For3ver (7 page)

  "No more, Gram." I kissed her cheek. "Thanks. Need anything when I'm out?" I looked at the money in my hand, seeing she gave me three hundred bucks. It'd take a few extra days at the junkyard to pay that back, but I would. 

I didn't find Ry and Jenny at the mall so I just got Ryley's size and bought her dress, and then I used some of the extra money to buy her a birthday present. 

Prom was the day before my birthday and my good friend Nick had a huge prom and birthday party planned for me, but if Ryley didn't want to do that after prom, I'd take her home. I had to convince her to go to prom with me first though. 

I got home late that night because I went to the junkyard to start working off what I owed Gram. Sliding up Ryley's window, I didn't even knock. 

  "Liam!" she snapped covering her bare chest and I almost fell off the windmill.

I dropped her dress, but luckily it was bagged. I jumped down to give her time to put clothes on and me time to control the stirring in my pants. 

  "Liam," she called down. "Are you okay?" 

  "Can I come up now?" The regret in my voice was more for not seeing as much as I would have liked. 

  "Yeah." 
     She took the dress then stepped away from the window. "What is this?" 

  "I'm taking you to prom, Ry, and don't say no. You've been excited about prom since school started and I know Gage was taking you, but now that.... Whatever, I'm taking you. He's only one Porter brother, Ryley, he doesn't set the precedence for all Porter men. I'm taking you to prom." 

  "You weren't even going to prom," she quietly said, still staring at her dress. "How'd you get this?" 

  "I don't give a shit about prom, but you do and I'm your best friend dammit, so I'm taking you," I snapped at her because I was afraid she'd say no. 

  "Really?" Tears magnified her blue eyes. 

It was a lot easier than I thought to get her to agree and I was suddenly nervous. 

  "I got you this too. Happy birthday," I tossed her the box, then started climbing out the window. 

  "Liam?" she blurted in confusion. 

  "I'm tired, Ry. I worked five hours straight at the yard. I gotta get home." I wasn't tired, I didn't have to get home, but I was feeling this strange nervousness that told me to get out of there. 

That nervousness wouldn't stop me from taking her to prom though. Gage hadn't been around a few days and I couldn't bring myself to care. I hated him for the things he did to hurt her. She shouldn't have been put through that. 

It was a group of us at prom, and I was glad I ended up going because it was a good time. I expected Ry to be down about Gage still, but she wasn't, she probably had the most fun. 

  "Aren't you going to ask her to dance?" Jenny's annoying voice made me cringe. Just to get away from her, I walked over to Ryley and took her to the dance floor. 

  "I like that dress," I said, pulling her closer. 

  "You told me that." She giggled. 

  "I mean, I like you in that dress." 

Her arms went around my neck and she pressed in closer to me. 

  "I love my bracelet, Liam. I wish you had one, though." 

  "I do." I pulled back a little and smiled at her, pulling the original out of my pocket, watching her eyes light up before a smile filled her face. 

  "I didn't think you still had that. I thought you got rid of it a long time ago." 

  "Never. I keep it with me every day, always have." 

  "Are you serious?" 

  "It's our bracelet, Ry, of course I kept it," I said a little offended she didn't think I would. 

She just pushed in closer and tightened her arms. Jenny had slowly been feeding her Boone's Farm all night, so by the time we had to decide if we were going to the party, she was drunk and ready to party more. She kept trying to feed me drinks, and I'd take them, but I wasn't drinking them because I wanted to keep an eye on her. She wasn't incoherent or anything, but I hadn't seen her drink that much before. 

It was just after midnight when she ran toward me like there was trouble. I immediately stiffened, ready to kill anyone that was fucking with her. 

  "Liam!" she squealed. "Happy birthday!" Her arms flew around my neck and her mouth crashed down on mine. 

I should have pulled away, I should have left it at the closed mouth kiss, but everything inside me came alive and I felt as happy as I did years before when I was still a jovial kid. My hands slid into her hair and I parted her lips with my tongue. When she moaned into my mouth I deepened our kiss. My eighteenth birthday was going to be my best birthday. 

When I pulled out of the kiss because I had to get her out of there, she stumbled back a little stunned. 

  "Ry, shit," I said, getting nervous that I shouldn't have done that. 

  "Come on," she blurted, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the door. 

When we got into her car, I put the keys in and the CD player turned on, playing the CD I burned her. I was ready to apologize, but I didn't get the chance. She jumped on me and soon we were moving to the backseat without words. 

  "I love you, Ryley," I groaned while running my mouth over her cleavage and she rubbed herself against my leg. "God, I never stopped." I cupped her tits and she moaned. 

  "Make love to me, Liam." She pushed harder into my hands. 

I was sober, I knew she was hurting about Gage, I shouldn't have done it, but what she said next I felt I was entitled. 

  "I didn't know what to get you for your birthday. I want it to be this." Her hands heatedly worked on my zipper. 

Happy eighteenth birthday to me. 

  "I never wanted to break up, Ry," I told her while I worked her out of her dress in the tight space of the backseat of her car. 

  "Shh, stop," she whispered, pulling me from my pants and sliding down to the floorboards. 

Not one part of me thought to stop her, especially not when her hot mouth wrapped around me and made me thrust upward, gagging her. She didn't stop though, but I didn't thrust again. I hadn't meant to do it in the first place and I felt guilty for that. I'd had sex, I'd gotten blow jobs, I'd kissed other girls, but none of it felt like that. Being with the girl you loved was nothing like burying yourself inside a girl to not hate yourself. Like I'd been doing for a few years. 

  "Fuck me, Liam," she moaned, sliding up my legs, straddling me on the seat.

