A Measure of Love (6 page)

“That’s okay,” Riley soothed as they wandered down the school hallway toward their lockers. “I’d rather be Batman anyway.” He adjusted his Green Lantern sweater. “You know you could always be Wonder Woman. At least then you’d have stars on your clothes.”

“Wonder Woman and Batman? Do you two only ever speak geek?”

Riley’s head snapped to where the remark originated to find Hannah Grand standing at her locker, next to the one-and-only Blake Richards. His stupid hair looking as stupid as ever while Hannah smiled in a way that reminded Riley of a snake about to strike. She was a tiny little thing, all skinny legs and big teeth, wearing a sweater that was purple with large hearts on it. He supposed she appeared harmless, but the knowledge that this girl had put the sad look on Lexie’s face stirred Riley’s anger.

“What’s your problem?” Riley hissed.

Lexie’s hand on his wrist made him turn. “Don’t,” she murmured, shaking her head. Her eyes behind her glasses slowly took on that panicked glaze again. “It’s not worth it.”

“See how she hides behind her boyfriend,” Hannah commented with a laugh that was as fake as the friends sniggering at her side.

“He’s
not
my boyfriend,” Lexie barked back at her. The sharpness of Lexie’s words poked at Riley’s chest.

“Of course he isn’t,” Hannah retorted with a hand on her hip. “Why would he want anything to do with you when you don’t even wear a bra yet?”

Riley’s eyes widened at the same time a gust of breath erupted from Lexie. With secondhand embarrassment heating his cheeks, and having no idea what to say, his gaze flew to hers. Tears filled Lexie’s eyes. Riley had only ever seen Lexie cry once before, when she’d broken her arm after falling from their spaceship. To see her hurting so much because of one person had him simultaneously wanting to hug her close while shoving his backpack into Hannah Grand’s mouth.

To his relief, Lexie parted her lips to say something that Riley knew would no doubt be venomous, but nothing came. Instead, her shoulders dropped, and she closed her mouth and turned to her locker.

“Nothing to say?” Hannah continued. “That makes a change.”

“Lex,” Riley whispered, ignoring Hannah and hating the fact that his normally vocal and spirited friend had been reduced to the quiet, helpless girl at his side.

“It’s okay,” she answered, avoiding his gaze as she pulled books from her bag. “Let’s just go.”

“Yeah, go,” Hannah remarked behind them while closing her locker. “Go and be geeks together. Weirdos. Come on, Blake.”

“Listen!” Riley shouted, anger rising through his body, straightening his spine. He thrust a finger toward Hannah and her group of idiots. “Why don’t you shut up?”

“Or what?” Blake Richards asked, the smirk on his face boiling Riley’s blood further.

Oh, how he’d love to show Blake Richards how not to mess with his friends! But, after a moment of consideration, Riley’s hand dropped. He didn’t want to get in a fight at school, as much as he wanted to beat them all up for hurting Lexie. His father would go ballistic.

“Oh my God,” Hannah exclaimed around a laugh when Riley said nothing. “They’re both pathetic. The Gross Lantern and his sidekick, Spexie Lexie the Braless Wonder!”

Lexie sniffed at his side, adjusting the glasses on her face as laughter rippled all around them. Without thought, Riley placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

“I’m okay,” she uttered, as a lone tear escaped and slipped down her flushed cheek, striking Riley directly in the gut.

Breathing deeply and keeping his eyes on Lexie, he spoke. “Hey, Hannah?” He turned slowly to face her. “I know your secret.”

“My what?”

“Your secret.”

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “And what secret is that?”

“About why you’re such a bitch.”

The gasps that filled the corridor were deafening while the people around them seemed to come to a grinding halt to listen in. Lexie froze at his side.

Hannah Grand blanched. “Excuse me?”

“I get it,” he added with a shrug. “You’re jealous. And why wouldn’t you be?”

“Jealous?” Hannah asked, her voice turning shrill. “Of
her
?” She pointed at Lexie, who was staring at Riley in utter shock.

“Sure,” he answered. “I mean, Lexie here”—he waved a hand at his friend—“has so many options. Don’t get me wrong, she’s beautiful now, but when she’s older, she could ditch her glasses and get contacts or eventually be able to buy as many bras as she wants.”

Hannah sneered. “I doubt it. What’s your point?”

“Well, what options do you have, Hannah?

“For what?”

“Your face.” Riley snorted. “Let’s be honest here—you’ll always be ugly. Not like a bra and contacts can help that travesty, huh?” Riley turned to Lexie, ignoring Hannah’s petty but loud response, and smiled at her wide grin. “Come on. Let’s get outta here.”

