"Watch your left side," Charles quipped.
"I am," I insisted.
"Duhhh, your other left."
"Oh for God's sake!"
I threw my controller down in protest onto the beanbag at my feet.
"You ready to give up yet Riley? That's 5 wins for me so far," Charles managed to say through his laughter. Laughter at my misfortune.
"No no no. We're not stopping until I win at least once."
"Well then we're going to be here for a long time," Charles sighed as he handed the controller back to me and started a new game.
"I thought this was supposed to be fun," I chirped sarcastically as we waited for the game to load.
"I'm having fun," he smiled. I elbowed Charles in the side and he let out a squeal. "Sore loser," he coughed, so I elbowed him again. "You know I was just about to tell you that it's nice to have someone other than my little brother to play with, but I'm starting to rethink that. At least he doesn't attack me."
"Haha! Admit it, you're happy I'm here," I stared at Charles, my sly smile slowly growing.
"Happy that I can win so much." Charles professed before his game character shot mine.
"Oh come on!" I exclaimed out loud.
"Maybe we should take a break." Charles put his hand on my controller and I noticed that my fingers were going white with how tight I was gripping it.
"That would probably be a good idea."
"I'm going to get a drink. You want anything?" Charles stood up from the couch and made his way towards the door to the kitchen.
"Just some water please."
He disappeared through the doorway leaving me alone in the living room. I twisted around to get a good look at the room for the first time. It was a nice house. Much bigger than Max's. And it was clean. Immaculately clean. Not even a speck of dust lay on the coffee table or the shelves below the TV.
I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, remembering that it had vibrated a few times previously when we had been busy playing so I had ignored it. I slid it out of my pocket and was surprised when I saw seven missed calls from Camille, three from Louis and two from Max. Something must be wrong.
Just as I was about to dial Max's number, his face flashed up on the screen and I answered immediately.
"Hello?" I mumbled.
"Riley! You need to come home now!" Max's hushed but concerned voice cracked through the phone. He sounded out of breath.
"Are you okay? What's going on?"
"Mom and dad found out about us skipping school last week and-" Max fell silent suddenly and I could just about hear Camille's voice saying something in French but I couldn't make it out. "Yes. He's on his way home now," I heard Max's voice slightly distanced from the phone.
Charles re-entered the living room with two glasses of water in his hands.
"So we can keep playing if you want, or we can watch something on Netflix," Charles started but paused when he spotted me holding the phone to my ear.
"Just get home quickly," Max piped before hanging up.
"Is everything alright?" Charles inquired.
My eyes darted from Charles down to my phone where I saw my wide eyes and now pale face in the reflection.
"I need to go home now." My breath hitched in my throat as I spoke. I was surprised that words actually came out of my mouth.
YOU ARE READING
Away With Him
Teen FictionRiley always had everything he could ever ask for thanks to his rich dad. Well... almost everything. The hardest thing for a rich kid to get is real friends. Going on a four month exchange to France was hopefully going to fix that. But Riley was not...
