Unconventional Lovers ☑️

Chapter 8 - Conflict Resolution

Riley gave it a couple of hours before he tried talking to Jessie again. Cameron had told Riley that he was going to try and talk Jessie around, after Riley explained again that he didn't tell anyone about Jessie being arrested.

But during those several hours, Riley hadn't heard anything from either one of them. Several people that he walked past kept whispering about how he threw Jessie under the bus, even some of their teammates believed that Riley snitched on Jessie.

Riley even heard a rumour that he was the one that drove down to fetch Jessie's mother, so that he could watch her reaction with his own eyes.

Riley stopped thinking about everything while he was laying in bed, and walked out the door so that he eventually stood outside Jessie's door.

Knocking on it, Riley waited a while for Jessie to open it. But he was disappointed that it was actually Luke instead. "Oh, hey."

Luke invited Riley in as he closed the door behind him. "What's up?"

Riley looked around the room and was disheartened that he couldn't find him anywhere. "Is Jessie not here?"

"Not since I saw him leaving with Cameron a few hours ago."

Riley sat down on Jessie's bed and began to shake his legs nervously. "How did he seem?"

Luke cocked his head as he became a little sad when he shared the news. "Not great. I was standing outside the door when I heard his mom screaming at him from over the phone."

Riley recalled how Jessie told him that this was one of the reasons why he didn't want them finding out about him being arrested. Not with so many words, but he had made it clear that the reaction would be bad.

"They've taken away his car, forced him to hand over his laptop, and he's being financially cut off - all for 2 weeks." Luke had further explained.

"All of that - just for getting arrested? They didn't even press charges." Riley expressed with bewilderment. "He told you all of this?"

Luke shook his head as he repeated how he overheard it all, without Jessie even realising he was eavesdropping the entire time.

Riley felt compassion for his old non-friend, and he felt sympathetic at how harshly his own mother was treating her son. Jessie wasn't it any legal trouble, and the news would surely be buried under the sand any day now. So why she was continuing to lash out on him was beyond Riley's imagination.

"I need to see him." Riley whispered as he got off the bed.

Luke stopped Riley from leaving as he held his arm to prevent him from moving away. "Jessie just needs some space right now, Riley."

Riley removed Luke's hand away from him and turned to look at his best friend. "Don't tell me you believe him - like everyone else when they say I ratted him out."

Luke was immediate with his response. "Of course I believe you Riley. Those people are just bored, and they're making something crappy up. But the fact is that Jessie doesn't believe you. And I think he just needs some space to come up with the right conclusion himself."

Luke rested his hand on Riley's shoulder as some sort of comfort. He saw that his best friend was taking in all of the news in an unusual manner, and he didn't understand why.

"I don't want this to come off the wrong way, by why are you caring so much all of the sudden?" Luke wondered. "I know you have this rivalry going on and everything, but it just seems out of character when you're constantly fighting him."

Riley understood that this all looked weird, everyone knew that they didn't get along. People saw them constantly bickering and constantly fighting each over, because of the biggest, smallest, and non-existent things.