Forced by Love

He kissed me. Butterflies filled my stomach. This felt totally different from all the other kisse we shared. My heart beat faster. My hands started to sweat. I kissed back softly.

A loud knock on the window made us stop. I looked behind me and saw Eve smiling widely. I blushed. I looked down and noticed Riley's hands on my waist, pulling me closer.

"Hey! Stop making-out and get to class!" Eve exclaimed. I blushed even more. I pulled away, grabbing my bag. I opened the door and got out. I straightened my clothes and faced Eve. She grinned at me. She opened her mouth to speak, but I stopped her.

"Don't say a word!" I hissed, pointing my finger in her face.

"I won't say anything!" Then she squealed. I covered my ears.

"Shh!" I grabbed her arm and pulled her away from Riley's car. "Shut up!" I said.

She linked arms with me. "Okay, okay! But really. Oh my gosh! You look so cute together!" Then she started to skip. I rolled my eyes. I tried to keep up with her, but couldn't. I let got of her arm and watched her skip down the hall to her locker. I sighed, shaking my head. Riley caught up to me and stood beside me. He linked his fingers with mine.

"Wow... She was excited." He commented.

"Yup." I replied, walking over to my locker, while Riley went to his. Which was next to mine. He was done getting his books by the time I even opened my locker. We met up at our first class. He sat in the front, so I sat next to him. "Hey." I said, pulling out my pencil and notebook.

"Hey." He replied.

The teacher walked into the room and wrote the assignment on the board. He sat down at his desk and started to read his book. No offence, but he's pretty lazy.

"Hey, Lacey?" Riley whispered to me.

I faced him. "Yeah?"

"I need help." I rolled my eyes. Seriously, I'm a grade below him. He should know. And it should be easy for him. But then again, I'm more advanced.

"Fine..." I muttered. I moved my chair closer to him. "Okay. What do you need help on?"

He looked at me. "Everything." I rolled my eyes again.

"Okay. Number one."

I spent the whole class period helping him with his homework. He sort of got the assignment. But sometimes while I was explaining something to him, he would zone out. Or flirt with me. And sadly, I would flirt back. Yes, I know. Gasp! Me flirting with Riley? Now, there's something new.

By the end of class, I had finished my homework. But Riley, he didn't even finish half of his work.

"Damn! I hate Math!" Riley complained, throwing his hands in the air.

"Are you still on that? Math was like three periods ago." I said, resting my hand on his shoulder. It was lunch now and we were all outside, under the shady tree. By 'we', I mean, me, Riley, Chase, Derek, Roy, Scott, Ivy, Eve, Sean, Justin, David, and Katie. Yeah... that's a lot of people. We were a big group.

"Still!" He retorted.

"Calm down..." I soothed, gently rubbing his hand. He visibly relaxed.

"Aww!" Everyone teased. I blushed. But then I noticed, David was the only one not aww-ing at us.

That's odd... Usually David always would laugh at me every chance he gets.

I shrugged.

"Hey, could I talk to you?" Riley asked. His mouth was so close to my ear, I could feel the skin of his lips on my ear. I nodded, unable to say anything. He helped me off the ground and led me around another tree. I leaned against it. From here, they couldn't see us. I looked at him and smiled. He smiled back weakly.

"What's up?" I ask.

"Um..." He started. He stepped closer to me. He leaned in close and kissed me gently. I kissed back softly. He pulled away. "Why are you doing this?" He asked. I gave him a confused look. "I mean, right here. With me. Why are you kissing me back?"

Still confused, I replied. "Because I want to..." I said slowly.

"Why? Because you want to or because you're told to?" He said harshly. Something was wrong.

"Riley, what's gotten into you?" I asked, stepping closer to him. He stepped back.

"You know what I mean!" He nearly yelled. I stepped back, frightened. He's never shown this side to me.

"You... you want to know why?" I stuttered.

"Yes!"

"I don't... know." I replied, looking down.

"You don't know?" I nodded. "You don't know?" He repeated.

"Yes..." I managed to say.

He turned around and walked away. As I stood there, I watched him walk away. Out of nowhere, David popped out.

"Hey." He said, casually draping his arm over my shoulder.

"Hey." I replied. I could hear the sadness in my voice. I didn't know why I was though. "I gotta go." I gently pushed his arm off of me. I went back to the group and grabbed my bag. "I'm gonna go now. I'm not that hungry anymore." I turned and walked away.

