Love Is Patient Read online

  “Maybe he just felt bad for the way she talked to you. We will get it straightened out tomorrow. You can stay here for tonight.”

  As Riley was about to agree to stay her phone went off. I pray its Mason to apologize and straighten everything out. But I could tell in the look in her eye that is wasn’t Mason. Riley types back a message real quick and then goes to the bathroom. She returns looking with her hair pull back and she changed back into her clothes that she had on earlier.

  “Actually Chlo, I’m just gonna go. I’m going to head back to the dorms.”

  I was about to talk her into staying here but before I could say anything Jay spoke up.

  “Riley just stay here, it’s getting late and it’s like a mile walk to the dorms. Just stay here and I’ll take you early enough to get changed for tomorrow if that’s what you want.” Jay says.

  “Thanks Jay, but I actually have a ride waiting for me down stairs.” Riley says.

  She grabs her purse and gives me hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow, first thing in the morning.”

  “Okay, but text me as soon as you get to the dorms. Call me if you need anything.” I yell out to her as she leaves the apartment.

  Jay and I walk over to the window to see who was here. We see a red G-6 Pontiac. Jay is standing behind me rubbing my shoulders. He asks the one question that was running through my mind.

  “Who is that?”

  “I have no idea, lord I hope she isn’t getting into any trouble. I know Mason just really brought her down tonight.” I say.

  Jay and I start off to go to bed; he stops me to give me a hug.

  “Baby she is going to be fine, you have to stop babying her. She is going to make mistakes; she knows what she is doing.”

  Jay and I climb into bed. “Yeah I know. I just worry about her.”

  “She is okay; I love you, good night.”

  “Good night.”

  I toss and turn most of the night. I couldn’t go to sleep knowing that Riley hasn’t gotten home. I hope she is okay. It was around 2 am when I received a text message from her.

  Riley: Home, Sorry forgot to text you when I got in. Going to bed.

  I didn’t bother to reply, she was lying to me. I’m going to get down to the bottom of it.

  Chapter 7

  Riley

  I woke up the next morning with a pounding headache and not remembering anything that happened last night. I lay still for a moment to get the room to stop spinning. I push the covers off of me, and sat up with my hand on my head. Oh god, what happened last night? I try to remember but the last thing I remember was being at a party. I look over to my night stand, my phone was lighting up. I groan to myself, grabbing my phone and start to go through it.

  I have 5 missed calls from Chloe and 7 unread text messages. Why is she freaking out? I look at the time its 1 in the afternoon. I’ve missed most of my classes, no wonder. As I start to go through to reply to her, I noticed not all of the messages were from her. I had a few from Mason and Chase. Oh god. I started to feel sick, I open up the messages.

  Chloe: Hey chick. Study tonight?

  Chloe: Riley?? Maybe you’re not up yet, text me when you get up.

  Chloe: RILEY! WHERE ARE YOU! CALL ME!

  Chloe: I’m getting really worried, please call.

  I’ll have to call her when I see the rest of the messages. I can already tell she is going to yell at me. I continue to go through the messages, I smile when I see Mason texted me. But then I remember last night.

  Mason: Hey Riley, I am sorry about last night. How about a redo, tonight? I promise no crazy ex’s.

  I couldn’t help but to smile at that.

  Mason: I can’t wait to see you.

  I really do see myself with this guy; I have to give him another chance.

  Chase: Had fun last night, have to do that again, and never knew how wild you could get ;)

  My stomach dropped. Oh no, no, no, no, what did I do! I start to go back in the conversation I had with Chase.

  Chase: How is your night going?

  Me: Horrible.

  Chase: Sorry to hear that. What you doing rest of the night then?

  Me: No idea.

  Chase: Come out with me then.

  Me: Okay, Pick me up at Chloe’s. It’s the apartment complex by the school.

  Chase: Be there in 10.

