• Enemies • Friends • Lovers •
What if two people destined to be together were too afraid to leave the friend zone?
This enemy-to-lovers story focuses on River, a boy whose scars aren't just surface deep and who has a mind that can't focus on anythi...
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The ache in my heart grew more severe day by day. Six months had passed since I kissed River goodbye up against his truck and watched him drive off into the sunset. I wanted to chase down that damn car, climb in and ride off with him.
I thought about it too, leaving my drunken mother behind to fend for herself, saying goodbye to my grandmothers legacy knowing I poured enough of my heart and soul into it all of these years.
I was about to finish college early, risk it all by moving wherever River led. Perhaps start a career in the business administration world because I would rather be beside him than always wonder and worry about him.
So leaving with him was certainly an option I thought about pursuing.
For ten minutes.
Then my bubble burst and life crashed in because no matter how much I wanted them to, our happy endings didn't align.
"He's just a boy." My mom kept reminding me. "You'll be heartbroken right now, then you'll move on. Find someone else to love. These boys come and go, a mothers bond is forever."
Although she was absolutely shitfaced when she delve out this advice, I believed her to be right. I would eventually get over River. I'll move on from him, build a life away from him that makes me forget he ever existed.
Something else I only believed for ten minutes.
For the first time in his life, or certainly for as long as he could remember, he was about to truly connect with his biological family. His roots.
This was his dream, his natural born talents, his birth right. He'll never get to kiss his mom or bond with his dad, but he could take a hold of, and lead his families company in a way that brought him closer to his true self. In a way that made him feel immensely proud.
I ought to be happy for him, and I was.
I wasn't about to step in the way of that no matter how much I wanted us to be together.
That psychopath was still out there somewhere, holding the same motive as many years prior. He wanted that company and now River had it.
My intuition told me that wasn't going to go down well, his stepbrother would be back for revenge and that thought chilled me to my core.
River was right for discouraging me from following him, it just wasn't safe.
"Millie, your snow cone."
Tyler took the seat beside me, this place looked unrecognisably different now, yet somehow it still felt just as magical.
Laughter could be heard all around me, screams too. Jingles and music played from every direction, lights danced against the dusky sky but perhaps the biggest change was that Illusion Island wasn't the ghost town it once was.
Actually, I had never seen it more alive. Children raced for the small coasters, over achieving men tried to win their girlfriends a plushy, elderly couples chatted on the benches because to them, it was likely nostalgic from when the park was last open.
River did this, he invested money into rebuilding this park just like he said he always would. It was still in the early stages of development but the transformation it had already gone through was astronomical.
"Aren't you hot in that huge coat?"
I licked shaven ice and held it on my tongue until it melted, ignoring his question. I was actually roasting, cooking away under so many layers.
"I think it's really nice that he did this for our town, it was kind of like the little gift he left behind for our community."
I smiled sadly, my gaze directing towards the ghost train roof where two wooden statues sat with their legs dangling over the edge.
To anyone else, it was a sculpture of random ghost kids, to me, it was us, there forever.
I knew he had hand carved them himself, I recognised his work and his talents. I had my head resting on his shoulder, he had his legs crossed over one another at the foot. It's how we sat on many occasions and it made my heart ache for him even more than anything.
This is exactly why he made me promise to come back here, to sit on this bench in direct view of the tribute to our friendship.
He had a vision, a dream and he went for it. Achieved it. He inspired me to create my own dream.
For the longest time I've always just been Millie, diner girl, the one with the crazy alcoholic mother or the girl whose dad committed suicide.
River made me see I didn't want to be any of those things. He taught me to dream bigger so I might not be leaving town and starting over but I did have a different outlook on life now.
I was striving for my happy ending and for the first time in my life, I had a pretty clear vision of what that looked like.
It was time for me to grow up, take control of my career and own up to my responsibilities.
"Ty?" He turned to look at me, his tongue still attached to his own snow cone. "Illusion Island isn't the only thing River left behind."
