The Bet

Chapter 38

James's POV

I took a small glance at Riley. This supper was obviously not what she was expecting tonight. No matter how hard I tried to make conversation involving her, my parents would always shoot me down, bringing up one of my ex's. But another twenty torturing minutes later, everyone was finished eating, and the plates were cleared away.

I took Riley's hand and started walking to the stairs to go up to my room, in need of some privacy with her, but mom stops in my tracks.

"James, I think you should bring Riley home. Now." She says, a fake smile plastered on her face.

"No, we're just going upstairs to be alone for a bit." I tell her. She purses her lips.

"Alright. But be warned, I'm checking in on you two every now and than." She tells me before walking off in a huff.

Despite my mother's warnings, I still continue to lead Riley to my room for some alone time.

Riley's POV

We walk up the stairs, and through the halls, passing door after door, until we stop, and James pushes the door open.

Needles to say, I was now in shock. His bedroom could probably fit my house in it. Walking in, it was unreal. From to furniture, to the interior, to the balcony overlooking the backyard.

"Sit down." James says.

"Where?" I ask, still in disbelief.

"Anywhere." He replies, flopping on the bed. I slowly get on the bed, curling up next to him.

"Tonight wasn't what you expected, was it?" James asks.

"No, it wasn't." I sigh.

"Don't worry about my parents. It's just that to them your not-"

"Rich enough, good enough." I cut in. He sighs.

"Yeah." He mutters.

"I know." I mumble.

"I like you, so that's all that should matter." He says, hugging me. I hug him back, looking over his shoulder and notice a picture of him kissing some blonde girl on the nightstand.

"Who's that?" I ask, pulling out of the hug. He turns around to look at the picture.

"Oh, um, that's Ashley." He tells me. "You heard my parents talking about her, right?"

"Yeah, I heard all about Ashely." I say through gritted teeth. James picks up the picture, studying it. A smile plays on his lips as he looks at the pretty blonde girl. Here I am, forgotten once again. I get off the bed.

"Maybe I should go." I say. James doesn't notice what I said, as he's to busy looking at the picture.

Sighing sadly, I start walking to the door to leave. I'm sure that James's parents will at least let me call my dad to come pick me up, and let him through those gates. After all, they would be getting rid of me.

"Where are you going?" I hear behind me just as I place my hand on the door knob.

"Going to go call my dad to come get me." I reply.

"Why?" James asks, getting off the bed to join me at the door.

"You seem more interest in a picture than of me right now, that's all." I reply coldly.

"What? You mean the picture of me and Ashley?" He questions.

"Yes, the picture of you and Ashley." I mutter.

"Oh." Is all he says.

"James, do you still have feelings for Ashley?" I ask.

"What? No! Of course not!" He replies defensively.

"Than why do you act like your day got like a thousand times better when someone mentions her? Or when you were looking at the picture of her?" I question. He shrugs.

"I don't know. Maybe because she was the last girl I dated." He replies.

"And your point is?" I inquire. He bites his lip and looks down.

"My point exactly." I seethe before walking out the door.

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James's parents didn't seem to mind me asking if I could call my dad when they knew it was so I could ask him to cons get me.

"Maybe I'll give you a better tip the next time you serve me down at the cafe." James's mother says when I'm about to leave. "You know, if you get my order right."

She and her husband laugh, almost evilly. Jacob stood behind his father, looking sad. He scurries toward me, hugging me.

"Bye Riley." He says.

"Bye." I say.

"I should have known James would screw up his relationship with you too." He sighs. I didn't know how to respond to something like that, so I just keep quiet until I hear my dad outside.

"Thank you for supper." I say quietly. There was no reply, so I just go outside and climb into my dad's pickup truck.

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"Your being awfully quiet Ri." Dad says as we drive home. I had my head leaning against the window with my eyes closed, and I haven't opened my mouth since I got in the car.

"Yeah." I say quietly.

"What happened back there?" He asks.

Well for starters, James lied to me about his whole life. And than, his parents turned against me because of my life. Oh, and his mother practically mocked the fact that my mom's dead. Oh and also, my boyfriend is still in love with his ex girlfriend. That's it!

"I don't want to talk about it." I reply.

"If you say so." He sighs as we pull into our driveway of our old house. No luxury here.