If I Never Knew You Trilogy Bundle

by Aubrey Bailey

  I had gotten so used to the doctor's appointments, but I still hated going to them. I turned my attention to my nail polish as I had some blood taken. He even repeated the same things he always said: Don't overstress yourself, eat properly, get enough sleep, blah, blah, blah. It took a little over half an hour, as usual. By the time I got back to Nathan, I found him kneeling on the floor by the kids' table and drawing with a little girl.

  "All finished?" Nathan asked, looking up at me.

  "Yeah, my appointment is over," I said.

  "I volunteered to keep an eye on her while her mom was with the doctor," Nathan explained.

  I knelt down as well and helped them out with a picture. The girl's mom returned in about ten minutes and she thanked both of us profusely. We left the doctor's office and went to sit in Nathan's car to just hang out.

  "Is that your phone ringing again?" Nathan asked. I nodded. "Aren't you going to answer it?"

  "Nope."

  "Why? Who is it?"

  "Either Landon or Preston." Nathan raised an eyebrow. We had pulled into my driveway about fifteen minutes after we left the doctor. In that time, the phone had rung at least six times.

  "Are you going to go inside anytime soon?" Nathan asked. "I mean, you and I are becoming good friends, but that doesn't mean I don't have plans."

  "Oh, of course, I'm sorry." I smiled sheepishly, grabbing my phone and hugging him. "I'll talk with Lorne, okay?"

  "Alright," Nathan said. "See you later."

  "Ciao," I said, hopping out of the car. I waved bye to Nathan and watched his taillights disappear around the corner before going inside.

  "Hello? Anyone home?" There was no answer, so I dropped my stuff by the door and walked through the house. My phone rang again and I gave a big sigh before looking at the caller ID and answering it.

  "Do you not want to talk to me?" Landon asked.

  "I sooo do not want to talk to you."

  "Rye, come on, it was nothing. It was just-"

  "Jennifer Simone."

  "Jenny? Ok...what about her?"

  "Think about why she died two years ago and then think about why I'm fucking mad at you!" I shouted, flipped my phone shut and threw it onto the couch. I went into the kitchen and looked around. The doorbell rang, so I looked out the window to see who was there. It was my cousin Bridgette.

  "Where were you after school?" Bridgette asked.

  "I didn't want to run into Landon," I said. "And I had a doctor's appointment."

  "Oh, right. Why didn't you want to see Landon?"

  "Bridgette, remember Friday night when we were at the club?" I asked. Bridgette nodded. "Landon and his friends got in with fake IDs. I danced with him for a bit, until I realized he was drunk."

  "Okay," Bridgette agreed cautiously.

  "And he was also definitely on something," I revealed. Bridgette gasped and her eyes flew wide open.

  "He doesn't know about what happened to Jenny?" she asked.

  "That's what I said. Apparently he does not." Tears sprang up in my eyes, as I didn't want to think about my old friend. Even though it was two years ago, it was still painful.

  "Aw, Riley!" Bridgette wrapped her arms around me comfortingly. We sat around for a while before my parents came home and invited Bridgette to stay for dinner. She went home soon after dinner because she had an assignment in Geography to work on.

  The next day, I sat through classes with a sort of numb feeling. I was still upset about Landon's behavior. I was in front of the stage during rehearsal, barely paying attention. The teacher wasn't very happy with me and she ushered me onto the stage to do another song. Bridgette, Faith and Alice-who had all been worried about me the whole day because of my behavior-weren't the only ones with their eyes on me. Landon and Preston, who were at opposite sides of the stage, finally tore their eyes away from glaring at each other to look at me as I started singing. I noticed that Landon seemed to look kind of guilty. I didn't even look at Preston, because my eyes were stuck on Landon. I took a deep breath at the end. Everyone was eerily quiet and that sort of freaked me out.

  "We so need that song for the band," Faith said, finally breaking the silence. I simply laughed.

  "Thanks, that'll be all," Mrs. Wilson said. "Riley, may I see you for a moment?" I nodded and waited on the edge of the stage as everyone else left. "You are very emotional and project your feelings well in your songs. There is an honesty and vulnerability that is appealing. I believe you have a good future in song writing."

