Dear August

|Eighteen|

I'm woken up by the car stopping at Finley's place. My eyes barely open and they sting from tears. Did I cry in my sleep?

I feel Luca being lifted off of my lap and look up to see Finley and Joey helping him inside. I look over at August and he's already looking at me.

He opens his door and gets out, offering me a hand. I take it and as soon as I'm out, pull him into an embrace.

We stay there for a while, my head buried in his chest, his arms wrapped around me tightly. I sigh and I'm immediately calmed by the sound of his heartbeat. It was a mistake closing my eyes because I feel myself dozing off for a second. Being in his arms is just so... comfortable.

"Hey Ry?" His deep voice vibrates his chest and I look at him. "Want me to take you home?"

I nod and he leads me to his car, opening the passenger door for me.

"Hey, you can change out of that bloody shirt and into my sweatshirt if you want."

I offer him and smile. "Thanks."

He hands me his sweatshirt and I take off the bloody t-shirt. August makes sure to keep his eyes glued onto the road and I giggle a little at him. I slip the sweatshirt on and sigh. We drive in a comfortable silence.

My hand finds it's way to his open one and I grab it, a thing I've grown custom to, and now I can't seem to stand not holding his hand when I'm with him. He entwines our fingers and gives my hand a quick squeeze.

"Hey August?"

"Hm?" He glances at me for a second then back to the road.

"Can you tell me about your relationship with Sasha?"

He seems to pause for a split second, squeezing my hand a little harder then releasing. I get the message that I hit a nerve that he obviously wasn't comfortable with.

"Never mind. Forget I asked."

"No," he says suddenly. "It's okay. I'll tell you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Your a good person, Ry. I trust you." He glances at me and gives me his sweet smile. I have to hold back the urge to jump on him.

I nod and he takes in a deep breath.

"I'm not sure really where to start. We met in middle school and I had like zero interest in her. I didn't even talk to her in then. Then high school comes along and Joey tells me that this chick in our science class thinks I'm cute, so I'm like okay who? And she tells me it's Sasha. And I never thought she was the worst looking, so I decided to ask for her number. We started dating a month later."

I nod along so he knows I'm listening.

"And in the beginning of the relationship she was fine. No jealousy, no controlling me. It was fine. Then she started to get jealous of Finley and Joey, and even sometimes Luca. I always tried to tell her that I'd never see them as anything more than friends but she never believed me. So she made me block them on everything and stop talking to them. I finally convinced her to let me hang out with them and unblock them and everything but she always would make accusations about me cheating on her with one of them. And it was like this every single day. I hated it really but for some reason I stayed another six months. And she cheated constantly. With any guy that crossed her path. But always found a way to turn the blame onto me.

At the beginning of sophomore year I finally had enough and broke up with her. But then towards the end of it she somehow managed to make me have feelings for her again and we started dating again. This time it was a little worse. My moms didn't like her. And Sasha blamed that on the fact that they probably wanted me to be gay. Which isn't true at all. When I sort of hit the peak of my depression and such, and wouldn't make time for her because I was stuck in bed all the time, she would blame it on the fact that my dad was dead and that I apparently wasn't spending enough time with her.

About a month into the relationship she made me block Finley and Joey again. And yet she constantly continued to cheat on me. I caught her numerous times too, and she always told me she was sorry and loved me so much and would never do it again. And I believed her for some reason. I finally called it quits when Finley Joey and Luca kidnapped me and had an intervention for me."

That twisted bitch. Why would anyone want to ever hurt him.

I was so caught up in what he was saying, that I didn't realize we were parked in front of my apartment building.

"Thank you for opening up to me," I smile. He returns it and puts his hand on my cheek, stroking my cheekbone lightly with his thumb. I put my hand over his and lean into it lightly.

We stay in a comfortable silence like this, looking into each other's eyes, taking each other in. You wouldn't even think that either of us experienced something traumatic at the beginning of the night because all we were thinking about in this moment was each other.

He leans in to kiss me and I happily follow, craving the soft touch of his lips once again.

He pulls back and rests his forehead on mine.

"Thank you, Riley."

"For what?"

"Being you."

I smile and bite my bottom lip. But the warm fuzzy feeling is cut short when I realize it's probably nearing 4 am and I should really get inside. I place a peck on his lips and exit the car, running up the stairs.

I hold my breath as I unlock the front door. Thank god my moms not sitting on the couch waiting up for me again. I stealthily lock the door back up and tiptoe to my room. Before I change into my pajamas, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I'm still wearing his sweatshirt.

I smile at the thought and wrap my arms around myself, taking in his scent. This is a thing boyfriends do for their girlfriends right? They give them their hoodies? I change into my pajamas, pulling the sweatshirt back on and lay on my bed.

I should probably text Luca.

To Luca🌹

Riley🦋
Hey
Just wanna let you know I love you and you mean the world to me
You're one of my best friends and I don't know what I'd do without you
Lunch tomorrow?

Luca🌹
Same with you
And sure