Loving Mr. Badboy

Chapter 5

When I arrived at the booth, Carly and Aaliyah were both there. Cheri had somehow disappeared now.
"Hey, guys," I say, smiling genuinely as I am proud of myself. Their heads jerk up, when they realise it's me they relax and smile.

"Hey, we need to catch up, these past few days I've barely seen you," says Carly doing puppy eyes.

"That's because you've been busy with stuff," says Aaliyah eye rolling. I just laugh and agree as I sit down on Carly's side. I ask them where Cheri is and they told me she went to talk to a teacher about homework. I feel oddly suspicious since she was smiling on
her phone earlier saying nothing about homework and now she is gone. I decide to put it to the back of my mind because I'm positive Cheri can look after herself with whatever she is doing.

The final bell rings and it's finally the end of the school day. I just had Chemistry, Aaliyah, Cheri and Carly said they are staying behind for some thing they had to do. I don't know.

I arrived home around an hour ago, it's now six o' clock. It's only been a week and a bit since I've been at Alisas and I honestly have too much homework. I can feel my body being engulfed by the sofa, slowly I am closing my eyes. Then the doorbell goes off sending a electrifying vibe into my ears and it awakes me. I slump up to the door with my hair in two braids and relaxed clothing on. When I open the door my ego immediately drops to zero as I stare at who is there, shocked.

"River?! What are you doing here?" I rub my eyes, "and how did you find out where I live?" I say, slightly creeped out. Then I realise I'm still standing there in my untidy clothes and messy hair, in front of the schools most popular guy. Why does he think he can just waltz up to my house and say hi? I invite him in unwillingly, otherwise he would freeze to death.

"Let me go change," I say rapidly darting towards the stairs. I put on some decent clothing and brush my hair out of its braids.

When I'm done I make my way back downstairs. Thank god my mother isn't here. I awkwardly walk back over to River as he is sat on my couch, smoking.

"Get that cigarette out, no smoking in here," I tell him off, I can't let my mother think I am starting to smoke again. River look me dead in the eye and smirks. His eyes are very stoic, unlike before where I saw playfulness in them. He puts the cigarette out and puts it in his pocket, I didn't allow him to put it in my trash.

"Tell me how you found out about where I live," I question, curiously.

"Wasn't that hard, I convinced your friend Aaliyah," he says his voice sounding amused. Aaliyah wouldn't just give up my address that easily, I know for a fact that she despises River and the rest of his little gang.

"What did you say? Aaliyah wouldn't give it up that easy." That's when his face goes from a fair tan to a pale vampire colour. He breaks our eye contact and looks down at the ground.

"That doesn't matter," he says, still very stoic, but it sounded as if he had a bit of fear in his tone.
"Anyway, come on, I'm taking you out." I'm very confused for a moment. I wonder, why is he here? Why me? I don't get what the "it" boy could want with a none "it" girl like me. River gets up and heads for the door, when he sees I am not following he gives me a strange look.
"Come on, sunshine, we haven't got all night," he says, it's only six thirty, I guess I have a few hours to kill. Screw homework.

I run out the door, I see his black sports car parked next to my convertible, normal car. He retrieves the door for me as I walk over. When I get in he slams it, giving me a small panic attack. When he has entered from the other side, and the car is started, I reach for the radio. River slaps my hand away as if to say no. That's it, here comes the pout. He looks at my face when we approach lights and forces out a laugh.

"Where are we going?" I ask, still pouting.

"You're going to meet my friends."

"Hold up, you mean Jackson, Jase, Julien and Cameron?" I scream, I am not doing this.

"And Anna, Laura and Kara."

I completely flipped. "There is no way in hell-"

"You're going, you can't really back out now." Did he just test me? I am not meeting his friends and the bimbos. There is only one way out. I unbuckle my seat belt, that sure catches River's eye. We slow down at the lights and I dart out the car, close the door and run into the closest café, Cassandra's. I'm laughing internally because picturing River's face when I jumped out the car was hilarious. Luckily I brought some money with me, I went and ordered coffee and sat at a table.

When I finished my coffee the wooden door flung open, shocking quite a few people. River was standing in the doorway eyeing the room to find me. He looks out of breath, pale and worried. When he sees me he runs over. He places himself next to me and surprisingly engulfs me into a long, long hug. It was relaxing and comforting. Then he broke the link between us and swapped to sit opposite me. His eyes turned back to their plain stoic self.

"Why the hell would you jump out of a car?" he scowls, his eyebrows furrow.

"It's simple, I told you I didn't want to meet your friends, you didn't listen, I jumped." His face turned into a sigh and he was debating with himself whether to be mad or not.

"Fine, we'll eat here." He scoffs and picks up a bright orange menu. I do the same and scan every item you could have.

The waitress finally came and I ordered like three plates of food and River ordered a big cheese burger and lemonade. I didn't get a drink since I'd already had coffee previously.

"So, how did you find me?"

"Well.." he starts, "I had to find someone to park, and when I did, I had to run from shop to shop for about a mile. Then I finally found you."

I burst into fits of laughter. Although, it was kind of sweet. He could've just ditched me and gone with his friends. But he didn't.

We finish our meals and get the bill. I paid since I was the one that ran off. He has seemed to have calmed down, he's even being an actual gentleman for once. He holds the car door open and I get in, sinking into the comfiness of the leather chair.

We're approaching the lights and he seems distracted by something. River's eyes aren't on the road. The lights are red but he doesn't see, he goes right through them. There is another car coming towards my side of the car.

"RIVER-"

Everything fades into darkness.