Authors: Olivia Besse
“Did you just curtsy?” Audrey asked with a puzzled frown on her face.
“Oh, who the fuck cares?” Riley grumbled out before reaching for the nearest bottle of alcohol.
“Maybe you should stop drinking,” Amanda cautiously suggested. “You don’t want to be hungover for the actual wedding, you know.”
“And why not?” Riley retorted defiantly. “It’ll just numb the pain while I smile and pretend to be happy.”
“Or maybe... maybe you can just stop pretending,” a voice said from behind her.
Riley froze in her seat, gripping a half-empty champagne bottle in mid-air as she stared at Amanda’s grinning face with a dumbfounded expression on her own. Were her ears playing tricks on her, or had she
actually
just heard—
“Max!” Amanda brightly called out. “You’re right on time!”
Max is here? Why is Max here?
Riley wondered, frantically gazing around as she kept her back turned to him.
Is he here to talk to
me
? What would he want to talk about? When did he get here? Does he know that
—
“Riley?” he slowly called out again. “Are you going to turn around...?”
Letting out an awkward laugh, Riley slowly maneuvered her body around in her seat to find that he and Evan were slowly approaching their table, the both of them looking like overgrown boys dressed in their Sunday best.
Oh God, he’s standing right there
, she groaned to herself as her eyes met his.
And he looks so cute. Has he always been this cute? And what is that he’s holding? Wait a minute, is that...
“Petunia?” Riley whispered out, staring at the tiny kitten held in his arms with widened eyes.
“Shut up, he bought her a kitty?” Audrey cried out in a hushed voice from across the table. “That is, like, the most amazing thing ever. How’d he come up with that idea?”
“He didn’t,” Evan stated as he took the seat between her and Liz. “I did.”
“How did you even think of that?” Audrey gushed, her eyes filled with awe.
“I read a lot of magazines,” Evan told her, a proud smile on his face.
“Oh my God, I love magazines,” Audrey breathily replied, shooting Evan a dazzling grin as Liz rolled her eyes in disgust and pulled the two lovebirds out of their seats. “Do you use Pinterest too?”
“So...” Max trailed off, smiling at Riley apprehensively once they were alone. “Fancy seeing you here.”
“What... what are you doing here?”
Max gave her a crooked smile as he took the seat next to her. “I... I have no idea. I mean, Amanda told me about what happened and I just... Yea, I don’t know. I thought I should come and talk with you. If that’s okay with you, I mean. Because if you want me to leave, I can just—”
“It’s okay,” Riley said, gingerly pulling the baby kitten into her own lap. “I... I’m glad you’re here.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Riley confirmed with a tiny nod. “Is this... did you really buy me a cat?”
“Actually, no,” Max admitted before letting out a small laugh. “It’s Evan’s sister’s cat, so I have to return it in a couple of hours. He thought it’d be a nice touch, but I’m only now realizing how kind of weird it is... I really need to stop listening to him...”
“No, it
was
a nice touch,” Riley joked as she held the kitten up to her face. “At least I get to be a bona fide cat lady for at least a few hours. Test out the waters, you know?”
“But do those waters need testing?” Max asked, a tiny smirk on his face.
“What do you mean?”
“I liked your speech,” he blurted out in response, an amused look on his face. “Was it... about me?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“That?” Riley asked, letting out a nervous laugh. “I honestly don’t even remember what I said.”
“Yea,” he slowly replied, a hint of disappointment in his eyes. “Maybe it’s a good thing if you don’t remember...”
Stop overthinking it and tell him how you feel, you moron!
she silently screamed as she smoothed down the cat’s soft fur.
He’s not a fucking mind reader! How will he ever know what you’re thinking if you don’t
tell
him? Rule #3, remember?
she reminded herself.
Follow it
.
“I... I actually
do
remember all of the crap I said,” she began, looking up at him with a shy smile. “And I meant it. All of it.”
“Really?”
“I fucked up, Max,” Riley admitted, staring down at the slumbering kitten in her lap. “I totally fucked up, and I’m sorry. And I know you must hate me, but—”
“Would I be sitting here with you right now if I hated you?” Max asked in a soft voice. “I don’t think I could
ever
hate you. Be really, really pissed at you, yea, but hate?” he added, a quizzical look on his face. “Never.”
“Why are you so good to me?” she blurted out. “I mean, I acted like such an asshole. I just... I don’t get it.”
“We’re best friends,” Max said with a shrug. “I guess I’m just physically and mentally incapable of hating you.”
“But are we really?” Riley cautiously asked. “I think it’s safe to say that our friendship is effectively over, no?”
