****Trigger warning for: description of suicide attempt/ideation, self harming, physical abuse, and trauma****
"Love can't cure a mental illness, Cor." Shawn advised his friend calmly and in a soft voice. He hated watching Cory turn into a shell of his former self. Since moving to New York a year ago Cory had no luck with finding a job and he couldn't find his foot with living in New York.
What was worse? It wasn't the best time to be in the city, while everyone was coming together there was still mourning occurring. Cory was lost in the thick of it. Seeing everything first hand happen, he remembered it all in a dusty blur. Finding Shawn, Eric, and Topanga once he was back home in their apartment. They hadn't witnessed it firsthand. It was just him who had been there while the others were a good distance away at work, it was just him. Just him helping survivors, him helping first responders, and him remembering…just everything.
It scarred him more than he would want to admit. It made him more scared of the city and it made him feel even weaker. Watching Topanga go to law school and succeed at everything he touched also killed him. He was so proud of her and loved her unconditionally, but it made him feel like the weak half. She was reaching for perfection. He was just reaching for satisfaction, if it was available. He would never tell her that he was turned down for journalist jobs, that he would actually at time never even get to the appointment before he found out the job was already taken by someone "much more experienced."
He had gain nearly thirty pounds, he refused to talk to his parents, he would fake getting ready so that by the time Topanga left for her internship he would be back in their bed.
"You need to talk to someone Cory." Eric told him. He and Shawn were standing at the foot of the bed, watching a grizzly looking Cory just staring off. "You can't continue to live like this man. Mom and dad are seriously getting worried about you."
"I'm fine." Cory told them. His voice raw, he felt his body wanting to give up. He wanted to give up.
"You're not fine, Cor. I don't think you've been 'fine' for a while now." Shawn countered, "We think you should talk to someone. A therapist." Shawn advised him.
"No."
"C'MON CORY!" Eric yelled, Shawn gapped at him. Eric had turned to a serious and caring older brother since they arrived in the city. Not just that, both men had become a little more sober and adult but they always kept an eye on Cory while Topanga continued to just either ignore the change or was just really gullible to Cory's fake demeanor.
"I'm fine. I'm just…tired."
He was still tired, barely alive. Till eight months later when Topanga told him she was three weeks late.
He never did get a chance to talk to a therapist.
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
"Mr. Minkus, glad you can see me again." Amira greeted the young boy.
He looked beyond jittery just standing by her door. "Are you going to come in?"
"She's cutting." Farkle replied. "She's cutting and she's getting worse, not better. Why aren't you doing your job?!" Farkle nearly shouted.
Amira rolled her eyes, "Shut the door, Mr. Minkus."
Farkle mumbled something under his breath before closing the door and sitting down on the sofa.
"What makes you think your friend is not getting better?"
"She blocked her best friend! She blocked most of us! She won't even talk to me! I know she's cutting! She's been wincing any time something or someone touches her leg!" he looked misty eyed. "I want to help! I just don't know how to! Why don't know how to?!" Farkle was nearly to the point of panicking.
"Mr. Minkus, take three deep breaths."
Farkle did as he was told.
"Now listen to me, you can't help. Not now at least."
"But-"
Amira raised he hand to halt him, "No, listen to me. You cannot help your friend. She's not ready to be helped by you and your friends at this point."
"But I need to do something! I can't just sit here and let her go on like this! I need to do this, I want to be there for her!" Farkle's eyes were watery. His vision was blurry but he refused to cry. He clutched his stomach, thinking of Riley actually cutting because of him, because of Maya, because of Lucas.
"We left her." Farkle mumbled.
Amira's eyes widened. "Pardon?"
Farkle sniffed, "We left her. We just left her after she was trying to keep up together. I've been friends with her since we were six and I just left her to be alone. I thought she was being too much, but she never has been too much. I just…" He wiped away a few tears. "I hate crying."
Amira shrugged as she passed a box of tissue to his direction. "This room has that affect."
