"Teenage kicks right through the night"

- One Direction, One Way or Another (originally by Blondie)

"Sydney? As in Kaleb's Sydney?" River looked at me, his eyebrows raised.

I nodded due to my inability to speak. If nothing had ever shocked me, Sydney's possible disloyalty to Kaleb shocked me. She had seemed proper into Kaleb... or maybe she didn't mean anything by what happened with River? I was filled with confusion. Well, maybe she didn't, but that didn't mean that she couldn't be having things to do with other guys. Something told me to be bothered for my best friend.

I swallowed and looked at River, "I have a strong feeling Sydney's cheating on Kaleb," and I knew River shared my thoughts when he nodded, munching on the popcorn.

"I- I don't want to be the one who has to tell him," I tucked my hair behind my ear.

River squeezed my shoulder, "And you don't have to. You could talk to one of his friends or something."

I nodded. Maybe I could talk to Logan.

I felt River press a kiss to my cheek before returning to yelling while watching the game, and in that moment, I decided to push all thoughts about Kaleb and Sydney aside and focus on the game.

*

The loud shouts came from the other side of the bleachers.

Xavier's school had won, and instead of feeling disappointed, River's display of victory brought smiles to my face. I chuckled, "One would think you're a student of the school.'

"I mean, I can be happy for the school I attended for a few years."

"Xavier isn't going to let me be now, is he?"

"Probably not," River laughed.

"Thank God I didn't place a bet on it. By the way, did he ever give him the fifty bucks?"

"Nah, I took twenty from him."

"How nice of you," I teased and looked down at the bowl of popcorn to grab some when I saw it was empty. I looked at River, my eyes wide, "You really did finish it."

"My sweet tooth will be one of the deaths of me, I swear," he smiled.

"You owe me like a million frozen yogurts for this," I looked around. "Is Xavier joining us to leave?"

"I'm pretty sure he'll be celebrating with the guys tonight, but let's go see him before we leave," River answered.

"Yo, we freaking won, bro!" Xavier yelled as he gave River a bro hug.

I playfully rolled my eyes and Xavier laughed, walking up to me as River went in the locker room to greet the other guys.

"How does it feel to lose now?" he asked. "It was a pretty good game, though. Why don't you just join the football team. I mean, you're great at Madden."

I laughed, "You're an idiot."

"Hey, River! Who did you bring with you?" One of the guys shouted, his eyes moving from River to me.

"That's my girl, Renée," River said, throwing a quick glance at me and I flushed a bit, smiling and waving to the rest of the team.

"Aye, she's pretty as hell. I've been telling you guys, school is a shit place. Why don't we drop out too?" Another guy, a black guy said, causing everyone in the locker room erupt in laughter, including me.

"Stay in school, guys," River chuckled before making his way back to me. He shook Xavier, "You coming with us?"

"Nah, I'm staying back with guys. Party at Ethan's."

"Right, okay. I'll see you later, then."

"Sure," Xavier looked at me. "See you later, Renée," he said before walking away.

"Are you sure you don't want to go the party?"

"Yep," he nodded, looking down at his watch. "We have the rest of the evening to ourselves, and I have an idea."

"What?"

He simply smiled.

*

It was 8pm and I was seated with River on the hood of his car, talking and laughing over frozen yogurt, and as time went, I couldn't help but fall for him more. Heck, I didn't know how much harder I could fall for this dude.

Now, one of my favourite things was being with River. I could never get enough of him, I realized. With River, I felt like I was nobody but myself. It had always been that way with him. Conversations were never forced, almost like we didn't ever have to pause to think of topics.

A gentle breeze blew and I sighed, leaning into him. He pushed some strands of hair away from my face. "Do you want to go home yet?"

"No," I shook my head.

"Do you even have curfew? I think Tanner already likes me enough, I can't have him dislike me at this point," he joked.

I chuckled, "Funnily enough, Tanner never set a curfew for me. I'll just text him I'm with you and that he has nothing to worry about."

After doing just that, River looked at me, "What have you done that you shouldn't have?"

I looked up at him, "Like something illegal?"

He nodded, smirking.

I thought for a while, "Uh... nothing."

"Nothing at all?" He seems surprised.

I nodded, "Yeah."

"Well, have you ever felt like being a rebel for at least one day?"

I nodded again, "Yeah. But never something too extreme."

He looked amused, then a small smile appeared on his face. "Let's go."

*

"This is an uncompleted building," I stated, looking back at River as he opened up the trunk of his car.

He had pulled up to a building with dark walls not too far from the park.

"Nah, it's abandoned," he corrected, chuckling.

"What does being in an abandoned building have to do with doing something illegal? We're not going to bomb the place, are we? God, River I said nothing too extreme. I'm not being a terrorist at 16... or ever."

He chuckled again, "Do I look like I have the balls to bomb a place, Renée?"

I sighed and turned back to look at the abandoned building. Shortly, I felt River wrap his arms around me from behind as he planted a small kiss to my neck, and I smiled.

"Ever heard of graffiti?"

I looked down at his hands and saw two spray cans. "This reminds me of Subway Surf now, what if some policeman jumps out of nowhere with his dog?"

River laughed and stepped in place beside me, "Then we'll make a run for it."

I watched him start to spray something on the wall, and I couldn't make out what it was yet, but when he stepped back, running his fingers through his hair, I marveled at what he had done. He had drawn the words 'Art' on a moving skateboard. He moved closer to the wall again and then added some kind of shade to it.

He looked at me, smiling and holding out a spray can to me, "Your turn."

I shook my head, "No, I suck at drawing."

"It can't be so bad, plus, you doesn't have to be so great at it."

I swallowed and took the spray can from him. Feeling his eyes on me, I sprayed, drawing a large butterfly.

"You didn't tell me you had an artistic side. I'm impressed," he said.

"I really don't. Butterflies are like the only things I can draw," I bit my lower lip, "What do you think? Does it need more colors?"

"Unfortunately, I brought just two spray cans, but uh," he looked at the butterfly, "How about we add a few highlights?" He held the can over my hand and together, we added a few highlights to it.

"See how pretty it looks," he said.

Feeling like an actual rebel with so much confidence, I said, "Let's do more."

After minutes of individually drawing random things and laughing, River said, "Hey, let's make our initials." And in one space, we both drew two pretty 'R's and River smiled, drawing a heart around the letters.

"It's so pretty," I smiled and he nodded, kissing my forehead.

Soon, I heard a car driving up the road in the distance and my eyes widened.

"Let's run!" River whisper yelled.

We ran to his car which River started immediately, laughing. Uncontrollably.

River drove back to the park and once again, we were seated on the hood of the car.

I smiled and let out a breath.

"So, how did that feel?"

"It was good. Liberating, actually. I'm glad I did it," I chuckled and leaned into him. "I'm glad I can be myself around you."

"I'm glad you're mine." He wrapped his arms around me before lifting up my chin and placing his lips over mine, causing me to smile against his.

Kisses with River were always the best.

*