First period, English. As he walked in, he kicked himself for forgetting who all was in his class. Mack glared at him from across the room as he sat down and Riley knew she had not let Aspen and him go by a long shot. Throughout class, he would lazily scan the room in his usual manner, only to inevitably meet Mack's eyes, fiery and probing. Riley found himself even more happy than usual to hear the dismissing bell.
Leaving the room quickly, he took the long way to his next class, hoping to clear his head of Mack's accusational look. For a long time, hell for the most part of their relationship, Riley had been in the depths of a sticky blackness that clawed at every emotion he felt. He was unresponsive to the few times Mack did ask about how anything other than his physicality was doing and the two of them were at odds because of it. She felt that he had melted out of her life since their breakup, that they were separate now. But in actuality, Riley had been separated from her, from everything for a long time.
It was only now, in Aspen's eyes, her touch, her breath on his neck, her lips on his, it was only now that he felt the twinges of real and lasting emotional variety in his heart. Where Mack was a bandaid to be physically reapplied every once in awhile; Aspen was like a defibrillator. Filling him with jolts of emotion until it filled his entire body. And by the end of the day, Riley caught himself smiling about his new heartbeat named Aspen. Riley Stonewright smiling, for no visible reason. That was not something you see everyday.
Unknown to Riley, he and Lewis were walking in different directions but both toward the same isolated corner of the school. They rounded the corner at the same time.