"I hate crying, I hate not knowing what to do. I can do something! I'm smart! I should be able to figure this out."
Amira frowned at that. "Why would you be have to know what to do? Is this something you face a lot?"
"No." Farkle answered hesitantly.
"Then why would you feel like this is something you need to solve?"
"Because I need to! I know that I can! I can solve this, I know I can!" Farkle only sounded half determined. He had the energy and the want to help Riley, he just had no idea where to start.
"No, you don't need to."
"I-"
"No." Amira repeated again firmly. "Your friend is not a science project, she's a person like you who needs to talk it out with a person or people who don't have a stake in helping themselves."
Farkle frowned at that. "What does that mean?"
"It means, do you want to help your friend because you feel guilty or do you want to help her because you feel like you can fix her?"
"Of course I can fix her." Farkle answered incredulously. "That's what you do when you're smart. You can figure things out with research and testing. I can help."
Amira sighed, "And there lies the problem." Amira moved to sit next to him. "Your friend isn't a science experiment, she's not something you can trial study and retest. You're friend needs help and you need to understand that you can't fix someone who isn't broken. She's not a broken, cracked, or damaged. She's a person who needs to heal from something that you and your friends can't quite see because you're a little too close to the picture to see the full picture."
"The bigger image?"
Amira nodded.
"I don't like feeling useless. I wasn't made for that." Farkle mumbled dis-heartedly.
"What were you made for?" Amira asked lightly.
"To be the best." Farkle replied hollowly.
Once Farkle made another promise to visit and was out of the office Amira approached Torri. "You saw it?"
There were faint bruises on his neck, just barely peeking out from under the collar of his jacket.
Torri sighed, "He's just hiding it, but the collar kept riding low. Someone clenched hard on that boy's neck."
Amira could only stare out the door Farkle had just walked out through. "Either one or both his parents are beating him."
"How are you so sure?" Torri asked astounded as Amira laid back against her desk. She could look at the other woman with worry as Amira folded her arms, a pointed look haunting her usually relaxed features.
"I was made to be the best." Amira repeated Farkle odd response. "He was made to be the best."
Torri raised a brow at that, letting out a low whistle. "That's a lot of pressure there."
"Must be for the parent as well, otherwise they wouldn't be using him a punching bag."
Torri's hand hovered over the office phone. "Just say the word and I'll have CPS at his house in a second."
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
It was nearly two hours after Farkle had left to Amira's office to go to school. Now Cory was at her door.
"Mr. Matthews?" Amira asked surprised. "Is everything with Riley okay?"
Cory rubbed his hands together, "Yeah. Yeah, they're getting better. I think something happened between Riley and Topanga yesterday but Riley seemed to not be upset by it."
"Alright…" Amira studied him for while, she knew Mr. Matthews was some years older than her but he looked so young and lost standing at the front of her door.
"Mr. Matthews, is there something you wanted to discuss with me?" Amira asked sitting back slowly down at her desk chair.
"You can call me Cory. And yeah, if you don't mind? I sort of need to talk."
Amira nodded, "I have forty minutes till my first client comes in." She gestured to the couch as she made her way to her normal sofa. "What's going on?"
Cory sighed, his hands were rested on his knees. He could feel himself rocking gently back and forth slowly as he tried to sum up what was in his mind.
"Do you think Riley having depression is my fault?" Cory asked in one go.
Amira blinked, "That's a loaded questions." She frowned, "Cory, why are you asking?"
"I'm not originally from New York." He explained slowly, "I don't know if Riley ever told you that."
Amira nodded, leaning back in her chair to get comfortable, "She's mentioned it. You and your wife are originally from Philadelphia, correct?"
Cory nodded, "Yeah. We moved here around sixteen years ago since Topanga got offered a really good job here and then she got accepted into a law school. It was great actually, I had my brother and my best friend with us as well." He paused, he never did talk about his part in all this. He never really explained it, just hid it. Shawn had seen glimpses, never the whole thing and Eric…Eric had literally saved him before Riley figuratively saved him. "I- I didn't take the move well. I was being turned down left and right for jobs. I studied film and journalism." Cory added in a muted matter of fact tone.
