The Little Things Give You Away

Riley tried to walk away from me, but I wasn't going to let him get out of this so easily. He’s my best friend and if there’s anything I can do to help him, I want to do it.

I took hold of his arm and gently pulled him back towards me. His eyes looked slightly red and seemed to be brimming with water. I just wanted to know what was wrong with him. I hate seeing him like this but I’d rather he felt like he can trust me and come to talk to me when there’re things bothering him.

Seeing him like this made me want to just hold him in my arms and tell him over and over that it’ll all work out in the end; that one day, it’ll all be okay. I rarely see him upset so when I do, it hurts. I feel like I can’t do anything. It’s as if he won’t let me.

“I only want to help,” I told him, looking him dead in the eyes, but he still stayed quiet with me. “Is it about everything at home?” I asked him, thinking about what I was told this morning, before all of that other stuff happened. We lost eye contact when I said that, so I knew I’d hit on something there. “I was talking to your mum and-”

“What?” he asked quickly, looking panicked. “What’s she been telling you?”

I looked at him for a few moments. Was he really that upset about me knowing about his life? Maybe I should just stay out of his business...

“About the divorce and struggling with money at the moment,” I told him, shyly. “She said you were coping, but you’ve been...different since you moved.”

He nodded his head at me and looked like he’d calmed down a bit. I let out a slight sigh of relief, glad that I hadn’t upset him more or done the wrong thing. And if I had, he was letting me off for it.

“Yeah,” he sighed. “That’s right,” he whispered, sounding kind of relieved. “Everything’s...changed.”

A supportive smile spread across my face when he looked up at me. I know he doesn’t want me feeling sorry for him, but I can’t help it. I’ve got no idea what it must be like for him, going from having so much to so little. The transformation must be hard to deal with; I doubt I’d be able to manage it.

“Hey,” I grinned, remembering the offer Nate gave me earlier. “How would you like to get away from all of that for the night?” I asked him.

I saw his cheeks go a little pink at first and I really hoped he didn't take that the wrong way.

“What do you have in mind?” he asked me with a raised eyebrow.

“Nate’s having a bit of a party tonight.” His face dropped at the mention of one of my closest friends, but I tried to ignore it. “I thought you could come too, maybe then you’ll get closer to some other people here and it’s bound to be fun,” I told him.

He nodded at me but didn't seem too sure about what I was suggesting. I know as a fact that Riley used to love those types of parties a few years ago, but since then he’s changed so much that I don’t really know if he’d still enjoy that sort of thing now or not.

“Would you go with me?” I asked him. “It’s nothing big, just a few friends at Nate’s place.”

“Sure,” he whispered, not looking as sure as what he said though.

“Great, I’ll pick you up at 7,” I smiled. “That alright?”

Riley nodded at me and then looked down at his watch, a confused expression crossing his face.

“Why hasn’t the bell gone yet?” he asked me.

“Oh,” I laughed, “you can’t really hear it from the field,” I explained, “that’s why we tend to be a little late.”

He nodded at me and frowned a little. I'm guessing he doesn’t really want a bad rep here yet. I don’t see why not though. He’s not exactly a good kid, even though at the moment he really is acting like he is. Something really must be bothering him; he’s changed. Maybe tonight he’ll be more like himself though. A little booze in a guy can fix everything. If Nate and them get to know the real him, they might actually get on.

It’d be so great to have all of my friends together as one group, instead of it being me and them and me and Riley.

***

Dad was forcing me to go to cross county at lunch, even though I went to the proper training that he did last night already. I'm guessing he’s doing it for all the people that missed last nights, which was quite a lot to be honest. It’s understandable though, seeing as he did have it on the first day back of school and all that, so not many would’ve come prepared with their kits, or really be in the mood to give up their first night back to do some athletics thing.

If I had the choice I know I would’ve preferred to be at home.

A lot more people came this time. Nate wasn't there which shocked me a bit because I'm used to him not missing anything, sometimes he does have better offers though...Like Torrie for example. Torrie is this girl he’s liked for a while basically and today’s the day that he’s finally growing the balls to ask her out; well that’s the plan anyways.

I was expecting to be really bored for the training at lunch, but Riley told me that he was going to go as well in the lesson we had before it, so I started to actually look forward to running around the field I've ran around thousands of times in the past.

