Professor Bryant's Second Chance

Chapter Six

Riley



No freaking way! “Bora, Bora! Are you kidding me?!” Nora and I jumped up and down in the middle of our apartment. We woke up to the news that tomorrow we would be leaving for not one but a two-week vacation to one of the most beautiful places in the entire world. Not many people ever got this type of experience, but I still couldn’t help but think something was off. When something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

“Can you believe it?! Riley, we are like the luckiest people in the world. Who calls into a radio station on their first try and actually comes out winning something? Us! That’s who because we are two badass bitches!” I nearly lost it, listening to how enthusiastic she was. That was Nora for you, always the outspoken one. “We are all going!”

My head fell to the side, considering what she was saying. “We have four tickets?” Nora nodded, confirming. Now I was even more skeptical than before. There is no way that a dingy little radio station can afford four tickets to paradise. Something was definitely off here, and I was determined to figure it out.

As Nora turned to me, I could see the doubt in her eyes, but she wasn’t about to let an opportunity like this slip through her fingers. “I know what you are thinking, Riley. Stop overthinking things for once. We are two sexy women who deserve something like this. Can’t we just think that and move on? I honestly don’t care how it happened. We have a guardian angel out there looking out for us, saying those two needs this! Don’t try to play this out in your head and take away the fun of it! Please!”

No way could I ruin this for her. As much as I loved to overthink a situation, this one didn’t seem like a bad one. We were just talking about how much we needed to get away from everything. It would be nice to have a double date thing if Justin could make it. If he couldn’t, there isn’t anyone else that I’d rather bring with me.

“You’re right! Let me call Justin!”

I jumped up and ran into my bedroom, searching for my phone. Justin and I had a great time last night, just sitting on the bed talking. Conversations with him flowed easily, and it didn’t hurt that he understood me better than most. Of course, I still had Nora to talk to, but she was so busy with Mikey these days that I didn’t want to burden her with all my problems. I was lucky to have Justin in my life.

For some reason dialing his number, I found myself a little nervous. I desperately wanted Justin to come along with us but more for selfish reasons. Being alone on a trip wasn’t the most idealistic thing. Yeah, I’d be with Nora, but she would be spending most of her time with Mikey.

After several rings, it went to his voicemail.

“Hey, Justin. You told me to let you know if we won, and we did! Nora got the call first thing this morning. The trip is to Bora, Bora of all places. Can you believe it? Well, we got the ultimate package, an all-paid trip. There were four tickets, and I know Nora will invite Mikey, so I thought you might want to join me. It lasts for two weeks, which I know will be a problem with our classes, but I hope we can work it out. Anyway, I’m rambling. Let me know if you can come. Okay, bye.”

How pathetic was that voicemail? Since when did Riley Bell ever become so needy and dependent on other people? I believe that Dylan had a lot to do with that. My walls were up before meeting him, and once I did, I instantly fell in love. So much for that, huh. Oh well. The only thing I can do is grow from it and move forward. Life is too short to dwell on things you cannot change.

“Did you get a hold of him?” Nora asked while popping a bagel into her mouth as I stepped out of my bedroom.

“Not yet. I got his voicemail.”

She used air from her mouth to blow the hair out of her face while leaning onto the cabinet with her elbows. “Don’t worry. Justin will be excited to get away and spend some alone time with you. You never know. Maybe this is where you two finally screw each other’s brains out to relive all that s****l tension you got going between you.”

She really had no filters. “We are just friends. Justin has made it pretty clear where he stands, and he should be because I’m not sure what I want. Everything with Dylan is still so fresh. Jumping into any relationship with Justin would confuse us even more. The last thing that I want to do is hurt him.”

“Tell me again how massively large he was that day in the bathroom? I’ll never get old of hearing those juicy details. You should have gone through with it. You have to admit, Riley, that Justin is insanely hot. You could wash your clothes on his abs. Don’t expect me to believe that you haven’t at least thought about it. I’m not even interested in him, and I’ve thought about it.”

I didn’t even realize I was glaring at her until she laughed. “Sorry. I’m not jealous. I swear.” Nora gave me that okay, whatever look. “You’re right. Maybe I am a little. I don’t mean to be. Justin and I are just in a weird place right now. Our friendship has blossomed, but I think he is holding back because of that.”

“Or maybe it has the fact to do with the other hottie in your life.”

“But he isn’t in my life. He made sure of that himself.”

Nora grabbed my hand, comforting me in a way that only she could. “Yeah, and he’s an i***t. Everyone knows that. Justin knows that, which is exactly why I think he has basically friend-zoned you even though he wants to hop on the next Riley train. Seriously, the way that man stares at you is sexy.”