Amira took a deep breath, realizing where this was going. "Far cry from teaching history."
Cory chuckled at that, "I know. I never thought about teaching. It was something I never thought I would have the patience for." He laughed again, but his heart was in it. He bit his knuckle before continuing. "I couldn't get out of bed, I would fake this happy go lucky personality for Topanga whenever she was around, whenever she told me about her internship, her job, and classes, but as soon as she was gone I was in this dark part in my head. I just didn't want to exist, I wasn't existing."
Before Amira could ask what that could mean Cory stood up and started to pace the room. "Do you remember where you were when it happened?"
"It?"
Cory's eyes begged her to remember it.
She understood it immediately.
Something shattered between them. It was no longer Mr. Matthews, high school history teacher and father to two and Ms. Habib, licensed and certified therapist.
It was Cory and Amira. Two people who were not that far apart in age and could remember a day that they both had witnessed.
"Where were you?" Cory asked again.
Amira's eyes became unfocused, she gulped. "I was thirteen. I was in school, my dad worked in building one but he had to leave to go to a business meeting in Albany. My mother was working the day shift as nurse when they started bringing people in."
"Did you see it?" Cory asked numbed.
Amira nodded.
"I was there, I saw it all happened." Cory explained. "My brain was already this haze black hole and then I was thrusted into this mode that I didn't really get. I was just pulling people into this shop, calming down these strangers, strangers that I was hugging and telling them that they would be safe. I remember giving my jacket to this man who had this huge gash on his shoulder. I remember the dust and smoke. I just remember it all." He continued. "I remembered the hate that followed, the unity that followed, and I just even felt more loss." He sniffed, "I was already this depressed and lost kid and just witnessed one of the most horrific things to happen and I felt even sadder about my life, that I didn't have a purpose that I wasn't worth anything and I just kept thinking all those people had family and loved ones and lives worth living. I didn't, so why did I live? Why was I living?!" Cory stopped pacing to shout out his last question.
He slowly moved his way back to the couch, "It was maybe two months after, Topanga and Shawn, my best friend, where at work. I was alone at home just watching the news continuously, watching the people cry, fight, and scream. I just kept remembering telling myself, why was I here? Why did I survive? What did I do to survive? Why was I even existing when my wife was thriving and I was just this lifeless and useless thing holding her back and making my friends and family's lives miserable?" Cory rubbed his face. "I got these pain pills from my neighbor and took a few other pills that morning, drank a glass of scotch and I took more pills and another glass of scotch…" Amira said nothing as they both became teary eyed. "I came to with my older brother holding me under the shower, slapping my face. He gave me something when I opened my eyes and I threw up all the pills and alcohol. I remember us just sitting there under the shower soaked to the bone and shivering. We were both crying and shaking."
He smacked his lips together. "Eric and I never told anyone about that morning, I made him promise not to, but after that he was always there. I refused to talk to anyone so he would always be there to check in on me and talk to me and take me out, just so that I felt like half a person."
Amira bit the inside of her cheek. "It seemed to have helped." She said after a while.
"It did, but it didn't heal me. Riley did." Cory smiled genuinely, he let out a soft laugh. "I was so excited to be a dad. Topanga, she was worried about how having a baby would interfere with her studying and working so I promised that I would be there every minute of the day to watch and care for Riley while she went to school and work. I bumped into my old junior high teacher and he offered me a job substituting as a second grade teacher. I was really good at it. So I enrolled in school to get my degree in education and in history. After Riley was born I actually enrolled in graduate school to study history. I had Riley with me every day, I think she was the only five year old to know all of the Chinese dynasties." Cory recalled fondly. "All those thoughts and feelings I had, they all disappeared once Riley was born. She was my reason to live, she was and will forever be my anchor."
