I fucking hated ferries.

I never knew that I was seasick but it turned out I was. How the hell was I supposed to know? I'd never been on a ferry in my life before this trip. Actually, I'd never been out of the country. As soon as the ferry had set sail, I'd swiftly left my friends to throw up. Tom and the others didn't seem at all fussed by the green tint to my face. I shouldn't have been surprised at all. I knew from numerous nights out that Tom wasn't great in vomit related situations.

After throwing up for the second time in half an hour I was pretty much over the whole thing. After this, I was never getting on a ferry ever again. The sooner we got to Paris, the better. It was kind of stupid just how excited I was over going to Paris, let alone this whole trip.

When it had first been announced the whole year had talked about it. Most people were saying how unfair it was that the history students got to go and no one else did. In class, Perrie had bitched about it none stop at first. For days she had gone on and on about how it wasn't fair that Riley was going without her. 

To be honest, I'd been pissed too. I wanted to spend the summer with Riley, not only speaking to her on the phone or see her via FaceTime. She'd be off studying History at university in September and I had no idea when I'd get to see her. For a time, Riley was my whole world and she meant more to me than anything else. 

When the trip had been opened up for the art students, I had jumped at the chance. Together Riley and I had it all planned out. That had all gone to shit after that fucking night and Riley breaking up with me afterward. I'd tried to get out the trip but then I wouldn't have gotten my deposit back. Plus, I really didn't want to miss out on the sights of France and Italy.

I didn't even care that Riley had spent the entire coach journey side eyeing me.

Ok, maybe I did. It was hard knowing that the girl I still loved now hated me for something I hadn't even done.

I had thought that us being next to each other for the coach journey would have given us time to talk. I would have made Riley listen to me and make her realise that she shouldn't have ended things. In reality, she had spent the entire journey reading a book about a dead Russian guy and rolling her eyes at me.

I bumped into Perrie on the way back from being sick, again.

"Wow, you're basically green right now." She said looking at me with concern. Genuine concern as well. "Are you ok?" She asked and it sounded like she really meant it. Even after things between Riley and I went to shit, Perrie was still my friend.

"Turns out that I get seasick. Really fucking seasick." I said with a groan.

"Bummer, that sucks." Perrie said as she pulled her hair up into a bun. It was still weird to see her with blue hair. I was used to thinking of her as a blonde. At least Riley wouldn't lose her in a crowd.

"Tell me about it. My McDonald's breakfast was damn good. I didn't really want to see it make a reappearance though." I said. By the time I got to Paris, I was going to be starving. 

"Do you want a drink? I'm grabbing me and Riley a coffee. You can sit with us if you want." She said.

"Will Riley really want to sit by me?" I asked with a snort. 

"It'll give you a chance to talk. Tell your side of the story." Perrie said with a shrug.

"There is no story Pez. It never happened." I said firmly.

"Try telling Riley that."

"Seriously. It never happened. I don't know how many times I can say it." I said.

"Once more won't kill you."

Apart from the conversation on the coach, I had not spoken to Riley for nearly two months. Well, unless you count the endless voicemail messages I'd left for her. They probably didn't count.

"Um yeah... yeah I'll just grab a bottle of water." I said as Perrie and I walked over to the little coffee shop on the ferry. Perrie's phone rang as she was paying for the drinks. She pulled her phone out her pocket and groaned.

"I gotta get this, it's Mike, can you take this to Riley?" She asked handing me the bottle of water and a large coffee. She didn't even give me a chance to reply before she was running off, barking an angry sounding "What?" into her phone as she went. I stood there for a moment before heading the general direction of where Perrie had been sat.

Once again Riley was deeply engrossed in her book when I found her. That wasn't surprising at all. Every time I saw Riley, her head was in a book. She didn't even look up as I sat down, not even when she started to speak.

"This book is good but I feel like it's seriously skimping on the details. Maybe I should learn more Russian and read original texts before September." She said. Of all the things I thought she would say, that definitely wasn't on the list.

"Yeah because that's not going overboard." I said as I put the coffee down in front of her. Finally, Riley looked up and frowned.

"Oh. You're not Perrie." Riley said completely deadpan.

"Oh... yeah, she got a call from Mike. She said I could sit with you." I said. The frown deepened. Jesus, she really was still pissed at me.

"Why would you want to sit here?" Riley asked. "It's not like we're friends or anything. We're not anything anymore." Wow, she was blunt. I'd never met a girl who was that brutally honest.

"I'm friends with Perrie." I pointed out.

"Oh goody." Riley muttered as she looked back down at her book.

"How's the book going?" I asked trying to make conversation. Riley glanced up from her book with a cocked eyebrow. "Is it any good?"

"In what sense?" Riley asked. She placed her book on the table and reached for her coffee. As she reached out I saw a flash of black ink on her wrist. Huh, she still had the tattoo. I would have thought she'd had it removed. Riley took a sip of coffee and looked at me expectantly.

"In the sense of it being a book?" I said with a shrug between gulps of water. I really hoped I didn't still smell like vomit.

"It's interesting and I'm learning a lot I guess." Riley said. "Why do you want to know?"

"I'm making conversation." I said. God, this was like pulling fucking teeth. "Thought I should seeing as I'm sat with you." I added.

"You did bring coffee so I guess that's ok." Riley said. I gave Riley a mock gasp of surprise. "What? I need the caffeine. I'm really tired." Riley added before practically draining her coffee.