There were some parts of that lesson that really ticked me off though. The main one was the amount of attention he was getting from some of the girls. I mean, I don’t mind him making friends with that Ashley Summers girl in form, but that’s it. I hate seeing him with a load of flirty girls, especially when its girls that have a bit of a reputation. I'm friends with them, yeah, but they’re not known for being the loyal faithful girlfriend types.

Take Jacey for example. She’s a nice girl, but there were rumors going around a while ago about her posting pictures of herself online. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that these pictures weren’t decent. So then she came in and started showing people those pictures. I mean, she showed no shame at all.

Not only that but she’s far from the stable boyfriend kind of person. She has one guy, they have sex, and then she dumps him and moves on. Sometimes it’s more than one guy at a time as well.

So you can see why I'm annoyed by her flirting with my best friend all lesson.

During cross country I was still a little worked up about all of that, but I tried my best not to show it. One reason was because my dad was watching me like a hawk now that he thinks there’s something bothering me, and the other one is that I don’t want to risk taking it out on Riley.

He’s smiling right now. Properly smiling and I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that after how I saw him earlier today. I love to see him happy like this.

“You like your sudden popularity with the girls don’t you?” I asked him with a sly smirk on my face as we jogged down the field.

Riley and I were leading the group around, in fact we were ahead by quite a bit really. I could tell that Riley was holding back for me as well. he’s a great runner and in some situations he would’ve just ran off on his own, so for me it felt good that he was sticking by me, especially after how awkward things became earlier. Part of me was expecting him to run as fast as he could to get away from me. in the past if I’ve seen him at a weak point, he’s tried to avoid me, but today he isn't doing that. Thank God.

“Can’t help it if the ladies love me,” he laughed in a quick breathe before going back to focusing on his breathing as he ran.

Not just the ladies , I thought to myself, questioning where that really came from.

“You didn't like ‘em back though,” I said as more of a statement so that he couldn’t really say no. He can’t like them. They don’t want a relationship with him, they just want some fling and I'm certain that Riley’s better than some one night stand.

“I don’t know them,” he said, looking over at me with the smile that I love plastered across his face. “Might like them, might not,” he smirked, knowing that he was successfully annoying me. “The blonde was pretty fit.”

I frowned, realizing that he was on about Jacey. He can do a lot better than her.

“I didn't think you went for that,” I hissed, slowing my pace slightly.

“Didn’t you? I love the blond es with the orange faces best,” he said, struggling to keep a straight face.

A smirk found its way onto my lips.

“That’s so not funny,” I said, shaking my head and getting back up to his pace which he managed to keep steady.

“I know,” he laughed, “but you should’ve seen your face!”

I bit down on my lip. The guy does know how to get a reaction out of me.

We ran in silence for a bit after that, well, other than the found of our breathing and footsteps that is.

I looked behind once we reached the trees and realized that no one else was close. Strange. We’re not that fast and they aren’t that slow...Maybe dad called us back early and we just didn't notice.

I'm not too sure what came over me, but when I knew no one could see us; no one was around and we were surrounded by trees, I stopped running and grabbed hold of Ry’s arm, making him stop as well.

“What the-?” he asked as his momentum spun him around to face me.

I stepped back quickly, realizing how close we were just then.

“I was just, er, wondering something.”

“Spit it out,” he smiled, panting slightly and still looking kind of confused.

“Well, if you’re not into the blonde umpa lumpa Jacey kind of girl, what are you into?” I asked him, making him give me an even more confused look than before. I guess the question did kind of come out of nowhere, but I wanted to know.

“I don’t know,” he said, looking down at the ground before looking back up at me. “Why?” he asked.

I shook my head at him, having no idea why I actually wanted to know that. I guess I just wanted to make sure he was just joking around back there.

“So you definitely don’t like Jacey and her friends?” I asked him, just to clarify.

“Definitely,” he whispered.

We stood there for a few more seconds before he gestured ahead of us, basically asking me if we were going to carry on running or not now. He went off as soon as I nodded, but I stood there and thought for a second.

What was all that about?

“Come on Phillips!” he called after me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“I'm coming,” I sighed before running after him.

“You’ll have to be faster than that,” I heard him laugh from ahead of me. “Unless you want to hang back and stare at my ass all day.”

When he said that a blush instantly flooded my face and I ended up chocking a little and slowing down as what he said sunk in. When I finally caught up to him though, I was pretty sure that he was redder than before too, and I'm not sure whether or not it was to do with the running.