What Love Entails

eleven

sous l’âme || eleven

♠︎

"Nice job on the presentation," Kaden ruffled my hair, earning a "hey!" from me. "And good going with loverboy too." He winked, making my jaw drop. "See ya!" He laughed as he left the classroom.

I grabbed my bag and made my way towards the door when River approached me. "Looks like you and Kaden get along pretty well."

"I guess so," I let out a small laugh.

"You guys seem pretty attached," his voice was on the edge of irritation and I blinked.

"River, you- you're not actually jealous are you?" I laughed.

He remained silent and I immediately regretted saying what I did. He let out a strained chuckle. "Of course not. What's there to be jealous about?"

"Right, hehe," I ignored the way my heart tightened. "Well then, we better head to our next class. See you."

"See you."

When I got home after school, I found my mom baking, which was a great shock as she hardly ever did. "What's the special occasion, mom?" I asked as I scanned the row of freshly baked muffins.

"The women of our community are raising funds for charity," my mom popped in another batch of muffins into the oven. "So I figured why not bake some muffins? I've got quite a list of people who have already paid and ordered for it." She grinned as a proud look spread over her face.

"Want me to taste them so that you're not sending those people to death?" I wiggled my eyebrows, earning a light slap on my arm.

"By all means."

I grabbed a muffin and took a bite. The taste of blueberries immediately flooded my senses. I moaned. "Mom, it's so good!"

"It's so good that I made my own daughter moan," my mom teased.

"Oh my god, mother!"

She laughed. "Oh right, honey. Would you mind taking a batch to Mr. Hayes? He ordered one too."

"Um.." I hesitated. "Alright."

"Here," she handed me a box filled with delicious smelling muffins and shooed me away. "Off you go now!"

"Gee, I can see how much you like having me around, mom," I answered sarcastically.

I was five minutes away from the Hayes's house when I felt light drops of rain on my face. "s**t!" I cursed and started sprinting. Unfortunately for me, there was a heavy downpour and by the time I reached the door of their house, I was completely drenched. I grumbled as I rang the doorbell impatiently.

The door opened and I came face to face with River, who looked surprised for a moment before he burst out laughing. "Looking good, Kyla."

I rolled my eyes. "Gee, thanks a lot."

"Hurry up and come in," he spoke within breaths of laughter.

I did as he told, brushing off the wet strands of my hair away from my face. "Oh," I pushed the box of muffins into River's hands. "That's for your dad from my mom. It's a charity fund thing I heard."

"My dad's not home yet," he opened the lid of the box. "Wow! Looks delicious."

"They are," I grinned.

River looked up and scanned me from head to toe. "I think you should take a shower and change your clothes. Wouldn't want you catching a cold now."

"R-Right," I blushed.

"Come upstairs. I'll get you some clothes." I nodded and followed him up to his room. He rummaged through his drawers until he found a tee and a pair of shorts. His cheeks were slightly pink as he handed them over to me. "Sorry, this is all I can give you."

"It's fine," I chuckled.

"You know where the bathroom is," he smiled.

I nodded and made my way to the bathroom. It had been so long to be honest. Back then I used to always crash over at River's place and it felt like it was my home itself. I quickly hopped into the shower and hummed as I turned the water on. After I was done, I got out and dried myself. The smell of River's usual scent engulfed my nostrils as I put on the tee he had given me. I took in a deep breath and let the scent take over my senses.

God he smelled good.

I blushed as I realised how much I sounded like a pervert. I slapped both sides of my cheeks with my hands before sliding into the shorts.

I walked out of the bathroom and walked barefoot to River's room. River, who was sitting on the edge of his bed looked up as I entered. "Thanks," I said with my eyes on the floor.

"It's no big deal," he patted the bed. "Come here."

I slowly walked towards the bed and sat there. I looked outside through his window and found that it was still raining heavily. "Woah, it's really pouring out there."

"Yeah," he turned to face me and a small smile took over his lips. "Looks like you're stuck here for a while."

"Looks like you're really glad about that," I teased.

"Yeah, I am, like, over the moon!" He said with fake enthusiasm.

"Oh my god, how did you even survive without me for the past six months?" I asked sarcastically.

I was surprised when River's eyes turned serious, as I clearly meant what I said as a joke. He turned away to look ahead of him, a distant look in his eyes. "I have no idea," his voice was soft. "I seriously don't."

I swallowed the forming lump in my throat and forced myself to let out a small laugh. After a moment that seemed like a millennium, River's smooth voice rang in my ears. "Do you want to play a game?"

I frowned. Where the hell did that even come from? "What kind of game?"

"A question game," he licked his lips. "You get to ask me two questions and I get to ask you the same."

