Always With You - A Best Friends To Lovers Novel

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Bowie

Five days had passed, and River still hadn't answered my calls or messages. I knew his phone was off, but I hoped he would turn it back on and tell me how he was feeling. Sure, I could've just gone over to his apartment and knock on his door, but if he didn't take the next step first, I wouldn't go on and bother him.

Aiden had said that he hasn't seen River a lot in those two days. He was locked in his room most of the time and only came out to eat. He also wasn't attending classes, but that wasn't such a big deal. He was probably ahead of them all.

I tried not to be angry at him for wanting to be alone, but I couldn't help it. It made me angry not seeing him, and not being able to help him. I was angry for shouting at his dad that night and making River even more upset.

Every morning I hoped to wake up to a text from him, asking me to come over. But every time my phone lit up; his name was never on the screen.

Even after all this time of not seeing him or talking to him, I knew I had to stay away until he wanted to come forward. To me, it didn't make much sense that he kept his distance. But if that's how he wanted to handle his problems; I wouldn't stop him.

"Haven't seen you with your boyfriend in a while." I was minding my own business, sitting on a table in the cafeteria, and making notes for my upcoming exam, as a high-pitched voice interrupted my thoughts. I turned my head to look up at the girl standing in front of me, and to be fully honest...I had no idea who that was.

"I'm sorry...do I know you?" I asked with a smile, hoping she would be gone as fast as she had appeared.

"Hasn't River ever talked to you about me? Shame," she pouted. "I'm in his psychology class. We've become very close in freshmen year, and even spent a lot of time together. I'm surprised you've never heard my name before," she said.

I raised an eyebrow. "I guess that's a sign for us not to have this conversation. I'm studying," I told her, pointing to my books. I tried to be polite, but I was already very annoyed by the distance River made me keep from him.

"I'm Faye. You see, River and I have history." I doubted that, so I looked back down into my book.

"I'm really busy, Faye. Maybe we can talk another time," I suggested but wasn't fully committed to it.

"I know you two tried to date. Didn't really go as planned, huh?" Slowly, but very, very surely, she was starting to get on my nerves. I gazed back at her, but she didn't let me speak.

"I know what you guys have been through." Again, I doubted that, but I let her talk. "He told me everything. From the day you guys met, up until the day he left for college. It's really sweet, you know. Having a friendship like yours and being so close to someone."

This time, I was all ears. "Did he actually tell you this?"

She chuckled. "How else would I know about it? He talked about his mother a lot. Poor guy. I'm glad I was the one by his side when he needed someone to talk to. He's been through so much."

Her words didn't make sense to me. Why on earth would River open up about his past to a stranger? Did I really miss something these two years we were apart?

"I'm sorry, I gotta go," I told her, packing all my books into my backpack. But something still bothered me. I stopped moving and looked back at her. "What else did he say?" Before I confronted him with all this, I needed to know more.

"Well, there was this thing about his father beating him when he was younger...and that he got blamed for his mother's death. Tragic...I can't imagine a parent blaming his own child for something as horrible as this."

That was enough. I pulled the backpack off the table and started to walk toward the exit to get to my car. Dad always told me to not get behind the wheel when I was upset or mad, but right now, I had no other option.

Tears already stung my eyes, and I tried to keep it together for as long as I was driving. Getting into an accident would be my fault, so I tried to concentrate on the road and push the words Faye said out of my head.

I had no idea what I was going to say to River. There was still the slim chance of him not opening the door, but if Aiden was home, I had at least an opportunity to get closer to River.

There wasn't much traffic, considering it was a Friday afternoon around five p.m.. As I reached the apartment building, I parked my car rather badly and got out of my car to stomp up the stairs to his front door.

I didn't care who'd here, so I started banging on the door as loud as possible.