#atlp

“It’s alright,” she says, and it is. Her heart is still beating faster than normal, but now that she’s fairly sure they aren’t going to die, at least not today, she can lighten her foot on the gas and her hands loosen on the steering wheel.

“No, it’s not. I didn’t mean to scare you like that or anything.” He clears his throat and adjusts slightly in his seat.

“Lucas, it’s fine,” she insists, nodding when she can already see him ready to argue with her. She hopes that the look on her face is enough for him to realize that she’s telling the truth. She can see him bite his lower lip and she nods again.

They sit in silence for another couple of minutes, the only noise coming from the engine and the soft tapping of Lucas’s fingers against the knee of his jeans. Riley becomes aware once more that she didn’t have time to brush her teeth before they left. Lucas must see a strange look on her face because he laughs lightly.

“What?”

“What are you making that face for, do I smell bad?” Lucas asks. Riley giggles, the familiar feeling of their normal conversation returning.

“Hardly. I told you earlier and I meant it. You smell good.” Lucas grins. “Someone is fishing for compliments.”

“Hey!”

“Shockingly enough, the facial expression I was making had absolutely nothing to do with you.” Lucas laughs again, the sound filling the small space of the car and Riley’s heart speeds up again, this time because of something else entirely.

“So what was the face for? If it had nothing to do with me.”

“If you really must know, I was thinking about how I didn't get a chance to brush my teeth this morning.” Lucas’s laughter quiets after that and she can feel the guilt replacing the earlier anxiety and fear. “Since you’re Mr. Hygiene over there, I’m a little ashamed I can’t keep up, that’s all.”

Lucas is silent next to her, and not for the first time, she wishes she could read his mind. She can never quite tell what he’s thinking based on his facial expression. People had always told her that she wore her heart on her sleeve, or well on her face, but Lucas was not like that at all.

“You don’t have to explain to me what was going on,” Riley says after a couple minutes of no conversation.

“Riley.”

“Lucas.” She flicks her eyes from the road to look at him, smiling softly. “I trust you.”

Lucas’s face softens, and he looks surprised by her words. She can’t help but wonder if this is something that he doesn’t hear very often. She does trust him though.

“We’re fine, everything’s fine. You don’t need to tell me anything.”

“Thank you,” Lucas says softly, his voice barely above a whisper.

They fall silent again and Riley hums softly to herself. She finds herself humming the same music that Lucas had been playing for them yesterday, smiling fondly at the memory. Looking around the world outside the car, she realizes that they’re completely alone on the road and briefly wonders if that’s maybe why Lucas was finally a little more relaxed. She also could see a rain cloud hovering in the distance, no doubt they would hit it at some point.

“Hey, can you look at the map and figure out which way we’re supposed to go? Since this was a detour, I really have no idea where we are.”

“We’re lost?”

“I never said that, I just need to know which way to go. Once I know how to get us on the highway, we’ll be golden.”

“That sounds a lot like us being lost,” Lucas practically sings, pulling the map out of its new home in the glove compartment and spreading it out across his legs. She could see him running his fingers along the creases of map, his bottom lip between his teeth.

“You know, you don’t sound very freaked out even though we might be lost,” Riley notes. She hasn’t reached any kind of panic levels yet, but his level of calm somehow makes her more nervous.

“Well, we’re lost in the sense that we don’t know where we are, but it’s not like we’re in the middle of nowhere without any gas and zero map. There’s really nothing to freak out about.” Lucas shrugs, directing his attention to her for a second to raise his eyebrows before his eyes are back on the map. “For now just keep going straight.”

“You sure about this? What if I missed the highway turn?”

“Riley, do you trust me?” Riley sighed, taking a deep breath. Looking at Lucas, there was a soft expression on his face, and she smiled.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Then just keep going straight, I think I figured out how to get us on the highway.”

“Alright.” When she sneaks another look at him, he’s hunched over the map again, his eyebrows crinkled together. She can see him mouthing the names of the different highway routes and she smiles. “Thank you.”

Lucas looks up again, meeting her gaze, a small smirk on his face. “No problem.”

About three hours later, after successfully finding themselves in the right direction, Riley’s stomach growls. She groans, her hands faltering slightly on the wheel. They had been sitting in comfortable silence for most of the journey and Riley hadn’t even been paying attention to what time it was.

“Hungry?” Lucas inquires from the passenger seat, his eyes flicking from the window to her, a small smirk on his face.

“No, I’m fine,” she insists, clearing her throat.

“I think the cows outside heard your stomach growl and proceeded to run away because they know how much you love hamburgers.”

“Ha Ha, very funny.” She sees the smirk on his face grow as a soft laugh escapes his features. The sight brings a smile to her face and she has to look away so he doesn’t notice.

Looking at the dashboard clock she notices that it’s almost noon, the candy bar that she and Lucas had split for breakfast this morning hardly tiding her over and seeming like eons ago rather than mere hours. It had been an exciting morning, she supposed.

Riley began scanning the surrounding area, looking for a sign, a restaurant, any place that had food that they could stop at. Unfortunately they seemed to be in a rather desolate part of whatever state they were in. Lucas had taken over the navigating, simply pointing her in whatever direction they were supposed to be going on, so she hadn’t been paying much attention to where exactly they were.

“Why don’t we stop there?” Lucas says, nodding at a little gas station on the side of the highway. It doesn’t even look open, let alone someplace where they could find food.

“Are you sure that place is even open?”

“The sign is lit up.” Riley opens her mouth to say something but Lucas cuts her off. “Look, this is the first place I’ve seen for miles and your stomach has been growling for the last ten minutes. Just pull over.”

Sighing, because well, he’s right, she puts her blinker on and turns into the small parking lot. She hasn’t seen any place to stop for miles and it doesn’t look like there’s anything up ahead.

The place looked even more abandoned up close. There was only one other car in the vicinity. It gave Riley the creeps.

Parking the car, she stayed in her seat for a moment, killing the engine. Lucas was looking at her and she could tell he was reading her expression. She tried not to blush under his gaze.

“Alright well, guess we should go in and see what they got,” he said after a moment, unbuckling his seatbelt and stepping out into the sunshine. It was unlike him to be the go-getter in their dynamic, but she gladly let him take the lead on this one. “You coming?” he asked once he had shouldered his bag, raising an eyebrow and closing the car door.

Taking a deep breath, she shook her head, mentally chastising herself for being so spooked. It was a gas station on the side of the road, plenty of people probably stopped here, they just well, weren’t here right now. Besides, Lucas didn’t need to find out how much of a scaredy cat she was.

