My Neighbour

twenty five

Riley

It was late Friday evening. Dad is barely home and I can't blame him. He's picked up a few extra shifts at night probably to hide from the problem at hand
Mum's been over a couple times to pick up things here and there but I haven't been ready to face her. Neither has dad. We're both set in our ways when it comes to something like this 

I was sitting at my desk working on my laptop when all of a sudden a stone comes flying into my room just about missing my head
"What the hell" I yelled walking over to the window
"I swear I was aiming for the glass" James said standing at the bottom of my house
"Why?" I asked
"Well I didn't want to just like burst in considering we aren't exactly on speaking terms" He said
"When has that ever stopped you" I laughed making him smile
"Can I come up?" He asked I sighed nodding making him smile wider as he began to climb the house
That's when it dawned on me. Why didn't I just let him in through the front door

James finally made his entrance as I took a seat back at my desk
"Whatcha doing" He asked making me look over at him rolling my eyes, I closed my laptop turning to look at him
"What are you doing here James?" I asked and he looked out the window before looking back at me
"You said I could come up" He replied making me chuckle again
"Yes but why did you want to? I know you well enough to know you have a motive" I said and he bowed his head
"Your friends may have let it slip about something going on" He said and I sighed playing with my fingers
"What did they say?" I asked and he looked at me
"Only that something was going on at home so you wanted space" He said and I shot him a look
"So they told you I wanted space so your idea of that was to come over" I laughed making him chuckle too

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked softly as I joined him on the window seat, I had one of my legs pressed up against my chest while the other supported my weight on the floor
"Mum left" I said plainly making James look at me a little confused
"She cheated on my dad with some guy and his kids" I said making his eyes widen
"This whole time she's been feeding me this bullshit about not letting anyone hurt me but she was setting this up the whole time" I whispered tucking my hair behind my ear
"have you spoken to her since?" He asked and I shook my head
"I can barely even look at her James" I said and he nodding taking my hand in his
"My dad is a fucking good guy. He doesn't deserve this" I said crying. James nodded wrapping an arm around me pulling me in close
I didn't have the energy nor the want to push him away
This is exactly where I wanted to be right now 

"I watched how this destroyed him. He won't ever let me see the full extent of this but I know full well it isn't pretty" I continued
"I hate what this has done to him" I said looking up at James
"I need to ask you something" I whispered
My head went straight back to what my dad had said to me the night he had told me 
"Anything" James whispered into my hair as he continued to hold me close

"when you cheated on Beth, was it a mistake?" I asked. James sighed pulling away slightly to look at me
"Riley" He said and I shook my head
"I need to know" I replied looking up at him
"no" he said and I wanted so badly to believe him
"No?" I asked and he nodded
"It wasn't a mistake. I would never be able to call you a mistake. I made the choice to kiss you, I made my choice to only want you" He said making my bite my lip slightly
He somehow managed to say the exact thing I needed to hear