pull me back | a drag me down spin off

【twenty five】

My heart heavily pounds in my chest as Riker parks my honda along the sidewalk. My eyes glance at the brown house in front of me, the one that is directly behind mine. I know of the people that live here. It's a husband and wife. They have an eighteen year old son that Skylar used to have a crush on. The two of them would peek at each other through the fence and wave, but he ran away from her after she blew him a kiss one day.

I feel weird breaking into their backyard just to get to my own. Luckily no cars are in the driveway, so nobody is home. Since it is barely noon, everyone is at school or work.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Riker's deep voice rings through me.

"I guess there's no turning back now." I gulp, staring at the glass windows in front of the house.

"We'll be in and out quick, nobody will see us." He persuades me.

"You're such a bad influence." I can't help but smirk.

"I told you to take a ride on the wild side." He laughs, his innocent smile turning dark.

"This is beyond the wild side." I shake my head.

"Your parents are lying to you and you deserve answers." He shrugs.

"Let's do this before I regret it." I open the door and begin walking across the street. Riker hurries to catch up to me.

My heart beats faster as I slowly walk up their stone driveway. Wind blows through my hair as I keep my gaze on the inside of the house. I'm waiting for somebody to pop their head out and question what we're doing. For my pounding heart, I hope that never happens.

"Come on." Riker slowly unhooks the latch on the fence and pushes the wooden gate open.

I nervously gulp and rush inside of the backyard. They have a beautiful above ground pool in the center of it, and a patio with lawn chairs and a barbecue displayed.

Riker pulls me through the yard and makes his way to the back fence. He gets down on one knee and cups his hands together. "Think you can jump over?"

"I'm going to have to." I sigh and lightly step into his hands, which are cupped around my sneakers.

With an effortless attempt, Riker uses all of his strength to push me upward. Once I'm steady enough, I swing my leg around the face and slide down into my backyard.

I land with a thud, and immediately push my hair out of my face. Holy shit, I made it. I actually made it over the fence in one piece.

"Incoming." I hear Riker say from the other side.

Taking a step back, I watch him climb over and jump down in front of me.

"How did you do that so easily?" I laugh, my eyes widen in surprise.

"I'm a jock, I work out every single day." He runs a hand through his dark locks and smirks at me.

"So far, so good. We didn't get caught." I let out a breath, looking up at him.

"Please, I wouldn't get caught." He winks at me before heading for the sliding glass door.

"You'd make a great criminal." I laugh.

"I agree." He chuckles and nods toward the door. "You have the keys?"

"Yeah." I nod and pull them out of my back pocket. "We need to be quick in case one of my parents comes home." I nervously gulp and quickly unlock the door.

Once we're successfully inside, Riker and I rush to look around. The house appears messy, like it hasn't been cleaned in days.

"This way." I lead him into my parents bedroom and go straight for the closet. I push past clothes and shoes until the safe comes into my view. "It's really heavy, I'm going to need your help."