  Then it hit me. I partied, got drunk to hide my feelings, god please tell me I didn’t relapse. Chloe would kill me. I have no idea what to say to her. I start thinking more about the night as I pace the floor. I was really sore down there. Oh no, I had sex with Chase. I start crying right then. Why did I do that!? I can’t tell Chloe. She will never talk to me again.

  Just as I throw my phone across the room it lands on my roommate’s bed, it started ringing. It was Chloe’s ringtone. I had to answer it or she would send out a search team for me. I walk over to pick it up and answer it like everything was okay.

  “Hey Chloe, What’s up?” I try to sound happy.

  “Don’t what’s up me, Riley! Where have you been? Why haven’t you answered! When you didn’t show up for class I started to panic. You didn’t text me till 2 in the morning telling me you got home. Then you didn’t show up for class all day! You better tell me what happened when you left last night!” Chloe yells at me.

  I knew she would be upset, I just didn’t think she would be this upset. I took a deep breath.

  “Chloe, I’m fine calm down. I got home and feel asleep, and I woke up in the middle of the night remembering to text you, so I did.” I explain to her.

  “That doesn’t explain why you missed class! Or didn’t text me or Mason back, he is worried your avoiding him.” She’s still yelling at me.

  I start to feel sick to my stomach again. I really need to get off the phone with her before I tell her.

  “Chloe it’s okay. I just didn’t feel like going. I can skip one day. I’ll text Mason. I’ll get ready so I can meet you at your place in a few okay.” I tell her in a calm voice.

  “Okay, I’m giving you 20 minutes or I’m sending the search team after you.”

  I start laughing at her, and try to calm my nerves before I face her. She is going to know something is going on and either I’m going to have to tell her or she is going to find out by the student body.

  “See you in a few.” I tell her.

  I end the call before she could say anything else and I call Chase, I had to make sure what happened last night really didn’t happen. I scroll through my contacts and click his name. It rang as I was putting my shirt on. He picks up on the last ring.

  “Hello,” Well someone is still in bed.

  “Chase, it’s me. We need to talk, like now. I have to go to Chloe’s in like 20 minutes or she will send the search team after me but I have to know what happened last night.” I tell him.

  He laughs at me. “Riley is that you? Damn girl I knew you couldn’t stay away.”

  I’m starting to get really annoyed.

  “Chase, really, what happened!?” I ask him.

  “Okay, I picked you up, we went to a party. Got drunk and you couldn’t stay off of me. So I took you back to my place and we had amazing sex. Then I took you home.” He explains it short and simple.

  “YOU USED ME!” I yell at him.

  Chase starts laughing at me again and I’m getting pissed.

  “No I didn’t use you. I told you it wasn’t a good idea, but you insisted. I wasn’t about to keep pushing you off of me.” He says.

  I’m beyond pissed now. I grab my keys, about to head of my dorm but I need to ask this question and no one needed to know.

  “Chase I need to ask you something. I need you to be completely honest with me. Did I do any drugs last night?’ I question him.

  He sighs in the phone, which was never good.

  “Riley, I told you last night about me getting arrested for position of marijuana. You asked me if I had any. I told you no, I didn’t deal with that kind of stuff anymore. But y
ou asked me if I knew any one that had it. I took you to them, but they didn’t have marijuana. They had a harder drug. I try to pull you away but you didn’t want to go without it so you bought some.” He states.

  My heart stops. My mouth went dry, I couldn’t speak.

  “Bought some of what, Chase?” I struggled to get out of my mouth.

  “You bought some coke. I tried to take it away from you but you wouldn’t let me.” He tells me.

  “Chase, listen to me very closely. I use to do coke back in high school. All I did every weekend was party and get messed up and it sounds like I relapsed last night. Chloe is going to kill me. Do you know what I did with it?’”

  “Shit, Riley, if I would have known that I would have NEVER took you to that place; I just thought you wanted marijuana. I mean every kid does it now these days so I didn’t see any harm done.” He sounds apologetic.

  “What did I do with it Chase? I have to get rid of it before Chloe finds outs!?” I tell him.