Grabbing her wallet, she took the keys out of the ignition and rounded the car. Lucas had wandered away a couple feet, examining the posters in the windows, no doubt trying to get a proper read on the place.

“You alright?” he asked once she had joined him, his eyes not moving from the sign in the window. He had taken a step closer to her though, and she wondered if he had noticed that he had done it.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just pretty sure I’ve seen this place on Buzzfeed Unsolved, that’s all.” Riley tightened her grip on her wallet, wishing that she could reach out and grab his hand to hold onto and ground herself.

Lucas didn’t offer her any kind of response to that comment, merely squinting at her in confusion briefly before shaking his head. “Well, from the looks of it, they have hot dogs, do you like hot dogs?”

“Sure, hot dogs are great.”

“Good, because that’s what they have.”

“Then that’s what I’ll eat.”

“Good.” Narrowing her eyes at him, Lucas merely smirked, a light laugh escaping his lips. “You’re not like scared, are you?”

“Scared? No of course not, that’s a crazy assumption to make.” Riley scoffed.

“Really, because your knuckles are white from gripping your wallet so tight and your voice is shaking,” Lucas noted, opening the front door for her. She smiled at him before entering, refusing to actually take a step in until she could feel him behind her.

“I am not scared,” Riley whispered once the door had closed behind them. Lucas merely hummed, clearly not believing her.

Taking a look around, Riley noticed that they did in fact have hot dogs, a couple spinning in a oven-type contraption over in the corner, along with a couple aisles of potato chips and other snacks. However, the fridge in the corner seemingly held exclusively alcohol and after last night, Riley didn’t think she needed to drink again for a while.

“If you’re really nervous, just stay near me. I won’t let anything happen to you,” Lucas whispered after a couple of seconds. The guy behind the counter was eyeing them and Riley gave him a tense smile, which he didn’t return.

“Thanks,” she said, feeling Lucas’ hand hovering near her lower back. Together they walked up and down the aisles, neither one of them making any move to grab anything. It didn’t take long though before Riley was sufficiently spooked and she was elbowing Lucas rather aggressively, to which he made no comment about, for them to hurry it up and get out of there.

Grabbing two hot dogs, they each paid for their own, Riley refusing to make eye contact with the cashier as she did so, before exiting the store. As they entered the early afternoon sun, Riley let out a breath that she didn’t know she was holding and sent a grateful smile at Lucas as they ambled back to her car.

She tried to not get butterflies when he sent her one back.

“This reminds me of my first date,” Riley commented as she polished off the last bite of her hot dog. She was sitting on the hood of her car, her feet dangling slightly above the asphalt. While Riley had been desperate to escape the creepy gas station, she hadn’t wanted to eat while driving, so she had pulled over about a mile away.

“How exactly does eating gas station hot dogs on the side of the road remind you of your first date?” Lucas asked, looking up from the ground for the first time since they had stopped. He was standing next to the car, leaning against it slightly.

He always seemed to be leaning against it. Whenever she pictured him in her head, he was always leaning against the side of her car.

“Well, okay, not the exact notion of eating gas station hot dogs on the side of a deserted highway. But my first date involved eating food on the side of the road. Granted the food was pizza and the street was in New York, so there were quite a few more people around. But in it’s simplest form, the two events are pretty much exactly the same.”

Lucas had an eyebrow raised and definitely looked like he was trying not to laugh at her, but he nodded. “If you say so.”

“I do say so, thank you very much.” Lucas laughed then, and they made eye contact. Riley tried to ignore the way her heart raced in her chest when he smiled at her, so she pulled her eyes away, looking down at the hood of her car.

“Hopefully your first date was a little more romantic than this.” It was Riley’s turn to laugh and she thought back to her first date. She had been a sophomore in high school and it had been with Charlie, her first boyfriend. It was nothing overly special, but it had been fun.

“I mean, we kissed and then I dated him for three years.” Riley shrugged, wiping her hands with her napkin.

“And how was that?” Lucas asked. His voice significantly softer than it was before, which was curious.

“Cheesy.”

“Cheesy? That bad huh?”

Riley laughed. “No, he still had cheese from the pizza on his lip.”

She looked at him. Lucas crinkled his eyebrows together, but shook his head, a small laugh escaping his lips.

Riley wanted to ask him about his, first kiss and date that is. He was an attractive guy and based on what she had seen on his license, he was cute as a teenager too, almost unfairly so. He had probably had a girlfriend in high school.  

However, before she could work up the courage, Lucas was moving and grabbing his backpack from the ground next to him, balling his trash in his hand.

“We should get going, if we wanna hit the next destination by nightfall.” Riley didn’t even know what the next destination was. “Do you want me to drive?”

“Why would you think I want you to drive?” she asked, a hint of teasing in her voice. Lucas rolled his eyes, holding his hand out for the keys.

“Because I know you like to take naps after you sleep.” Riley scoffed, her mouth falling open slightly, while Lucas only laughed.

“I do not!” she exclaimed, crossing her arms.

Unluckily for her, at that very same moment, she felt a yawn crawling up the back of the her throat and couldn’t hide it. Lucas smirked.

“Alright fine, I am feeling a little tired so I guess you can drive.”

Lucas smiled triumphantly when she handed him the keys, pocketing them before holding his hand out again to help her off the hood.

This time, she doesn’t even try to ignore the butterflies.

Ultimately, she doesn’t end up napping during the drive.

Mainly because she doesn’t want to make Lucas drive by himself, essentially. It’s not that she doesn’t trust him, in fact, she has so much trust instilled in him as he drives her car it surprises her how not nervous she is. But, she wants to keep him company.

They settle on playing the license plate game. Which is harder than it usually is, considering how abandoned the roads are. In fact, the game starts because they finally spot another vehicle on the road with them.

“That car is from Alabama,” she noted when the car drove by them going in the opposite direction. “Oh, license plate game, A!”

Lucas nearly jumped in shock at the sheer volume of her voice. She had been rambling, mainly talking at him rather than with him for the last twenty minutes or so, talking casually about classes she had taken in college, trying not to get too distracted by his fingers tapping against the steering wheel as he drove.

“You wanna play the license plate game?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She smirked, shrugging innocently.

“Yeah, why, you don’t wanna?”

“No, I want to.” She smiled, looking out the front window. “I’m just afraid of how you’re going to react when I cream you.”

“Oh really? You are. You’re going to cream me?” Riley joked, reaching over the console and tapping his arm lightly. “We’ll see about that, also who uses cream as like… a verb like that?”

