𝑁𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝐸𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒

Chapter 24 |The Dance|

Today was the day I was going to ask River to go to the fall dance with me. I walked into the school library, I had to get a book for one of my classes to study for finals. As I go to grab the book off the shelf a voice stops me.

I peek through the little bit of space between the books and the shelves. I see River talking on her phone. She was dressed in a hoodie with leggings. She laughs at something the person on the other end of the phone said.

She takes a seat on one of the chairs placed at the big table. I grab the book and move to the shelf closest to where she's sitting. Should I ask her to the dance now? As I make my move to go ask her, she says something that makes me stop.

"Yeah, I already have a date for the dance. Hmm, he asked me yesterday." She says cheerfully. My heart stops and my whole body freezes. Just last week, she was laying in my bed reading to me to help me sleep.

I turn around and start to walk out of the library. How stupid could I be? I've never been good at expressing my emotions to people, but with her, it felt easy.

As I make it to my car, I open the door and get it. My mind is everywhere as I drive back home. I still had to meet with River tomorrow for tutoring.

Once I make it to the house, I open the door and close it, not paying attention to Leo in the kitchen. As I'm about to make my way up the stairs, Leo's voice stops me.

"Hey, how did it go with River? Are you guys going to the dance together?" He asks me as he eats food that his mom had brought for us when she came yesterday.

"She already has a date, so I didn't get the chance to ask her," I tell him trying to hold back the emotion in my voice.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know she already had a date." He tells me also confused. Guess it was as much a surprise to him as it was to me.

I just give him a shrug before walking up the stairs and going to my room. I put the book down on my desk before going to my bed. I open my phone and call mom.

"Hey, mom," I say when she answers.

"Hi, dear. What's wrong?" She asks me. I didn't know how she could tell something was wrong. Sometimes it feels like she has superpowers.

I tell mom about everything. My birthday, the day that we saw her, I told her about the fight and how River comforted me. Then I tell her about the dance.

About how I never take anyone to the dance, most of the time I don't go or I just hang around the guys. I told her about how I wanted to ask River so bad.

That was the first time I even thought about taking someone. It was the first time that I willingly wanted to spend time with someone other than the guys. I then bring up how I heard River say she already had a date.

"Have I done something wrong?" I ask her. I replay everything that has happened between us recently. I tried to figure out if I had done something wrong or had said something. Anything to explain why she said yes to this guy.

"Sweetheart, you did nothing wrong. How about you talk with her?" Mom asks me.

"I don't want to sound like a jealous boyfriend, we aren't together. She just calls us situationship. I just don't want to scare her away with whatever I'm feeling," I say honestly.

"You won't scare her away, you have the right to ask her about the guy and if anything is going on with them." Mom reassures me.

"Yeah, I guess. I'll think about saying something tomorrow when I see her." I told mom. We stay on the phone bit longer before she says goodnight to me.

I look at the time and see that it is 9:56 p.m. I make my way downstairs to grab cold water from the fridge. I freeze when I see two people getting awfully close to each other.

They freeze and turn their heads toward me, their eyes wide matching my own. Rose jumps away from Greyson. A small blush forms on her cheeks.

Greyson tries so hard to hold on to a laugh as she awkwardly walks past me to the front door. I hear it open and shut before I focus my attention on Greyson.

"So, you and Rose?" I ask as I go to the fridge and open it. I hear Greyson clear his throat before speaking.

"Please, don't tell anyone." He says with pleading eyes. This was something I have never seen from him. I just nod my head and hold out my pinkie towards him. He moves towards me with a teasing smile as he wraps his pinkie around mine.

To Greyson pinkie swears are everything. When we first started living together, there was a time when he threw a party without Coach knowing. Coach had told us if he heard about any party that he was kicking us off the team. Someone at the time had just got busted with drugs in his system and was suspended for two games.

Greyson had held out his pinkie to Leo, Roman, and me and made us pinkie swear to never tell Coach about the party. Ever since it has sort of become our way of keeping secrets. If one of us broke the pinkie swear then we would have to get a hard kick to the balls.

Let's just say I really like my balls, so I would never break a promise, especially to Roman. He took karate classes for over 7 years when he was younger. I refuse to get kicked in the balls by him. Plus, I need them for my future kids.