The Bet

Chapter 39

James's POV

I turn on my side as I lie on my bed, staring out the window overlooking the back of the house, and watch as some workers clean the pool.

"Way to go James!" A voice yells as my door bursts open. My little brother storms into my room.

"What's your problem?" I ask.

"You got rid of Riley! I actually liked this one! She was so nice, and real unlike the rest of your cake face ex's! And what do you do? You go and mess everything up!" He seethes.

I wasn't up for a fight, because I knew he was right. And Riley was right too. After Riley left, I chucked the picture of me and Ashley. Kind of pointless at that point, but it was a start.

~~~~~

Riley's POV

I sit on the ledge by the window, thinking.

"Dad told me to come talk to you." I hear Emily say behind me.

"I don't want to talk." I say.

"Did something happen between you and James?" She asks. I nod a little, still staring out the window. She sits on the ledge beside me.

"It will help if you talk about it." She says.

"No it won't. " I mumble.

"Yes it will, now tell me." She persists.

I tell her the whole story, even mentioning the little fight we had earlier today at school. She listened carefully, like a good big sister should. I wanted to cry, but at the same time I wanted to scream.

"I shouldn't have trusted him, or anything he said." I say.

"I hate to tell you, but I was right about him." She says.

"I should she have listened to you." I say sadly. She goes to hug me, when I hear someone knocking in the door downstairs.

"I'll get it." I sigh, hopping off the ledge and down the stairs to the front door. I open it up lazily, but stiffen when I see James standing there.

"James?" I inquire.

"Hi." He says awkwardly. "You left your coat at my place."

He hands me my old coat, which I take, hanging it on the coat rack next to me in the porch.

"Thanks." I say quietly.

"Listen, about tonight-" He begins, but is cut off by Emily.

"Riley doesn't need to hear your excuses!" She growls at him. "You on the other hand, need to leave right now!"

"Emily, calm down." I tell her. Than I turn back to James.

"Outside." I say quietly. We step outside onto the step, closing the door behind us.

"So..." He says awkwardly.

"Just get to it James." I mutter.

"About tonight-"

"Look, if this is just you coming here, telling me that you have realized that you do still have feelings for Ashley and you want to be with her, than I can just save you the time and you can just leave right now and we'll pretend that the last few days never happened, and we don't have to talk to each other again. Okay?" I spat out.

"That's not what I was going to say." He says.

"Than what are you here for?" I ask. He sighs.

"You were right. I still do have feelings for Ashley." He says.

"I knew it." I snarl. I reach for the door knob to go back inside, but James grabs my wrist.

"Wait, let me finish!" He says quickly.

"Fine." I mutter.

"Now, like I was saying. I do still have feelings for Ashley. But not as strong as the feelings I have for you." He tells me. It was sweet, actually. But I wasn't falling again for his ways just like that. I let him continue.

"Look Riley. Ashley was my last girlfriend, so of course I'm still going to have the tiniest feelings for her still there. But if that means loosing someone like you, I'm willing to do whatever I can to get over it, because God Riley, I don't want to loose you!"

I stood there staring at James, his pleading eyes boring into me. He really was sorry. He really meant what he said. Without hesitation, I threw myself into his arms.

"It's okay. I forgive you." I mumble into his shoulder.

"Thank God." He sighs in relief.