A/N: I don't think I could ever express how sorry I am for the lack of updates, and how sorry I am that some of you were actually counting on me updating.
But I'm back and am going to continue the story, finally!
Disclaimer: GMW isn't mine. Sadly.
Something was wrong.
Riley wasn't stupid. As she walked home, she reflected on what had just happened. Lucas was so dismissive of her… what had Kameron said to him?
She knew what she had to do. She hated it, but she knew she had to do something. Maybe Kameron had lied to him. Maybe Kameron had told him he had the note.
When she got home, she was relieved to see Kameron standing in the living room, though he looked like he was preparing to leave.
"Kameron, you can't show him the note," Riley said immediately upon seeing him.
"Sorry, Riley, too little, too late," Kameron said, slipping a hoodie overtop his white t-shirt.
"Please," she said pleadingly. Kameron merely brushed past her and headed towards the door, leaving her staring at the kitchen wall.
"I'll play your game," she said.
"…I beg your pardon?" Kameron said, stopping and turning towards Riley.
"I said," started Riley, hesitantly turning around towards him, "I'll play your game."
Kameron gave a satisfactory smile.
"Great," he said. "Now, if you'd lend me your phone so I can tell Lucas not to wait for me to show, we'll get started."
~.x.x.x.~
When Maya reached her home, she immediately collapsed on her bed.
Kameron suggesting that she self-harmed was completely unnecessary. However, she did have the feeling she was coming down with something. It could be the flu, or it could just be her horrendous mental state breaking her down.
Maya slipped out of her denim school clothes and into a comfortable gown. She covered herself with her bed sheets and stared at the ceiling.
Tears began to slowly trickle down her face, but she didn't stop them; she simply acted as though the tears weren't even there. She had done a bad, bad thing. She needed Riley, and she needed her now.
And her terrible actions had led to so many consequences that only backlashed on her. You reap what you sew, right? She had no clue what she was thinking. She didn't even know if she was thinking. And she was so scared that her relationship with Riley was, at this point, irreparable.
And now, she had something else to be afraid of—Kameron. He seemed harmless at first, but something had his eyes on Riley, like a predator and its prey. She had tried watching out for Riley, and that had led to its consequences, like Kameron getting in her own business and what he'd done to her in the car.
On the ride home, he'd murmured accusatory phrases under his breath for only her to hear. Maya had gotten so fed up with hearing over and over that she "ruined Riley's life", isn't "all that high and mighty" like she thinks she is, and is a literal "spawn of Satan."
So she told him to stop—she moreover insisted that he stop, loudly, and he responded with flinging his fist into her arm.
She had tried watching out for Riley with Kameron, and regardless of Kameron's torment in her direction, she wasn't stopping.
It was what a good best friend did, even if she hadn't been one as of late. But it didn't make anything better.
Nothing was right. What was she to do about it?
She continued to lie, continued to cry, continued to mope, because for the life of her, she didn't know what to do.
And she hated it.
~.x.x.x.~
Lucas's Tuesday morning started more slowly than ever.
He couldn't tell how he was feeling. It was like his entire being was at war.
He really, really liked Riley, and he trusted her with everything he had. Or did he? What if Kameron was right, and he really didn't know her as well as he thought he did? Kameron did have the evidence against her, which he hadn't yet seen Kameron had nevertheless been making some good points.
What was he saying? He literally told the entire school just a few days earlier that Riley had done nothing wrong, and she truly hadn't. He knew her. He did. Right?
He tried to put it out of his mind as he washed his face and combed back his hair, but he couldn't. It was far too important.
But how was he supposed to act towards Riley now? Towards Kameron? Should he act like nothing changed? Did anything actually change?
He figured he just wouldn't think. He'd let things happened until he figured this out, because who the real enemy was to him could only truly be determined by him.
His new daily routine had consisted of riding the subway every morning and afternoon with Riley to not only protect her but to just be with her.
Still keeping in mind what Kameron had told him, Lucas grabbed his bag, left his house, and headed towards the subway station.
He was overcome with worry when Riley wasn't there. She could have just let her dad take her to school that day, but she would have told him… right?
He let the subway they usually caught pass just to text her asking where she was. He could be a little late to school, long as it meant making sure Riley was okay. Maybe she was just late.
But when he didn't get a response within ten minutes after he sent the text, he began to truly panic. School had been put out of his mind as he left the station and sprinted to Riley's.
Once he got there, he quickly lifted himself from balcony to balcony, jumping ape-style until he reached Riley's window. Where it was usually open, it was closed, but nothing was stopping him from getting to her. Praying it was unlocked, he pushed it open, and was relieved when it was.
"Riley?" he called, lowering himself into her room. Her door was shut and the lights were all off, but there was a lump in Riley's bed.
"Riley?" he repeated once more, nearing towards her bed. He gently lowered his hands onto the peak of her covers and lifted abruptly, completely removing them from the figure.
He was able to make out that this was definitely Riley, but it didn't seem like her. She was curled up into a ball, tightly, face barely visible, but she seemed to be whispering to herself.
"Riley…" Lucas said softly, moving his hands to touch her shoulders. They immediately jutted out of his grasp, and her whispers became more audible.
"No more… no more… stop…" escaped her mouth. Lucas's eyes began to well up with tears. It didn't matter what she did or what anyone said she did, he cared about her with everything he had. What mattered right now was that something happened to his girlfriend, something really big.
"Riley..!" a half-cry escaped his lips as he laid his hands on her again, trying to grab her attention, trying to restore her in whatever way he could. But it was all to no avail, and she continued to murmur.
Tears finally began to spill out of Lucas's eyes, and he reached both of his hands out once more, this time to cup Riley's body. She looked so damaged, so broken, and he just wanted to hold her.
"NO MORE!" Riley sobbed, breaking apart from her ball-like position and sitting up. She immediately jumped away from Lucas, nearly falling off of her bed in doing so. Her eyes looked so blank and cloudy, and they searched Lucas skeptically until she was able to register that he was Lucas, and he knew when she did. He pulled her into his grasp, letting her fall against his chest, but still, the whispers continued.
"Please… stop… no more…"
Please let me know how you felt about this chapter! Every review helps immensely.
