Swallow

Chapter 1.67:

My fingers anxiously tapped to the rhythm of the song that was playing over my radio. I started picking out alternating patterns hidden underneath the notes and could hear a more complex phrase begging to be played.  If I would have written the guitar portion to this song, it would have had much more depth than the simple barre chords that shaped the chorus. Lyrically, it was on point, but stylistically it was missing a certain amount of oomph that could make it one of the great rock classics.

It had skin but lacked the bones to support its own weight.

Camo had a lot of stage presence and played this song much better live, in my opinion. There was a chance that my memory of the night had a lot to do with my critique of their show. I was very distracted by a short blond to notice anything their performance was lacking.

It could also be that I had been listening to the same song on repeat for two and a half straight hours while I waited in front of Riley's house for her to get home.

According to Brynn, she should have been off work hours ago.

Brynn was at the house this morning and she told me Riley's regular schedule, so I knew where to find her today.  There was no chance in hell I would survive one more day without seeing Riley. It was risky to involve Brynn, but I had already tried to pry the information out of every other source available before I ended up turning to her.

I started my day out by calling around to the different locations of the pizza place I remembered seeing on her uniform. But, of course, she had to work for a chain and not some mom-and-pop shop which made it more difficult. There were so many different numbers I tried. None of them would give me any kind of information when I asked if she worked there.

Next, I swallowed my ego and went to Aiden's room to ask him if he had heard anything from her. I assumed the answer was a resounding ' no' by the sour expression on his face and immediate wordless dismissal. He hadn't said one word to me since the night of the show. He was still very clearly bent out of shape about how the night played out.

I tried to ask Mark, but he was still Mark, which meant he was no help at all. I didn't know why I bothered wasting my time with him.

I was in the middle of an hour-long session of dancing around the subject of Riley with JD and Anna when Brynn stumbled into the room and gave me a sly, sideways smile.  She flashed bedroom eyes at me and motioned for me to follow her out of the room.

I had no other option. I was getting nowhere fast.

When we were alone on the front porch, she started attempting to turn up the dial on her baiting act to lure me in. I was so desperate that I played into her sick need for male attention. I gave it my best attempt to get into her good graces and make her feel like I couldn't do this without her help. It was a pitiful scene. Brynn purred back at me like hurting her friend wasn't even a thought that had crossed her mind. This was her moment to shine.

Brynn willingly fed me the information I needed without hesitation. She kept rubbing my arm and letting me know that she would be there for me whenever I needed her. She reminded me how cruel Riley was for making me feel this way and that there were other girls out there who would never treat me this way. When she finished blurting out all the details without realizing it, she gave me a longer than required hug and pressed her body tightly against me.

Fortunately for me, Brynn bought into my game.

Or, maybe I was playing into hers.

Either way, I did what had to be done for Riley—even if it made me violently ill.

Once I got everything I needed from Brynn, I pretended my mom was calling my phone and disappeared into the house before she could try to take things any further.  I didn't want to add Brynn's name to the growing list of things I needed to apologize to Riley about. It would probably end their so-called friendship, which wasn't the worst thing, but it definitely would have ruined my chance of ever seeing her again.