Amira pressed her lips together and got up to sit next to Cory. "Thank you for sharing Cory. I'm honored that you would trust me to tell me."
Cory smiled, "You seemed to have clicked so well with Riley, she and I are pretty much the same, thought I would be lucky to click with you as well." He confessed.
"Cory?"
"Hmm?"
Amira looked at him, seeing Riley in every inch of his face. "You're not responsible for Riley's depression. Yes, depression is hereditary but there are other factors that are involved. No one person can say if Riley inherited depression or if it was just a manifestation of her own chemicals or environment. But you cannot blame yourself."
"I just feel like this is my fault."
"Cory, it's not." Amira stated firmly. "I can't tell you what she and I discuss but let me tell you that you are not a person who she could say she would blame. You cannot hold yourself responsible for something you have no control of. All you can do for Riley is support her and love her unconditionally, and I think you're doing the best at that right now." Amira complimented him.
Cory shook his head slowly, biting his lower lip as he rested back on the sofa. "It doesn't feel like it."
"You really want to help her?"
He turned to face her, an obvious look of confusion in his eyes. "Yes."
Amira nodded, "Then tell what you told me." She told him reasonably.
Cory paused, thinking the many scenes that could occur if he told Riley everything. "I don't think I have the guts to do that."
"Then find the guts Cory." She turned her body to face him better, "Hearing your side and how you made it won't help Riley, it may not do anything for her, but it may do something for the two of you. She may find it better to realize she has someone who's been through hell and back."
"I don't know." He looked pensive.
Amira shrugged, "That's just my advice to you Cory. You don't have to take it."
Cory smirked, "I thought therapist don't give advice?"
Amira actually laughed out loud this time, she clapped her hands together and stood up. "Well luckily for you, I'm not your therapist."
"Just a friend?"
Amira paused, she pushed back her hair. "Just a friend." Amira confirmed.
Cory and Amira looked at each other, an unknown agreement passing between them.
Before Cory could leave, Amira couldn't help but ask. "You know Farkle Minkus, right?"
Cory nodded, "Yeah, he and Riley are best friends. I know his dad even."
Amira pressed her lips together, concern written all over her features. Cory took a step closer to her. "Why?" he asked suspiciously.
"I think he's being abused at home." Amira confessed, waiting for Cory's reaction.
Cory looked at his watch and then at the door. "Is your next client here yet?"
Amira shook her head 'no', "Torri would page me if they were."
Cory nodded as he rested his back against the door. "Tell me what's going on with Farkle."
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Riley was proud of herself, she had managed to eat and keep down her breakfast and had turned in two late assignments and another assignment on time. While she did still bring a razor, she hadn't felt that itchy feeling all morning. She actually found herself humming again and actually twirled around in the hallway after her first class.
She was actually happy. Genuinely happy.
"Riley?"
Welp, she was.
Maya was now fully blocking her from going into the rest room. "We need to talk." Maya told her.
Riley stood still, fear creeping down her spine. "No we don't."
"Yes, we do." Maya retorted bitingly. Her blue eyes looked hollow and glossy, a strong contrast to her skin which was blotchy and red.
'She's been crying.' Riley realized. That itchy feeling began to form under her skin again. Her skin felt like it was burning once Maya wrapped her fingers around her wrist. Riley pulled away quickly. "I don't want to talk."
"We need to talk Riley. Why didn't you tell me what you were going through? Did you think I wouldn't understand?"
"You wouldn't understand!" Riley whispered harshly.
Maya's widened in confusion, "Then let me understand! Let me know! You should have told me instead of just keeping me at length!" Maya's voice was getting higher.
Riley's skin began to prickle as she began to realize people were looking at them in the hallway. "Let it go Maya." She turned around to walk but Maya pulled her back.
"No!" Maya was crying now, "I'm not just going to let this go. I'm not letting you go!" Maya begged, her hands almost enclosed Riley's again before Riley pulled them away again, taking another step back.
"Maya, I can't do this, not now and not with you." Riley told her.
