Riley and Devin

Chapter Seventy-Three

When I wake up, Devin's gone. And it's warm out. Sometime in the night I discarded the sweatshirt. I'm just in my nightgown. I slip on my bra. I yawn and look at my watch. It's eleven. I slept in. In my sleepy state it seems like a good idea to go outside in my nightgown. I unzip the tent. Devin's sitting in a chair, reading a book with a mug of something in his hand.

"Hey," he says looking up. His eyes briefly skim my figure before going back up to my face. I walk to his car and grab clothes. "We're going hiking, and then swimming," he says. I grab a swimsuit. I walk back into the tent and change into bikini bottoms, booty shorts, a tanktop and a dark blue tiny bikini top. Also bought and shoved into my bag by TJ. I grab my clothes from last night and my nightgown and walk out. I put my stuff away and sit down in the chair across from him.

I stand up and grab a bottle of water, my toothbrush and toothpaste and brush my teeth. I sit down. Devin hands me a mug filled with coffee. "Are you hungry?" he asks me. I'm about to say no but my stomach growls. "I'll make you some breakfast then," he says and then gets up. I look at the book he's reading. It's a Stephen King one that I've already read.

Devin fries sausages and makes scrambled eggs on the gas stove. He makes two plates and hands me one. "Thanks," I say. He nods. It's awkward.

I wish it wasn't, but I'm not sure what I expected: I told him that I was deeply in love with him. He doesn't love me and only wanted to get in my pants. Now I'm dressing like a slut in tiny sheer nightgowns trying to get him to jump me thanks to TJ. And I've had some breakdowns. Including running out of a car and trying to jump a fence into the woods to get eaten by bears.

So it's awkward and it's my fault.

"It gets cold at night, doesn't it?" Devin asks me.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. It does," I say, pushing some scrambled eggs around on my plate. I take a couple bites. "Is your book good?" I ask him.

"Yeah. It's yours actually, I took it from your bag," he tells me.

"Okay," I say. I'm not really listening to what he's saying. Alarm bells go off in my head. He went through my backpack, did he go through my duffel bag? The one with condoms on it? If he did I'm fucked.

But I already fucked myself over so, how much worse can it get?

Devin cleans up after we're done. He's wearing dark blue swim trunks and a light grey sculpted t-shirt. "You ready to go?" he asks me. I nod. We get in his car and he drives somewhere. He puts on his sunglasses and I put on mine. I try to think of something to say but I can't find anything.

So I give up trying to make small talk. Devin pulls into a deserted parking lot. "Is this it?" I ask him. He nods. He parks and we get out. Devin leads the way, he's carrying a string backpack. "How long is the hike?" I ask him.

"Three miles to the lake and three back," Devin says. I nod. Perfect. We just for the first two miles in silence. He decides to talk apparently. "So, how was California?" he asks me.

"Fun," I say.

"What'd you uh, do there?" he asks me. He turns around and looks at me.

"Hung out at the beach and went swimming," I say.

"You stayed with your cousin right?" Devin asks me. I nod. "Was TJ there or something?" he asks.

"Yeah. I bumped into him and it turns out he was coming to stay with his cousins, Landon and Shonda, who were living with my cousin," I explain. He nods.

"And how does Landon fit into all of this?" Devin asks me.

"Shonda goes to college with Colin, who's my cousin. Colin lives with a couple of girls and they all go to the same college. Landon was visiting his sister," I say.