“Yes, yes I am. I happen to be very good at this game,” Lucas teased, taking his eye off the road for a second to smirk at her. “And, I don’t know, I guess I do. What are you gonna do about it?”

“I suppose I’m just gonna have to cream you right back.” Her face turned red when she realized how her words could be taken. Cocking her head lightly, she looked at Lucas, laughing when their eyes met.

Those damn butterflies.

“Okay, but that’s cheating!” Lucas exclaimed about forty five minutes later. They had not been having much luck with the game, but Riley so far was boasting a three to one win over Lucas.

“How is it cheating? I happened to see a car that was from Delaware so I get D and E, I hardly see how that’s cheating,” Riley said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“You can’t just claim the next two letters of one license plate, that’s not in the rules of the game.”

“The rules of the game? Are you trying to tell me that there are actual rules to this game? And if so, how exactly am I breaking them? It’s not like I tried to say that I claimed the letter W.”

“Because, you’re supposed to go one letter at a time, you can’t jump ahead and get two at a time, that’s not fair and also against the rules.” Lucas flicked his eyes away from the road to look at her, his eyebrows raised.

“You’re just jealous that I’m winning.” Riley smirked. “If you let me have this I would have a four point lead on you, as opposed to a three point one and you just can’t handle me beating you, especially after you promised that you would cream me.”

“I am not jealous, I’m merely all about fair play. I didn’t strike you someone who played dirty.”

“I don’t play dirty, I don’t think I’m acting unfairly at all. You’re honestly just upset that I’m winning and that soon enough it’ll be too hard for you to catch up and I’ll win.” Lucas shook his head, biting his bottom lip. Riley could see him holding back a laugh, however.

“Fine fine, I do think it’s a little unfair though, because I have to keep my eye on the road and you don’t or else we would crash.”

“Well, you should have thought about that before you agreed to play, this is all really your own fault. So stop complaining and give me my two points.” Riley smirked, knowing that she had won this round.

“Alright, the score is now five to one, but I still think I have time to bounce back, besides we’re about to enter a more populated region, so more license plates.” Lucas grinned, waggling his eyebrows.

“Speaking of where we’re about to enter, I don’t even know what our destination is, you changed it and didn’t tell me.”

“Consider this one of my edits, I think you’ll like it, don’t worry.” Riley nodded. “You still trust me, right?”

Riley grinned, turning to look at him, nodding. “Yeah, I still trust you.”

It was raining by the time Riley and Lucas reached their next destination, which she now knew was Birmingham, Alabama. Not her first choice, but definitely nothing to complain about. The sky was darker than it usually would be at this time, flooding the car with darkness. According to the clock it was hardly even dinner time, but the atmosphere made her want to curl up and take a nap.

“Well, we’re here.” Lucas said, putting the car in park after situating into a parking spot. “Wish the weather was a little better, but here we are.”

“Can I ask what exactly led us to this location?” Riley asked, looking around their surroundings. The town looked nice from what she could see, there was a bustling main street, plenty of shops to see. It would be nice tomorrow to walk around a little bit before they had to leave.

“This parking spot was open,” Lucas said, and without looking away from the window, Riley reached over and punched his arm lightly. He laughed. “I don’t know, honestly. I just saw it on the map earlier and it spoke to me. I don’t really know how to describe it.” Lucas went silent for a moment. “You know what I mean?”

Riley drew her attention away from the window and looked over at him. He was gazing at her, a weird look in his eye, the streetlight and the rain drowning him in blue light. She smiled, thinking back to when she offered him a ride, a moment that seemed like months ago, but was only days.

“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.”

They were silent for a moment, a weird energy between them that Riley didn’t understand. It sent goosebumps riding up her skin and a chill up her back. Butterflies wasn’t even the proper word to describe this feeling.

When the moment finally passed, Riley gulped, trying to find something outside the window that they could do. She didn’t want to go to the motel just yet, there was still plenty of hours left in the day.

“We should do something,” Riley said, leaning her head back on the headrest of the seat.

Lucas hummed in agreement, also looking around their surroundings. “Yeah, but what? We could get some food, but I’m not really hungry.”

Riley nodded, she was a little hungry, but definitely could hold out for another couple of hours. Spotting something down the street, she grinned. “We could go to the movies.”

“What?” Lucas looked to her, confusion etched across his features, something akin to a frown on his lips. “The movies?”

“Yeah the movies!” Riley exclaims, leaning sideways in her seat so their shoulders are almost touching. “The theater is right down there. I’ve never heard of the movie playing, but it looks like one of those cool small-town theaters.” She points out the front window waiting for him to realize where exactly she’s pointing to. “It sounds weird, but I’ve always wanted to go to a theater like that.”

Lucas doesn’t respond, merely staring out the window.

“I know it probably sounds lame and not very fun, but we’ll be dry and it will give us something to do instead of sitting in the car and staring at each other.” Not that she would be complaining if all she could do for hours on end was stare at him, but now didn’t seem like the time or place for activities such as that. “It’ll be my treat, I don’t even know what movie is playing, but it’ll be fun.”

Lucas made a show of taking a deep breath and sighing, a smile forming on his face. “Alright, alright. You win, let’s go.”

“Yay!” Moving away from him, Riley put her hand on the door handle, but paused before opening it. “One thing though.”

“Yeah?”

“We’re gonna have to run.” She hears Lucas groan as she pushes the door open, laughing when she’s immediately soaked by the rainstorm happening outside. She instantly regrets her shorts and white t shirt as she sprints across the street, taking cover under an awning. She didn’t see Lucas behind her, but she can hear the slosh of his boots on the pavement.

Once she’s safely under the awning and Lucas is next to her, she can’t help but smile. They’re both soaked to the bone and there’s a pretty good chance that Lucas can see her bra through her shirt, but she can’t even bring herself to care. Lucas shakes his head, but she can see the smile on his face.

“Do we even know what time this movie starts?” Lucas asks once they’re walking down the sidewalk. They’re walking faster than normal, and ducking under every awning that they could.

“No, but it’s about the time that movies usually start, I’m sure we’ll figure it out once we get there.” Riley shrugged, jumping slightly into Lucas as a truck went by, really not in the mood to get splashed. Lucas grabbed her arms, stopping her from falling. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

When they reached the corner where the movie theater was nestled, Riley was pleased to see that the lights were on and that the next movie time was within the hour. She sent Lucas a smile, who merely rolled his eyes and threw his head back, before pulling the door open.

Inside, the AC was cranked and there were a couple people milling around in the lobby, but all of them were wearing the same vests and black pant ensembles. However, the girl behind the counter gave them a wide smile as they approached, almost like they were the first non-employees she had seen all day.

