Salvaged: A Love Story

by Stefne Miller

  “Dude,” Matt elbowed Riley. “The girl watches ESPN.”

  Riley grinned at me. “Yes, she does.”

  “That’s a dream girl right there,” Matt added.

  “Yes, she is,” Riley concurred.

  “My momma raised me right, Matt.” I winked.

  Riley leaned across the table and motioned for me to join him. “Is there such a thing as a piccolo?”

  “I have no idea,” I admitted as I leaned toward him. “It just came out. It sort of sounds like it would be a wimpy instrument.”

  Grinning, he sat back and took another bite of his Coney.

  “Hey, you know Anne likes sports too,” I said.

  “I do!” Anne came to life. “I really do.”

  “What about you?” Riley asked Tammy.

  She shot him a look of disgust. “If there’s a party with food involved, I’ll watch it. Other than that, forget it.”

  Chase started talking from down at the end of the table. “Tess loves football, but she’d choose a chick flick over it if she had the chance.”

  “I love chick flicks,” Tess said with a sigh.

  “Me too,” Anne and I agreed and then looked at Tammy, waiting for her to respond.

  “I’ll go watch them if I can have Milk Duds.”

  “I’m with you, Tammy,” Riley murmured.

  “What’s your favorite chick flick, Attie?” Tess asked.

  “The latest Pride and Prejudice.”

  “Me too!” Tess gushed.

  “Oh gosh,” Chase sounded exasperated. “Do not get this girl started on Pride and Prejudice.”

  Tess ignored him. “I wish I were Elizabeth Bennet.”

  Riley quickly stood up and started for the door. “Okay, party’s over. When we start talking chick flicks, I’m out.”

  The other boys agreed and stood up to leave.

  Anne ignored the boys and stayed in her seat. “Isn’t Mr. Darcy the most wonderful thing ever? So sexy! That brooding, smoldering scene in the rain … Oh Lord!”

  Riley plugged his ears. “I’m not listening to this. I don’t wanna hear this.”

  “Well, you started talking about sports!” Anne snapped.

  “You just said you liked sports!” Matt snapped back. “We never said we liked this Pride and Jealousness thing.”

  “Prejudice,” Tammy corrected.

  “You’ve seen it, Tammy?” Tess asked.

  Tammy shrugged. “I heard Mr. Darcy was hot, so I decided to check it out.”

  “He’s definitely hot.” Tess sighed.

  “Let’s go, boys!” Riley yelled over his shoulder as he walked out the door. “You girls cool off and then meet me in the car.”

  chapter 11

  “I’m not quite ready to head home yet, are you?” Riley asked after we dropped the girls off at their respective houses.

  “Not really.”

  “Wanna go get a soda?”

  “Sure. Whatever you want to do.”

  We drove in silence until pulling into a vacant spot at Sonic. He ordered two Route 44 Diet Cherry Cokes and turned to face me. “So did you have fun today?”

  I unbuckled my seat belt and twisted slightly so I could face him. “I had a wonderful time. Thanks so much for inviting us to come along. It was really nice of you. I really liked everyone.”

  “No problem. Wait until you meet Kent. It’ll get even better.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “Tammy’s boyfriend. He’s a great guy. They’re perfect for each other.”

  “By that I suppose you mean he’s able to put up with her crap?”

  “Oh yeah. He matches it word for word; it’s a blast.”

  “She’s great.”

  “Nothing like having someone around who tells you exactly what they’re thinking. You two are alike in that way.”

  “I prefer girls like that over fake ones any day of the week.”

  “I can’t blame you.”

  “So when will I get to meet Kent?”

  “Not until school starts. He’s out of town until then.”

  “Why? Where is he?”

  “Weatherford. He spends his summers working on his grandparents’ farm.”

  “I look forward to meeting him.”

  “You seemed really happy to make some new friends.”

  “I hope we can hang out more often. Maybe you’ll get lucky and the girls will start asking me to hang out with them every once in a while.”

  He looked confused. “Why would that be lucky for me?”

  “You’d be off the hook. You wouldn’t have to keep me entertained all the time. Given the fact that you get stuck with me every night too, you must be getting pretty sick of me by now.”

  “Actually,” he said with a shrug, “not at all.”

  The carhop knocked on the window. He quickly paid her, grabbed our drinks, and turned back to me. I unwrapped both straws and put them in our drinks before grabbing my drink out of his hand.

  “Good grief, this thing is huge. If I drink all of this I’ll be up all night.”

  “What else is new?”

  I punched him in the shoulder as I took my first swig.

  “I had to say it. You set it up perfectly.”

  “True, I did.”

  Riley watched as I took another sip. He was acting strangely—he had been all day—and I was getting suspicious.

  Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and laid my head back against the headrest.

