Outcasts

by B. D. Fresquez

  Alex makes himself comfortable on the bigger couch. He glances at Riley and grins at her before looking back at the TV.

  Aiden rests his chin on my shoulder. “Why do I get the feeling you’re mad at me?”

  “I’m not mad.”

  “Don’t lie to me, Riley,” he says in a more serious tone. “You’re obviously ticked off about something. And I have the feeling it’s not because I chose Alex’s movie over yours.”

  Alex sighs. “Can you two, at least, whisper? Please?”

  Aiden ignores Alex. “What’s wrong?”

  “Why don’t you go ask Nicole what’s wrong?”

  Aiden runs a hand through his hair and lets out a long sigh. “That’s what’s bothering you?” I stay silent with my focus on the TV. “She won’t leave me alone, Riley. I don’t know how Ryan put up with her. She keeps calling me and texting me.”

  I glance at him. “That’s your own fault.”

  Soon, he leaves my side and yanks me off the couch. “Come on,” he mumbles. Alex is too entertained by the movie to notice we’re exiting the living room and entering the hallway. Aiden stops when we’re at the end of it, out of earshot from Alex. He pushes me against the wall and closes the distance between our bodies.

  “What are you doing?” My voice is barely audible. I suddenly feel lightheaded.

  He smirks. “This.” His lips meet mine, surprising me. His hands plant themselves on my hips while my own rest on his chest. I can feel his heart beating rapidly in his chest, which makes mine beat faster. The kiss starts off soft, but Aiden pushes himself harder against me, and the kiss becomes rougher. He lets out a small groan.

  My insides are on fire, and the pterodactyls in my stomach are flying around frantically. Aiden’s fingers hooks around the belt loops on my pants and tugs on them. My hands travel up around his neck and into his hair, where I give a little yank. Aiden breaks the kiss and smiles at my small gesture. His lips kiss my jawline and down my neck while my eyes remain squeezed shut. He leaves a trail of kisses down my neck before I feel them on my ear.

  “You’re absolutely amazing.” He’s out of breath.

  “I guess I could say the same about you.”

  His low chuckle makes me smile. His hands cup my cheeks and he places kisses all over my face. “Should we go back?” I nod mutely. He pulls away and grabs my hand. We walk back into the living room, where Alex gives us the side-eye.

  “What were you two up to?” he asks, though I’m pretty sure he knows what we were doing.

  Aiden smiles as we sit down on the small couch. “None of your business.”

  ***

  “C’mon, Riley. Don’t you trust me?” Aiden asks me as he sits on his bed.

  “I do,” I say, trying to convince myself. “I-I’ve just never slept in the same bed with a guy before.”

  Aiden throws himself back and stares at me. “I’m not going to do anything. I have more respect than that, you know.”

  He wants me to sleep in here with him instead of the couch in the living room. “Why don’t I just sleep on the floor?” I suggest. “I know how much you want me in here.”

  A grin sprouts on his face. “You know me so well.” He sits up and makes his way towards the edge of the bed. He grabs my hands and looks at me seriously. “Just get under the covers,” he says. “before I make you.”

  “And how are you going to make me?” I instantly regret asking.

  Aiden pulls me forward and I land on the bed next to him. We struggle a bit and I end up on top of him.

  “This works, don’t you think?” He smirks.

  I roll off him and sit on the bed. I play with the hem of my Red Hot Chili Peppers pajama shirt.

  “What are you thinking?” Aiden asks as he puts his chin on my thigh.

  I shrug. There are various thoughts running through my mind. “This is weird for me.”

  He sighs. “You don’t trust me.”

  “I’m really sorry, Aiden.” I hang my head. “I’m not used to making out with guys in hallways and sleeping in the same bed as them. I guess I’m not like everyone. I’m not normal.”

  At that, he picks himself up and sits directly in front of me. “There is no such thing as normal, Riley. Plus, I knew you weren’t normal the second you opened your mouth that day I ran into you.” He smiles teasingly. “And I’m glad you aren’t used to this. I don’t want to think about you spending the night with any other guy but me.”