My heart started beating furiously against my ribcage. Questions? I couldn't even count how many I had for him, how many answers I needed.

"We can ask anything we like," his eyes bore into mine. "No rules."

I don't know what I was thinking as I got lost in his deep eyes and whispered, "okay."

"You go first," River prompted me.

I pursed my lips as I thought of what to ask. The matter from today was still pricking my mind so I decided to ask about it. "How did you and Bree start dating exactly?" I blushed as the words that came out of my mouth made me sound like a clingy nosy girlfriend. Not that I was River's girlfriend or anything. Though I wanted to be.

"Well," he scratched his head. "Bree was the one who had told me about what happened to you. After that, we started to hang out. And I don't know, things happened and we decided to date."

I nodded, feeling disappointed as well as relieved that it wasn't anything complicated. "Your turn."

"Did you like.." he trailed off. "Did you hate me after I left and started being an ass to you?" His eyes were downcast and I knew talking about it was making him uncomfortable.

My lips curled into a smile. "Of course not. I could never hate you, River."

His downcast eyes flickered up towards mine, meeting my gaze in a soft intensity. I could see the corners of lips twitching up for a second before he shook his head. "I really regret it. I was such an i***t. I-"

"It's fine, River. We're over it now," I assured him. "It's all forgotten now. Right?"

We stared into each other's eyes for a while before he nodded and smiled. "Right."

"My turn," I announced. I dug deep into my mind to find a question to ask him but the only thing that kept popping was the question of if he still liked me. Failing to find something else, I smiled sheepishly. "I don't have any right now so you go first."

River took a moment to think before he spoke in a deep voice. "I don't have anything right now either. How about we save one question for later?"

"Cool."

"You hungry?" He suddenly asked. "I'm in a great mood for some sundae. How about you?"

"Sounds good," I nodded.

"Then could you go downstairs to the kitchen and get some bowls out? I'll be down in just a minute."

"Okay," I got up and headed to the kitchen.

As soon as I got there, I grabbed a glass and poured water into it. I gulped down the contents of the glass in one go. Being alone with River in his room for too long had made my throat go dry. I let out a famished noise and proceeded to get the bowls out. I reached my hand out to the top cabinet where the bowls were kept but short little me couldn't reach it. I stood on my toes and struggled to get the bowls. "Oh c'mon!"

Suddenly a hand brushed over mine as it reached for the bowls. I immediately turned around in shock, and my heart started beating rapidly when I saw that River was just a hairstrand away from me. A burning sensation still lingered in the spot where River's hand had glazed over mine. My back was touching the counter of the kitchen, meaning that I was cornered by River.

"Eeps! Sorry!" I rushed my words out in nervousness.

River chuckled. "Typical you."

I bit my bottom lip as I tried to ignore the fact that I could feel his breath on my face as he spoke. My breath hitched when I observed his eyes flickering down to my rosy lips. I couldn't help too but to avert my eyes towards his slightly parted lips. I wanted to kiss them so bad.

His hands landed on my hips taking me by complete surprise as he inched in closer and closer to me. I could feel butterflies in my stomach as I squeezed my eyes shut. A tingling sensation overcame me as his lips slightly brushed against my own. I could've sworn that he could hear my rapid heartbeat.

"I'm back River!" We both jolted out of our position as River's dad's voice rang out through the front door to the kitchen.

River cleared his throat and I could see that his cheeks were slightly tinged red. "I'm over here, dad!"

"Oh hi Kyla," Mr. Hayes greeted me with a smile as he entered the kitchen.

"Hi, Mr. Hayes," I cleared my throat when my voice came out pitchy. "My mom sent you muffins."

"Oh right, thank you."

I nervously glanced at River who was busy staring at the ground and rubbing his neck with the palm of his hand. He did that a lot when he was nervous. I looked out the window and noticed that it had stopped raining. Grabbing the opportunity, I immediately spoke up. "The rain has stopped so I guess I should get going now."

"Alright," River finally looked at me but didn't meet my eyes.

"Ah," I blushed I realised that I had his clothes on. "I'll return the clothes to you tomorrow at school."

"Sure, see you."

"Bye, Mr. Hayes," I bid them both goodbye and rushed out of the house.

My heart was pounding as I kept replaying the scene that had just happened with River. I touched my lips lightly with my fingers and I could still feel his lips on mine. Did it seriously happen? I wondered what would've happened if River's father had not walked in at that moment. Would we have actually kissed? My face was already hot as I pondered on the thought. A part of me was glad that Mr. Hayes came in when he did while every other part of me wished that he had not.

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oohh they almost kissed! What do you think about their relationship now? Please follow and comment! Thank you.