"Why not?!" May yelled angrily, "Riley, do you know how much you've scared me these past weeks?! Did you know how much it killed me to find out what has been going on with you from my mother?" Maya grabbed a hold of her hair, pushing it back. "How did you think I wouldn't support you or love you? Riley, we've been best friends since we were six years old."
"BECAUSE I DON'T NEED YOU!" Riley screamed.
Maya became pale. "What?" she said in faint tone.
"Maya, I will always love you but I can't be around you. I can't be your friend when I'm like this." Riley hated this, she hated that they were here in the middle of their school's highway crying with a group of peers just steadily watching them. Each with a sorrowful look.
She swore she saw Smackle behind Maya's shoulder for moment.
"What do you mean? Are you saying we can't be friends anymore?"
Riley nodded, "Yes. I can't be your friend. I don't need to drag you down with me. I'm not your Riley. I haven't been that Riley-"
"You're still that Riley-"
"No! I'm not!" Riley yelled, "I haven't been her for a long time. I can't fake being happy, I can't fake being positive when all I've felt for months now is giving up."
Maya was fidgeting, her skin was red all over now and her blue eyes were bleary with tears. "i-I, Riley I can't lose you too. You're my best friend! My sister. We're just alike, remember?" She was beginning to become desperate, wanting to hold onto any part of that "Riley" that was still left.
Riley shook her head 'no', "We're not alike and we're not sisters, Maya. You're doing so well now, you're thriving…I'm just staying stagnant."
"No you're not!" Maya grabbed her hands' again, this time Riley didn't pull away, she stood still as they both cried. "Riley, I'm doing well because of you, you pushed me to become more like you, remember?"
"No," Riley sniffed, "You're just becoming a better version of Maya. I'm just not Riley anymore." She took a deep breath, "Maya, I love you too much to drag you down, I don't want you. We can't be friends anymore, okay."
Maya shook her head viciously, "No! Not okay!"
Riley became resolute, "Maya, you have to let me go, okay? I can't be your friend anymore. So don't call me, text me, or talk to me like this again. I don't ever want to see you"
"Riley…" Maya's voice was just a hoarse whisper, before the girl could continue Riley saw someone's hand on Maya's shoulder.
It was Zay.
"C'mon." he turned Maya away to walk in the opposite direction. "You need to go." Zay whispered to Maya, he led her into the arms of Smackle, who gently walked the blond girl down the hall way.
The crowd began to dissipate as Riley and Zay were left standing in the hall watching each other.
Riley expected Zay to talk to her, to yell at her for saying that stuff to Maya, for distancing herself from the gang. But Zay did none of that, instead he walked over to her and pulled her into a hug. Riley stood there for a second before Zay whispered to her "You're doing okay, Riley."
She broke down, crying into his shoulder as he squeezed her tighter. "You're safe." He continued to whisper. After her cries turned to soft whimpers Zay pulled apart from her, his hands still on her shoulders. "Where are your razors?" He asked her.
Riley frowned, "How did you-?"
Zay shrugged, "Didn't know till now." He sighed, he gave out his hand to her.
"You're smarter than you let on to be Zay." She told him as she pulled out her razors from her back bag and passed them to him.
"Have to keep somethings about myself hidden." He joked as he stuffed the blades into his bag, he looked at her seriously this time. "You know I love you, right?"
Riley nodded, "I love you too." She confessed honestly.
"Do you want to leave then? Maybe take a walk?" Zay suggested to her, he could see how shaky she was from Maya's confrontation with her.
Riley nodded again.
"Do you want me to come with you?"
Riley shook her head 'no.'
Zay stood still for a moment, unsure of what to do. He pulled her into another hug and kissed her check. "I'll see you later then, okay?"
Riley nodded as she slowly turned around and walked towards the exit of the school building, not realizing that Zay was watching her to make sure she wouldn't go into any room to cut.
He started to walk to his next class, dumping the blades into the nearest bin.
He was hoping to see her again at Queens.