I decided to go to my locker. When I got there, Riley was leaning on my locker. He smiled weakly. I glared at him. I was angry now. I walked straight up to him.

"Move." I said harshly.

"No." He said, just as harsh.

"And why not?"

"Because I want an answer."

I crossed my arms. "To what?"

"You know what."

I rolled my eyes and pushed him aside. "Leave me alone." I opened my locker.

"No. I need an answer." He looked me in the eye. I looked right back. But after awhile, I couldn't stand to look at him.

"I can't. I don't know..." I shook my head side to side. I heard him sigh. And for the second time that day, he walked away from me. I turned away and faced my locker.

What's happening?

I grabbed my stuff for my next period and closed my locker. I went to the classroom, but it was locked, so I sat in front of the door. My next class was Art. I waited patiently, humming a song to myself. I kept thinking about the recent events. They kept running over and over in my mind. After what seemed like hours, the bell finally rang. I got up off the floor and waited for the teacher. But instead of the teacher coming, Riley did.

"Oh great..." I muttered, looking away. Riley stood next to me, but said nothing. "You're an ass, you know that?" I said, breaking the silence. I rolled my eyes as he didn't say anything.

As the minutes ticked by, more people kept arriving. Everyone but the teacher.

Typical...

After the second bell rang, the teacher finally came. She held her lunch in one hand and her Starbucks coffee in the other. She was rushing over to us. She told me to take the key from around her neck and unlock the door. I did as I was told. I unlocked the door and held it open for everyone. When everyone was inside, I also went inside and returned the key.

"Sorry I'm late. Again." Apologized the teacher.

"You love coffee, don't you?" I joked. She smiled at me.

"Of course I do." She set her coffee and lunch down on her table. "Okay class. Sit down. Take out your books."

Sadly, I sat next to Riley. He didn't have a book yet, so I had to share mine with him. I opened my book to the right page and pushed my book closer to him. We kept our distance from each other.

"You're confusing..." I muttered to him.

"Well so are you..." He muttered back. I rolled my eyes.

"You started it."

"Did not!" He fumed, catching some looks from some other people next to us.

"Shh!" I hissed. He shut up and faced the book.

When class was over, I went to my locker. I ignored Riley as he followed me. When I got to my locker and saw David smiling, leaning on my locker, I smiled back weakly.

"Okay. I know something's wrong. What is it?" David said to me as I opened my locker.

"Nothing. It's just... me and Riley got into a fight." I faced him. "I don't even know how!" I threw my hands up. I saw a small smile tug at his lips. "Why are you smiling?" This is serious!" I said, breaking into laughter on the last part.

"I know it's serious!" He said back, also breaking into laughter.

"Then why are you laughing?" I asked him as I tried to calm down. We both calmed down so he could answer my question.

"I was just remembering when we were together. I mean, we never had a fight. Come to think of it, we never had a fight ever. Even before we were together."

I thought about this. "Huh... You're right. Maybe that's why we broke-up in the first place. Oh wait... or maybe it was because you wanted Amy. Hmm..." I said jokily.

He smiled and held up his hands in defeat. "Alright, alright. I got it. Can't you let that go?"

"Nope." I said, closing my locker shut after I got my books. "It's funny to bring up." I smiled sweetly. He glared at me, but it soon faded away.

"Fine. But I'll let it slide this time. Only because I got you to smile and laugh." He said. I smiled at him.

"Thanks, David. I really needed that. I really needed to laugh." I said while I hugged him.

"No problem." He replied, hugging me back. "Let's get to class now." He said as he pulled away. I nodded. We made our way to our next class. sadly, I had no classes with him. Well since I did take different classes than him. It sucked that I took junior classes instead of sophomore classes. But then again, I liked taking them. So it works out, I guess.

Little did I know as me and David walked to our classes, Riley was watching us the whole time, looking on in envy.

**Riley's POV**

I watched in anger as Lacey and David walked to class. After a few minutes, the hallways were completely empty. Then the second bell rang, signaling I was late. I didn't care. I slammed my fist against a random locker in frustration. I winced in pain. I moved back my hand and examined it. It was bleeding. Only now, after I punched the locker, did I notice that it was the same hand where Lacey dug her fingernails into my knuckles. It was starting to heal, but now it re-opened.