Thankfully, my phone rang, giving me the perfect opportunity to get out of this kitchen before the conversation shifted back to Dylan again. Don’t get me wrong. There isn’t a second I spent with Dylan that I will regret. No one had ever made me feel like more myself than he did. That taught me that I would never try to be anyone different. If someone liked me, they could like me for exactly who I was. Dylan taught me that there wasn’t anything wrong with who I am. That’s something that I would never be able to repay him for.

“Hey, you,” Justin’s voice rang over the other end, making me smile instantly. “I got your voicemail. Two weeks, huh? That’s a long time. I figured it would maybe be for the weekend, maybe a week at most. You think that we can take that much time off? I mean, you can, obviously. You’re pretty much caught up on all your work for the rest of the semester, but I’m a little behind on some things.”

My heart sunk into my chest. The last thing that I wanted to do was to go alone. Paradise wouldn’t be nearly as fun without someone to share it with.

“On second thought, let me talk to the Dean,” Justin said since I didn’t respond to him. “When are we leaving?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Wow, that’s sooner than I expected.” His voice was unsure, which made me more nervous. Seconds later, he peaked up. “See you at the airport then?”

My smile was big and bright, nodding my head like he could somehow see me. “That sounds great! Thank you, Justin. This means a lot to me.”

“Anything for you.”

I knew that he meant it. Justin would do just about anything for me and has proven that time and time again.

“I got to run, but I’ll talk to the Dean for the both of us. Text me the dates. I’ll make some arrangements for my boxing stuff too. This vacation is going to be kickass!”

When we hung up the phone, and I returned to the kitchen, Nora was on the phone with Mikey. She was just as excited as I was. We never expected to win a trip to some resort, especially one to an island as beautiful as Bora, Bora.

I put together a sandwich and skipped off to my room to try and do some work on my laptop for a little bit. Justin was the one to convince me to get the laptop in the first place. If I recall, he said that you can’t go to college and not have a laptop. I guess that I was more outdated than the rest of the college students. Now the laptop had become my best friend. I never went anywhere without it, and it was an easy communicator besides my phone.

Justin said that he would let the Dean know about our vacation, but I thought it would sound better for me to give him a heads up. I quickly sent an email to him letting him know that I would be absent for those days and sent him my already completed work for my classes since I didn’t have individual emails for each of my teachers.

Looking through my emails, I noticed one from what seemed like ages ago. It was the email from Dylan, excusing himself from classes. I hovered my mouse over the delete button with the intention of deleting it. There was no need for me to keep it anymore. I hadn’t deleted it before because it was something to reread when we first broke up. I tried to delete it again this time, I really did, but I couldn’t do it. It may have had something to do with seeing him yesterday. I know that I changed my number and moved dorms, but he could have reached out to me. Even when all the media reporters started saying all those horrible things about me, Dylan never once interviewed to say anything differently. He completely ghosted me, and it hurt more than I let show. For someone that made it seem like they cared so much about me surely wasn’t around to offer me reassurance when I needed it. That and Justin helped me to move on as much as anyone could after a hard breakup like ours.

I wish I could say I hated Dylan, but that would be a lie. I envied the fact that he could move on so quickly. It took weeks just to stop myself from crying or waking up in the middle of the night sweating from the horrible nightmares I had.

Rereading the email, I realized the one thing that I needed that I never got. Closure. For me to move on, I needed to understand from him why he lied to me. Before I could talk myself out of it, I started to type away. I had no idea if his email was still active, but I had to give it a shot.

Mr. Bryant,

It’s Riley. Please delete this email after reading it. I shouldn’t even be emailing you. It’s like taking steps back instead of moving forward, but you deserved to have a little piece of my mind. You never said anything. When I was being attacked, where were you? Even if your wife wouldn’t let you get in the middle of it, you could have been more of a man and cleared the air. Instead, you stood in the shadows, knowing exactly what was being said about me, and didn’t give a damn.

I’m disappointed more than anything. I was angry with you, but I’ve never been one to hold a grudge before. I won’t start now. Truth be told, I envy your ability to not give a s**t about anyone but yourself.

Despite everything thrown my way in the last several months, it’s made me stronger. Justin has been that massive stepping stone for me. I’ve been thinking about the conversation you two could have possibly had outside of my dorms yesterday, but I won’t waste my time with it anymore. I’m sure whatever Justin said to you was well-deserved.

Even though you don’t deserve to know it, I’m fine. Thanks for making letting you go easier than I expected it would be.

Riley

I didn’t want to talk myself out of sending it, so I clicked the little green arrow before making an excuse not to. I may come to regret doing that, but I needed to do it. There is a chance that I may never get closure. If I couldn’t get closure, Dylan at least deserved to know the way I felt and get a piece of my mind. Now that I felt a little lighter, I could move on and possibly introduce new love into my life without thinking of Dylan first.