Unrequited [ON HOLD]

0.9

// chapter nine. //

The car ride was surprisingly quiet. Riley hadn't made one remark in the whole ten minutes. It was weird to say the least. I snuck a glance over to her for the hundredth time, she had put her long hair up in a ponytail. She had also switched her t-shirt from school to a sweater.

"You okay?" I said decided to put an end to the strange silence.

"Yeah." She said with her arms crossed as she continued to look out the window.

"You sure?" I said not believing her.

"Well, I'm out with a guy that I hate to go hangout with his annoying friend and his annoying friend's little whore so I'm not exactly trilled." Riley responded as she looked up at me for about two seconds before turning her attention back to the window.

There we go again with the "I hate you" bullshit. God, she's impossible.

"Hate to break it to you sweetie but I'm not really ecstatic about this situation either. I have to spend my Friday night with an ungrateful bitch." I spat back before I could stop myself.

Riley's head snapped up in my direction. "What did you just call me?" She said raising her eyebrows.

"An ungrateful bitch. I'll say it again. Riley Brooks you are an ungrateful bitch. I dedicate my lunch to you everyday to help you on your math homework because you don't f.ucking understand anything. Then I take you out on Friday night, when let's be honest you would normally be spending alone. But you still constantly remind me that you hate me so f.ucking much. Well here's some news Riley, I'm not your biggest f.ucking fan either." I said all while trying to keep my attention on the road.

"F.uck you."

"Yeah, that's the plan." That's the only f.ucking reason I even associate with you, I thought to myself.

Soon we were pulling into the laser tag building and Riley was getting out of the park before I even put it in park. She walked briskly to the entrance and left me alone in the parking lot. I could kill Elliott for making me do this dumb shit.

When I walked into the laser tag building to find that it was actually an arcade. Great, I'm spending my night with a girl that hates me and a bunch of twelve year olds. Scanning the crowd I saw that my assumptions were correct and that Elliott and Amy had no arrived yet. Riley was sat at a table by herself with an angry expression. Deciding against going to talk to her I went up to the front counter to go ahead and buy our tickets.

"Um, two for laser tag, I guess?" I said to the creepy man behind the counter, not exactly sure how you order laser tag tickets.

"Here are your guns and vests, the next round starts in five minutes. When you go into the room over there," he pointed to a door at the other end of the arcade "the computer will tell you how to play. You can play as many rounds as you want until closing. That will be thirty dollars by the way."

I handed him the money and took the gear in my hands. Time to face the beast.

I carried the gear over to the table Riley was sitting at, she still looked pissed but I was still pissed at her so I didn't really care. I tossed her the gear "Put it on the next round starts in five minutes." I grumbled.

"Elliott and his whore aren't here." She stated as she picked up the vest and began snapping all the buckles in place.

"No shit? It was thirty bucks for this shit so we are going to play at least three times, wether Elliott and his whore are here or not." I said once my vest was on, using Riley's nickname for Elliott's little f.uck buddy.

"This is so stupid." Riley said standing up to pull her hair into a ponytail.

"Scared I'm gonna beat you?"

"As if. I'm gonna kick your ass."

"Wanna bet?" I said raising my eyebrows as we slowly began to make our way to the laser tag room.

"Hell yeah. If I win you have to go to school on Monday in the outfit of Claire's choice."

"Okay and if I win I get my lunches back and we move tutoring to my house after school."

"Deal." Riley extended her hand out for me to shake. Once we shook on it we entered the laser tag room. The computer told us the rules and before I knew it the game had begun.

As soon as the timer had went off Riley had sprinted away from me so I begun looking for her. I was just about to go around a corner when my vest vibrated, meaning I got hit. I ran around the corner and hid, waiting for my gun to turn back on.

Once it was back I tried to find Riley but the lack of light was messing with my eyes. Damn, I wish I would have put my contacts in. I continued walking until I saw a figure crouched down facing the opposite direction. Riley. I aimed my gun at her vest and shot, got her. She whipped her head around and shot me the finger before getting up and running away again.

I had to give it to her, the girl could run. I checked the countdown on the gun, we only had three minutes left and we were tied. I had to find her.

I walked around the room at least two times before I saw her, but she saw me at the time. We both raised our guns, but she had better aim. My vest vibrated and then the ten second countdown started.

Riley ran over and screamed at me "FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE! I WIN! HA HA I WIN! RILEY ALWAYS WINS! CLAIRE IS GONNA BE SO EXCITED OH MY GOSH!" She said bouncing up and down. This is the most happy I've Riley like ever. Though it's insanely dark in here I can see her eyes shining in the black light. Happiness suits her.

"Yeah yeah whatever. You just have beginners luck." I said as we walked out the exit.

"Beginner's luck? Haven't you never played this game either?" She said.

"Okay whatever. I went easy on you." I said refusing to admit that she was better than me.

"You're so full of shit."

"Ain't that the truth." I looked away from Riley to see Elliott. "We've been looking for you guys. Where were you?"

"You guys were late so we decided to play a round without you." I shrugged.

"Well now you have to play with us come on." Amy whined, oh man what did he see in her.

We all made our way back into the laser tag room. This round we decided to play teams, Riley and I and Elliott and Amy. With Riley and I working together we completely destroyed them. It seemed as if both of us had forgotten our argument from earlier that night. The rest of the night flew by, we played four rounds of laser tag total, each time with Riley and I winning mainly because in the last two rounds Elliott and Amy gave up and just started making out in the middle of the dark room.

We had pizza and played some arcade games and before I knew it we were back in the car on the way to Riley's house. We were laughing and recounting the nights events.

"You know, we make a pretty kick ass team." I said after Riley joked about Amy's terrible aim.

"Yeah, I guess we do Owens. Tell anyone else that and I'll deny it." She said with a smile, I was really growing to like that smile.

"Believe me, I won't tell anyone else that. It would kill my reputation." I said as I pulled into her driveway.

"What reputation? The one about you being an idiot. If anything I'd help your reputation." Riley said as she began to gather her things.

"Goodnight Riley." I said as she opened the door.

"Goodnight Lucas." And with that she closed the door and I couldn't stop thinking about how much Riley could help me, reputation and all.