I Bet I Can Make You Speak (Boyxboy)

Chapter Seventy

(Picture is of Vinny)

(Riley's P.O.V.)

I walk out of Luca's house and instead of going right to go home, I go left. Okay, so maybe I lied about my mom texting me. But I do have a reason for leaving. Chester's older brother, who works at the animal shelter, texted me to tell me I can come pick out a cat for Luca. I needed to lie or else Luca would find out about his gift.

After walking to the animal shelter I go inside and see Todd at the front desk. Todd is Chester's older brother. "Hey, Riley," he says and comes over to me to shake my hand.

"Hey, thanks for doing this. Luca is going to love it."

"No problems. Now, we have both cats and kittens. The cats have their shots and are fixed. The kittens will need about another week and a half until they can get fixed and their shots," Todd says while walking me to the room with all the cages.

"That's fine. I won't bring Luca to see it until Christmas Eve. Since you guys aren't open on Christmas day. How much is the adoption fee?"

"It's eighty-five dollars because of them already having shots and being fixed."

"Okay. Do you want me to pay beforehand? I have my wallet with me," I say.

"Let's first pick one out." Todd takes me back to the cages and I follow him. He put all the available cats in one big cage so that I can see them all at once. "These are the cats," he says.

"They're all so cute," I say. I smile as I look at them, but one catches my eye. It's an orange and white cat with one ear.

"I see you noticed Vinny." I nod and see Vinny's head perk up at the sound of his name. "He's named after the artist Vincent van Gogh because of his one ear."

"Oh, my gosh! Luca is an artist! I'm sure he'll love him!" I say excitedly. Todd unlocks the cage and picks Vinny up to hand to me so I can hold him. He starts to purr and I smile.

"So, would you like to take a look at the others, or do you think you found the one?" Todd asks and smiles at me.

"He's so perfect," I say and Todd takes him from me. He puts him in a cage with a sign that says he's adopted and then I fill out the paperwork. I pay him the fee and wave as I walk outside. "See you around, Riley," he says. I smile and head home.

"Hey, Mom," I say as I walk into my house.

"You're just in time for dinner," she says and smiles at me. I follow her into the dining room and see Michael and Dad sitting at the table. I sit down and Mom hands me a bowl of chili. I eat until dinner is over and I go upstairs to do some homework.

(Luca's P.O.V.)

I just have to work on the outline a little bit more and then I can start painting the background. So far it looks pretty good. I'm hoping the mall still has that sweater so he has something to show everyone until we're not a secret anymore.

I'll admit that I wish I could tell Storm, but he might slip up and tell Michael. I don't think he would, but Riley wants to be extra cautious. I understand and I don't mind.

If I'm being honest, I actually had a voice tell me to out him when he was being mean to me. Why would I do that when it's my fault it even happened? I'm stupid for having that thought in the back of my mind, and I know it is since the voice had to get it from somewhere.

I shake my head and put my pencil down. "S-Stop it, L-Luca," I mumble. "F-Forget ab-bout that." Nothing is going to separate Riley and me again. The only thing that can would be death.

"Yeah, your death," a voice says. I take deep breaths and go back to my painting. I don't need to listen to it. I'll need to tell my psychiatrist that the voices aren't going away, though.

Lately, they've been pretty consistent, but I try my best to ignore them. I just need to distract myself with Riley's gift.

I work on the painting for a little bit more until I hear my phone ringing. I set my stuff down and see that Kyla is calling me. "H-Hello?" I answer.

"Hey, Luca! How are you?" she asks.

"I-I'm fine. How are y-y-you?"

"Great, thanks. I was wondering if you and Riley would like to hang out with Angie and me after school tomorrow?" she asks.

I smile and say, "L-Like a doub-ble date?"

"If that's what you want to call it," she says and I can tell she's slightly embarrassed.

"I-I'll ask R-R-Riley tomorrow."

"Great! See you tomorrow, Luca! Have a nice night." I thank her and hang up. I put my phone on charge and set the painting in my drawer before heading downstairs. I see Jackson and Storm sitting on the couch together. When did he get here?

"Hey, Luca," Jackson says as I walk past them.

"H-Hi," I mumble and go into the kitchen. I still don't like him very much. I'm happy Storm has someone to love, but after everything he's done to him. . .I don't know. Maybe I'm being stupid.

I sigh and sit down at the kitchen table. Like everyone says, I need to learn to trust people. But that doesn't mean I need to trust everyone. Just the people worthy of it.

I get up from the table and get a bottle of water out of the fridge. "S-S-Storm, I need m-my pills," I say as I walk into the living room. Storm gets up and I follow him back into the kitchen.

"Are the pills still helping?" Storm asks. I nod and he unlocks the cabinet. He hands me my pills and I take them with the water. "Goodnight, Luca. I love you."

"I-I-I love you, t-too." I head upstairs to my room and fall asleep.

*Guess who's back! Actually, I've been back on Wattpad for a bit. If you don't already know, I'm rewriting 'I Bet I Can Make Him Smile' and have been working on that. Plus, I needed a break from wattpad and writer's block took a toll on me for this story. I hope you guys understand. Also, I know this chapter is short. I'm just getting back into the story so please be patient. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to comment and vote! Thanks for reading! I love you all! <3*