Riley and the Boxers | ✔️

Twenty-six

T W E N T Y - S I X

Okay, so calling this situation an action-movie was a tad bit of an overstatement.

"Ow!" I squealed, biting my lip at the throbbing pain. "You stepped on my foot!"

"Hah, serves you right for kicking my butt!"

"I thought you were a staircase!"

"Why would there be a staircase in the middle of Mr Roger's office?"

I groaned, waving my hands around in an attempt to navigate through the darkness. "When you said dim lighting, I didn't think it was going to be this dim."

"Oh suck it up princess," Chance hissed. I could tell he was rolling his eyes right now. "We're here for a necklace, not for good lighting."

I voicelessly mimic his words childishly, then crossed my arms. "Have you found anything yet?"

"No." He sighed, still rummaging through who knows what.

"Well make it snappy, you have a date in twenty minutes, you know!"

"Lucky me." He muttered grumpily under his breath, audible enough for me to catch. For some reason, his sarcasm and reluctance towards the date made me feel kind of giddy inside.

Oh my gosh, am I jealous?

A few moments later, he halted his search and exclaimed, "I found it!" He strode towards the faint moonlight seeping through the blinds, checking to see if it really is the right necklace. After he was satisfied, he grabbed my wrist and paced out of the room. "Let's go!"

And so we exited the headquarters like professional bosses, and off to my side of the deal: Chance's date with Lily at the cinemas.

Note to self, buy yourself some caramel popcorn and find a good seat.

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After buying family-sized popcorn from the food store at the entrance of the cinema, I sauntered down the steps of the cinema in search for the perfect seat to watch not the movie, but something far more interesting in my book (pun not intended) ─ Chance and Lily, of course.

As I had expected, they were already sat at the front row. I could see Lily's silhouette blabbering happily to Chance, whose posture was as still as a statue. I decided to sit four rows behind them, making sure to keep my distance for a couple of reasons. First of all, I didn't want to get caught and secondly, I did not want to get caught!

However, when my butt was about to make contact with the seat, my eyes landed on a very familiar figure sitting a few seats away from mine. He looked straight-up miserable, and his face was so pale, as if he hadn't seen the sun for months.

I scooted right next to him and asked him with extreme concern, "Hey, are you okay? You look wrecked."

From the corner of my eyes, Jackson lifted his head from his lap and looked at me, stunned at the new company. I, however, kept my eyes steadily on the movie displayed on the colossal-sized screen ahead of us, because there is no way I was going to risk him recognising me. Especially since I wasn't exactly disguised as a boy right now.

He sighed deeply, looking back down on his lap. "To be honest, not really."

"I see." I nodded, placing a handful of the scrumptious caramel popcorn into my mouth and silently admiring how delightful the taste was. "You wanna talk about it?"

There were a few seconds of consideration, before he finally questioned. "If I do, will you tell anyone?"

I snickered. "I don't know you, you don't know me. Who would I tell?"

"True." He agreed. "Well, recently I was told by someone really close to me that they like me more than a friend... And I think I like them that way too."

I nearly fell out of my seat.

No freaking way. This is amazing! Orio is going to be the happiest man on Earth!

"Cool," I replied in the most calmest and collected tone possible. Even through all I wanted to do was scream at the top of my lungs with joy! "So, what's the problem?"

"Thing is, I can't have this person without disappointing all of my mates."

It was hard to not look at him at this point, but I managed it. "I know it's hard, but you gotta think about what will make you happy, not what will make others happy. And if your friends truly care about you, then they will eventually learn to accept you."

A few moments of silence passed before he responded. "Wow. You're right." He shot up from his seat and began sliding down the row. "Thank you for that, dude. I've gotta do and do something!"

I grinned at his exiting figure, feeling very emotional.

Oh yeah, the Riles Doctor is officially back!

Not long after, Lily came rushing up the stairs. Unfortunately, her eyes found mine and she halted. "Whatever, you can have him. I'm out of here." With that, she left, leaving my mouth to hang wide open.

Chance came strolling after, his hands shoved in his pockets and his facial expression completely blank.

I narrowed my eyes. "What did you say to her?"

"Nothing." He shrugged, furrowing his eyebrows. "Apparently, that was a problem."

I rolled my eyes, a small smile cracking onto my lips. "Chance, you are one lost cause when it comes to girls."

He rose a brow, his eyes gleaming with amusement. "Oh really?"

"Yup." I replied confidently, popping the 'p'. "I always expected you to be a natural ladies' man, but this is just disappointing."

Before I could say 'tea', he lowered his body to the point where his face was levelled with mine, and merely inches apart. The sudden close proximity had my breath hitched. His beautiful brown eyes bored into mine, and his even breaths fanned my lips. "Is it?"

I felt like a snowman that was suddenly exposed to the blazing sun of a hot summer's day.

If I felt like I was melting before, well now I was literally melting. And oddly, it felt exciting.

I opened my mouth to try and utter something, anything, but was brilliantly cut off by his lips crashing onto mine.

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