"So... thinking of expanding your basic Russian?" I asked.

"Well yeah, I can read it better than I can speak it. Perrie says I sound like a Russian hooker when I do it." Riley said, shaking her head.

"Yeah, but you'd probably sound like a very intelligent hooker. One that knows a lot about Peter Whats-His-Face." I said. I wasn't sure if Riley was going to glare at me or laugh. After a beat of silence, she chuckled. We were slowly getting there.

"Alexeyevich." Riley said after she'd finished chuckling.

"How many languages is it now that you know?" I asked. To be honest, I'd forgotten because it was so many.

"Well, English obviously." Riley said. I rolled my eyes at her. "I'm now fluent in French, Spanish and Italian and I'm getting there with Mandarin and German ." It never failed to amaze me how easily Riley found languages. I had barely managed to sit through French class in high school without falling alseep.

"That's going to come in handy for this trip." I said.

"Oh yeah, I can tell the police officer exactly why he shouldn't arrest Perrie." The funny thing was that my first thought had been that Riley could help get Perrie out of trouble. I burst out laughing and, moments later, Perrie returned with more coffee and a few of Riley's other friends.

"I thought you would have drunk the other one too quickly so I got you another." Perrie said as she hurled her body into the chair next to Riley. She huffed loudly and shoved her phone back into her bag. Riley had gone back to her book at this point.

"Mike being a jerk?" Riley asked, not even taking her eyes away from her book.

"He's always a jerk, that's why we broke up." Perrie said. I had heard all about Perrie's break up. She used to rant about it in the classes we shared.

"And yet the two of you are still talking." Riley said, still not taking her eyes away from her book. I had no idea how she could find it so interesting. "Damn...I should not have drunk that coffee."

"Go and pee. It's a ferry, not some gross train toilet." Perrie said with a roll of her eyes. Riley groaned loudly and placed her book down. "Riley doesn't like to pee in public places." Perrie told Jessie and Charlie.

"Perrie!" Riley snapped. "Stop telling people that."

"Stop being weird then." Perrie shot back. Riley actually stuck her tongue out. I wasn't going to add that I'd always found that quirk of Riley's to be really weird.

"I'm going but only because I really have to pee." Riley said, getting up and walking away from us.

"And this doesn't count as your crazy thing!" Perrie yelled over to Riley. I heard Riley groan again. I gave Perrie a questioning look. "What?"

"What crazy thing?" I asked her.

"Oh...oh yeah. I kind of had to talk to you about that." Perrie said, her face twisting into a full-blown smirk.

"And now I'm scared." I said warily as Perrie pulled me away from the others.

"Stop being such a wimp. I've worked pretty hard on Riley over the years. If it weren't for me then she'd never leave the house and her only friends would be her books. Still, she's going to use this whole trip as a way to nerd out even more than she normally does." Perrie said.

"And how exactly am I involved in with this?" I asked. "I'd like to point out that Riley can't stand being anywhere near me."

"Riley and I have made a deal. She has to one crazy thing in every city. If she doesn't then...well, she has to go out on a date with you and talk about all the shit that has gone down with you." Perrie said.

"And I don't have a say in you whoring me out?" I asked between sips of water. Damn, I still felt seasick. Now I had another reason to feel sick. Part of me wanted to see Riley doing something crazy but I also kind of wanted her to fail. I didn't need to sit across from Riley and have her yell about how much of a dick I had apparently been to her.

"Yeah, you could say no but you won't." Perrie said smugly.

"And why is that?" I questioned.

"Because you've been weirdly in love Riley since we were, like, thirteen?" Perrie said. "And, most importantly, you're still in love with her even after she dumped you."

"Does... does Riley know?" I asked. "You know... that I still love her." 

"No, why would she? It's not like I've said anything to her." Perrie said with a shrug. I gave her another confused and questioning look. "What? It's not my secret to tell." She added like it was nothing but it kind of was.

I always assumed that girls gossiped about everything. then again, I should have known that Riely and Perrie weren't those kinds of girls. While Perry talked about Riley a lot, and I mean a lot, she never gossiped about her best friend.

"Do you think Riley will ever believe me about what happened that night?" I asked. 

"You know, we don't actually know what happened." Perrie said. "You just said that it didn't happen the way that we thought it did." She added. I let out a low sigh and shook my head. "You could tell me the truth you know?"

"Maggie really doesn't want this story getting out."

"You're protecting Maggie and letting Riley think you cheated on her instead of the truth getting out?" Perrie asked. "Wow... you're stupid."

"That's rich coming from you Pez." I said. perrie whacked me on the arm and stuck out her tongue. 

"What if I promise not to say anything? Will you tell me then?" Perrie asked. "Pinky promise?" She added when he could see I wasn't budging. "Super secret friendship pinky promise?"

"I'm not a girl Perrie, that's not going to work." I said. Perrie pouted and folded her arms across her chest. "Oh fine! One of the guys at that party drugged Maggie. I found her passed out on the bed when I was looking for a bathroom and I figured out what had happened. I called a taxi and tried to wake up Maggie to get her home. As we were coming out of the room Maggie tried to kiss me. I carried her downstairs, put her in a taxi and made sure she got home. Before I could tell Riley what happened, she dumped me and wouldn't listen to me."

"Oh... wow." Perrie said. "Holy shit... wow... you really need to talk Riley."

"No shit Perrie. No shit." I said as Perrie stood there looking shocked.