She knelt to pick up the paintbrush and quickly wiped away the tears with the back of her hand.

Though she tried to be subtle, the drops of paint on her hands stained her cheeks and gave her away.

She offered a hesitant smile. "Is this Avery?" she asked, more to her nephew than to me. "You look so much like your sister that for one second, I—"

Avan cleared his throat and she puckered her lips together to stop talking. She looked down at her hands and tossed the paintbrush on the side again.

"It's nice to meet you, Avery," she said, extending a hand smeared with drops of acrylic painting that I shook anyway. "Call me Elena."

She turned to her nephew and squinted her eyes to examine his face. "Why are you hurt?"

I glanced at him. I hadn't noticed the cut on his lower lip.

"It's a long story," he said, with a sheepish smile he seemed to believe would fool her. "You don't want to hear about it."

"Let me decide that for myself."

Avan didn't argue. He sighed and followed his aunt up the stairs after telling me that he would be right back.

I stood at the center of the living room and looked around me in awe. All the objects in the room, from the chairs to the guitar rack, radiated individuality and creativity and practically screamed that an artist lived here.

Many of Elena's paintings were abstract, and although I knew nothing about art, the emotions she depicted seemed to bleed through the canvas and grab my heart.

But one of her portraits didn't only seize my heart, it pulverized it and reduced it into an unidentifiable heap of broken strings.

Riley stared back at me from the canvas, portrayed in the brightest of colors. In her right hand, Riley held a sun, dimmed beyond recognition compared to the dazzling gleam in her eyes. Wild sunflowers gravitated towards her as they would the sun itself.

The notable resemblance everyone talked about hit me but the evident contrast between us was even more striking. As amplified as it was, the portrait was not wrong. Riley was an untamable light that this world could not subdue, while I gladly welcomed the shadows. Like the sun, she shared this light with everyone she encountered out of her never-ending well.

Her joyful smile seemed directed at me and the unique angle of the painting made it look like she would fly out of the linen fabric of the canvas to hug me.

"This one is my favorite."

The voice startled me out of my reflections and I glanced at Avan next to me. His eyes were fixed on the artwork as though enchanted.

"This is amazing," I said, backing away from the painting so that I wouldn't be tempted to drag her out of it.

He broke out of his reverie and turned to me with a smile. "Ready?"

➷➷➷➷➷➷➷➷➷➷➷➷➷➷➷

Victoria's party was not like the high school parties I heard about. This one did not smell like alcohol. But even though the music wasn't very loud, a place brimming with cheerleaders and enthusiastic athletes couldn't remain very quiet.

Arson came to celebrate their victory with them even though he had not been able to play. He stayed silent as they went over the shots they did and he cheered for their accomplishments.

I wished I could find a way to comfort him from the disappointment I knew he felt. He would probably know what to do if it were me, but I couldn't even begin to figure it out.

He was now sitting on the couch in Victoria's large living room with Victoria herself. I was surprised to see her pat his shoulder with sympathy.

I hesitated before walking towards them, awkwardly slipping in between the dancing bodies.

"—will work out," I heard her say as I sat by Arson.

Arson grinned at me and Victoria gave me a small smile that I almost missed.

"Hey, you made it," Arson said.

"Of course. Have I ever missed a party before?" I joked, even though this was the first one I had ever been to all year.

He laughed and Victoria shook her head, unimpressed.

She rose from her seat. "Hey, you got this," she told him.

"Thanks for staying with me on the bleachers tonight, Vicky," he said.

It's like everyone wanted to kill me. I scoffed at the nickname but luckily, neither of them heard me.

"No one ever said I could only cheer up the players on the court." She winked and walked away without expecting a response.

I didn't know how to ask about their budding friendship so I let it slide.

"Why are you sitting over here? I kind of expected you to be the life-of-the-party kind of guy."

"I'm just taking a break from socializing for a moment," he said.

I chose not to point out that he had just been talking to Victoria a second ago.

His eyes unconsciously moved to where Brooklyn and Bradley were standing with Jayce and I understood.

"Oh, so this is about Brooklyn?"

He fiddled with the cuffs of his splint and avoided my gaze. "Of course not. I'm just not used to seeing them together yet."

I restrained myself from saying that they weren't used to it either.

Brooklyn and Bradley were terrible at faking a relationship, so if Arson had truly observed them, he would have noticed they looked suspicious. Brooklyn's eyes searched for Arson out every few seconds, itching to join him. Bradley visibly struggled to hold back his laughs whenever someone referred to them as a couple.

