Fiftysix - Seven Rue Page 0,85

to grab my hand. “Thank you for everything. I know him because of you, and I would’ve never thought we’d hit it off so well. So…thank you, Val.”

I smiled back and squeezed her hand, then lifted it to kiss the back of it. “Anything for you, Ken. You know that.”

She’d be my lifelong friend, no matter where life would take us after college.

We still had three years, and after that, we’d see where life would take us.

“Did Riggs call you yet?” she asked, changing the subject and turning onto her side to look at me.

“Nope, and I’m trying not to check my second phone all the time to see if he has unblocked me yet,” I sighed, still holding her hand in mine and playing with her fingers.

“Maybe he needs some time. I can’t imagine him not calling you after everything you two did.”

I shrugged. With Riggs I never knew.

He was hard to read.

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“If I wanna try things…sexually…should I just tell Mason or see where things go?”

I grinned at her question. “It’s best if you’re open about whatever you two do. Let him know what you want, and you’ll see that he’ll even let you take control.”

“Is that what makes you so confident? Having control over men?”

“That’s definitely something that makes me feel powerful. You’ll see, not everyone’s the same. Don’t think too much about it. That won’t help.”

“God, I’m so lucky to have you. I’d be lost without you,” she said, moving closer to me and hugging me tight with her head resting on my chest.

I wrapped my arms around her and kissed the top of her hair. “Love you, Ken,” I whispered, thankful to have her by my side as well.

A few days had passed, and Riggs still hadn’t called.

As nervous as I was that maybe he changed his mind and didn’t wanna see me, I tried to play it cool and focus on school rather than on him.

There was still this ache inside my chest which I had to figure out what kind of ache it actually was, but it didn’t take me long to realize that I was missing him.

All of him, and I needed to see him soon or I’d go crazy and make up all those stupid and non-sensical reasons why he didn’t call me as promised.

“Damn, you look like you just got slapped,” Kennedy said as she stopped in front of me.

I was blankly staring into my locker, my mind stuck on Riggs instead of getting ready for my last class.

“I feel like I got slapped,” I muttered, grabbing my biology book and closing the locker.

“Need some chocolate?” she asked.

“No, I need Riggs. I think I’ll go to his house to see what’s up.”

“Tonight?”

“After school. He should be home anyway,” I explained, hugging the book to my chest and sighing.

“Sounds like a plan. Ready to go to class?”

I nodded, but as we started to walk down the hall, Cedric and his friends stopped right in front of us with stupid grins on their faces.

“Can I help you?” I asked, my brows raised.

“Maybe. Do you offer your service only for older guys, or are we allowed to subscribe to you as well?”

I frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, no,” I heard Kennedy whisper, and I immediately realized what was happening.

Shit…

But, how?

“How’d you find out?” I asked, my mood getting worse by the second.

“Isn’t too hard to hack into this town’s system and find websites created around here when your father works as a security analyst. Kent’s big on encrypting and all that stuff too, you know?”

“Fucking great,” I muttered, taking a step toward them to hopefully pass them and leave.

But they wouldn’t let me.

“How’s this not making you angry?” he asked amused.

It was making me angry, but I didn’t care that they found out about my secret. I wasn’t going to let them turn this into something big.

“And what if I send the link to all my friends? Maybe even your father? It’s easy to find his email address on his business site.”

Those were empty threats. At least I hoped they were.

“Just leave me the fuck alone, Cedric,” I spat, trying to pass him again.

He grabbed my arms and pushed me back against the lockers with his friends moving in on us to form some type of wall to protect us from the other students walking down the hall.

I heard Kennedy struggle to get to me, but those boys wouldn’t let her.

“Here’s what we’ll do, Dove,” he