  I stay silent but my heart beating in my chest is so loud I’m sure he can hear it.

  “You’re special, Riley. I’ll go at the pace you want to go. I will never force you to do anything you’re not comfortable with,” he says.

  “Thank you,” I mumble as my cheeks grow warm.

  He grins at me. “Riley, I want to ask you something…”

  Aiden’s next question has my mind racing and my heart beating at an unhealthy rate. I have never known this feeling before, but I know it’s a good feeling and I like it a lot. I also know that I don’t want this moment to end.

  Chapter 32

  Aiden

  Sunlight seeps through the blinds in my room, indicating that it’s already morning. I groan slightly and move around in my bed. I turn my body and I come face to face with a sleeping Riley. A smile instantly lands on my lips.

  I study her features. Her bottom lip sticks out, making it look as if she’s pouting. Her hair is sprawled out all over the pillow beneath her head. I honestly can’t believe that I would end up falling for a girl like Riley.

  She frowns in her sleep and moves around a bit. She yanks on the blankets, stealing the part covering me. I decide to mess with her and yank back. Her frown deepens as she yanks harder on the blankets. A laugh escapes my mouth as I watch her. Her eyes flutter open and they land on me. She yawns and then smiles.

  “Good morning,” I tell her.

  “Morning,” she says sleepily. She rubs her eyes and I scoot closer to her. “You were yanking the blankets from me,” she says.

  I chuckle. “You did it first.”

  “Well, you hogged all the blankets last night,” she tells me.

  “Sorry.” I shrug. “I don’t share blankets.”

  She grins. “I don’t either.”

  “Well, that’ll be a problem. As my girlfriend, you have to stay over more often,” I tell her.

  She closes her eyes and buries half her face into the pillow. “This girlfriend thing is hard.”

  I laugh. “How? You just continue being yourself, except you show your undying affection for me.”

  She’s the one to laugh this time. “How do you know it’s an undying affection?”

  “Because I have an everlasting liking for you, so you must have an undying affection for me.” I point out. “It’s only logical.”

  She sighs. “If you say so.”

  I lean forward and kiss her forehead. “I’m lucky to have a girl like you in my life,” I say truthfully.

  “I guess I’m lucky to have a guy like you in my life then,” she says, looking into my eyes.

  “You guess?” I ask, amused. I can tell she’s not a morning person.

  She smiles and rolls her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

  I rub my chin. “Hmm, I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”

  She groans, and I laugh. She sits up and leans against the headboard of the bed. It actually feels normal being like this with her. It feels like she always comes over to sleep in my bed and we’re both used to it.

  “You know, since you’ve slept in my bed, it’s only fair that I sleep in yours,” I comment as I sit up too.

  Riley scoffs. “And if my mom sees you? I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  “You’re not acting like my girlfriend, Riley.”

  She holds her hands up in defense. “I told you, I’m new at this kind of stuff!”

  I laugh at her and put my arm around her. “It’s fine. Riley.” I then release her from my grasp, and I stand up. “Want breakfast?” />
  “You can cook?” she questions.

  I shrug. “I can’t exactly cook, but I can make eggs and bacon.”

  She smiles. “Sounds good to me!” She hops out of the bed and we both walk to my bedroom door. I grab her hand before we exit.

  Riley

  Mondays are always awful. I wake up, and I don’t want to go to school, but I kind of have to go.

  Before I walk through the main entrance, I receive a text from Aiden.

  I wish I could wake up with you beside me every morning :(

  That manages to make my Monday a lot better. I feel the butterflies in my stomach, and I smile to myself as I make my way to my locker. Of course, me being clumsy, I succeed in bumping into someone.

  “Sorry!” I say out of instinct.

  My eyes immediately meet Nicole’s gaze, and she sneers at me. “Well, look who it is. The nerdy whore.”

  I frown. I’m not going to deal with her today. “Speak for yourself,” I retorted.

