Forced by Love

"No! Don't you dare!" I said as Riley inched his way to me. He eyed me, then the pool, then back to me. He smirked at me.

"Crap. Might as well..." I muttered.

I stopped stepping backwards and waited for him to come. When he finally got to me, he grabbed me around my waist and threw me over his shoulder. He ran into the pool and we both got submerged in the cold water.

Currently, we are at Riley's house, in the pool. By 'we', I mean practically the whole school! When Riley asked me to go swimming with him, I thought he meant just him, me, and the guys. But he meant a pool party. With everyone from school.

As I emerged from the water, Riley wrapped his arm around my waist.

"Damn, it's cold!" I said as I stood in the pool, dripping wet.

I was in my black bikini and freezing cold. Riley pulled me back down into the water and held me down. But he kept my head up, of course.

"Stay down in the water. You'll get warm." He said.

"Duh! I know that!" I said rolling my eyes.

I've been swimming since I was a kid, I would know.

Then from the corner of my eye, I saw something big, shiny, and silver move. I turned my head completely around and my jaw dropped. I saw a keg!

"Oh my..." I said in shock.

"Finally..." I heard him whisper.

He brought me out of the pool with him and wrapped a towel around me. He held me close and brought me to the people who were setting up the keg.

"Dude, what took you?" Riley asked the guy.

"Traffic." He said simply.

"Well now that you're here, set it up." Riley ordered.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." The guy said.

I watched as the guy put the tap on top of the keg. When he was done, he started passing out the beer in red plastic cups. He was about to hand one to me, but I stopped him.

"No, thank you. I don't drink." I said simply. But he still was offering me the drink, saying, "Oh, come on. Just a little. Just a sip."

What is up with this guy?!

Just before I was about to cuss the guy out, Riley came next to me.

"Sam, she said she's fine. Don't pressure her." He told the guy that was just bothering me.

Then he grabbed a cup of beer for himself. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and he pulled me inside. It was a bit warmer inside, but I still wrapped the towel around me tighter. I got some glances from other guys which gave me the creeps.

"I'm gonna go change now." I said to Riley.

Riley nodded and I went to his spare bedroom. I closed and locked the door behind me. I took a shower in the bathroom that was in the room. After I was done, I dried myself off and got ready. I dressed in a pink tube top and a short white skirt. Obviously picked by Riley himself. I left my dirty clothes and wet bathing suit in the room. I was gonna get it later. I walked back out to see Riley on the couch, already changed. But something was different. When I left him, he was alone. But now, he wasn't. He had some blond girl next to him. All over him. He obviously didn't notice me. So I sat right next to him. Still nothing. He was still flirting with her.

Then I kicked him in the shin... again. I've been hitting him a lot there recently.

"Ow! What the fu-" He started. He turned to face me and put on an innocent face. I smiled at him.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked him.

"S-sure." He stuttered.

I grabbed his hand and led him to an empty room. I closed the door behind me. I caught him off guard and kissed him hard on the lips. He was surprised at first, but then he started to kiss back. When he really got into the kiss, I pulled away. I left both him and me breathless.

"Whoa... What was that for?" He asked, trying to catch his breath.

"That was just a taste of something that you won't get for awhile." I said, smiling sweetly at him.

"What...?" He asked with a concerned face.

"Yup..." I said. I walked out of the room and left him there. I walked back to the living room and sat down on the couch. Next to the blond girl. I turned to her and smiled. "Hi! I'm Lacey! And you are?" I asked in the most preppy voice I could do.

"Oh hi! I'm Candy! Um... Do you know where the guy that was here went?" She asked.

I shrugged innocently. "I don't know. Sorry."

"Oh... Because I thought we really hit it off. I was also hoping I could maybe spend the night with him. If you know what I mean..." She trailed off, winking at me.

"Yes, I get what you mean..." I said through gritted teeth.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Riley leave the room I was just at. I saw him straighten his clothes and fix his hair. I smiled at Candy, but when I turned to Riley, I grinned evilly. I sent him a look that said, 'Come here or else...' He got what I meant and sat on the other side of me. Candy looked at me happily.

"That's the guy I was talking about." She said to me, pointing to Riley.

"Oh... Him?" I asked.

"Yes."

This is going to be fun.

"I'd like you to meet Riley; my boyfriend." I said, emphasizing on the word 'boyfriend.'

Her face was priceless! "W-what?" She stuttered.

"You heard me. Riley's my boyfriend." I said grinning.

Riley knew what I was doing and played along. Riley wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. He grinned at Candy. And Candy... Well... Let's just say she was shocked and embarrassed. Candy got up from the couch and walked outside. When she was out of hearing range, I bust out laughing.