“Hey, you guys here for the show?” she said, the smile on her face growing when Riley nodded. “Alright, that’ll be fourteen dollars even.”

Riley pulled the money from her wallet, giving Lucas a look over her shoulder to remind him that everything was on her.

“So, you guys from around here? Most of the people who come in here are the locals, but I’ve never seen you guys before,” the girl asked, printing their tickets.

“No actually, we’re just passing through. Thought we’d stop in, get away from the rain for a little bit.” The girl handed Riley their tickets, with the receipt folded neatly on top.

“Awesome, glad we could be a stop on your adventure. Enjoy the show!”

“Thank you so much.” Riley’s eyes found the girl’s name tag and she smiled. “Haley.”

Haley smiled, waving at the two of the them as they walked deeper into the theater. Lucas was strangely quiet, spending quite a bit of time taking in their surroundings.

“You know, me paying for you makes this feel like a date,” she said when they were at the counter of the small refreshments stand. Unsurprisingly, Lucas hadn’t wanted anything, but Riley couldn’t imagine going to the movies without eating popcorn. She hoped he could read the teasing nature of her voice, but she would be lying if the idea of going on a date with him didn’t make her palms sweat.

“Oh yeah, and how so?” he asked, as she thanked the guy behind the counter when he returned with her popcorn.

“Well, usually on dates, one person pays for the whole thing, at least in my experience.” Riley popped a piece of the popcorn in her mouth, holding the bag out to him. He shook his head. “Agree or disagree?”

“I wouldn’t know,” he said softly with a shrug, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Riley wanted to ask him what he meant but they had to show their tickets to the guy at the door before they could be let in.

Either way, she found it very hard to believe that Lucas had never been on a date.

They were off the topic of dates by the time they settled into their seats in the theater itself. They seemed to have the place to themselves, and with the movie starting in less then ten minutes, Riley didn’t expect that to change, but she didn't mind it.

What she did mind however, was that it somehow was even colder in here that it was out in the lobby, which is amazing in her mind considering it felt like the arctic out there. Her wet t shirt was now almost frozen against her body, and she swore that her hair was turning into icicles. Lucas didn’t seem to be affected by any of it. If he was, he certainly wasn’t showing it.

But in all fairness, he was the one wearing pants and a jacket in August, so the joke was probably on her.

“Are you cold?” he asked softly. In the last couple minutes, she had curled herself up in her seat, wrapping her arms around her legs, desperate to generate any kind of heat. Also, she was shivering.

“No, I’m fine,” she lied, her teeth practically chattering.

“Yeah, okay.” Lucas said, standing up from his seat. “I’ll be right back.” Before she could ask him any questions, he was moving down the aisle and heading for the door.

“Lucas! Lucas, where are you going?” she whisper-yelled. She knew that there was no one else there, but it still didn’t feel right to speak louder than a whisper in a movie theater.

Lucas couldn’t have been gone more than five minutes, but it felt like eons. Riley had never noticed how creepy movie theaters were until she was in one all by herself. She swear she kept seeing things move out of the corner of her eye.

When Lucas came back through the door, her first instinct was to hug him. She didn’t though, not wanting to seem even stranger than Lucas probably already thought she was.

However, he had something in his hands that he hadn’t had when he left and she squinted at the black, balled up object in his hands as he came back down the aisle. She also noticed that he wasn’t wet, which means that the rain had probably let up.

“What is that?” she asked, even more confused when he put it in her lap as he sat down.

“It’s for you, I noticed you shivering like a chihuahua,” he said simply, shrugging his shoulders. “I remembered I had this in my bag, thought you might want it.”

“You brought me your sweatshirt?” she questioned, raising her eyebrow. She certainly wasn’t going to complain. As she unfolded the sweatshirt, it felt soft and worn in her hands.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. Besides, I think you might like the design on the cover, might make you feel a little more at home.” He smiled, directing his attention to the screen. It was then that she noticed what the sweatshirt actually said on it and she smiled.

“I don’t live in Brooklyn, but definitely a familiar sight.” In a moment of boldness that Jade would definitely be proud of--she spent most of senior year trying to get Riley to act out of her comfort zone every once in a while--Riley reached over the seat and squeezed Lucas’s hand lightly. “Thank you.”

She swore she saw a blush creep onto the back of Lucas’s neck, but he reached up and rubbed the skin there before she could really get a good look at it. “No problem.”

They shared a small smile before she slipped the sweatshirt over her head, immediately feeling warmer.

What surprised her is that the sweatshirt not only made her skin feel warmer, but she felt a warmth in her stomach. As the opening music of the movie started, she wondered why putting on Lucas’s sweatshirt almost felt like coming home.

Riley had a hard time concentrating on the movie.

First off, it was a foreign film and without captions, so Riley really had no idea what was going on. But she would be willing to bet that even in English, she wouldn’t be able to concentrate.

And it was all Lucas’s fault.

It’s not like he was doing anything on purpose, but after he had given her his sweatshirt, all she could smell was, well, him. It was something she had noticed since she picked him up, not that she had much experience picking up people on the side of the road, but she always expected them to be dirty, have a weird smell to them.

That was definitely not the case with him.

He smelled like pine trees, which was strange considering she didn’t think Texas was known for it’s pines. There was also a hint of something that smelled kind of like the ocean, and clean laundry. All of which didn’t sound like they should mix together very well, but they did. And the smell was very distinctly Lucas.

The smell was making her head spin, and it certainly didn’t help that their arms kept brushing up against each other during the movie. It was never intentional, well she supposed some of it was on her end, but they were sharing the arm rest and Lucas kept adjusting in his seat. However, for all of his fidgeting, his eyes never tore away from the screen and she wondered if he understood what was going on, or he was just trying to avoid looking at her.

When the lights came up at the end of the movie, Riley hadn’t even noticed that the credits had been rolling, she had been so distracted. Lucas leaned forward in his seat, rolling his shoulders to stretch his upper body out. He had taken his jacket off during the movie, despite the fact that it was still freezing in here, and she could see his shoulder muscles moving under his blue t-shirt.

“Did you like it?” he asked, sending her smile.

“Uh, yeah. It was great.”

Lucas nodded, clearly knowing that she had no idea what was happening. She could see a smirk playing on his lips and she laughed softly, shaking her head.

“You had no idea what was happening, did you?” he teased, raising his eyebrow as he stood from his seat, shaking his leg out.

“No! I totally knew what was happening, I loved that part with that one girl, when she was, y’know, walking down the street.” She could tell he was trying not to laugh at her.

“Riley.”

“Hm.”

