Always With You - A Best Friends To Lovers Novel

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Three

Bowie

He hadn't stood me up. In fact, after our first ever date, he took me on another, and then another, until we went on a date every night of the week. We enjoyed it all a little too much, and after each date, he took me home, kissed me goodnight and left, without ever asking to come in or spend the night.

I was missing him next to me, but we both knew if we moved too fast, we could ruin it all again. He told me he wanted our first time to be magical. I wanted me to feel cherished and loved, and not used just because we were now in a relationship.

He did everything right. But I had a feeling that there was something on his mind that bothered him. When I asked him about it, he just waved it off and said he had a lot of schoolwork to deal with. But he never had any problems keeping up with classes. Something was off.

It was a Friday night. Whitley, Aiden, and I were waiting on River at the bar. We said we'd meet at seven to eat dinner and have a good night, but it was already eight, and he still hadn't shown up.

"Maybe he's studying and forgot the time," Whitley suggested. That was a possibility, but I had a feeling there was something else holding him back from coming.

"And you're sure he was home when you got there?" I asked Aiden.

"Yeah. I called out to him and asked if he was ready to go. He said no but told me that he'll be right behind me."

"Okay...I think I'll go check on him. You guys start without us." I glanced down at my phone one last time before pushing it back into my pocket. I had texted and tried to call him, but he didn't respond.

"Here, take my key in case the door's locked," Aiden said, holding his keys out to me.

I was starting to worry, knowing he would never ignore any of my texts. I made my way out of the bar and down the street to his apartment. As I got there, his car was parked outside, but the lights in his apartment were off.

As I reached the front door, I didn't think knocking was necessary. I unlocked the door, and as I stepped inside, there was nothing but silence around me.

"River?" I called out but didn't get a response. I closed the door behind me and walked down the hall to his bedroom, turning on the lights as I passed the light switches.

"River, are you home?" Just as I turned the corner to get to his room, I saw his door wide open, and him lying on the bed.

I was relieved seeing him there, but there was still something off about this whole situation. He hadn't been studying, or else there would be books all around his room. The lights were off, so he must've turned them off himself, and the other thing that told me he wasn't getting ready to come to the bar was the shorts he was wearing. Nothing else on, just shorts.

I walked over to him, sitting down on the bed next to him. I softly brushed his hair away from his face. "River..." I whispered, but he didn't move. He was lying on his stomach, with his head next to the pillow and his arms spread wide.

His breathing was slow and relaxed, not showing any signs of discomfort. Next to his hand, there was his phone, and I picked it up to check if he received my messages and calls. But as I tapped the screen, it stayed black. His phone was off. Maybe he wanted to take a nap before coming to the bar, but his phone died, and no alarm went off.

That theory soon proved to be wrong, because as I plugged it in to turn it back on, his battery was almost full. I frowned, and before I could unlock the screen, all the messages and calls he missed appeared on the lock screen.

As I scrolled down the many notifications, one particular name caught my attention.

Dad.

His father hadn't texted him, but he tried to call several times. It felt wrong to go through his phone and check if they had any conversation going before River turned off the phone, so I set the phone back down and got up to take off my dress and slip on a shirt I had left here. Whatever happened, River was upset, and that probably caused him to forget about us at the bar.

After texting Whitley that I wasn't going back to the bar, I changed into something more comfortable, and got into bed, lifting his arm to get closer to him. He moved, immediately pulling me closer to his body but keeping his eyes shut.

He didn't wake up, and it wasn't my intention to make that happen. I wished I knew what was going on, but for now, all I could do was stay by his side and hope he'd talk in the morning.