He Shoves Me But Loves Me (Riker Lynch/R5)

Chapter 39

"Hey!" Rocky greeted us when we came back from the stream. "Just in time for dinner. Mom made your favorite Marilyn!"

"The amazing beef stew?" My eyes grew in excitement.

"That's the one!" Ross, Rocky and I all walked in at the same time. There were three seats left on the sides of the table and Mark and Stormie sat at the heads. I was in the middle, across from Riker who refused to look at me.

"How was everyone's day?" Rydel tried to fire up a conversation.

I was first to reply, "Great. How was yours?" This all seemed so staged. It was just unreal.

"The usual life in Rydel Lynch. What about you Rik?" Riker avoided answering by shoveling stew into his mouth. The question was left unanswered as we are in an awkward silence. Rydel and Rocky cleaned up and I tried to be extra flirty with Ross; simple hair twirls, batting my eyelashes, giggling at everything he said, stuff like that. It must've made Riker pretty pissed off because he just stormed into the room and slammed the door.

"It's pretty late." Ross yawned while glancing at the clock. "We should go to 'sleep'." I shrugged and climbed onto Ryland's bed since Ry wasn't here and talked to Ross.

"Has he been this stressed before? To the point of him lashing out?"

Ross replied, "After you went missing, he was a total mess. 'Fuck this' and 'Fuck that.' He hated himself for letting you slip out of his fingertips."

"He was all I could think about. I swear that place was a close second to hell." It made me grimace just thinking about it.

"I'm glad your here now. Do you think he's asleep now?"

I shrugged. "Dunno. Text him. I left my phone in the room." Ross fumbled for his phone while I played with my hair.

"He's not. Riker's always on his phone and answers texts right away." Ross rolled off of his bed and handed me the pillow with the horrible image of the Grudge on it. "Good luck out there." I laughed quietly and tip toed into the hallway. Every door was closed and I made my way down to Riker's room. I opened it as quietly as possible and slid the pillow into Riker's arms.

"Marilyn?" I heard him say and I dropped to the floor, rolling under the bed. Riker rolled around a bit but I stayed under the bed for twenty minuets. I even made a new friend under there, a daddy long leg spider. I named him Greg and let him crawl on my hand. After setting Greg free, I quietly crawled from under the bed, in the clear. Riker covered his head with his blanket and I stifled a laugh. I tip toed backward and gasped when I bumped into someone.

"Ross you scared me," He was smirking at me.

"Look." I looked at Riker, who was starting to stir around in his bed. Ross hid in the closet and I rolled back under the bed. The springs in the bed creaked and then Riker let out the loudest scream I've ever heard from him.

"Ah! What the hell is this?!" He fell off of the bed and I scooted into darkness. He stood up and turned in the light. "Who did this? I know you guys hear me." I angled my head to where I could see what was happening.

Ross emerged from the closet, "I got you good!"

"Yeah you did." I heard Riker chuckle. "Has Marilyn said anything about me?"

"Yes, but give her some space. Fights don't always resolve in the first eight hours bro. She's had a rough day and so have you so get some sleep and we'll talk about this weekend in the morning."

"Thanks Ross. Night."

"Night bro." The lights went out and I heard the springs creak again. I crawled out from under our bed and snuck out of the door.