“The whole thing took place in the forest.”

Riley can feel her face become hot with blush, and Lucas has a teasing grin on his face. “Yeah well, it also was in German.”

Lucas nodded, holding his hand out to help her up from her seat. She gratefully takes it, groaning when her legs tighten upon standing. The whole concept of time has escaped her and she has no idea how long they’ve been sitting there.

“Well, I liked it,” Lucas said with a shrug, following Riley down that aisle as she navigated them out of the theater.

“You understood it?” she asked, throwing him a raised eyebrow. “Are you actually fluent in German and you never told me? You did warn me about trying to put you in a box.”

Lucas laughs, going to stand next to her when they’re back in the lobby. Riley waves at Haley, who’s still standing behind the counter, who smiles and returns her wave. However, he doesn’t answer until they’re out on the sidewalk.

“No, I’m not fluent in German and I didn’t understand what they were saying, but sometimes the human condition doesn’t need words.” He shrugs.

One thing that’s definitely surprised her about Lucas is how deep he is sometimes. Not that he strikes her as someone who’s shallow, but the profoundness of his statements has shaken her to her core on more than one occasion, and this is definitely one of them.

“Wow.” She whispers. “I guess I never thought of it that way.”

They’re silent for a moment, enjoying the cool breeze that’s replaced the earlier rainstorm. It was a beautiful August evening, and even though they had successfully killed about two hours with their movie detour, she wasn’t ready to call the night quits just yet.

“We should play mini golf,” she said suddenly, turning to look at Lucas. Lucas let out a harsh breath that sounded something like a snort. “What? You don’t like mini golf?”

“I have no problem with mini golf,” Lucas said, holding his hands up in surrender. “I’m just wondering what your logic is as to why we should play it.”

Riley ponders this for a moment, making a show of tapping her finger on her chin, this earns her a grin from Lucas. Ultimately she just shrugs.

“Well, I just treated us to a movie, and if this were a date, which it’s not, I would probably treat you to dinner, but I want to have some fun and I’m not hungry. So mini golf it is.”

“Why do you keep bringing up dates? This isn’t a date,” Lucas said, his voice soft and almost shy, if she was reading him right.

“I know, I know.” She pursed her lips. “We just were talking about them earlier, when we were eating our hot dogs on the side of the road. So they’ve been on my mind.”

Lucas nodded, looking down at the ground. They were wandering down the street, away from the theater and her car, and Riley wasn’t exactly sure where they would end up. But she was weirdly okay with it.

“I’ve never been on a date,” Lucas said after a couple minutes of silent strolling.

Many things that had come out of Lucas’s mouth had shocked her, but this one was probably the most shocking. She now understood what he had said earlier.

“I find that hard to believe.” Riley almost scoffed. She didn’t take Lucas as a liar, so she knew that he was telling the truth, but she found it very unbelievable that he had never been on a date before.

She could maybe believe that he had never had a serious girlfriend, not everyone liked being tied to someone and she couldn’t fault or judge them for that, but not one date? Lucas was by far one of the cutest boys she had ever seen in her life, how had he never been on a date before?

“Well it’s true,” he said, and she turned to look at him. She could tell he was slightly embarrassed by this piece of information. His head was down and his hands were shoved deep into his pockets. “Why do you find it so hard to believe?”

“Because you’re nice,” she said, which caused him to stare at her incredulously. This caused her to roll her eyes. “You’re also cute, and respectful. You have all the great qualities of a first date.”

“Well, thanks.”

“No problem.” She smiled, stopping on the sidewalk and looking around. Lucas stopped too, standing next to her, his elbow brushing against her arm. Even though she still had his sweatshirt on, she felt goosebumps.

She hummed, taking in the atmosphere around them. This was one of those towns that felt alive, even when there was no one around.

“So, mini golfing?” Lucas inquired after a couple seconds.

“Yeah, mini golfing,” she said, a smile crossing her lips. “You’ve never been on a date before, so I’m going to treat you to the funnest first date in the entire world. Before you say anything, I know this isn’t a date, but regardless, there’s some serious potential in this night to be the best first date both you and I have ever been on.”

She could tell Lucas was skeptical of her reasoning, but he had a small grin on his face. “Fine, it sounds like fun. This isn’t a date though, just a simulated one,” he said, pointing at her, causing her to laugh.

“Yeah, and it’s going to the be most fun simulated first date in the history of the world.”

“Not sure we have much competition on that one.”

One quick Google search and a fifteen minute drive later, Riley and Lucas were pulling into the local mini golf course, which also doubled as a shuffleboard court and an arcade.

“Wow, they have it all here,” Lucas commented when Riley pulled into one of the available parking spots. There were some families and couples milling around. It still was kinda early and there were a couple of hours left before the course closed.

“Yeah, should be fun.” Riley smiled, shutting the car off.

“I should warn you, I’m pretty awesome at mini golf,” Lucas said, nudging her shoulder with his own as they walked up the counter. Like she promised, Riley paid for their game, and thanked the guy behind the counter before her and Lucas walked out onto the course.

“You said the same thing about the license plate game and I won, so looks like this will be another victory for moi,” Riley teased, placing her ball on the ground and her hands on her hips.

“Hey, in my defense, we never finished the license plate game. By the time we were parking your car we were only on P, so technically, no one won.”

Riley rolled her eyes, turning away from him so she could hit her ball, grinning when it stopped only about an inch from the hole. “We might not have finished but I was seven ahead when we stopped, so I think I would have continued my landslide win.”

“Oh, I had plenty of time to catch up.” Lucas scoffed. “Now, you’re about to experience mini golf expertise right here, watch and learn.”

Crossing her arms, Riley watched with a smirk on her face as Lucas hit his ball (which was blue, like everything else he seemed to own), eyeing it intently as it rolled across the green. The ball sailed right past her, landing about two feet from the hole.

She clapped. “Very nice. I’m so impressed. I’ll be sure to do that on the next hole.”

“I meant to do that.”

“Hm. Sure, of course you did,” Riley said, licking her lips. She pumped her fist when her ball went in the hole with a small tap, giving her a two on the first hole.

Lucas hummed, trading places with her on the green, so she could stand on the walkway. “Not too bad, not too bad. But watch this.”

It took Lucas four tries to get his ball into the hole, and each time he made an attempt he made sure to comment about how this was all part of his master plan to beat her. This trend continued on as they made their way through the course.

By the time they hit the ninth hole, Riley was up by almost nine points. She was almost starting to feel bad, Lucas was definitely not good and he spent more time teasing her than he did paying attention to what he was doing.