"I selected him as co-captain," he added with a smile, even though I could decipher the bitterness in his tone. "Well, he's technically Jimmy's assistant. I'm hoping the position will motivate Jimmy to play by the rules."

"I assumed you would pick Matthew."

Finding Matthew in a crowd was the easiest of tasks. I just had to search for the brightest color in the room. My eyes automatically converged to his glowing pink shirt, swaying along as he hopped around the pool table.

"Well," Arson said, hesitation laced in his voice, "he can't make it to the extra practice sessions. He has some... other responsibilities."

Arson didn't add anything else about it though he looked like he was dying to say something. Instead, he changed the subject. "Dance with me."

I laughed at the random sentence, convinced it was a joke. I followed his gaze and found him staring at Brooklyn and Bradley who were doing their best attempts at the robot dance.

"No." I definitely did not want to be part of their push-and-pull game.

"Why? Is it because I have a hook for a hand?" He waved to show the splint and while he tried to make a joke out of it, it still grieved me.

"Fine." I huffed and stood up.

Arson was the only one I would ever embarrass myself for.

"Don't worry about stepping on my toes," he teased when he saw me looking down.

He awkwardly rested the wrist brace on my shoulder as we stepped and turned, completely offbeat.

"Your toes? Oh please! I was just making sure you wouldn't step on mine."

I heard him laugh quietly and I smiled. If there was indeed an upside of coming to this tedious high-school party, it was hanging out with him.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Victoria join Avan where he was standing next to Matthew by the pool table, watching the game with no particular interest. Victoria's light blue dress twirled around her form as she walked to him and hugged him.

"He got into a fight today," Arson told me, turning to see who I was staring at.

I remembered his aunt pointing out the cut on his lower lip that had slipped my mind until now.

"Why? What happened?"

He hesitated before telling me. "Some guys in class took it upon themselves to discuss why he didn't deserve a girl like Riley."

We were now barely moving at all, mostly standing at the center of the room and getting into everyone's way.

"He didn't react, in fact, he seemed to agree with them up until one of them made an objectifying comment about Riley. Avan stood from his seat in the middle of class and punched him in the face. A brief fight ensued until the teacher processed what was happening and stopped it."

A smile lingered on my lips, though there was nothing funny about this situation. But I was glad he defended her when he wouldn't defend himself.

"I'll go get pool lessons from Matthew," Arson said. "Want to come with?"

I shook my head and he left to join Matthew. I found myself on the comfy couch again. A few minutes later, someone fell onto the seat next to me. The smell of cigarettes instantly pricked my nose.

The guy ranted about something I didn't catch without taking a break to breathe. Then he turned to me and said, "Don't you think so too?"

I smiled sheepishly. "I didn't get any of that."

"Exactly," he said, "I don't understand it either. I mean, I know it was partly my fault. I was a jerk when I moved without any explanations. I didn't try to contact her after that. I didn't want to be that annoying guy, you know?" he asked and I suppressed a smile at the irony.

I nodded though I had no clue what he was talking about.

"I'm Ryder, by the way," he said, before continuing his story. "I never liked how ambiguous things were between us. For all I know, we were just friends that were kind of dating at the same time. That makes no sense, right? That's what I think too. You know, were we or weren't we a thing? Then, I moved away with Dad and we never got a chance to define what this thing between us was."

Ryder paused to sigh then carried on, "We haven't talked for a year now and I'm only in town for the weekend. I really want to talk to her and I don't know if I should, you know? How can she even dance with someone else?"

I shifted to follow his line of sight and realized that he had been staring at Avan and Victoria.

Her head rested on his shoulder and his arms were wrapped around her. Something about it bugged me and I longed to be outside where there would be more oxygen.

"Nice meeting you, Ryder," I said and walked across the living room to the front door.

The fresh air enveloped my body, as I stepped out and I sat on the porch swing I had noticed when I first came in.

I stared at the spot next to me until Riley materialized on it out of my imagination. She smiled in sympathy like she approved of my reaction even though I knew she probably wouldn't. She watched me. She watched over me.

"I'm ridiculous, right?" I asked and received no answer. "I know it's unfair to him, but I can't stand seeing him with someone other than you. I know he should move on and that you would probably have wanted him to, but I don't want to be around when he does." I chuckled at the ridiculous sentence I had just uttered.

Riley continued to smile and while she was just a figment of my very limited imagination, her eyes narrowed slightly as she smiled, exactly as they used to before.

"I can't help but feel jealous for you," I said and shook my head because I didn't make any sense.

A small cough behind me scared Riley away and forced me out of the alternate reality I had forged for myself.