Always With You - A Best Friends To Lovers Novel

Chapter One

Chapter One

Bowie

A little over six hours of driving from my hometown Denver to Durango, Colorado, I finally arrived at the apartment building I would live in for the next four years. Blue Oak college was only ten minutes away by foot, and I was lucky enough to have my parents pay for the apartment.

Well, they paid half of the rent, while Whitley, my best friend, had to pay the other half. Her parents wanted her to get a dorm, which would be less expensive. But as my best friend, she insisted on moving in with me.

I liked the idea of having her near, and since we had most of our classes together, we had it easier to study together.

It hasn't always been my dream to go to Blue Oak, but a certain someone didn't make it easy for me to choose a different college.

River and I had been best friends since I was eight, and he was ten. I met him on a playground back in Denver, where he would sit on a bench with his hand covering his eye. He was alone, and with all the kids playing with each other, I didn't want him to feel left out.

I walked over to him, sat down next to him on the bench, and introduced myself.

"I'm Bowie. What is your name?" I asked, and at first, he didn't look at me. He had been holding back tears. I could tell by the way his bottom lip was trembling and how red his cheeks were.

After a while, he finally spoke. "I'm River."

I smiled, then pointed to his hand covering his eye. "Did you hurt yourself?" I asked, wanting to help him. I was always that one kid who wanted to help others. When one of the kids on the playground tripped and fell, I was the first by their sides to help them get back up and giving them a pep-talk, saying that they were strong enough to get back up and continue playing.

With River, it was a little more difficult than that. He didn't seem to wanna talk to me, but I insisted until he told me what happened to his eye.

"My Dad accidentally hit me," he explained, and even if I was only eight, I knew that was a lie. I reached for his hand, slowly pulling his hand away from his face. He fought back at first, but as he started to trust me more and more, he let his hand fall to his lap, revealing a blueish-purple eye.

Must've been a very bad accident, I thought.

From that day on, River and I met almost every day after school at the playground. He was two years older than me, and I was a girl, but he'd much rather play with me than with other boys.

I lived close to the park, and every time my mom would come to pick me up for dinner, River stayed there a little while longer. Mom often asked if he didn't have to go home to eat dinner, but River's answer was always no.

Then, one night, Mom decided to invite River to eat dinner with us. He didn't hesitate and was happy to come home with us. I was too, considering I was finally able to show him all my toys.

He didn't believe me when I told him that I had action figures and a lot of Legos, so when he stepped into my room for the first time, he was incredibly amazed by what he saw.

We spend hours playing in my room after that one night. It became a normal thing for River to spend most of his free time at our house. Mom and Dad didn't mind, and I always thought it was because they couldn't have any more kids on their own. After I was born, Mom couldn't get pregnant anymore. I had no idea why, but I later found out that she had a bad case of Endometriosis.

Mom and Dad loved River like their own because they quickly understood what was going on at his home with his father. Although River came to our house with bruises on his face almost every week, he made Mom and Dad promise not to call the cops.

He didn't want to be put into a foster home, and he most certainly didn't want to leave Denver where he was close to us. He endured the pain, and we did everything to make him feel loved and wanted.

With the years passing, and us getting older, we found ourselves more often waking up in my bed. He slept over a lot, and every night before falling asleep, he opened up to me about his father and how he treated him.

The first time he told me why his father punched him whenever he was mad, I grabbed his hand and held it tight, facing each other on the bed. I was eleven, he was thirteen.

It wasn't his fault that his mom passed. She just stopped breathing, died suddenly and unexpectedly. He was too young to understand, and his father never told him what the real cause of his mother's death was. He only ever told him that it was his fault that his mom was gone.

But as we grew older, he talked about his parents less. I didn't want to bother him with it either, so I tried to find new things to talk about every time he snuck into my bedroom at night.

When I finally started High School, River was more excited than I was. He had already spent two years there, but every time he got back from school, he told me how much he missed me and wished I would finally be there with him.

That day finally came, and we rode our bikes to school every day until he was old enough to get a car. He wasn't allowed to take me to school on his own yet, so Dad, who worked from home, let River drive his car to school, then picked us back up when we were finished.

Dad and River became very close. They played football in our backyard while Mom and I baked or prepared dinner. And even with all the bruises on his face, the second he stepped into our house he knew he was safe.

At eighteen, River decided to go to Blue Oak College to study psychology. My parents and I helped him with the applications, and sure enough, he got accepted. He was smart, knew his way around words, and had his future planned out already.

Now, after only seeing him a few times a month I was finally getting to run into his arms again. When I was sixteen, and shortly before he would move out here to Durango, River promised me that he wouldn't become that cliché bad boy who messed around with whatever girl walked his way.

Of course, he did have a girlfriend here and there, but after short months of dating, he always dropped them again to spend time with me. We had a close bond, but we promised to never break it by falling in love with each other.

River and I cuddled a lot, even when he had his girlfriends. He complained to me about them and asked for advice, and in the end, I was always the one he was holding at night. We never kissed, but I often fell asleep or woke up to him kissing and nibbling on my neck.

He was affectionate, but we both knew there would never be more between us than that deep and strong friendship we had.

His father was not mentioned once since River left for college. I saw him around our neighborhood a few times, but he didn't seem to care for his son much. And to be honest...I was okay with that.

"Let's get our things inside and then go to Blue Oak. I see you're already thinking about him," Whitley said. She had been my best friend since junior year in High School. After River left, I had no one else to talk to, but luckily, Whitley moved to the city.

River liked Whitley, especially because she was around when he couldn't be. They got along well. Almost as if they were siblings, mocking each other nonstop.

I smiled at her and lifted one of my luggage out of the back of my car. "I'm excited to see him again. Last time was over Skype on his birthday." That was exactly three months ago, and before that, we had seen each other on spring break. He spent it at home with Mom, Dad, and me.

"By the way..." Whitley said, looking at me with a questioning look on her face. "What's he hiding from you? You said he had a little secret to tell you once you're here."

I shrugged, closing the car door, and walking to the entrance of the apartment building. "Maybe he has a girlfriend he finally managed to keep," I joked.

He had his own apartment which he shared with a guy called Aiden. I've seen pictures of Aiden before but never got to meet him. From what River told me, he seemed like a nice guy.

"The only thing that's a little weird is that he told Mom and Dad not to send him money each month anymore. He said he got a job, but he hasn't told me where."

"Well, we'll find out when we see him. Come on," she nudged, opening the front door to our apartment. "I can't wait to finally check out the campus."