“Alright, I gotta ask, when is this whole master of mini golf thing gonna kick in, because it’s been nine holes and so far, needless to say I’m not impressed,” Riley said, shaking her head.

“Hey now, is that any way to talk to your date?” Lucas scoffed, putting a hand on his hip as he nearly dropped his club to the ground. He was getting ready to hit his ball, and she had a feeling she had interrupted his concentration. Not that concentrating seemed to be doing him any good.

“I thought that this wasn’t a real date, so I think I can talk to you however I want,” she teased, strutting over to him and tapping his shoulder.

“I know it’s not a real date but it’s the principal of the thing. If this is a simulated first date, shouldn’t all the normalities be in place?”

“Maybe so, but either way. You promised me a master of mini golf.” Riley raised an eyebrow, taking a step back and sitting on the bench that was next to the beginning of the hole.

Lucas sighed, stepping back and looking at her. He had a weird look on his face and not for the first time, she was unable to read the emotions that were written on his features. Before she could try and analyze it, the expression was gone, replaced with a small smile.

“I don’t know what happened, I used to play all the time as a kid, and I was really good.” He sighed, shaking his head as he directed his attention back to the game.

It was strange for Riley to imagine Lucas as a kid. She had seen a picture of him as a teenager, and honestly, he didn’t look much different at sixteen then he did now. Maybe a little more gangly and a little more innocent then. But a kid?

She tried to picture him younger than the picture, with his front teeth missing. As much as she couldn’t imagine it, it still made her giggle.

“What?” Lucas asked, clearly thinking she was laughing at him. He still hadn’t hit his ball, taking time to line up the shot, like he was a real golfer.

“Nothing. Just hit the ball, Tiger Woods.”

When they arrived at the last hole, Riley was fairly confident that she had this game in the bag. Lucas would have to get a negative six on this hole to even tie with her, so he had pretty much given up on trying to beat her.

“You’re gonna miss. You’re gonna miss. You’re gonna miss!” He chanted as she prepared to hit her ball into the hole. She was gunning for a hole in one to finish up, to be completely honest, the game of her life, and he definitely was not making it easy.

She didn’t give him any reply, not even glancing over her shoulder. Luckily for her, not even Lucas’s taunting could get to her, as her ball swiftly went into the hole, giving her a hole in one.

“Yes! Today is so my day.” She sighed, folding her hands and smiling at Lucas.

“Well, congratulations. I applaud you,” Lucas said, clapping his hands together and giving her a small bow. “You are officially queen of mini golf, and as the master, I give you the title.”

“Thank you, thank you.” She curtsied. “I appreciate that you’re finally admitting my victory.”

“Well, this one was fairly earned, I can’t argue with this one.” Lucas said, putting his hand on her shoulder and squeezing it lightly. “The license plate game is still up for debate and to be continued tomorrow when we start driving again.”

“Fine, fine.”

“Really though, you played a good game.” Lucas smiled. “You play a lot as a kid?”

Riley shrugged, making her way over back to the front counter to return their clubs and balls. “Not really, there aren’t many places to play mini golf in the city. There was a really fun place to play in New York City indoors though. Charlie took me there a couple of times.”

A weird look passed over Lucas’s face when she said Charlie’s name, but she figured it was out of confusion more than anything else. She was surprised though when Lucas clutched his heart dramatically.

“Oh no, no no.” He groaned, shaking his head. “Indoor mini golf is not real mini golf! This is real mini golf.”

“How is indoor mini golf not real mini golf?” She asked, leading the way back to her car. When they reached the car, she leaned against the hood and cross her arms, looking at him.

“It’s just not the same. This is real mini golf, it was built on the solid ground, it deals with weather, it’s got landscape. Character. Indoor mini golf is just people hitting balls around in a controlled environment. It’s not the same.”

“Alright, so that brings the list up to three.”

Lucas’s eyebrows drew together in confusion, his head tilted to the side slightly. “What list?”

“The list of things that Lucas Friar takes much more serious than anyone else on the planet. First was macaroni and cheese, then grilled cheese, and now mini golf.”

He shrugged, not seeming insulted by her comment. “I gotta say the list name could use some workshopping.”

Riley merely rolled her eyes, moving to get in the driver’s seat, but Lucas stopped her before she could, reaching into her sweatshirt pocket and grabbing the keys. She gasped, crossing her arms over her chest.

“What are you doing? Are you really about to tell me that I can’t drive my own car? It’s not like I’m drunk.”

Lucas shook his head, examining her keys in his hand, tossing them up in the air. She tried to grab them, but he caught them in his fist, continuing to shake his head.

“I know, and I’m not saying you can’t drive, but this night’s not over yet.” Now it was her turn to be confused. She could feel her eyebrows crawling up her forehead, and Lucas laughed softly at her expression. “Just, trust me, alright. You trust me, right?”

“I think we’ve established that I do very much trust you,” she said, smiling. “So alright, take the keys, take me to a mysterious location. My life is in your hands.”

They shared another small smile before Riley climbed into the passenger seat. Despite the fact that Lucas had now driven her car a couple of times, it still felt weird to sit in the passenger seat rather than behind the wheel. She did enjoy how much easier it was to watch him from this seat though, so she wasn’t going to complain too much.

However, this time she was nervous. She had been telling the truth, she did trust Lucas, and she knew that he wasn’t going to be taking her anywhere to put her danger. No, this was a different kind of nervous, the butterflies that had been fluttering about earlier back and more active than ever.

“This is gonna be fun, I promise,” Lucas assured her as he started her car. He was grinning, and he reminded her of a little kid on Christmas.

The sight warmed her heart and she really couldn’t put her finger on why.

About forty minutes later, Riley was officially impressed.

She really had no idea what to expect from Lucas, and she should have known that he would pull of something totally out of left field. He had been surprising her all day.

But this was definitely not what she was expecting at all. They had stopped at a gas station on their way to their destination: Riley had made an off-hand comment about wanting ice cream so Lucas had run in and grabbed one of those giant tubs of chocolate ice cream and two spoons.

“We’ll eat when we get there, just hold onto it for right now. Don’t open it without me, though,” he commanded, pointing to her across the console.

“Noted.”

Turns out “there” was out in the middle of a field. At first, Riley really didn’t understand why they were there, but when she followed Lucas’s lead and got out of the car, she lost any words she could have said.

“Impressed?” Lucas asked, settling himself on the hood of her car, grabbing the ice cream from her hands so she could climb up herself and join him.

She nodded, still at a loss for words, sighing when she leaned back on the windshield, staring up at the sky above. She swore she had never seen anything so beautiful.