  “What’s the matter? Are you feeling okay?” he asked.

  “Can I ask you something without you getting upset or taking it the wrong way?”

  “Uh … ”

  I turned my head and looked at him.

  He set his drink into the cup holder and immediately ran his fingers through his hair. “I would hope so. I guess it depends on what it is.”

  “It’s not that it’s any of my business or anything. I just don’t want to think something that’s not true,” I said.

  “Go ahead; just lay it all out there.”

  My mind raced as I played with my straw.

  “Please just get it over with; I’m dyin’ here.”

  “Someone told me that you’ve had sex with a lot of girls and you have the reputation of being a player. Again, not that it’s any of my business or that it should even matter to me, but—”

  “But what?”

  I shrugged my shoulders, looked down at my drink and wished I’d never said anything. He was obviously uncomfortable.

  “Just say it.”

  I looked back up at him. “Are you playing me, Riley?”

  “What?”

  “Being so nice, spending all this time with me. Is this a game for you? A summer challenge?”

  His eyes were large and full of shock. “Is that what you think?”

  “I don’t think so, but I don’t know. I mean it isn’t as if we’ve ever been extremely close before, and now all of a sudden we’re attached at the hip.”

  “That’s not true, Charlie. We’ve always been close.”

  “We hated each other.”

  “No, we enjoyed torturing each other; there’s a difference.”

  He laid his seat back and covered his eyes with his fists.

  “You’re upset with me. I knew I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “Yes, I’m upset, but not with you. And yes, you needed to say something. Good grief, if that’s what you’ve been thinking all this time … Geez, the thought of it makes me sick.”

  I touched his arm and then quickly pulled my hand away. “It hasn’t been ‘all t
his time.’”

  “Have I been acting like a complete jerk and didn’t know it?”

  “No, I just started wondering today.”

  “So I was a jerk today?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then what in the world happened today that made you start doubting my intentions?”

  “You acted different.”

  “Different how?”

  “It was the way you looked at me. It was just, I don’t know, different.” I nervously plunged the straw up and down in my soda. I’d never been a fan of confrontation, and I certainly wasn’t enjoying this conversation. “I’m sure I could have totally misread it. It’s not like I’m an expert on this or anything. Good grief, Riley, just forget I ever brought it up.”

  “No, it’s okay.”

  “Is it all true, Riley?”

  “I don’t even know where to start.”

  As I watched him shake his head, I realized his face had paled. “So I’m right?”

  “Yes.”

  I doubted my facial expression hid my disappointment.

  “I mean no.”

  “No?”

  “Okay, here goes. First, I do not have sex with a lot of girls. As a matter a fact, I’ve never had sex with anyone.”

  “You haven’t?”

  “No.”

  “I thought Anne and I were the only ones.”

  “Apparently not.”

  “Well, that’s a relief.”

  “Now, the whole ‘player’ thing, I can sorta understand that. I do tend to go out with a lotta girls and then not ask them out again. But it’s just because I don’t like ‘em enough to go out a second time. Honestly, I don’t even kiss most of ‘em. I don’t know who says I’ve had sex because I’ve never told anyone that I have.”

  “Have you told anyone that you haven’t?”

  “Just you,” he confided. “Maybe some people just assume, who knows? The guys on the team talk about sex all the time, and sometimes I joke around with them about it, but I’ve never claimed to have had sex with anyone.”

  I sipped on my soda but kept my eyes on Riley.

  “The last date I went on was a couple of days before you got here. It was the girl I took to prom.”

  “Tiffany?” I asked.

  “How’d you know that?”

  “Sources.”

  “Anne?”

  “How did you guess?”

  “Do you remember when you had that phone conversation with Anne, the one where she asked if you were a virgin—”

  “You heard that?” I screamed.

  “The entire thing. I couldn’t help myself.”

  “But you were listening to your iPod.”

  His forehead scrunched in a look of complete guilt.

  “You weren’t listening to your iPod?”

  “No, I was listening to you.”

  “Oh good grief.”

  “And when you and my mom were talking in the kitchen that first night and my chair tipped over?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I was eavesdropping on your conversation then too. I leaned back so far trying to hear you that the chair tipped over.”

  “Are you serious right now?”

  “There’s more.”

  “There’s more?”

  “Yes.”

  “What?”

  “When you had your first nightmare and you were half asleep—”

  “Oh no. I don’t think I want to hear this … what did I say?”

  “You told me you’d never been kissed.”

  “Oh my Lord!” Without thinking I threw the car door open and jumped out.

  “Charlie, wait.”

  It was too late; I was already walking across the parking lot.

  “Charlie—” I heard his footsteps running up behind me.

  “I asked you the next day if I said anything and you said no.” I paced back and forth between two picnic tables.

