Boy In The Rain

Chapter 5: Things happen with a Sunset

Riley POV:

Staring into Ash's eyes, I stopped myself from ruining the moment by trauma-dumping. His hazel eyes looked at me with confusion and I just brushed it off, walking over to him. "So why did you come here?" I was now about half a meter (≈3ft) away from him. He seemed to go red from this, so I smiled. "I just like the view" he said clear enough to understand. He was going redder and redder at the second, there must be pollen nearby affecting him. "Hey, you good? You look like a tomato right now!" I said with trying not to laugh. He just sighed and weakly punched my stomach, which took me by surprise but made me laugh harder. "I'M COMPLETELY FINE YOU TOTALLY NOT PRETTY BOY!!" He tried to yell at me, but his little voice made me fall to the dirt.

"Stop laughing!!" He said, I looked at him from the ground and he had crossed his arms and had gone completely red. "I'll stop laughing when your face isn't all pink!" I said, he looked angry, but his height and expressions made this too much to handle for me. "I'm not pink you are!" He said, I mean he wasn't wrong... I pulled Ash's arm lightly and he immediately fell over, landing on me exactly somehow. We laid there in silence for a solid 5 seconds, before he jumped off screaming 'Sorry'. Him all flustered like this was honestly a highlight, I'd do it again if he wasn't screeching out of embarrassment right now.

He looked at me in the eyes, and I just gave him my pretty boy smile. The moment I did that, his face lit up like a glowstick and he fell to the floor, probably from how stunning I looked. I dropped myself on my back and laughed staring at the sky. I looked over at him to see that he was also laughing. At that moment, we heard sounds of footsteps through the forest. I looked at him, who had already gotten up and we both ran to the tree line and hid behind a bush together. I pulled his hoodie over his eyes, he slapped my arm in retaliation, but I shushed him back.

We watched from the bush to see what looked like a couple wandering through. I didn't recognize them but clearly Ash did as he ducked behind the bush instantly. I looked at him and he had a sort of panicked look on his face. I looked back to the couple seeing a sandy blonde male and a brown-haired female. I could see Ash's features in the two, and it clicked that they were his parents. But why was Ash so afraid of them? Why did he have to sneak out and not just leave? Why did they never talk about him when my dad went over. It didn't make sense, but what didn't make sense the most was why they were here.

"This is a lovely spot!" The male said. I could barely even hear their voices, but I could tell who was speaking. "The suns already down, shame." The lady said, I could almost recognize a formal tone in her, but then again, they were a bit far away. "Poor Julie had to perish here without a sunset to set the atmosphere." The female said again. My heart dropped. Julie was my mother's name. I knew she had died here, but how would they know? Did dad tell them about it? She died before they even got into town. I turned to see Ash looking at me as if for answers, but I mouthed 'not now' and continued watching.

"Ray said that she was here last, correct?" The man said. He said looking at the trees just nearby us. Ray was my father's name, so I was correct about that part. "Yes. And their sons, uh what were they're names again?" The woman struggled to even recognize me and my brother. "William and Riley, was it?" I moved myself into a more comfortable position. A few moments later I felt a small pressure around my waist. I look to my side to see that Ash was hugging me. He had obviously put together that this place gave me bad memories. "I swear Ray called him Billy though?" The woman said, adjusting her hair looking at the water to check if she looked good. The air was tight in the trees and breathing quietly was beginning to get hard. "It's a German thing or something, Billy is a nickname for William." The man replies shrugging.

I noticed that I was shivering or something, but I knew it wasn't me due to Ash's hug on me. I looked down to see him shaking. It wasn't fear anymore but rather that he was cold. I quietly unzipped my coat and put it over him hugging him back. He looked up at me looking for approval of this and I just pulled him in closer. The two had been talking about some things right now but my biggest worry right now was that Ash wasn't freezing. 'Es wird schon gut gehen' I whispered to him; he obviously didn't understand what I was saying but just hugged me tighter.

"Did you hear something?" The woman asked the man who was now staring at the tree's literally right next to us. Ash's grasp on me loosened as if he had given up. I stopped him from getting up and instead I got up instead, showing to him he wasn't going to be in danger. The two just sort of looked at me and then back at each other. "Aren't you Ray's son?" The man questioned me. "Yes, I am. I heard you talking about my mother and had to listen, I'm sorry." I said trying to sound apologetic and as if I didn't know who they were.

"I'll be going now" I turned around and kneeled down and pulled the hoodie from my coat over his face and pulled him into the trees and walked off with him in front of me. They would probably just think that I had come here with my little brother Jerrick but then against, Ash was obviously taller than him. That didn't matter though, because I managed to get the both of us of out the forest and back to our houses. "Did you seriously have to push me the whole way??" He said with a bit of an embarrassed voice.

"Yup, to add to the act." I replied. He was obviously flustered still from the whole coat thing but y'know... "Anyways, I'm going to bring you up to my house, since your parents will be there soon" I said with a smile knowing that he couldn't blame me of course. I opened the door to my house and pushed him inside, where he pushed off my coat and immediately overheated due to the heater. I placed the coat on the rack by the door and gestured him upstairs to my room. I think he was stunned by my free will to walk around my house. Upon walking into my room, we were interrupted by my dad who had been standing in there wondering where I went. "Oh Riley, there you are!" He said until then noticing Ash, who was holding onto my side in panic. "And who's this?" He said with a small smile and a confused look in his eyes. Ash practically hugging me at this point had now hidden his face into my side. Like I'd known this guy for less than a day and he's already hugging me?? These are some major trust problems like for real. "Oh, this is Ash." I said pulling him from my side to where he ended up clinging to my shirt again from the front this time.

I could already feel his childish aura creeping into the room. How could such a small, cute guy also be partly the devil and also hated by so many. "Ah, I see what's going on here..." My dad put his finger to his chin and looked at us with a smirk. I was so oblivious that I didn't know what he meant until he dropped his finger and pointed at us. "You two are dating!" He said making his finally judgement. "WHAT???" Ash finally yelled. He had let go of my shirt and was now squealing to himself hiding his face in his arms.

"N-No dad, we met earlier today...!" I tried to tell my dad, but he wouldn't buy it. He shook his head and laughed. "Don't go having too much 'fun' up here~" Clearly, he didn't remember me having a girlfriend, but at this point I didn't actually care if I cheated on her or not. My dead winked and walked out of the door, walking happily past us. I immediately closed the door and collapsed onto my bed. Ash sounded like he had broken and was now on the floor with his knees right to his face. I could tell from my bed that he was bright red. It was very warm in the room, so I opened my window to let in a breeze. As I opened the window though, I noticed in his room through the window, that his 'sister' was rummaging through his stuff. When she suddenly noticed me, she waved, and I gave her a half smile. I closed the window and the blind at the same time.

I turned back to see Ash looking at me with a confused look. "Hey, um. What's your relationship with your sister?" I asked him, since she was obviously looking through is room. "Oh... She hates me." He said, he didn't even cry or anything. Just sat there as if he didn't even care. "What happened?" I asked him, making sure my door was locked and sat down next to him on the floor. "Well..."

(1675 Words)

(Sorry for the cliffhanger lol I just wanted to dedicate the next chapter to his home life ;-;)