Treat Me Like a Game, and Ill Show You How Its Played

Chapter 5: Meet Riley...

Jade has me waiting in the cafe saying Riley would be here soon. He's like Luke, but doesn't have a big reputation. When I had told Luke about him, he didn't look very happy. His eyes got darker and I swear I saw some veins popping out. But why? Boys are so complicated sometimes, it would all be easier if the world was one big utopia. But, it's not. Every minute that passes, Jade looks at her phone, seeing if any texts had come from Riley. To be honest, I don't really want to date but apparently Jade thinks its a good idea.

"Oh my god! Here he comes! Why do you attract all the hot ones?" Jade asks already tripping over her feet for this guy. If she wants, she could have him. I'm not really in the mood today, I just want to lay in bed and watch movies like I do every Friday. But no... I have to come out, all dressed up and go on a date with one of my friends, talk about awkward. On the bright side, he would know a lot about me so we would skip the 'get to know each other' stage. Riley walks in through the door and hugs both of us, telling us how beautiful we look. We both know he doesn't have to call us that, but he thinks its part of the whole 'date' thing that guys follow.

Boys and their stages.

Jade says goodbye and Riley takes my hand and we walk out toward the car. I shiver and he takes his coat off, even though its 30 degrees, and puts it around my shoulders. I give him a 'thank you' and we begin talking about what we wanted to do. Apparently, I had to pick, another rule of being gentlemen. He suggested some things and I settled on dinner. But, now came another challenge, what type of food.

"C'mon Claire! You have to have a favorite type of food."

"What about you, who've known me for awhile now haven't you."

"But I don't know your favorite food. Let's see, theres pizza, hibachi-"

"To expensive..."

"I dont care!" He shouted in protest.

"Riley, yes you do, I know you."

"Fine... theres chinese, thai, Ooo japanese..."

"Japanese please. I love Japanese." I laughed at my greediness

"Don't need to tell me twice! Japanese, we are on our way." he said happily, "I'm really glad you agreed, I really wanted to hang out with you today." He smiled.

"No problemo, I needed to get out anyway." I said smiling back. He turned onto the highway and cranked up the music. We sang along in our worse possible voices and talked about what we wanted to do after highschool and what classes we wanted to take in 12th grade. It was nice talking to someone who listened. I don't know if it was just him trying to be nice, but it was a good type of different. We pulled into a Japanese restaurant and he unlocked the door. He got out and opened my door and leaned over to unbuckle my seatbelt. He stepped out and held out his hand for me to grab. I took it and he pulled, making me stand to my feet. I smiled and we started walking to the door. He held it open for me to walk through and we walked to a table after sitting and waiting for about three minutes. I liked it here, it was calm with a fireplace and the lights dimmed a bit. Soft music playing in the background with a jingle from the doors opening every now and then. Japanese art was hung on the walls and a TV was playing softly in the corner of the room. A conveyor belt was in the center of the room for people to grab dishes off of it with some tables around it. Lights were strung around the room along with flowers in big vases in the corners of the room. When the waiter came, I told Riley what I wanted and he ordered us shrimp tempura with miso soup. When he came back with our food we began eating and we told stories about the new year and what it brought us. I've always liked deep conversations, but not to deep that it made me cry. We shared stories about what college we were planning to go to and what career we would want. It was nice, just talking, getting lost in the conversation, spilling out our ideas. He was easy to talk to.

But so was Luke.

No, we aren't starting this phase of comparing people to other people. It's too girly and childish. Its annoying as hell and I wouldn't like arguing with my mind, it wouldn't end very pretty. But, its true, Luke was easy to t-

Oh my god, stop, you damn brain! Let me just enjoy the last half an hour of this date in peace.

***

When we got home, Riley said 'hello' to my parents and how it has been 'such a long time' since he last saw them. Again, he talked about his future and my parents encouraged him to chase his dream. When he was about to leave he told me how fun it was and how he would want to do it again sometime. And it was. It was fun. It was fun and peaceful and relaxing, almost like a day at the beach. I shrugged off his jacket and handed it to him saying thank you again. But, before he left, he gave me a kiss on the cheek and smiled. He turned around and left, saying 'have a good night'.

After five seconds of standing there after the door closed, I took out my phone and saw a text. From Jade. It read...

'Hey Clairy, we got a problem. It's about Luke and your date..."

I called her right after I finished reading the texts.

What now could he possibly want?