  “I know. I didn’t wanna embarrass you.”

  “Yes, finding out this way is so much less embarrassing,” I said, full of sarcasm. “I can’t even think right now … what else did I say? Wait, don’t answer that.”

  “You told me that—”

  I threw my drink at him, and it exploded on the ground in front of his feet. “I said don’t answer that.”

  “You asked me if I was a player and if I had sex with a lot of girls.”

  “You knew the whole time? You knew I thought that about you?”

  “Yes, I tried to say something that night after your nightmare. I told you it wasn’t true—you just didn’t remember the next day. Ever since then I’ve been waiting for a way to tell you. It was killing me to know that you thought all that stuff about me.”

  “Why do you even care, Riley? As long as you aren’t playing me, what difference does it make if I think you’re playing someone else? It isn’t my business.”

  “I want it to be your business. I want you to know that’s not who I am.”

  “Why?”

  He rolled his eyes and sighed as he plopped down on picnic table bench. “How honest do you want me to be here, Charlie? This may not be something you wanna hear right now. Maybe we should save the rest of this conversation for a later time.”

  “No.” I sat down across from him. “Go ahead.”

  He covered his face with his hands, took a deep breath, let it out, and the words “I like you” popped out as the air left his mouth.

  “Pardon?”

  “I like you,” he whispered from behind his hands.

  “Well, I like you too. I mean we’ve known each other forev—”

  “No … I mean I like you like you.” His hands lowered, and he looked me directly in my eyes. “I’m crazy about you actually.”

  “Am I being punked right now?” I looked around to see if someone was watching and ready to jump out laughing at my expense.

  “No, of course not. I like you, what else can I say?”

  “Well, when in the world did that happen?”

  “Uh … pretty much the second you pulled into our driveway.”

  “You have got to be kidding me.”

  “No.”

  “Riley, that doesn’t make sense. I saw you—you looked miserable when I showed up. You didn’t even want to be around me. You fled the house for God’s sake.”

  “I wasn’t miserable, I was a nervous wreck. I left to go see Joshua so I could talk to him about you.”

  “What the … ?” My mind was spinning. I tried to think back to that first night, but my mind was foggy.

  “Please don’t freak out.”

  “I’m not. I’m just confused.”

  “Honestly, this isn’t a game to me. I like you, and I genuinely wanna help you get through all this stuff that you’re dealing with. You’ve got a lot on your plate, and I wanna help; that’s all. I don’t have ulterior motives of any kind, and I don’t have any intention of acting on my feelings. We were so relaxed today that I think I let my guard down and my feelings were more noticeable.”

  I was speechless. I wouldn’t have guessed he felt the way he did in a gazillion years.

  “Are you upset?”

  “No. Just shocked. I didn’t see this coming.”

  “I can understand that.”

  I looked down at my busted Route 44 cup and wished that I hadn’t thrown it at him. My mouth was going completely dry.

  “You can have mine when we get back in the car.” How he knew what on earth I was thinking was beyond me. The boy was definitely tuned in.

  “Thank you.”

 
“Since I’ve been so honest, I might as well tell the rest.”

  “There’s more? Good grief, Riley.”

  He ignored me and continued. “I promised myself that I wouldn’t try to start anything with you as long as you were living in our house. I plan on keeping my word, but once you’ve moved into your new place, I’d like to ask you out on a date.”

  “You would?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s over two months away; your feelings will more than likely change by then. You’ll probably be sick of me.”

  “If my feelings change at all, I can assure you that it won’t be in that direction.”

  “What if I’m not interested?”

  He laughed. “I hadn’t even considered that a possibility.”

  “Oh yeah? Being a bit arrogant, aren’t you?”

  “We have a connection, Charlie. I feel it—don’t you?”

  “I suppose. I feel something; I just never thought about it.”

  “Well, don’t get so excited about it.” He was obviously disappointed in my lack of enthusiasm.

  “Maybe your feelings aren’t romantic ones. I mean, it’s not like you have to fight off being physical with me or anything. We’ve spent a lot of time together including many nights of sleeping right next to each other, and I didn’t feel any kind of tension or anything.”

  He laughed again. “I wouldn’t say that.”

  “You wouldn’t? You haven’t tried to kiss me or touch me in any way.”

  “It’s strange. What happens in that time together—at night and how I feel about you then is very different than I feel at other times, like right now for instance. I take my job very seriously.”

  “Your job?”

  “Helping you feel safe. I realize that your need to feel safe is much more important than my personal or physical interests.”

  “So you do have a physical interest in me?”

  “Oh yeah, I’m a seventeen-year-old boy. I’m human, you know.”

  “How human?”

  “Let’s just say that if I were Catholic, I’d spend much of my time in a confession booth.”