  “Um, you put in your pocket, we had sex, I took you to get it, and then I took you home.”

  I start to hunt for the jeans I had on last night. I found them but I didn’t find any drugs in the pants.

  “I can’t find it, check your car, if you find it get rid of it! I don’t want to see it!” I tell him.

  “Okay I will. I’m going now.” I hear him get out of bed.

  “I got to go Chase, but next time no alcohol and no drugs.”

  “Promise!” He says.

  I hang up my phone and walk out of my dorm to head over to Chloe’s. I know everything is going to be okay, well at least I could hope it would be.

  Chapter 8

  Chloe

  I was sitting on the couch when I got off the phone with Riley. Something is really going on. I didn’t see Chase either today. Then it hit me, she was with Chase last night! Oh. My. God. NO, she didn’t. Please tell me she didn’t. I was in deep thought when someone knocked on my door.

  “Come in.” I yell towards the door.

  I turn around to see Riley coming in and she looks really different. She sat on the couch next to me.

  “Hey, how was class?” She asks me.

  “You would know if you were there.” Maybe I have more attitude then I meant to.

  “Okay snappy, sorry I over slept, I just wanted to stay in bed this morning.” I say to her.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just you weren’t in class this morning and you didn’t text me ‘til late. Your friend wasn’t at school today either.” I calm down.

  Now I can differently tell something is going on the way her face just turned sold white, like she seen a ghost.

  “What friend?” She looks at me like, like she is confused.

  Oh now she wants to play stupid.

  “Chase, don’t play dumb with me. Are you going to tell me what happened last night or am I going to have to beat it out of you.”

  “Okay, so if I tell you, you promise NOT to get mad at me.”

  “I’m not going to promise shit since your hinting around the bush.”

  She took a deep breath and start talking.

  “That was Chase that picked me up last night.” I’m starting to get mad now. “He took me to a party, he could tell I was upset because of the whole Mason thing and he was just trying to get me to cheer up. So we went and got drunk, he said I threw myself at him.” Okay now I’m fuming. “So he took me back to his place and we had sex.” She stops talking; I could tell she was scared to tell me. But how could she!

  “Anything else you want to tell me?” Riley looks up at me with tears was running down her face. I went over to give her a hug. “It’s okay Riley.”

  After an hour of crying she finally stops and apologizes to me. “I’m sorry I tried to hide it.” Riley says, rubbing her face.

  “It’s okay, but you probably want to talk to Mason.” I tell her.

  “I know I should, I just got so mad at him about that girl and I went and did something stupid.”

  I hug her again, “He will forgive you.” I took out her phone and pull up Mason’s number and hand it to her. “Call him.”

  “I can’t, not right now. I just feel awful for what I did. How about we go out tonight?” I push my phone away from me, and stand up.

  I look at her like she was the craziest person in the world.

  “You want go out after what happened last night? Plus you know I don’t like going out.” I say.

  “Okay so how about we go get some dinner and take Jay some, I’m sure he will enjoy it.” I beg her.

  She tries to give me her best smile to convince me to go.

  “Fine, let me grab my jacket and we will go.” I could still tell something was bothering her; but I wasn’t going to push the subject.

  Chapter 9

  Riley

  Chloe and I walk into the tattoo shop giggling like school girls. Jay was getting done with a customer so we didn’t want to bother him. We walk to the back of the shop to the break room to take out the food. Chloe went to ask Jay what he would want on his plate. As I was getting my plate together I heard the front bell ring. I was about to sit down and then I heard Chloe.

  “Hey Mason, what you doing here?”

  Mason reply’s back to her, but I could hear that he was shocked to see her here.

  “Oh Hey Chloe, I didn’t expect to see you here. I was just coming in to see how much they would charge to do this design.” I heard him pull out a piece of paper.

  I was trying to decide if I should be a coward and hide back here or go out there and face him. I wait a few more minutes. Then, I heard Chloe get excited.

  “Mason, that’s really good. You drew this?”

