First of Two

First of Two - Chapter Five

I'm so so glad that I finally got a chance to write and update. I hope you like this chapter ! Thank you.

-Daphne

First of Two – Chapter 5

R I L E Y

The second day of school wasn’t as odd as the first one.

Riley wasn’t late and she didn’t spill coffee all over anyone’s clothes. In fact, she was the first one in class—she made sure she would be. That wouldn’t draw any attention to her at all, she was sure. She immediately noticed Adrian walk in when the class was almost half full.

He scanned the seats and when he spotted Riley, he waved with a smile. She waved back as he approached the seat next to her. The teacher walked in and greeted the class.

“Hey,” Adrian whispered to her as the teacher introduced himself as Mr. Wittley.

“Hi.”

“Excuse me!” Mr. Wittley yelled. “No talking while I’m teaching.” Riley bowed her head and never spoke to anyone for the rest of the class.

They had Fitness and then Philosophy and then English. Riley kept quiet, afraid to get in trouble. What if Becca was in her class? They’d probably get in trouble constantly. Thank God she wasn’t.

After English, she had a two-hour lunch break, which meant Adrian did too. She packed her stuff and Adrian was already out of his seat.  But when she walked out of the class and he was waiting for her by the door.

“Finally!” he declared, rolling his eyes happily. “Want to go get lunch together?”

“Um.” She shrugged. “Sure”

She wasn’t sure why he stuck with her the whole day. He’d been talking to the others, bringing up conversation at every chance he got. She could tell that people really liked him; the boys would tap his shoulder in a friendly way and some girls would smile and say, “See you around.”

But he always took the seat next to Riley, walked to class with her and almost never left her side. Even if she hadn’t said anything at all.

Yesterday was half awful and half okay. She wasn’t good at responding and she mostly just listened to Adrian except when he asked her questions, like which high school did she go to and why she chose to study human development.

After their tour—which wasn’t much of a tour because they played three rounds of Adrian’s question game—they had pizza for lunch. It was the only decent thing they served. Now, she planned to just buy a sandwich because the pizza was dry.

Adrian took a slice anyway and they sat on the same table they did from yesterday.

“You’re, like, so enthusiastic about everything all the time,” Riley stated as they started on their food. If she couldn’t think of anything to say, she might as well tell him her observations. “Any reason?”

He smiled and shook his head. “Life’s too short… Better make the best out of it.”

“Okay,” she nodded, considering what he said. She wondered if she was making the best out her life. If she looked around at the groups of people who were laughing among themselves, she would think having that much friends would make her happy. But she had never had friends like that and she was completely happy anyway. “So how was your day?”

It seemed something relevant to ask.

“We were together the whole time,” Adrian accused. "You tell me." 

A D R I A N

That made Riley giggle.

“Speaking of,” she replied, “You stayed with me the whole time. You could have gone with the others. I was probably boring you to death.”

Adrian laughed. “No worries. I think you’re the kind of student who prefers to keep shut than take risks and make friends along the way.”

She raised an eyebrow but her expression showed guilt. “What makes you say that?”

“Aside from not saying a single word in class?”

“I just don’t like getting in trouble.”

“Exactly what I meant about not taking risks...” He took another bite from his pizza. “So,” he continued as he chewed. “How do you like college so far?”

She shrugged. “Eh, it’s alright. Better than high school, that’s for sure. No one looks at me like I don’t belong here, you know?”

He didn’t, but he nodded anyway.

“Adrian?” she asked. “You never really told me why you stuck with me all day? Not that I mind. I just… I don’t know. Like I said, you could have gone with your other new friends.”

“Oh. Um, well what would be the point of not sticking together, right? We have the same classes, and I think we’re the only two who have the same schedule.”

A smile formed on Riley’s face as she carried on with her sandwich.

As the days went by, their sticking-together thing slowly became a routine.

Riley was still mostly quiet. She would wave and smile to those who would throw her a quick ‘hello’ but that was it. She hasn’t made any friends the way Adrian did and Adrian knew better than putting her on the spot by introducing her to the others. That would make her look vulnerable. He knew—although Riley didn’t really tell him—that she preferred to keep to herself.

They walked from class to class and ate lunch together.

She once told him that if he wouldn’t eat lunch with her, she’d be sitting alone with a book next to her sandwich. But that possibility didn’t seem like a down pit to her or something unfortunate.

Just another theoretical statement. With Riley, everything seemed theoretical.

“I wonder what I would be doing if I didn’t eat lunch with you,” Adrian told her. And the truth was, he didn’t know. Sure, he could imagine himself sitting with Jim and Marco, his new friends from Philosophy; they’ve been inviting him all week to join them anytime in the student’s lounge. But he couldn’t imagine Riley sitting with anyone but him.

He smiled, picturing how Riley would look from a distance, reading on a cafeteria table alone—her head leaning against her left arm, like she always did in class, her ponytail sticking out and her light, brown eyes focused on the pages. He would definitely eat lunch with her anyway.

 “You tell me.”