I quickly walked to the nurse's office. I knocked on the door and then entered. The nurse, JoAnn, looked at me and smiled. I smiled back, sitting on the bed.

"I guess you weren't kidding when you said you would see me again soon." She said with a laugh, preparing some gauze. She came over and cleaned the blood off my hand. I winced as the wet towel grazed over my cut. "So what happened this time?" She asked.

I hesitated. "I punched a locker with my injured hand." I said, shrugging.

"Why in the world would you do that?" She asked me. I shrugged again.

"I don't know..." I muttered. But I did know. It was because of Lacey.

**My POV**

"Lacey, are you listening?" The teacher asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Y-yes?" I looked around. "Yes, I'm listening."

"Good. Then what did I just say?"

"Um... Something about our grades and that we should study more. And we have a quiz tomorrow." I answered. He glared at me before continuing with the class.

Honestly, I wasn't paying attention. I came up with all of that on the spot. And you know what the funny part is? That's what he usually says. I laughed to myself. I am good. I stopped laughing abruptly to see Riley walk into the classroom, handing a note to the teacher. I saw his injured hand. It was re-bandaged. I did that like over a week ago. It was healing. Did it re-open. What did he do?

For some reason, I was panicking. I was worried about what happened to him. He sat in the empty seat next to me. I glanced over at his hand.

What happened?

The day went by with not much happening. We all went back to Riley's house after school. I said bye to David before I got in Riley's car. Riley still wasn't talking to me. The last time we talked was in Art class. Since he didn't talk to me, I didn't talk to him.

As Riley drove, I kept glancing at his hand. The top of the gauze was now spotted with red. When he pulled into his driveway and turned off the engine, I got out and went inside. I opened the door to see everyone in the living room, watching TV. I smiled weakly at them. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed an apron and the silver serving plate. I walked back out and saw Riley inside, siting in his chair.

"Anyone thirsty? Or hungry?" I called out to them.

"We ate. But we're thirsty." Roy called back.

"Okay." I said, grabbing four sodas and putting it on the plate. I paused. Should I get one for Riley? I debated on this. In the end, I grabbed an extra one and put it on the plate. Just in case. I walked back out and handed out the drinks. I placed the last one on the table next to Riley. I sat in a chair nearby. I really hoped he would drink it. I waited patiently.

"Thanks..." Riley muttered, opening the can. I didn't even notice that I held my breath.

"Y-your welcome." I stuttered, clearly surprised.

"Thanks!" The rest of the guys said in unison, obviously forgetting to say it when I handed it to them. Only remembering when Riley said it. I rolled my eyes.

"No problem." I replied, putting my hair up into a ponytail. It was starting to bug me. I moved my bangs aside.

For two whole hours, we did nothing, but watch TV. It was so boring!

"I'm tired. I'm going to sleep." Riley muttered, a yawn escaping his lips. I nodded. As he left the room, I glanced at the clock. It was only 6:30. It was still pretty early. I shrugged it off. I continued to watch TV.

I heard his bedroom door open and close. I sighed. Today was a long day. I leaned on the arm rest, my bangs blocking my view of the TV. The next time I checked the clock, it was 9:30. Wow... Time just flew right by. I thought it was about time I went home.

I yawned. "Hey, guys? I'm gonna go home. I'm tired." I said. They nodded.

"You better tell Riley you're leaving." Derek said.

"Okay." I said, walking to his room. I knocked on the door lightly.

"Yes?" I heard a muffled voice say from the other side.

"It's me." I replied.

"Oh..." There was a pause. "Come in." He finally said.

I slowly opened the door and peeked my head inside. I saw Riley laying in his bed, a remote control in his hand. I looked over to the TV. It was muted.

"Um..." I started.

"Yes?" He asked, sitting up.

"Uh... I'm gonna go home now." I said. He nodded.

"Okay." He said. I stood there awkwardly. I saw him start to smirk. "Are you waiting for a kiss goodbye?" He asked. I blushed.

"No..." I replied, focusing my gaze else where. I heard him laugh. I looked up at him. He had a look of amusement plastered across his face. I was confused. "Huh?" I asked.

He laughed again. "Come here." He said, a smile playing on his lips. He was up to something. I just knew it.

"Why?" I questioned, narrowing my eyes.

"Just come here." He ordered. I sighed and walked over to the side of his bed. Only now did I notice what he changed into. He was wearing only boxers and a shirt. I blushed red.