“Well, congratulations to us then, I guess,” Max said, a sheepish grin spreading across his face. “We’ve somehow managed to destroy almost two decades’ worth of friendship. Pretty impressive, don’t you think?”
“Don’t look at
me
,” Riley replied, a wide-eyed, innocent expression on her face. “
You
started the whole thing when you decided to like me all of a sudden.”
“All of a sudden?” Max asked, raising an eyebrow at her in surprise. “You really thought all of that happened out of nowhere?”
“Huh?”
“I’ve loved you since we were kids,” Max told her matter-of-factly. “Since forever ago.”
“No, you didn’t,” Riley said with a tiny smirk.
“Yea, I did,” Max insisted, turning his seat towards her.
“You said I was gross!”
“You were!” Max said with a laugh. “You’re a girl. Back then,
all
girls were gross by default. But I still went out of my way to hang out with you all of the time, didn’t I?”
“I guess...”
“I loved you even before I knew what love even was,” Max replied, his cheeks turning pink as he turned to her with an earnest expression.
“Lie or no lie?” she whispered, staring down at the leaves on the ground so as to avoid his gaze.
“No lie.”
“I don’t believe you,” Riley muttered, her cheeks turning pink in embarrassment as Max stared intently at her.
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “It just... It doesn’t make any sense.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why wouldn’t you have just
told
me?” Riley asked. “We used to tell each other
everything
. You used to talk for hours about Pokémon and Goosebumps books. How’d you forget to mention something as important as
that
?”
“I didn’t think you’d consider me in that way,” Max said with a frown. “You were too busy being boy crazy over other guys.”
“Well, I mean, I
did
have a crush on you in 6
th
grade,” Riley admitted. “But then you started dating Madison Lundberg and I kind of got over it.”
“I dated her for three days,” Max recalled, scrunching his face up in confusion.
“Three days is, like, eternity in junior high time,” Riley mumbled defensively.
“I only asked her out because I found out that
you
kissed Brian Whittaker over the weekend,” Max informed her, letting out an offended scoff.
“He had pizza breath!” Riley replied defensively. “And it was only because I lost during Truth or Dare!”
“So this was all just a big misunderstanding,” Max dramatically sighed out.
“We could have saved ourselves so much trouble,” Riley agreed with a tiny smile.
“So how about we make a deal?” Max slowly began, holding his hand out to her good-naturedly. “Let’s finally just get together and do it right. Make up for lost time, you know?”
“Sounds good to me,” Riley replied, unable to wipe the grin off of her face as she placed her hand in his and shook on it.
“And to think,” he said as he kept her hand tightly gripped within his own. “Today could have been our tenth anniversary.”
“Maybe we can celebrate that in ten years’ time,” Riley offered with a laugh. “We can get a cake and everything.”
“Piñata too?”
“Only if it’s filled with Doritos.”
“Deal.”
“Maybe this isn’t so much destroying two decades’ worth of friendship,” Riley began, hugging the cat to her chest as she smiled up at him. “As it is
starting
a relationship two decades in the making.”
“I like that,” Max said with a grin.
“But let’s
please
forget everything that happened in the last two decades,” Riley said with a groan. “
Especially
the past few weeks.”
“Deal,” Max said, nodding his head in agreement. “I’ll forget about all of the dumb shit that you pulled if you promise to forget all of the stupid crap that I said. But from now on, I’m going to hold you accountable for any and all bullshit that you put me through.”
“Right back at you, Fletcher,” Riley quipped in response.
“I’m serious,” Max told her, an earnest expression on his face. “This is a real, live relationship now. No more games, got it?”
“Duly noted,” Riley said with a smile.
“Good.”
“So, Max Fletcher, as your fellow relationshipper, I have a huge favor to ask you,” Riley began, pulling a face as she did. “I have this really lame thing I have to go to tomorrow. Have to wear a dress and everything,” she sarcastically moaned out. “Really, really lame, but my attendance is required.”
“Is that so?” Max asked in amusement.
“Unfortunately,” she muttered under her breath before looking up at him expectantly. “So I was wondering if maybe you’d like to come with me. Dampen the pain, you know?”
“Only if you promise that your next speech will be as epic as the one you gave earlier,” he teased in response.
“More like epic-er,” Riley replied with a sarcastic scoff.
“Then how could I resist?”
Riley couldn’t help but beam as she looked up at him. “So, it’s a date?”
Max nodded in agreement, leaning forward until their noses were practically touching. “It’s a date,” he whispered, taking her lips in their first official kiss.
———
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———
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Since Forever Ago
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