  I decided to not be wimp and go face him. I walk out of the break room and I can see Mason blushing, aw, he was embarrassed. I’m sure what he came up with wasn’t something for him to get embarrassed about. He spoke in a very settle calm voice.

  “Yeah I did.” He left his head up and when he did his eyes caught mine, and I knew I couldn’t turn away now. I heard him say my name, than I became shy.

  “Riley.” Chloe turns around and Mason comes around the counter. I could see past his shoulder at Chloe smiling at me.

  “Mason, I’m sorry I haven’t called you. I just wanted to skip class today.” I tell him.

  He took my hands in his, and smiles at me. I look down at our hands and then look up smiling at him.

  “You don’t have to apologize; I thought Melissa scared you away. I want to let you know I told her to leave me alone, don’t call me or ever come near me again. She is out of the picture.” He says proudly.

  I really couldn’t contain my smile. We stood in the middle of the shop smiling at each other. I spoke up to break the trance we were in.

  “So are you going to show me what you drew up?” Mason pulls me with him as we went back to the front counter to show me what he brought with him. It was amazing. It was an angel flying up to the stairs of heaven, under the picture it read “RIP Sandra.” Before I could ask who Sandra was Mason started speaking while looking at the picture.

  “Sandra is or was my mom. She passed away right after I graduated high school. I didn’t want just an ordinary tattoo with a cross. I want something different. She was different.” I could tell Mason was getting upset. I change the subject to get him to cheer up some.

  “Where are you getting it at?” I ask him.

  “On my upper left arm.” He rolls up his sleeve to show me.

  “I think that’s a perfect spot for it.” I put my hand on his arm, in the same spot that he said he wants the tattoo at. Mason was starting in my eyes again, and I couldn’t turn away. I heard Chloe clear her throat and it pulls us out of the trance once again.

  “So Chloe what do you think of it.” I ask her.

  Chloe starts gushing about how amazing the tattoo is. “It’s amazing Mason. Maybe you should draw up Riley’s tattoo so she doesn’t have to get one off the internet.” She says winking at me.
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br />   I start to feel my face to turn. I knew what she was getting at but I didn’t want to tell Mason about my past, not right now. Mason looks at me again with those big brown eyes. I could see his lips moving but I knew I wasn’t not paying attention to what he was saying.

  “Riley.” I heard.

  “Earth to Riley?” Mason put his hand on my shoulder has I came back out of a daze.

  “Oh sorry, what is it?” I ask.

  Mason and Chloe start laughing at me.

  “I said, what kind of tattoo did you want and I could start drawing some kind of design for you.” Mason tells me, looking down at me.

  I glare at Chloe than turn my attention back to Mason. “Actually I already found what I want.” I talked in quiet voice. “It’s for my dad, He passed away my senior year of high school, on my 18th Birthday.”

  I look up at Mason and I could tell how sorry he felt for me, but then his frown turned into a smile.

  “What are you getting?” He asks.

  “It’s just a little something I came across one day.” I tell him.

  “I think whatever you picked out is going to be wonderful.” He tells me.

  “Yeah it will be.”

  We talk a few more minutes. Jay came out to see who was here; he puts his hand out to shake Masons.

  “Hey Mason, What can I do for you?” Jay asks Mason.

  Mason shook Jay’s hand.

  “Hey, I didn’t know you worked here. I want to see how much it would be to get this tattoo on my upper left arm.” He says, showing Jay the area he wants it in.

  Mason hands Jay the paper and shows him the area he wants it at. Jay looks at the drawing and at his arm.

  “I will do it for $150, that’s if you’re leaving everything black and shaded like you have here.” Jay tells him.

  “Yeah, I want it as it is on the picture.” Mason states.

  “If that price works for you then I can do it tonight since I don’t have any more customers for the night or I can make you an appointment.” Jay says.

  Mason thought about for it and minute and decides to go ahead and get the tattoo. Chloe and I went back to the break room to eat.