  "Thanks, Mrs. Wilson. I appreciate it. I know that I wear my heart on my sleeve a bit too much sometimes and the songs can get to me."

  "Well, be careful. Take care of yourself and keep on writing," Mrs. Wilson said.

  I nodded and left. Noah was there to pick me up and we went and picked up some dinner at a chicken place before heading home.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  I SIGHED AND looked down at my sketch before hastily erasing part of it. I looked back up at the stage, watching Landon sing. He really was very talented. I turned my attention back to my sketch and redid the part I erased. Running my hand through my hair, I thought about how frustrating this was proving to be.

  "Very good, Mr. Callahan," Mrs. Wilson commented. "Riley, how is the poster design going?"

  "It's going slowly," I said, not looking up.

  "It looks pretty good to me, babe," Preston said, putting his hands on my shoulders and leaning over to look. I didn't react much to him lately, as I was exhausted with having spent the whole of last week and the weekend avoiding Landon and doing band stuff. It was the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, so I had been able to avoid Landon for at least a few days.

  "Riley, honey, you really don't look good," Bridgette remarked. "Did you sleep well this weekend?"

  "Yeah, I slept okay," I said.

  "But how long did you actually sleep?" Bridgette asked.

  I didn't answer because I was ashamed to admit I didn't sleep more than fifteen hours between Friday and now. Due to my nonresponse, Bridgette put her surprisingly cold hand on my forehead. "Holy cow, Riley, you're burning up!"

  "I am not!" I denied, pushing her hand quickly away. Another hand took its place; I glared at Preston as he felt my forehead too. "Everyone around here has cold hands!" I complained.

  "Rye, I never have cold hands!" Bridgette retorted.

  Landon showed up and he must have overheard our conversation because he was looking at me intently.

  "I swear to God we're gonna force you to take care of yourself!" he announced in exasperation. He pushed a dumbfounded Preston out of the way and took my arm, before helping me stand. "I'm gonna take her home."

  "Do you even know where it is?" Faith, Alice and Preston all said.

  "Yes, I know where it is." Landon said.

  "How?" Everyone but Bridgette asked, not that it was any of their business. She and Landon both looked at me for some indication as to what to say.

  "Bridgette, you fill them in, please," I requested.

  "Okay," Bridgette said. I knew people were giving us curious looks as I allowed Landon to steer me out of the school. He was the guy who was supposed to be one of my mortal enemies.

  "Why didn't you tell me?" Landon asked, starting the car and putting his hands on the wheel, but not putting it into gear.

  "Tell you what?" I asked, leaning back against the seat.

  "About Jenny," Landon said. "God, Riley, that's something you should have told me, no matter what!"

  "I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you to not react. Jenny was one of our closest friends and I was already hurting enough from her untimely death. I didn't need to tell you and have you shrug it off as if it were nothing."

  "I wouldn't have done that," Landon said in denial. "What do you take me for?" I just shrugged and averted my gaze away from him.

  "No one's home at my place now," I said. "Noah's working evening shifts all the time, Mom's doing some overtime stuff and Dad doesn't usually get home until after I d
o."

  "Then I'll stick around," Landon told me just as his phone rang. He finally put the car into gear and answered his phone. "Hey, Lydia, I can't talk right now because I'm driving. No, I'm not coming to see you." I narrowed my eyes as I heard what sounded like Lydia yelling. "No, I have to take my friend home-she's not feeling well." Landon held the phone away from his head.

  "She?! You're alone you fucking..." I heard Lydia screaming.

  "Lydia, I gotta go!" Landon shouted, flipping his phone shut and putting it in his pocket.

  "A little jealous, is she?" I asked.

  "That's an understatement!" Landon admitted. He shrugged and I noticed how tired he looked. His fatigue must have gotten to me, too, because my eyes started to drift shut and everything went black for a while. It felt like barely two seconds had gone by when I heard Landon speaking to me. I opened my eyes, feeling really nauseated. Everything was spinning out of control and I had to keep my eyes on Landon to make it all stop. The seat I was in was reclined now and he was in the backseat sitting next to my head.