  She raises her eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

  Instead of responding, I walk around her. But she ends up grabbing onto my arm and yanking me back. “Don’t walk away from me when I’m talking to you bitch.” She seethes. “I heard you’re dating Aiden now. Did he tell you he called me yesterday and asked me to go over to his house?” She smirks.

  Don’t listen to her Riley. She’s just messing with you.

  “I highly doubt that,” I tell her, rolling my eyes.

  “It’s true,” she says as she crosses her arms. “He said you were never going to be enough for him. You don’t know anything about pleasuring a guy.” She steps closer to me.

  My hands clench into fists as I stare at her. “That’s because I’m not a slut like you.” I snap at her.

  She doesn’t even flinch. She actually looks amused. “You and Aiden won’t last. Not as long as I’m around,” she says. “You ruined my relationship with Ryan, and now I’m going to ruin yours with Aiden. Payback is a bitch, don’t you think?”

  “Just like you.” I keep my hands at my sides.

  She smirks. “You really suck at insulting someone you know. I don’t know why I waste my time talking to you when I could be screwing Aiden right now.”

  That does it.

  I lunge at her, and we both fall onto the ground. Nicole ends up on top and starts to yank at my hair and also throws in a few slaps and punches. But I’m not going to let her win this time. I’m sick and tired of her crap, and I release all my anger on her.

  A crowd forms around us, but that doesn’t distract me from trying to pull Nicole’s perfect hair from her head. She digs her nails into my shoulders, and I reach out and slap her as hard as I can. She punches my left cheek. I ignore the pain and try to punch back.

  I instantly feel someone pull me off her. I try to get out of their grasp, but I can’t. Someone is also holding Nicole back.

  “What is going on here?” A voice booms through the hallway.

  I flinch and my arms fall to the side. The vice principal, Mr. Hawk, is standing there with his hands on his hips. He looks beyond angry.

  “She attacked me!” Nicole automatically points at me.

  “I did not!” I lie. “Okay, maybe I did, but she’s been bullying me for weeks now!” I exclaim.

  Whoever is holding me lets go and I catch a glimpse of who it is. It’s Aiden. He looks at me with a small frown on his face. I turn away and see that Ryan had been the one to take Nicole away from me. She pushes him away once she sees it’s him.

  “Both of you, to my office. Now,” Mr. Hawk says, sounding aggravated. “Mr. Dixon, Mr. Callaway, I suggest you move along to your first period classes.”

  Aiden looks at me before he leaves down the hallway with Ryan.

  ***

  “And out of nowhere, she comes and attacks me like a mad person. I was just minding my own business when she did this.” Nicole finishes her lie.

  I roll my eyes. That was not what happened.

  Mr. Hawk sits back in his chair and glances at me. “What’s your side, Ms. Summers?”

  “Nicole has been verbally attacking me for weeks now,” I say, truthfully. “She’s called me many names, and I got tired of hearing this crap from her. I’ll admit I was the one who jumped at her, but it was because I’m sick of her bullying me like this.”

  Mr. Hawk then sits forward and clasps his hands together on his desk. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll have the security guards review the security cameras to see what really happened.”

  “Security cameras?” Nicole asks suddenly.

  I want to smile. The cameras will show that Nicole lied about me randomly attacking her out of nowhere.

  “But for now, I’m giving you after school detention today, which is from 3:35 to 4:45,” he explains. I cross my arms but don’t argue with the punishment.

  “But, Mr. Hawk—” Nicole tries to pipe in.

  He holds his hand up. “I don’t want to hear it. You two failed to follow the rules, and now you are receiving the punishment.”

  “Are we going to detention just for today?” I ask curiously.

  He nods. “We’ll call you both into the office tomorrow after we’ve reviewed the tapes, then you will both receive the punishment you really deserve.”

  I internally groan. Can’t they just send me home? I’m not one to really care about my looks, but my face is probably bruised and swollen, and I just want to sleep.

  ***

  After the dreaded after school detention, I finally get home. I want to go straight to bed, but the school had called my mom and told her what happened. So now I’m getting a lecture from her.