After awhile, I stopped laughing and got thirsty. I got up and went to get a soda. Riley followed close behind.

"I'll go get you your drink. You can go back and sit down." He said.

"No, thank you. I don't trust people with my drink at parties like this where they have alcohol." I said as I poured my own drink.

"Not even me?" He asked.

"Not even you." I confirmed.

"We'll see..." He trailed off. I rolled my eyes.

Then I remembered something. "Oh yeah! I forgot! I just became the head of fund raising and event committee, and I need members. The principle wants you and the guys to be my members." I explained.

"Oh..." He thought for a second. "Will that mean that I'll be with you more?" He asked.

"Sadly, yes..." I said looking down.

"Okay!" He said excitedly.

"I just knew you were going to say that..." I muttered. I looked at the clock on the wall. "Oh shit! I gotta go!" I said as I put the drink down and headed towards the spare bedroom.

"Wait! Why?" Riley asked as he followed me to the spare bedroom.

"Unlike some people," I glared at him. "I have a curfew. And that's at 12, It's 11:50."

"So? You have plenty of time. You live right there."

"Well I would like to get there before it's actually 12." I said, packing all my stuff into my bag.

"Oh. I'll walk you."

"Fine, whatever..." I said as I walked out of the room. He came out right after me, holding onto my waist from behind. Just then, Derek stopped him at the front door.

"Hey, where you going?"

"I'll be right back. I'm just gonna go walk Lacey home." Riley explained. Derek nodded.

Me and Riley left his house and were now walking me home. On the way to my house, Riley took my stuff to carry. As we were walking, his hand lightly brushed mine. I shivered. I didn't know why, though.

When I got to my house, I was about to go in, but Riley stopped me.

"Wait!" He put his hands on my waist.

"What?"

He didn't say anything, but just leaned closer to my face. I knew what he was going to do next. I held my breath. Just before his lips came into contact with mine, he hesitated. He stopped and moved to my side. He kissed my cheek instead. I exhaled.

"Sorry. I almost forgot." He smiled down at me. For some reason, I felt... disappointed. My heart beat faster than it did a minute ago. "I'll see you tomorrow." He said as he walked away.

Okay, breathe. Calm down...

I walked into my house, right before 12 o'clock. I went up into my room and closed door behind me. I went onto my computer and surprisingly, I was still logged into my mail from a couple of days ago. When I first saw Riley and broke into my own house.

Wow... My computer was on for that long?!

I refreshed the page and saw that I got five new messages. Three of them were spam mail. The other two; one was from Ivy and one from the principle. The one from Ivy was talking about Riley and me together sent on the day when Riley came and told everyone that we were "together." The one from the principle was sent today, and talked things I had to do and stuff.

After I read all my messages, I logged out. I got up from my seat and brushed my teeth. I changed into my other clothes and went to sleep.

I woke up the next day to see a pair of hazel eyes looking at me, about an inch away from my face.

"Ahh!!!" I screamed. Not just a normal scream. When I scream, I scream. My scream was so high-pitched and it echoed against the walls of my big room.

The person covered their ears, shutting their eyes closed. "Shit, Lacey! Shut up!" Yelled the person. I looked at the person and stopped screaming. The person opened their eyes and put their down their hands.

"Oh my gosh! Randy, is that you?!" I asked the guy that was standing in front of me.

The guy, Randy, is my older brother. The one I mentioned earlier. We're eight years apart. He's 23. He's fresh out of college and he's currently working at Express to save up some money to rent an apartment. And he's also currently single. He also has hazel eyes and brown hair like me, but he dyed his hair jet black.

"Of course it's me!" He said with open arms. I screamed again. Not a scream of terror this time. I screamed/squealed with joy. I hadn't seen him for months.

I jumped out of bed and hugged him. "Oh my gosh! I haven't seen you in like forever! How are you doing? Are you eating healthy? How's work? Have you saved enough money for your apartment?" I bombarded him with questions.

"Calm down..." He said, letting go of me. "I'm doing fine. I'm eating okay. Work's fine. And yes, I have saved enough money for my apartment. I've actually already bought my apartment." He said with a smile.

I stared at him wide-eyed. "What?! What's it like? Is it big? Is it small? Was it cheap? Or was it expensive?" I asked again.

He laughed. "Its pretty cool. It's medium sized and it was pretty cheap." I was about to ask him more questions, but my mom called me.

"Lacey, could you come down here for a minute?"

"Yes, mom." I called back.

I went downstairs with Randy trailing behind. When I got downstairs, I saw the front door open. She was holding the door open and Riley stood at the door.