When Riley’s mom, via a concerned phone call from school, heard about what had happened that morning, she’d banned him from going out—due to the bad language he’d used, not because she considered what he’d done a bad thing. On the contrary, she was proud that he’d stuck up for Lexie, giving his cheek a kiss, which Riley had appreciated but wiped off his face quickly.

“Use sensible words next time,” she’d told him.

Later that evening, when he was lying on his bed reading a comic, he heard the familiar sound of stones gently hitting his bedroom window. He shot up, hurrying to the window, which he pushed opened, and smiled down at the blonde girl with pink glasses standing in his backyard.

“Hey. You come to break me out?”

Lexie laughed quietly, whispering her reply. “No. I can’t stay. Mom doesn’t know I’m here. I came to give you something.” She lifted a soccer ball out of the bag that had been attached to her back. “Catch.”

Riley held his hands out and caught it on the first try, realizing as it landed in his hands that there was a piece of paper secured to it by a rubber band.

“Open it,” Lexie ordered.

Riley unfolded the paper to see a hand-drawn picture of the Earth, complete with blue sea and green continents. He frowned. “What’s this for?” he asked wryly, poking his head back out of the window.

For one unusual moment, Lexie seemed hesitant to answer. She flopped her hands to her sides. “It’s to say thank you for today.” She scrunched her shoulders. “I know what I said . . . what I said to Hannah . . . about you not—”

“Being your boyfriend,” Riley finished. Her words still smarted. Almost like someone had ripped a Band-Aid off his heart.

“Yeah,” Lexie nodded solemnly. “It’s not that I don’t— I just wanted to give you something to explain what you mean to me.”

Riley pursed his lips and glanced back down at the drawing. “A planet?”

Lexie shook her head. “No, silly.” Her face grew more serious as she said, “The world.
All
the world.”

Riley’s breath caught in his throat when he finally understood what she was trying to tell him.
You mean all the world to me.
He no doubt looked like a fish with his mouth open and no words coming from it. “Oh.”

Lexie picked up her bicycle and climbed onto it. “Good night, Riley.”

She pedaled off into the darkness, leaving Riley warm all over despite the chilly night air. “Good night, Lex.”

It hadn’t surprised Riley that his dreams had been so vivid. He was back in his childhood bedroom, surrounded by the smells of his parents’ house, after all. The memory-riddled dreams always occurred when he stayed here, so much so that it had become one of the many reasons he didn’t visit more. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the dreams. If anything, they filled him with a warmth and calm he’d only ever experienced as a kid. They were memories he’d always cherish, reminding him of a time when life was easy and uncomplicated by shit that was, in light of his father’s condition, superfluous.

He’d been lucky enough to have a happy, love-filled childhood, and looking around his room, seeing the film posters and the few school, college, and family pictures tacked to the gray walls, and the worn furniture, most of which he’d had since he was fifteen years old, brought a smile to his face. He’d had some awesome times in this room, in this house.

He sighed, rested a hand behind his head, and looked over at the window through which he’d caught Lexie’s soccer ball and the drawing that had meant so much. The drawing that
still
meant so much. The drawing he’d kept all these years, folded neatly in a box at the back of a drawer in his New York apartment. The drawing he would allow himself to look at every once in a while just to bring a smile to his face.

Maybe he was a fool for hanging on to a gift that represented
something that no longer existed, but who cared? He certainly didn’t.

Glancing at the watch on his wrist to see it was a little before 10 a.m., he tossed back the bedcovers and, after rifling through the hastily packed bag he’d brought, threw on a pair of sweatpants. He opened the door, visited the bathroom, and meandered down the hallway to Seb’s room.

He knocked once and pushed the door open. Seb was awake, lying on his bed, looking back at Riley over the top of his cell phone as though he were crazy. “Morning,” he said wryly.

“I have to say,” Riley commented as he entered without invitation, “I’m relieved you have your cell to play with these days rather than yourself. That would have been super awkward.”

Seb snorted and shook his head. “If you’d been here twenty minutes ago it would have been a different story.”

“Move over,” Riley ordered, and dropped down next to his brother once Seb had moved. This was something they’d done almost every Saturday morning when they both still lived at home. Riley would say that, out of all his brothers, he was closest to Tate, but he and Seb had always had little traditions that no one else really understood.

Riley crossed his legs at the ankles and rested his hands behind his head, noticing how his mother hadn’t changed the décor much in Seb’s room, either. The walls were still light blue and the small glow-in-the-dark stars Seb got on his eighth birthday still littered the ceiling.

“Did Tate stop by earlier?” Riley asked.

Seb placed his phone on his side table. “Yeah, about seven. Told me to stay put.” He rubbed a hand down his face and looked over at Riley. “Not much point in us all sitting around at the hospital.”