  “Riley, I just don’t know what I’m going to do with you.” My mom shakes her head. “Fighting? At school?” she asks, rubbing her temples.

  “Mom, Nicole has basically been bullying me. Those times I came home claiming I wasn’t feeling good were just lies. Nicole’s words got to me, and I just wanted to leave school,” I tell her. “I got tired of hearing crap from her.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “And going to a counselor or talking to me about it wouldn’t have solved it?”

  I shake my head. “Not really. That would’ve made it worse.” I place my head in my hands. This conversation is going nowhere.

  “Do you mind telling me what this girl has been saying to you?”

  I really don’t want to go too deep into this, but it looks like I don’t have a choice. “She thinks it’s my fault that Ryan broke up with her.”

  She raises her eyebrow. “Anna’s Ryan?”

  I nod. “He found out that she was harassing me and he broke it off with her. So ever since then, she’s been calling me a whore and a slut and claiming that I stole him from her.”

  My mom sighs. “Riley, when someone starts talking that way about you, fighting them isn’t the answer.”

  “It seemed like it at the moment,” I mumble.

  “I’m not going to punish you,” she says to me. “But if you are ever in another situation like this, promise me you’ll be the bigger person and just walk away.”

  I sigh. “I promise. Can I take a nap now?”

  She shakes her head. “There’s one more thing I would like to talk to you about.”

  I mentally groan. I just want to sleep. Today was a long day and I need rest. “Okay,” I say.

  She gave me a small smile. “I know you didn’t spend the night with Kelly on Saturday.”

  Oh no! Busted!

  “Um…” I don’t know what to say.

  “Riley, I know about you and Aiden,” she says.

  I rub my face. “I’m sorry, Mom. I promise I won’t lie to you about it again. Aiden really wanted me to stay over and I kind of wanted to stay also. But I swear nothing bad happened. The only thing that happened was him asking me to be his girlfriend, and that’s it,” I ramble on.

  My mom grins. She actually grins. “Riley, it’s fine.” She laughs slightly. “I know you’re smart enough to make the right choices.
I just want you to be careful. I also want you to know that you don’t have to keep all these secrets from me. I’m your mom. I’m here for any advice you need.”

  I stand up from my spot at the table and go around to hug her. I squeeze her tightly and tell her I love her.

  When we pull away from each other, she looks at me and smiles. “I want you to invite Aiden over for dinner sometime. I want to get to know the boy my daughter really likes.”

  I smile and nod. “Will do.”

  ***

  I sit in my bed and call Aiden. I try falling asleep, but my mind keeps buzzing from everything that happened today. I decide to call Aiden since I didn’t really see him during the day.

  “Hey, beautiful,” he answers after two rings.

  I look at my face that has a bruise on the left cheek. There are also scratch marks along the side of my face. “I look far from beautiful, especially after what happened today.”

  “You’re always beautiful to me,” he comments. “I will have you know that you did some pretty good damage to Nicole’s face too. Who knew you had it in you Led Zeppelin Girl?”

  I smile. “I told you, don’t mess with me.”

  He chuckles. “So, how much trouble did you get in with your mom?”

  “Surprisingly, I didn’t get punished. The only thing she told me was that she wants to have you over for dinner sometime.”

  “She knows about us?” he asks.

  “I guess.” I lay back on my bed. “She also knows that I was at your house Saturday night and she was fine with it.”

  He whistles. “Well damn. You do realize that you’re going to be staying at my house more often then, right?”

  I find myself grinning. “If you say so. As long as you come over to my house for dinner, so my mom won’t bug me too much about it.”

  “I would love to go over for dinner. Tonight isn’t a good night, but I’m free whenever,” he says.

  “I’ll ask later. I’m getting sleepy,” I say as I close my eyes.

  “Get some rest, Riley. I’ll pick you up in the morning,” he tells me.

  I sigh. “Okay.”

  That night, I dream of Aiden, Led Zeppelin concerts, and smashing Nicole’s face into a brick wall.