The Promise of Friendship

Chapter 6

"I'm sorry you guys saw that." Riley said as we sat down with our ice cream. "Brody can be a jerk at times."

"Yeah, why do you let him do that to you Riley?" Ben asked. I elbowed him in the arm. "Ow," he said. "But seriously, I want to know. Why do you hang out with them if you don't like them?"

Riley sighed. "It's a lot more complicated then that."

"I don't see how." Ben continued. "You don't like how they treat you so don't hang out with them. You don't own them anything."

Riley sighed. "Guys –"

"On the same note," Sarah jumped in. "Why don't you break up Adeline? It's obvious that you don't like her."

My heart jumped a little at that. I haven't really noticed that Riley didn't like Adeline. They were perfect for each other. But now that I think about it Riley never instigated anything. Adeline did or Adeline shot him a glare to get him to react.

Riley was rubbing his temples. "I wish it was that simple but sometimes things aren't."

"I get it." I said, looking over at Ben. "Sometime you just have to do certain things."

Riley smiled at me. "Exactly."

"Well," Ben said turning away from me. I could tell that he was hoping Riley's situation would convince me to tell someone about my father. "Why do you have to date Adeline and hang out with Brody?"

"I...I can't really say."

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked.

"It's just really complicated and you wouldn't understand." Riley huffed.

Ben folded his arms. "Try us."

Riley rolled his eyes. "It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's that I can't. It's not my secret to tell." Riley's eyes dropped to the tabletop. "But I can tell you that it's gotten worse since my mom died."

Riley's mother died four months ago due to heart failure. He was always really close to her and he took her sudden death really hard.

I placed my hand over his. "I understand, a little. My father wants me to do certain things because of my mom."

Riley looked up at me. "And you don't want to let him down so you go a long with the plan, even though it kills you a little everyday."

This was the first time Riley and I had anything in common, that wasn't school related anyway. I smiled back at him. "Yeah. I'm sure everything will work out in the end though." Ben shot me a glance at that one, apparently he didn't agree with me.

"Yeah." Riley shook his head and smiled. "So, what's the study plan for tonight?" he said obviously trying to change the subject.

"I think it's going to be do whatever and if you need help ask London." Sarah said. "Hopefully London doesn't have any questions."

I smiled. "Guys I don't know everything." They all laughed. This is the first time in a really long time we have all hung out together, just the four of us. It was nice and super relaxed.

"Well," Ben said standing up when he was done with his ice cream. "Let's go study until our brains explode!"

Every Thursday night Ben studied at my house and tonight we kept the same tradition but added Riley and Sarah. I texted my father before we got our ice cream so he knew they were coming. He told me he was okay with it.

"We'll just stay in the living room." I say as we all walk in, I placed my backpack by the stairs.

"I love you're house." Sarah said sitting on the couch. "It's so homey."

"Yeah," Ben said sarcastically, "I just feel like this place is giving me a giant hug."

Riley chuckled at his comment while I gave Ben a glare. He really needed to stop saying comments like that. "Come on Ben be nice." Riley said sitting down by the coffee table. "Let's start studying before we all have to repeat 12th grade."

In all honesty we weren't able to do much studying. Riley read something funny in a short story he had to read for English, which made us all laugh. That led to Ben talking about the time his parents lost him at the zoo and that led to us trying to act like different animals.

It was honestly the best 'study' session I've had all year. It was nice to just hang out with my closest friends. We laughed so hard we cried and then we laughed some more.

At least until my father came home.

When he walked in the front door, Riley and Ben were wrestling in front of the coffee table while Sarah and I were laughing at them on the couch.

"What's going on?" He asked, well more like yelled.

We all froze and Riley and Ben hurried to stand up.

My father's eyes landed on me. "I thought you were studying for your exams in a few weeks."

"W-we were." I stumbled. "We took a little break."

I didn't like the look that was on my father's face. He always wore a stern expression but now his face was red. I was very thankful my friends were there.

"This doesn't look like a little break." His eyes left mine and roamed over my friends before returning to me. "I think it's time for your friends to leave."

Sarah and Riley dipped their heads while grabbing their stuff. Ben threw a glance my way before grabbing his backpack. I saw him trying to think up a reason for me to come with him. I hoped he did at the moment.

"Hey London." Ben finally said. "We still have that last group project for AP History. We should go to my house and finish it up."

"No." My father said slowly, making me shrink back into the cushions. "London needs to stay home tonight. We need to have a little father daughter talk."

Ben left the house slowly, right behind Riley and Sarah. I saw him month, call me, right before the front door closed in his face.