I wasn't going to fuck her, I was going to make love to her like she originally asked me to. That I knew I could do, even though I was used to plowing into a girl, trying to get off before she stupidly confessed her love for me, like I'd heard a few times. 

  "I love you, Ry." I shook as I flipped her to her back and buried myself inside her. 

  "God, I love you, Liam." 

I covered her mouth with mine and pushed deeper, harder, swallowing her moans, loving every minute I was submerged inside her. It'd been a moment I'd thought about so many times, and none of my fantasies came close to the real thing. I hooked her leg over my arm and drove deeper, making her cry out louder. 

  "Please don't stop!" she begged me, sounding like she was in tears, but I was used to that from girls and could differentiate pain and pleasure tears; Ryley's only came from pleasure. 

  "Never, Ry," I told her and felt the first signs of her orgasm as she began to tighten around me. Next came the vibrating in her thighs, last came the trembling of her entire body as she bowed up and her mouth fell open, unable to scream like her lungs wanted her to. 

  "Liam!" she managed to scream, and it wasn't the first time a girl screamed my name during sex, but it was the last girl I ever wanted to hear it from. 

  "Fuck, Ry," I groaned, not able to hold back any longer. 

Usually I could've gone for close to an hour; I probably could've gone longer, and usually thoughts of Ryley were what got me off when I was with other girls. Being that this was the real deal under me, letting me inside her body, crying out for me, I couldn't last that long, even with my eyes closed because her panting moans sounded exactly like I imagined them. 

  "I love you," I grunted, thrusting once more before I was emptying inside of her. 

  "Happy birthday." She kissed me and I laughed into her mouth until she was in a fit of giggles. 

My eighteenth was my best birthday ever. 

RYLEY

I woke up the morning after prom with a massive hangover. Never had I actually drank that much, never had I not remembered how I fell asleep. Jenny let me sleep on her parents' couch since I was not in any shape to go home to my parents. 

I remembered dancing, I remembered drinking. God, I remembered the car. Liam. Everything I ever wanted, but would probably never have again. We were crazy drunk, living in the moment like teenagers should. None of the worries of those past few months bothered us that night. It was just me and him, two best friends, enjoying one another. And it was a mistake. I didn't believe that one bit, but if I thought it and said it enough, maybe one day it would be true.

Sure I loved Liam, I'd always loved him. Not the type of love that you save for your best friend or mom, but the type of love that only comes around once in a lifetime. After he broke my heart a few years before, though, things had been different between us. I would have been surprised if he were actually capable of loving someone correctly after all that. 

After I showered, I was getting dressed when I remembered my gift from him. Glancing down at my wrist, the same wrist that I used to wear our friendship bracelet on, was the bracelet that Liam gave me for my birthday. I hadn't taken it off since he gave it to me. I twirled it around my arm and smiled to myself, remembering just how much better of a lover he was than his brother. Sure Gage was built and had the body of a Greek God, but he didn't have what Liam had. He didn't have the emotion, the expressions, the talent. My GOD, he knew what he was doing. 

I needed to stop thinking about that, though. My mind needed to believe that it was a mistake. 

And Gage could never find out. 

  "Ryley! Liam's here for you, sweetheart!" my mom hollered up the stairs. 

I grabbed my sandals and headed downstairs, grabbing a water and aspirin from the kitchen before heading out to the porch. Liam was waiting for me on the steps, staring out at the yard deep in thought. He turned and smiled when I opened the screen door. It was then that I noticed the flowers. They were wildflowers, all different colors, but he made sure to get some Daises in there too. White ones, my favorite. 

Looking at Liam holding those flowers made me think back to when we were kids and I would make the boys tie them together for me and make me flower bracelets and crowns. They always acted like they hated it, but neither of them ever left to go do anything else when I suggested it, so there must have been some enjoyment from it. 

I smiled at him. He still was, and would always be, the best looking man ever to me. It was going to hurt when he left that small town for his big city college, but I got it. I was scheduled to leave just a couple weeks after he did to head to college a few towns over, but it wouldn't be the same. Nothing would ever be the same. 

  "Hey," he said, leaning in to kiss me. I let it go because it felt way too good, but I shouldn't have. 

  "Liam, we can't do this," I whispered after he broke the kiss. 

  "I know." His voice was barely a whisper. 

  "Think of Gage. He's already having a hard time with things; this would ruin him for sure." 

  "I love you, Ryley Reynolds. I've loved you ever since we were eight years old. I've waited almost my whole life for you, but I know. Gage is unstable right now. He's my brother... I can't do this to him," he sighed and rested his forehead on mine.

I wanted to tell him I loved him too and that I meant everything the night prior, but I didn't say it. That would have only made it all harder to handle. 

  "So then... still friends?" I asked, hoping that he didn't want me out of his life completely. 

  "Forever and always, Ry." He smiled faintly and hugged me. 

That's just what we were, too. Friends, forever and always. 

Liam and I went down to the pond later that day to see what Gage was up to. We were going to try our hardest to get things back to normal between the three of us. At least the best that we could after all of the damage that'd been done. 

Gage was sitting against his favorite tree, fishing pole in one hand and a beer in the other. I knew he wasn't happy to see us, but I didn't care. He was hurting, and though I should have been hurting just as much, all I really wanted to do was fix him. His entire life he had been the brooding brother. The brother that never showed his true emotions. Holding all of that in couldn't be good; I knew he had just as many issues as Liam. His dad wasn't even in the picture, his mom's boyfriend roughed him and Liam up when they were kids, and I knew they lived everyday scared their sister was going to end up dead one day because of him. I knew he had inner demons, but I wanted to help him get them out before he did something stupid.