JANUARY

The smell of pizza rolls, popcorn and queso flowed through the kitchen and front room of the Saxberg house. Riley, Tyler, Jackson and Sydney were all getting ready to sit down and watch a couple of scary movies. Tyler and Riley commandeered the couch but as soon as Riley sat down, she stood back up. “Would anyone mind if I invited Hannah and Ashli to join us?” Everyone shook their head and Riley headed upstairs to Hannah’s room. She knocked a couple times on the door and opened it. Hannah and Ashli were sitting on the bed, a box between them, each holding a joint.

Hannah huffed angrily. “Are you going to tell Mom and Dad?” she asked.

“Do you want to come downstairs and watch a couple of scary movies with us? We can share our junk food if you share your weed,” Riley smiled.

Hannah smiled back. “Are you serious? Since when do you smoke?”

“About once or twice a year since eighth grade,” Riley responded. “You don’t mind sharing, do you Ashli?”

“No.”

Ashli took her box and the three girls went downstairs. “Hannah and Ashli are joining us and Ashli has a little something to share,” Riley said.

As everyone began rolling their own joints, Hannah asked “What are we watching?”

“First it’s Jeepers Creepers, one of my favorite horror movies from the early 2000s reboot of the horror genre and then we’re going to watch The Blair Witch Project, the precursor to all the crappy found-footage horror movies we see now,” Tyler said.

The only lights on was the light from the kitchen and the two lamps in the front room as Jeepers Creepers started playing. Tyler and Riley were on the couch, Riley in Tyler’s arms between his legs, sharing a joint.

As the first movie played, everybody got more comfortable around each other and on the furniture. After Jeepers Creepers, there was a snack, bathroom and weed break before starting The Blair Witch Project. Tyler and Riley laid down on the couch under a blanket, Tyler’s arm hugging Riley and their fingers interlocked. By the time the characters in the movie entered their tenth minute of being lost in the woods, Riley had rolled over and they were covered by the blanket and making out.

“Mmm, I love you,” Tyler whispered as they parted lips.

Riley snuggled in against Tyler. “I love you, too. I’ve wanted to tell you but I wanted to wait for you to say it. I was thinking I would never have a high school love,” Riley said. “Hey, how quiet can you be while I jerk you off?” she smiled and pressed her hand against his crotch.

“I was thinking we could go to your room and celebrate right,” Tyler said and kissed Riley.

“People will know what we’re doing. I want our first time to be special…and just us.”

“I get that. I just don’t think anyone will care. Everyone in this room has had sex,” Tyler said.

“Except me,” Riley reminded. “My little sister is here. I need to set a good example for her.”

“She’s probably had more sex than anyone here,” Tyler pointed out. “I’m sorry. I’m not gonna push you into it. I’m fine with laying here and being close to you,” Tyler hugged Riley harder and the two started kissing again.



About half an hour after The Blair Witch Project ended, everyone began parting ways and gathering at the door putting on their coats and shoes. Jackson gave Sydney a ride home and Tyler was hanging around, hoping Riley would ask him to stay.

“I should get going,” Ashli said. “It’s a long walk in this cold.”

“You’re walking? Do you want a ride?” Tyler asked.

“I would love one,” Ashli laughed.

“Okay, I will drop Ashli off at her place,” Tyler looked at Riley, trying to communicate with her to invite him back “then I will go home.”

“See you tomorrow,” Riley kissed Tyler and they hugged. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. Let’s go, Ashli.”

As Tyler and Ashli left, Ashli started talking to him. “You wanted Riley to ask you to stay, didn’t you?”

“So it was obvious to you,” Tyler sighed.

“You want to have sex with her.”

“A little bit, yes.”

“What would you have sex with?” Ashli asked off-handedly.

“I’m sure we’d figure it out,” Tyler said. It only took a couple of minutes to arrive at Ashli’s trailer. “Here you are.”

“Thanks. Do you want to come inside?”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. We could smoke some more, talk about life, get naked,” Ashli smiled.

“What? We just got done talking about my girlfriend who I love,” Tyler tried treating this as some sort of joke.

“You need a real woman with real working parts. Nobody has to know,” Ashli bit her bottom lip.

“Please get out of my car,” Tyler said.

“Okay but you’re missing out,” Ashli opened the door and slid out of the car. She shut the door and walked up to the trailer porch, “Hannah will be glad to know that he’s faithful.”

Back at the Saxberg house, Matt had started throwing small rocks at Hannah’s bedroom window. Riley was debating whether or not to call Tyler and ask him to come back. She was looking out the window and saw Matt in the backyard then heard Hannah run downstairs to let him in. Riley could hear them talking for a few minutes then heard the soft sounds of them making love. Riley listened to them for a bit before turning on some music and falling asleep.