The Girlfriend Games {Book Two}

19- If You Ever Need to Talk

Sarah ^

A/N: If you're still reading this, thank you so much. It truly means the world to me. ❤️

"LLLLLEVI!!" I was barely even coherent Tuesday morning from the yelling before getting tackled on my bed by Brett. "Levi! C'mon get up lazy bum, I have exciting news!" I groaned, trying to convince my body to listen to my brother so that I could pay attention and be excited with him. Brett kept shaking me some, so I was finally able to rub my eyes and get them opened and focused.

"Okay man, I'm up, I'm up. What's going on?" I asked.

Brett laughed what was basically a giggle. "So, I wanted to tell you last night but I totally forgot when you got home because I had homework, and you had homework, and we both had to eat dinner, and—"

"Brett, bud, just tell me what happened."

"Okay, right, sorry," Brett said, still smiling wide, but trying to pull himself together. I don't think I had ever seen him this excited before, at least not this out-in-the-open excited. "So you know Bria, right?" I nodded to signify that I did. "Well we have to do this project for school, and everyone has to pair up for it, and it's going to take a lot of after school time together, and the teacher was pulling names and letting whoever got pulled to pick their partner, and Bria's name got picked first, and she totally picked me, and this is the first time I've been chosen first for anything, and it was by Bria, and so we're going to have to get together a lot to work on the project, and I'm just so excited!"

"Hopefully he'll work on those run-on sentences before they start the project," mom said, leaning against my bedroom doorway with a smile. "He wound down by the time you got home, but he'd been all wired up since he walked in the door. I think he only woke up this early to be able to tell you before school."

I held up my hand and Brett high-fived it. "Brett, buddy, that's awesome! I'm so happy for you," I told him. He tackled me again into a tight hug.

"Thank you, Levi!" He pushed his glasses up a little further on his nose. "If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have even talked to her probably. And now we're partners for a class!"

"And she chose you first!" I added.

"I know!"

Mom laughed. "Okay you knucklehead, too much excitement and you'll crash before you even get back to school to talk to Bria again. Let's go get some breakfast out somewhere since you decided to get up so early today." That had been directed at Brett, who bounded out of my room and towards his, presumably to get dressed for the day. Mom watched with a smile before turning back to me. "I'm going to get donuts for breakfast," she told me, her eyes suddenly blinking in a sleepy manner. "I need something sugary to get me through this rough week."

"Mom," I said, getting out of bed to get myself ready, "it's only Tuesday."

She made a fake crying noise. "Geez, only Tuesday. Why couldn't you let me live in my little happy world that the week was almost over?" With that, she walked away muttering about how much she hated Tuesdays. Since they were gone now, I was able to get ready for school and wait in the living room for Riv's honk to signify he was waiting on me outside. Thankfully, he was on time today, and hadn't decided to walk to the school again. Oh man, I thought, I need to make sure I'm still paying attention to Riv. He keeps avoiding the subject that constantly keeps plaguing his thoughts, and is much better at covering up the pain than I am. This fact makes me even more worried for him, a look that is seemingly present in my eyes as I get into the truck with Riv.