s e v e n | Future Boyfriend

"Riley! Yo, Riley Dawson!"

I stopped at the sound of my name and Ella halted right next to me where we'd been walking across the quad. I scanned the people behind us to locate the source of the sound.

"Is that Mac Ellison over there?" Ella squinted. "You know, Noah's friend?"

"Where?" I turned to look in the direction of her line of sight, and sure enough, there he was quickly making his way over to us, waving with a huge smile on his face.

"I was trying to get your attention from the window there," he declared breathlessly, pointing towards the right where Coffee Bean, the campus cafe, was situated a little distance down. "But God, you're not all that attentive, are you?"

I ignored the dig, moving on to ask him, "What's up?" This was a change of pace. We'd never really interacted on campus, but that was mostly attributed to the fact that he was always somewhere wreaking havoc and I wasn't.

"Are you doing anything right now?" He asked in return.

"Why?"

"Well, I've got Mr Moody in there," he grinned, pointing at the cafe again. "And I was thinking you guys could maybe join us?"

He wanted us to join him and Noah?

Okay, that wasn't fine.

I wanted to see Noah, yes. But I didn't want to be in his face twenty-four seven. The guy had to have gotten to sick of me at this point.

"Nope, we're not doing anyth—" Ella finished with a yelp after I elbowed her in the side and gave me her trademark are you crazy look.

Mac frowned as he took that in. "Uh... is everything okay?"

"I don't know," I answered him honestly. "It's just... I don't really think that's a good idea. I really don't want to be intrusive or anything."

"Oh trust me, you're not being intrusive," he snorted immediately. "When I say Ice Cold in there can't keep his eyes off of you through the window of a cafe when you're like twenty feet away, you gotta trust me."

Now it was Ella poking me in the ribs.

Maybe Mac had read to much into it...? He'd joined us on our walk last night and now he was just trying his hand at playing matchmaker. Yep, that had to be it.

Perhaps I didn't do a good job of hiding the thoughts warring in my head—being an open book was so not working for me right now—because that was when Mac's tone was quieter than I'd ever heard it, his words kinder than I'd ever predicted.

"Riley," he began, voice low. "I don't know much about whatever's going on but I think he'd like you at that table with us. So what do you say? You want a hot cup of coffee in this cold?"

It was just like Noah to make me sway even when he wasn't here.

Damn him.

"Okay," I murmured and Mac grinned in victory.

He then turned on his heel, promptly throwing a "Follow me!" over his shoulder.

Ella, who'd gladly been silent through most of this exchange, leaned in next to me as we started off behind Mac and snickered, "We're going to have coffee with your future boyfriend."

Seriously, this girl.

"Keep it down," I hissed. "And none of that at Coffee Bean."

"Just wait till I tell Matt," she gloated and I just sighed at the prospect of even more teasing.

The inside of Coffee Bean was distinctly warmer than the outside air as we entered, and my eyes straight away went to a table by the far wall and the person at it.

Noah looked up at me and if he was surprised that I agreed to join them, he didn't look like it. Instead his gaze went to Mac and turned just the slightest bit pissed.

It looked like Mac was going to get a whack or two or maybe more like twenty from Noah when this was done and we were gone.

And just like that, I was back at ease as we seated ourselves. I wasn't an awkward person by nature, and really would rather avoid any situations of the like. But I was comfortable with Noah, and while I'd had my doubts about joining them, I'm glad I did because the dynamic between cheery Mac and grumpy Noah would serve as pretty good entertainment.

I waited until he dragged his eyes from his best friend—who was currently focusing on the plain colored ceiling in fascination—to me across the table from him.

"Hi." I grinned at him, not hiding that I was happy to see him now that we were here.

"Yo," popped Ella.

Predictably, he nodded at both of us and turned back to his coffee.

"So Riley," Mac began and I turned to him. "You on for the party tonight?"

I was aware that the guys from the Kappa Phi fraternity was having another yet another shindig at their place because Ella had informed me this morning, and I knew well enough that her we should go to that party meant we should go to that party because of that cute guy I told you about in Psych.

"Probably," I responded and Mac grinned even wider.

"Great," he punctuated the word with a sudden slap on the table. "Because I think you should be there. At the party. With Noah." Noah turned his head to his left look at Mac, but he religiously avoided all eye contact. "Jesus, is that the time? Man, I'm pretty late. See you guys later!"

Was he really leaving already? When we just got here?

"You didn't even look at the time," I pointed out, finding his attempts to shove me and Noah together absolutely hilarious.

He was already out of his seat with his bag on his shoulder, ready to bolt. "Well, I've got a thing. I have a class about... a class, yeah. See you both tonight then!"

I almost felt sorry for him because I understood his need to run. Noah didn't exactly look pissed because I figured he was too expressionless for that, but there was something about him that definitely didn't look like he was pleased.

Oh boy, Mac was getting throttled later.

Unfortunately, my best friend wasn't any better, though the way she went about it infinitely was. She took Mac's cue like a professional would and smiled at me calculatedly. "I think I need to go find Matt now. Nice to meet you, Noah. See you two at the party."

The last bit definitely ruined any form of subtlety she'd been going for.

"Bye," she waved at me before leaving and I pretended like I didn't see her join Mac outside and glue their faces to the windows to watch us like we couldn't see them.

I just sighed.

"Well, they sure make it awkward," I joked.

Noah made no attempt to disagree.

I went on, "So you're going tonight?"

He nodded once in reply and like always, I decided to push it. "So... do you want me there? At the party?"

He nodded again, slower this time, and I found my eyes wandering to where Mac and Ella were watching us intently.

"I could take you."

Wide-eyed, I turned back to Noah.

And then I mentally gave him a standing ovation. For a supposed brick wall, the guy was pretty smooth.

"Really?"

"If you want."

God, I was sitting with my future boyfriend.

Before I could expand on that thought further, I stopped that train of thought immediately. Man, I so needed to get the Ella out of my brain.

I turned back to Noah who was waiting on me with those gorgeous blue eyes of his on mine and I smiled.

"I'd love to."

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