The Bittersweet

chapter nine - sleeping beauty

Romero and Riley hit is off so well yesterday afternoon they had already made plans to go out later today after school. Following Riley's outburst, I had explained to him that I simply should not tell him the plot of the second book he was invested in and suggested we go out and buy it then instead.

"This is torture!" Riley says walking besides me to our English class, "How is this bearable for anyone to read, yes this is a masterpiece, yes this is slow burn but I need them back together again." The book was flapping against his leg as he walked with his thumb between the pages, marking where he was at.

"For the 5th time Riles, keep reading,"

He groans and mumbles something along the lines of not being able to read whilst school was in session. Rom and Riley got to know each other pretty fast as we devoured our frozen yoghurt, he fit in well with us and that was pretty hard to do. After frozen yoghurt, Rom decided it was time to out Riley out of his misery and take him to the closest book store. We went out and bought a brand new copy of Never Fade and Riley went silent mode on the ride back to his car which remained back at Berry on Top, reading as much as he could. To much of his dismay, that did not last long with Rom seated next to him and constantly asking questions.

"Just read after school," I tell him as it was the most obvious solution,

"I can't, Rom wants to hang out or something with Wes too,"

I raise my eyebrows, surprised at how quickly Rom has adopted him into our group. An outing with Rom and Wes meant serious bro business, and strictly no girls.

"That'll be fun too," I say enthusiastically, readjusting the book bag on my shoulder.

He breathes out lightly, "Yeah, yeah I guess it will," we reach our English class and find ourselves early with little to no people in the room.

"So, I heard Ethan's coming to yours today."

I whip my head to my left, "Excuse me?"

He looks taken aback and quickly rushes out, "Apparently he's doing some modelling today or something, I don't know,"

My eyebrows furrow in thought. Modelling? But I'm modelling today. Oh far out. I bang my head against the table in front of me and groan loudly. Stupid mom and hiring boys I couldn't deal with.

"Riley, you can model right? I mean you're pretty, why don't you take Ethan's place?"

He laughs giving me a shining smile, "No thank you, Ethan's the hotter one."

I genuinely questioned that, "I meannn."

"Maya stop, he's fine, you're fine, I promise,"

I gave him a funny look to which he shook his head to and continued to unpack whatever he needed for class. Riley was fun to talk and easy to get along with, plus he was so cute your heart kinda melts a little. I wonder if any girls has hit him up yet.

"Riley! Hey, have you done your chemistry homework?"

Speak too soon and you get what's coming next. Diana, my lovely sweet Diana, known to play with boys hearts and lead them on an endless, and I mean endless trail to her heart. Rumour has it, she doesn't have one.
I try not to pull a face as she takes the seat in front of him. Diana was pretty, I'd give her that, but the amount of toxicity and evilness that radiated off her killed the image. She had naturally brown, long hair that always came down in ringlets and was adorned with two different clips every day. Her eyes, a dreamy sharp blue that could captivate innocents and leave a deep cut. She got into Scarletts for her voice, as majority did, but boy did she know how to own a stage.