock and saw that it was nearly 5:30 PM. Perfect.

"We, my friend, are going to have a sleepover," I replied, a smile forming on my face as I let my gaze land on her for half a second before it settled back on the road.

"Sounds fun."

"Oh, it's going to be fun."

Everything was pretty much prepared back at my house. The whole basement was decked out and I really hoped Jade would appreciate the little surprise that I'd arranged for her because it literally took half the day.

The swishing sound of the car window snapped my attention away from the road and made me look in her direction where she'd just rolled the window down and rested her head on her hands, so that her brown hair was blowing in the wind and the dreamy look in her eyes as she watched streetlight after streetlight pass by was almost mesmerizing in a way. I'd nearly forgotten about the fact that I was driving and quickly ripped my gaze away to focus on the hardly busy street ahead of me.

"How do streetlights work?" she suddenly asked out of nowhere and my eyebrows knitted together in confusion because I didn't know what her question was supposed to mean or if I was even supposed to answer.

"Well, they give off light so people can see the streets at night."

She withdrew her arms from the window and returned to her previous position, her back against the car seat, but not once did her gaze leave the view outside. "No, I mean, do people turn them on?" She leaned forward onto the dashboard, continuing to stare at the seemingly never-ending stream of lights and I didn't understand how someone could be so intrigued by something so simple and ordinary. "Do they turn on by themselves or does someone turn them on? And if so, do they do it one by one or is there just this one big switch that turns them all on at once?"

Jade was interesting. If I could just enter her mind, I'd probably see things I had never seen before. And come across thoughts that never in my whole life would I have ever thought to think. She was truly something else and it took everything in me to not look as affected as I actually was.

This was going to be tough.

~

"Welcome to the Silvers' residence!" I exclaimed as Jade got out of the car and just admired the outside of my home for a few moments.  "So, are you coming in or are you just gonna stare at my house all night?"

A cute little giggle escaped her lips and she practically skipped over to me and stood at my side as I pulled out my spare keys and unlocked the front door, revealing the living room and her smile seemed to grow as she caught a glimpse of the interior.

"My parents are probably upstairs or something," I informed her, flipping over one of my embarrassing baby pictures that my mom liked to keep out on display before Jade could see it, but she was far too distracted to even notice my actions.

"Your house is really pretty," she said, finally meeting my eyes. "I like it."

"Thanks."

Before she could get too distracted again, I grabbed her by the wrist gently and began leading her down to the basement where we would be staying for the rest of night and my little surprise for her was laid out in plain sight for her to see as soon as she walked through the door. And once she did see it, the loudest, most-pitched squeal I've ever heard in my life rang in my ears and I restrained myself from flinching.

"It's a fort!" she exclaimed, pointing at the two couches facing each other, covered in a blanket, with a mattress underneath, and piles and piles of pillows stacked up on top of it. I even added some old Christmas lights around the thing as a nice extra touch, and because I thought it would look cool and it did. "I haven't built one in ages."

She quickly entered the fort that I'd created and the sparkle in her eyes as she played with some of the pillows almost reminded me of a child and that's when it occurred to me that she was still a child.

She was far too young to be taken away. She still had her whole life ahead of her, but she would never get the chance to live it.

She would never get to find a job, or marry the love of her life, or have kids. It was quite sad thinking about all the things that she would never get to experience.

I noticed the engagement ring on her finger and it just made my heart swell even more, knowing how much Riley was trying to do for her. Just thinking about how he'd be after the eighteen days was heartbreaking enough, but I knew seeing it would be a whole new level of depressing. And, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't imagine Riley and Jade being apart because they hardly ever were.

"Thomas," she said, her voice breaking through my overwhelming thoughts and bringing me back to reality. "Are you gonna join me in this awesome fort or not?"

"I'm coming."

My night with Jade was full of terrible jokes and stories, and uncontrollable laughter, and a few moments of silence where the only thing that could be heard was the crappy movie playing in the background that we weren't even bothering to pay attention to, and I knew that I'd cherish these memories forever, even if they were as simple and ordinary as streetlights.

And before long, it was 2 AM and Jade was dead asleep, her dark hair was scattered everywhere and the tiniest bit of drool was leaking out of her slightly agape mouth, but her serenity gave me some inner-peace as I just stared at her sleeping silhouette.

The AM hours always seemed to stir the thoughts in the darkest parts of my mind, and my memory flashed back to the question Jade had asked me back in the car during our ride here. It just got me thinking about how she was sort of like a streetlight.

None of us knew how she was going to die. Whether she'd shut down little by little, or all at once. All we were sure of was that we would find out soon. Too soon.

~

a/n i put a lot of work into this chapter so y'all better appreciate it lol

anyways, any guesses on whose pov is next?

and if u check the cast i finally found someone to be jade yay