“I know I said I had never been on a date before, but a lot of my friends had and this was always the stuff that they did. Go out and look at the stars.” She tore her eyes away from the beautiful tapestry in the sky to look at him. He was staring up at the stars, a wistful smile on his face. “While this still isn’t a date, I thought I would show you the Texas version of a first date.”

She nodded, giggling softly.

“You know, when all's said and done, we’re still eating food on the side of the road,” she said, smirking when she popped the tub of the ice cream open. “I guess it doesn’t matter where you go on your first date, they’re all the same in the end.”

Lucas laughed, shaking his head. But he accepted the spoon she handed him and they spent a couple minutes in silence, occasionally taking bites of the ice cream.

Riley couldn’t take her eyes off the sky above her. She didn’t even know that there were this many stars in the universe. She had always loved stars, but she had never gotten to see them for herself.

Half a tub of ice cream later, Riley and Lucas were both completely lounged back on the windshield of the car, their shoulders pressed up against each other as they looked up at the night sky.

“So that’s the big dipper and that’s the little dipper,” Lucas whispered, pointing up above them to show her the constellations. “It’s kinda hard to point out from all the way down here, but they’re in that general area.”

Riley giggled, adjusting her body, her knee bumping against him. She was very aware of how close they were, but it didn’t feel weird. In fact, she had never been more comfortable in her entire life.

“There’s nowhere in New York where you can see the stars this well,” she sighed. She could feel his gaze on her and she sent him a small smile. “All my experience with the stars has been through a computer screen, or with the glow up stickers on my ceiling. I’m sure there are places in California where I could have seen them, but stargazing wasn’t exactly a popular extracurricular.”

Lucas laughed softly, nodding his head. “Well I’m glad I could show you this part of the world. I think everyone should get a chance to experience the stars like this.”

“You know, this may not be a real date, but it’s probably the most romantic night of my life. Charlie and I never did anything like this.” Riley commented, sitting up and bringing her knees to her chest.

“That’s like the third time you’ve mentioned this guy. Charlie. Was he your first boyfriend? The one you talked about this morning,” Lucas asked, sitting up as well so they were side by side.

Riley nodded, weirdly, not feeling weird when talking about her ex boyfriend.  “Yep. We dated all throughout high school.”

“What happened?” Lucas asked, his voice quiet and nervous almost. “Sorry, you don’t need to answer that, I don’t even know why I asked.” He shook his head, looking down at his hands, which were threaded together tightly, clearly embarrassed.

“No, it’s fine.” She shrugged. “Nothing bad happened or anything, he and I are still friends, actually.” Looking down at the hood of the car, she picked up her ice cream spoon, spinning it in her fingers. “We just didn’t have enough of a spark to try dating after high school. He was a great high school boyfriend, he was nice, my parents liked him, we had fun together, but I didn’t really feel anything for him when we were getting ready to go off to school.”

Lucas nodded, looking like he was processing this information. “That makes sense, I guess.” He laughed softly. “So you did it all in one sweep. First kiss, first date, first boyfriend.”

Riley grinned, tugging at the sleeves of his sweatshirt over her hands. “Yeah, I guess I did. Probably makes me pretty boring, but Charlie and I… our relationship wasn't exactly exciting.”

“Nothing wrong with that, sometimes boring can be good.”

“I mean, I won’t argue with that, but I think while there’s nothing wrong with the relationship itself being boring, the chemistry shouldn’t be boring too.”

Lucas bit his lip, shrugging his shoulders. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

“Well, enough about my old relationships. What about you?”

“Me? I thought we already established that I didn’t have any stories. No dates, remember.”

Riley scoffed, adjusting on the car so she could look at him. “Dates aren’t the only aspect of a relationship, even if you’ve never been a date doesn’t mean you don’t have any stories. What about your first kiss? Tell me that story.”

“Wait did you say relationships just now? Do you have more than one?” Lucas asked, turning to face her, clearly trying to put the attention back on her.

“I had a boyfriend in college named Evan, we dated for like six months, but this isn’t about me,” Riley said, rolling her eyes. “I wanna hear a story, c’mon. I’ve told you some, I think I deserve some in return.”

Lucas groaned, putting his head down. He took a deep breath before lifting his head up and looking at her. He was twisting his hands together and she could tell he was nervous for some reason.

“Fine, fine. Truth is...” He paused. “Nevermind. Let’s just change the subject.”

Shaking her head, Riley adjusted again so she could place herself in his line of vision. “No, tell me. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.” Realizing that probably wasn’t the right thing to say, she sighed. “I mean, you don’t have to tell me, but if you want to, you have no reason to be embarrassed and you can trust me.”

“Really?” Lucas muttered, meeting her gaze.

“Yeah, really. I’ve been telling you all day that I trust you, and I really do. And now, I want you to trust me,” Riley said, putting her hand on his arm, squeezing it lightly.

“Alright. Well, the truth is...” He took another deep breath, avoiding eye contact again.

“I haven’t had my first kiss yet.”

“Oh,” Riley whispered.

“Yeah, it’s kind of… well, it is what it is,” Lucas said, his face and neck bright red. “You don’t need to say anything.”

“No, it’s not that bad.” She shrugged. “So, when you say never had a first kiss, do you mean like your first kiss, or your first kiss,” Riley said, moving her hand in a circular motion when she said the last kiss.

“Okay, you’re saying the same word so I don’t really know what you mean.”

Clearing her throat, Riley pushed her hair from her face, happy she could provide him with this information. “There are different tiers of first kiss, your first kiss and your first kiss.” She put the same emphasis on the second kiss, moving her hand again. “Your first kiss is a peck, your lips touch but there’s not much else to it, it’s middle school stuff, but of course when it happens in middle school, it seems like the best thing in the entire world.”

Lucas examines her curiously, listening intently as she explains the difference.

“Then there’s your first kiss, that’s like, the first real kiss you ever have, I guess. It’s a lot deeper than a peck, and there’s definitely more feelings involved.”

Lucas nods slightly, absorbing this information. However, after a couple seconds of absorbing, he shakes his head.

“Nope, no lips have ever touched mine.” He shrugs. “My classmate Vanessa kissed my cheek after I helped her hang up a poster once, but I don’t think that counts.”

Riley giggles, nudging her shoulder against his. She sends another glance to sky, smiling at the stars.

“Thanks,” he says softly, bringing her attention to him again.

“What are you thanking me for?”

“For not laughing. It’s pretty weird, being in your twenties and never having kissed anyone before. I appreciate that you didn’t like, laugh or anything.”

