Because Now It's an Ordeal Just to Find Her.
666 Words
The next morning at breakfast, I do it again—I bring up Riley.
I really can’t help myself. I mean, you’ve probably already figured out by now that I’m a mess when it comes to girls, but with Riley especially, I’m not going to give up. I haven’t heard anything about her since the phone call yesterday morning, and it’s been long enough. I can’t shake that image of her from my head—so much skinnier and so, so different.
“Hey, Ol?” I ask when he slouches into the kitchen and pours himself the coffee I brewed.
“Don’t call me that,” he grunts. He still wants me to call him Dad.
It’s not really that I have a problem with calling him Dad; he’s a decent dad and all. It just doesn’t really work for us. We don’t have that kind of relationship, and he’s dreaming if he thinks we do.
“What happened when you called her yesterday?” I continue. “Riley, I mean. Like... where was she? It was early for her not to have been home.”
Oliver sighs. He looks stressed, and I can tell he’s been thinking a lot about this. “I don’t know. I think she was at some guy’s house. He kept yelling at her to get off the phone. I think both of them were hung over.”
Awesome.
“Look,” I say, and wince a little before adding, “Dad. I know that probably bugs you, but you have to understand. I’m worried about her. It’s weird, how much she’s changed. It’s not normal.”
He nods. “Trust me, I know. I thought about it all day yesterday. I offered, you know, for her to come back to Bray. But she turned me down, and when I tried to convince her, she hung up on me.”
I feared as much.
“Even if I could convince her to come here,” Oliver says, “I’m not sure it’s a good idea, Joey. I know you’re pretty immune to this stuff, but she could be a bad influence for the others—you know, Kate; Val; Cyan.”
“You know she won’t influence Cyan if I have anything to say about it. Kate just isn’t the kind of person to ever be bad. And Val... I mean hell, Ol. She’s already there.”
Oliver doesn’t seem to like hearing that, but he doesn’t say anything about it. “I want to help her. I mean, you remember—she was like a daughter to me. I know she had Jesse, and he was great and all, but I...”
I know. Oliver was as fond of Riley as I was back then, in an entirely different way. She stunned him, showing up without any riding experience and being an impeccable jumper in days. She was better than me; better than Zoe and Christina; better than him, even. She was born to ride, and more than that, she was an inspirational person. Smart, wise, and just the kind of person you wanted to listen to.
Her advice to him from the start was to be with Zoe no matter what—no matter how hard it was for her to let him in, and no matter how long it took. But she left, and he didn’t have her to remind him, and when it came down to it, he ended up picking Christina over Zoe.
God, I wish she stayed.
It really isn’t cute, crushing on the daughter of the woman your dad’s dating. I mean, it might sound cute, but if you think about it, it’s practically i****t. It’s essentially dating your stepsister, and this sure as hell isn’t Clueless; I think that s**t is creepy.
But I’m not dating Val, and Oliver and Christina aren’t married, so I guess it doesn’t matter, anyway.
“What do we do?” I ask. “We have to convince her. Bray is her best shot at changing back.”
He nods. “I know. I’ll keep trying. But I don’t think I’ll be enough. She really liked you; maybe you can convince her.”
She did really like me. But that was a long time ago, and she clearly doesn’t feel that way anymore.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I sure as hell am going to do something.
- Writer