"Honey, who is this? He said he's here to pick you up." My mom said.

"Oh... U-um... t-this is..." I stuttered. I gulped. "This is Riley. My boyfriend." I said, glancing at him. He smiled at me. "Mom-" I started, but she cut me off.

"Oh! It's so nice to meet you! Come in, come in!" She said.

I gave a confused look. So did Randy. "Wait, mom!" I said.

"Yes?" She asked, facing me.

"Can I talk to you in the kitchen?"

"Oh... Why can't we just talk about it right here?"

"Fine..." I said through gritted teeth. "Last time you found out I had a boyfriend, you freaked. But now, you're happy. Why?" I asked.

She paused for a second. "I don't know, honey. But to be honest, I think Riley is really nice and... handsome." She said, winking at me. She mouthed, 'Good job!' and gave me the thumbs up. Me and Randy gaped at her.

"Mother!" Both me and Randy exclaimed. I heard Riley chuckle.

"No, it's alright. Thank you, Ms. Layne." He smiled at her.

"No problem." She smiled back. "Just take care of my daughter for me." I saw Randy glare at him.

"Okay, that's it! Mom, I think you need to get to work. Or else you're going to be late." I said, glancing at the clock. She looked too.

"Oh! You're right. I need to go now." She turned towards Riley. "Riley, you are such a gentlemen and I hope you take good care of my daughter." She faced me now. "Lacey, good job!" I rolled my eyes at her. She turned towards Randy. "And Randy, honey, it's great that you visited us. Well I need to go to work now. Bye." She said as she grabbed her bag and keys and left. I stared at the door.

Oh gosh...

I looked back to Riley. He smirked at me. Then I looked at Randy. He glared at me.

"Ok, Randy, calm down. I was about to tell you, but mom kinda just... got in the way. He's really... nice." I chose my words carefully.

He looked at me. Then at Riley. "You take care of her. If you don't, get ready for an ass-kicking." He threatened. I stared at him wide-eyed.

"Randy!" I said.

"What? I'm just being careful." He replied.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of her." Riley said, making his way over to me. He stood beside me and put his arm around my shoulders. He then kissed me on the cheek. I blinked.

Oh no... What's Randy gonna do? I have to stop whatever he's going to do next.

"You little-" Randy started, but I stopped him.

I took Riley's arm off my shoulders and stood between them.

"Randy, this is my boyfriend, Riley. Riley, this is my older brother, Randy." I explained.

"Pleasure to meet you." Riley said politely.

"Pleasure's all mine..." Randy said through gritted teeth. Then they shook hands. As I watched their hands squeeze, I saw Randy's hand go tighter around Riley's. I saw Riley wince. Riley let go of his hand.

"Firm handshake, you have there." Randy said.

"You too..." Riley trailed off, putting his hand behind his back. I looked behind him and saw him flexing his hand. I smirked.

I looked at the time. "Oh crap!" I ran up the stairs and locked the door behind me.

I hope they don't get into a fight. Especially this early.

I sighed.

I finished getting ready and already brushed my teeth. Now, I was done. I came downstairs and saw Riley and Randy talking. And laughing!

"What are you... doing?" I asked Randy.

"I'm talking to your boyfriend." He smiled.

"Why?... How?"

"Well we got to talking and he's actually pretty cool." Randy explained.

"Oh my... What has happened with all of you?" I said grabbing my bag.

"They're all under my spell." Riley said, smiling. I rolled my eyes.

"Let's go..." I muttered.

"Your wish is my command." He said getting up, following me to the door.

"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" I whispered to him. He chuckled lightly.

"Ah... you are right there."

"Okay, bye, Randy! After school, I have work, so I'll see you later tonight." I said as I walked out the door, with Riley close behind me.

"Ok. See you later. Bye Lacey, Riley!"

"Bye!" Both me and Riley said. I closed the door behind us and started walking to his car. I got in the passenger seat and waited for Riley to come. He finally got in the car and drove off.

"We're going somewhere after school." Riley said, breaking the silence.

"Where?" I asked.

"The mall."

"Why?"

"You'll find out." He said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes.

"You know, you smirk too much." I said, facing my whole body towards him.

"What?"

"You heard me. You smirk too much. It's really annoying."

"So?" He asked.

"I already said it. It's annoys me." I smirked this time.

"Well smirking is my trademark. And why are you smirking? It looks like some of me is rubbing off onto you." He smirked again.

My smirk instantly faded. "Shut up!"

He was still smirking. "Yes, honey..." He said, reaching for my hand.

Honey?!

He held onto my hand the whole ride to school.