  "What happened?" I asked.

  "You fainted, hon," Landon said. "About half an hour ago you blacked out. We've been sitting in your driveway for a while. I used your key and ran inside and got you an icepack."

  "That would be why my forehead is cold," I observed.

  "You're not gonna throw up, are you?" Landon asked.

  "I haven't done that after fainting in a while, so I'm sure your car is safe." I could feel his fingers running up and down my arm and I noticed his eyes looked very concerned.

  "Think you want to try sitting up? Or do you prefer just lying here for now?" Landon asked.

  "Here is good."

  Landon nodded and reached up, moved the ice pack from my forehead and slowly slid it over my cheeks before he lifted my head to put it under my neck. "Better?" he asked.

  "Much." You'd think after four years he'd forget how to do these things, but he didn't. His fingers began moving across my arm again, which felt nice on my overheated skin.

  Both of us jumped as the back door opened and we looked to see my father standing there.

  "Hi, Daddy," I said, weakly.

  "What happened?" Dad asked.

  "Riley wasn't feeling well today, so I drove her home and she fainted along the way," Landon reported.

  Dad put his hand on my forehead. "How long have you been sitting here?" he asked.

  "About twenty minutes to half an hour," Landon informed my dad.

  I reached over, grabbed the door handle and slowly pulled myself up. Landon and Dad both put a hand on my back to help me. Landon went ahead of us and opened the front door to the house, which seemed kind of unnecessary, but was appreciated nonetheless.

  "Landon, can you bring Riley to her room while I call her mom?" Dad asked.

  "Sure," he said.

  I knew Dad was going to tell Mom what happened, but that was fine because Mom was a calm person and wouldn't freak out like she said she did when she was younger. Landon went with me up the stairs to my room and I found myself once again lying down with him sitting next to me.

  "I need to head home soon," Landon said. "If I know Lydia, she's probably sitting there fuming and waiting for me to show up." He rolled his eyes.

  "Why are you with her?" I asked.

  "I honestly don't know anymore," Landon admitted. "It's been a few years. Habit, I guess." I nodded. "Promise me something, will you?"

  "That depends," I said, smiling slightly. Landon grinned and tucked my hair behind my ear, letting his hand linger on the side of my head.

  "Promise me you'll take care of yourself," he said. "I didn't like it when we were younger and you were so reckless about your health and I don't like it now. I'd rather not see you at school than see you faint there again."

  "You've seen me faint in school?" I asked.

  "Uh, yeah! Last year I was heading to the bathroom when I saw you in the hall. You sort of leaned against the wall and dropped to the floor by the bathroom."

  "Oh, right, I remember! Wait, you were the one who brought me to the nurse?"

  "Well, what was I supposed to do-leave you there?"

  "Guess not. Thank you for helping me and for everything today."

  "No problem." He kissed my forehead before standing up. "Get some sleep. I'm sure someone's going to wake you up for dinner." I nodded and he left my room quietly. Once he was downstairs, I listened to him talking with my dad, but I don't know what their conversation was about. It was a few minutes before Landon actually left. I fell asleep soon afterwards.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  IT WAS AMAZING how fast Christmas decorations went up after Thanksgiving. Almost everywhere I looked there were large, fancy displays of items such as colognes that one would buy a loved one for Christmas.

  But I had a dilemma. Now, with Landon back in my life, was I supposed to buy him a gift as well? Everyone who was involved in the play knew about us being old friends, thanks to Bridgette. But somehow that term did not really suit us anymore, since we now cared about our feelings for each other more than good friends usually do. The question was what was our new relationship to each other?

  "How's it coming?" I looked up at Lorne, who was substituting as Drama teacher. Mrs. Wilson was away for the day and she had left him in charge for rehearsal. Since he honestly didn't want to try and direct everyone, he told the students to start painting the posters. I had finished the one I was working on and then I photocopied it, making it bigger. Lorne told people who weren't so artistically inclined to use the big colored paper and just paint the play information onto it. Everyone else was told to use either markers or pencil crayons on the smaller posters.