"Y-yes?" I said, fiddling with the bottom of my shirt.

"Look at me." He said. I complied. I slowly looked up to meet his gaze. My breath got caught in my throat. His eyes held so much emotion, it gave me butterflies. But the thing is, I couldn't tell what emotion exactly it held. He reached for my hand and he clasped his hand over mine. He smiled. He pulled on my hand. He leaned up, pulling me down. He pulled me down so low, I sat on the bed.

He kissed me with so much... so much... I don't know. So much... emotion? Yeah, he kissed me with so much emotion. I felt like passing out right there. I can't explain it. If felt... different.

He pulled away slowly, cupping my cheek into his hand. "Goodnight." He muttered, a small smile forming on his lips.

"Uh..." I stuttered. "G-goodnight..." I muttered, turning and walking away. I closed the door behind me. I leaned against it, trying to steady my breathing. After I seemed calm enough, I walked back to the living room.

"Why are you blushing?" Scott asked.

"I am not!" I exclaimed, turning redder.

"Yeah, whatever..." He said sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes at him and grabbed my stuff. I took off the apron and put it back in the kitchen. I came back and saw Chase eating a package of cookies.

"Where did you get that?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

He shrugged. "I don't know." He said, munching on more cookies.

"Give me those." I said, holding out my hand.

"Why?"

"It's 9:40. You shouldn't have sugar so late."

"But I always have sugar so late."

"Maybe you should stop." I grabbed the cookies from him. "You'll thank me later."

"You suck!" He whined.

"You blow!" I replied, grabbing my bag and walking out of the house. I glanced back at him and saw a look of disgust on his face. I laughed as I walked home.

When I got there, I was tackled. I fell on the living room floor with an 'oomf!'. I got up and dusted myself off. I turned angrily to see a grinning Randy.

"What the hell was that for?!" I screamed at him.

He shrugged and sat on the couch. "I saw you had cookies in your hands, so I took them from you." Only now did I notice that he was eating Chase's cookies.

I rolled my eyes at him. "You're an idiot..." I muttered. "Those aren't even mine." I said.

"Whose are they then?" He said, still eating them.

"Chase's." I replied simply.

"Who?" He asked, a confused expression on his face.

"Riley's friend."

"Oh..." He ate more of the cookies. "Mom's working late." He said.

"Okay. I'm going to sleep. I'm tired. Stop eating those cookies and go to sleep. Remember to brush your teeth." I said, walking upstairs.

"Yes, sister dearest." He called out mockingly. I laughed as I dragged my butt into my room.

When I got there, I did my nightly things. After I was done, I changed into my Spongebob pajamas and got into my bed. What? I love Spongebob. I soon drifted off to sleep.

**Riley's POV**

I laid on my bed and looked up at the ceiling. I thought back to earlier today. I can't stay mad at her. She's just too cute. I reached my hand up to my lips. I can still taste her on my lips. Her scent intoxicates me.

I shook my head side-to-side, a small smile tugging on my lips. My mind drifted over to other events. My smile instantly faded and turned into a frown. I thought about my conversation with Brian. I still couldn't get it out of my head. Who would have thought? The sweet, innocent Isabell getting pregnant at seventeen.

"Izzy, what were you thinking?" I muttered, shaking my head.

I thought back to out old times together. How could she do that to me? I thought she loved me. I guess I was wrong. I looked at my injured hand and smiled.

She's different. I know it.

**My POV**

I woke up the next day and got ready. I changed into a mid-thigh length skirt and a black tube top. I looked myself over in the mirror.

"Ugh..." I muttered, scrunching my nose up. I searched my closet for a jacket, but couldn't find any. I didn't have any clean ones. "Shit..." I cursed. There goes my temper again. I groaned and grabbed my bag. I went downstairs and waited for Riley to pick me up.

I impatiently tapped the table with my fingernails. Every five seconds, I glanced at the clock. I stopped tapping the table and put my hands on my lap. I balled my hands into fists, preventing me from calling Riley. Then it hit me.

I didn't have Riley's number.

My eyes widened. I unclenched my fists, then reclenched them. My hands were sweating. My eyes widened even more. I was nervous. I was really nervous. But why?

My thoughts were cut short when the doorbell rang. I quickly got up, grabbing my bag on the way to the door. I swung open the door and there stood Riley, grinning down at me. I couldn't help, but blush. I felt my heart racing.

But why?