“I would never laugh at you for something like that,” she murmured. “And it’s nothing to be embarrassed about, everyone reaches those milestones in life at different points. No big deal.”

Lucas smiles at her and for some reason, her eyes are drawn to his lips. She’s surprised that no one’s ever kissed him before. His lips look perfectly soft.

“You know,” she said, putting a piece of her hair behind her ear. “I can change that for you, if you want.”

Riley had no idea what came over her for her to suggest something like that. Like many other things she had done in the last four days, it was not something she usually did. But now it was out there and there was no taking it back.

“What are you talking about?” Lucas asked, his eyes narrowing in confusion.

Their eyes met and if Riley thought the stars in the sky were beautiful, it was only because she had never seen Lucas’s eyes this close up. Her heart was beating erratically in her chest and she was pretty sure that the goosebumps on the back of her neck were from more than just the chill in the air.

“I mean, your first kiss.” She paused, watching realization dawn across his face. “You don’t have to obviously, but if you want to do it now, with someone who you trust and who trusts you, then we can.”

She saw him gulp, and the butterflies in her stomach were beginning to flutter. “Riley, you don’t have to do this. I don't want to be a charity case.”

Riley sighed, shaking her head. “Lucas.” She put her hand on his knee. “I want to.”

After an uncertain moment, he nodded, licking his lips nervously.

She nodded too, adjusting herself so that they were facing each other. She had seen countless teen movies where the love interests kiss passionately on the hood of a car, but it clearly was easier said than done. After a sufficient amount of adjusting, she and Lucas were facing each other, their faces only a couple centimeters apart from each other.

“Are you sure about this?” he muttered, his hand coming to rest on her upper arm. His touch was light, hesitant. “You don’t have to. We don’t have to.”

“I’m sure. I want to do this,” she whispered. “Don’t worry about it. It’s just a kiss.”

“Right, right.” His fingers were tapping on her arm. It made her smile in spite of herself. “So is this gonna be a kiss, or a kiss?”

She giggled. “Well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

Before he could ask her again if she really wanted to do this, she closed the distance between them, pushing her lips against his.

It was far more than a peck, but their lips stayed pressed against each other for a long moment. Riley wanted to deepen the kiss, but she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable.

When they pulled apart, Riley felt herself smile, her eyes fluttering open. Lucas’s eyes were still closed and Riley felt a weird sense of pride when she watched them flutter open a couple seconds later. Her heart was racing, and she couldn’t seem to wipe the smile off her face.

She had to wonder if he felt the same way.

“So, um,” Lucas started, clearing his throat, his hand still resting on her arm.

“Cold.” It was the only word that Riley could think of for some reason. She was still processing exactly what happened, and her mind was a muddled haze. “The ice cream.” She clarified, tapping the now melted tub with her foot.

“Cold,” Lucas repeated.

“Cold.”

She smiled, pursing her lips together, almost still being able to feel his lips on hers.

It was almost an hour later when she and Lucas were finally at their hotel and getting ready for bed. They had stayed on the hood of her car for another fifteen minutes of so after their kiss, not saying anything, before finally going back into town.

Riley had spent the whole drive staring out the window. Lucas had insisted on driving back, and Riley and graciously let him. She didn’t trust herself behind the wheel of a car, the weird haze of their kiss still surrounding her.

It was unlike anything she had ever felt before. She had never felt that much with Charlie, or Evan, and she and Lucas had hardly kissed. Sure, it was more than a peck, but it still didn’t go beyond their lips touching.

Nearly an hour later and her heart was still beating faster than normal and butterflies didn’t even begin to describe what she was feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“Are you all set in the bathroom?” Lucas asked as Riley was folding her clothes from the day and placing them in her bag.

“Uh, yeah. Go ahead,” she said with a smile, looking up at him briefly before looking down at the sweatshirt he had lent her, which was folding on top of the rest of her clothes. He had never asked for it back, and so far, she had no plans on returning it to him.

Shaking her head, she zipped her backpack up, putting it on the floor next to her bed for the night. Crawling under the covers, she sighed as she threw her head back on the pillow, pulling the blanket up to her chin.

She turned on her side, facing the front door, not actively avoiding Lucas, but maybe not looking at him would help her process everything that had happened a little easier. She could hear him moving around behind her when he emerged from the bathroom.

It wasn’t long before the room was flooded in darkness when he flicked the light off. She smiled when she could hear him adjusting in bed.

“Riley?” he whispered into the darkness, surprising her. She turned slightly in bed so she could see the outline of his figure in the bed next to her. He was on his back, his arm hooked under his head.

“Yeah?”

“Uh, thank you.” She could practically see the blush on his cheeks. It made her smile.

“No problem.” She heard what sounded like a laugh escape from his lips, but it came out breathy and quiet. “Goodnight, Lucas.”

“Goodnight, Riley.”

Sending him one more smile that he wouldn’t be able to see, Riley turned back to her side, sighing as she settled into the comfortable dark silence of the motel room. It’s a comfortable, dark silence, though, and she feels sleep coming for her rather easily.

It’s similar to the previous night, when she and Lucas were sleeping off their alcohol. She once again feels like she’s sleeping off a rather impressive buzz. Only this time, it’s not whiskey that she’s drunk off of.

It’s Lucas.

Riley isn’t usually one to wake up in the middle night. She doesn’t get nightmares that often, at least she hasn’t since high school, so typically once she’s asleep, she’s asleep for the whole night. This night is different however.

When she snaps awake, she expects it to be morning, the sun peaking out over the horizon, but she’s sorely mistaken. The room is still flooded in darkness, and the small digital clock tells her that it’s a little after three. There’s also a weird chill in the room that wasn’t there when they were going to bed.

Riley knows just the solution.

Pushing herself from bed, she pads to the end of it, grabbing her bag from the ground. Unzipping it, she pulls the first garment her hand touches, smiling softly when the black fabric is illuminated in the moonlight.

Pulling the sweatshirt on over her head, she instantly feels more comfortable, sighing as she tugs the sleeves down over her hands. The bottom of the sweatshirt falls below her pajama shorts, giving off the illusion that it’s the only thing that she’s wearing, but she hardly cares. She can already feel sleep coming back to her.

Crawling back into her bed, she slides under the covers, turning on her side once more, only this time, she turns so she’s looking at Lucas. He’s sleeping peacefully, having adjusted in his sleep, so he arms are limp by his side. She smiles.

Despite the fact that his eyes are closed, she remembers exactly what they looked like when she looked into them earlier. This time, when she falls asleep, his green eyes blend in with the stars in the night sky to create the most beautiful masterpiece she’s ever seen.