  "I think we're doing okay today," I said to my friends, who were working by the stage.

  "Okay? Riley...we're doing awesome! Check these out," Faith said, pointing at a few of the finished posters. They did look great, so I complimented everyone who was working on them.

  "Hey, Drama folks, what's happening?" I turned to see Paul and his sister, Mia, come in. Both of them came over to Preston and me as we were working on a large poster together. Even though I wasn't crazy about him, I had to admit that Preston was very artistic.

  "We're just working on the posters Freedom," I said.

  "These are nice. I wish I had half of your drawing skills! I would do so much better in Art and Geography!" Paul exclaimed.

  "So, Preston, tonight is still a go, right?" Mia asked.

  "What's going on tonight?" Paul and I both asked, looking at my boyfriend.

  "Uh, Mia's got a Math test tomorrow and I told her I'd help her study," Preston said.

  "Didn't you just have a test?" I asked, looking at Mia.

  "Yeah, but you know that our teachers are slave drivers, Riley."

  "Preston, I thought you and Riley were going to a movie," Paul said. I looked at Paul and he looked at me. Both of were confused beyond measure now.

  "Right, I do have plans. Mia, I'm sorry," Preston apologized.

  "Hey-it's okay, Preston," I said. "I have a rehearsal I should attend, anyway."

  "You sure?" Preston asked.

  I looked at him and smiled with a nod. Okay, so I didn't really have a rehearsal, but I did have a practice with Landon and I really wanted to see him, rather than Preston. I hadn't spent a lot of time with Landon after I had fainted and since my parents had started playing poker every week at my uncle's, we would have the house to ourselves.

  So Preston left with Mia, Paul went to work, everyone else went home and Landon and I drove to my house. Actually, he drove to a fast food place first, so that we could get something to eat-both of us were ravenous-then we drove to my place.

  After we arrived, we went into the living room to go over our parts in Freedom. Before we could begin, the phone rang. I scrambled to my feet and got the phone just before it went to the answering machine. "Hello?"

  "Riley, is Dad there?" Noah asked.

  "No, they're playing poker at Un
cle Andy's, remember?" I asked.

  "Oh, right," Noah said. "Do you think they have their phones with them?"

  "Probably. Why?"

  "Sorry, can't explain now," Noah said. "I'll see you later."

  "Noah?" I asked, but he had hung up. "That was weird."

  "What's up?" Landon asked.

  "That was my brother. He sounded kind of frantic."

  "Something wrong?" Landon asked.

  "I'm not sure," I said. I was hoping that it wasn't something really serious because, even though Noah was annoying sometimes, we still loved each other as much as any brother and sister.

  "Okay, so maybe we should do some of the romance stuff," Landon said. "We have the singing down, but Mrs. Wilson is wondering when we can practice the kissing scene, so we can at least be convincing to an audience."

  "Okay, fine." I agreed so readily, even I was surprised. I flipped through my script until I found the page where Richard finds out about Yannie and Harrison because he sees them kissing. "So we say the lines, and then we kiss."

  "Easy," Landon said. I gave him a look. "Pretend I'm someone else."

  "Uh, huh," I said, looking at my script. "So I guess I go first."

  "Yes," Landon said.

  "Harrison, this isn't going to work," I said, reading my lines. "Someone's bound to find out."

  "No one's going to find out," Landon replied. "We've been good. We've played our parts."

  "But," I said.

  Landon actually put his finger to my lips. "No buts," he said, removing his finger and replacing it with his lips.

  My eyes shut and I kissed him back. I felt so unfaithful-that kiss, no matter how fictional, felt like the best thing in the world at that moment. I shouldn't have been thinking that. I wasn't one of those girls that would willingly cheat on her boyfriend! But I couldn't explain why it felt so right.

  "I cannot believe you did something like that, Noah!" Mom shouted, as she came through the front door. I jumped about three feet away from Landon as she came in followed by Noah, with Dad bringing up the rear. "What on earth were you thinking??"