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
She was still in shock and had no idea how long she had been walking for when she felt someone grab her arm.
She let out a high pitch scream as she decked the person who had grabbed her.
"HEY!" Lucas shouted at her as he held his side of his face. A red patch growing where Riley had just punched him.
"HEY what!? You scared me!" Riley shouted, "Why did you think you could sneak up on me?"
Lucas went bug eyed, "I didn't sneak up on you, I've been yelling after you for a good five minutes now, it's like you couldn't even hear or see anything!" Lucas shouted back. He took a deep breath, watching her cool down and then take a step back away from him. Her arms wrapping around herself.
He had broken her out of her spell, she realized. Riley took in her surroundings. She knew where she was and where her mind had been leading her to. "What did you want?" Riley asked coolly. She felt nothing, absolutely nothing for him now. No butterflies, no chills, and no thoughts of him haunting the back of her mind. She didn't ever care to register the shock of his reaction to her question to him.
"What do I want? How about an explanation as to why you're ignoring Maya and me? And the rest of your friends?" Lucas asked sarcastically. "You just left us all behind." He told her, disappointment etched in his features.
Riley's brow raised, "Like how you all left me?" Riley snapped.
Lucas frowned. "What?"
"You. Left. Me." Riley said each word bitingly, she sniffed. "I figured I was becoming too much for you and the others, maybe I don't like you guys anymore. Maybe I don't want to be friends with people who don't see me."
Lucas rubbed his face, exhausted and guilty looking. "Riley, I-I get it. I messed up. I shouldn't have said that to you, I was just mad."
"And I was your friend."
Lucas carded his fingers through his hair, "I can get why you're doing this to me, but why to Maya? She had your back and now all she does is cry because she misses you so much."
"Well I'm guess I'm not being a real friend, right? Real friends don't do this. But I guess it's okay, right? Since I'm just being Riley?" Riley could feel the tears sting her eyes again. Her voice was cold as the air breezing past them.
Lucas stood rock still, realizing where the words were coming from. "Oh." He said quietly.
"You love her, don't you?" Riley asked him. "You care so much about her that you were willing to put down the girl you said you picked." Riley pressed her lips together, "You know what you said hurt me, but you never apologized and you never cared to check to see how I was doing. You didn't see me, you just saw Maya and what she was feeling and thinking, but you couldn't see the girl that you said you love break into pieces in front of you."
Lucas looked down as Riley continued. Crying through it all.
"I don't know why you said you picked me Lucas, but I don't think you did, pick me that is. I think you chose the girl you thought was right for you. But you love her, not me."
Now Lucas looked like he was starting to cry. His eyes were shiny. "I-I don't know."
Riley smile was sad, her eyes watery as tears continued to cascade down her cheeks. "But I know," she took a deep breath. "So I'll do you a favor then." She stepped back away from him. "I don't love you Lucas. Not like that at least. We're not the couple that makes it, we're just the sort of couple that realizes that they avoided a tragic mistake of wasting each other's time."
"You're not a waste of my time Riley." Lucas piped up defensively.
Riley ignored him, her face and voice becoming stoic. "Go and be with Maya. Love her like I know you do, okay? And just don't talk to me, I know you don't see me. So let's just move on till I know I can handle seeing you, okay?"
"Riley…"
"Lucas, this isn't about you or her, or the both of you as a couple. This is about me. I need to stay away from everyone. None of you see me when I need you to, you just see me when you need to. I can't do it anymore." She told him. She rubbed away the tears, "Bye Lucas." She turned away, feeling his eyes bore into her. She knew he wouldn't call out to her or follow, he had gotten what he wanted.
Freedom from her.
(Her blessing, really.)
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Ten more minutes of walking led her directly to where she knew her mind was taking her before Lucas had stopped her.
She stood right outside of Queens Dance Academy.
She had two hours before her dance therapy class started but the doors where open and the room for contemporary was empty and open.
Riley sat in the middle of the room, falling back to lay down on the hard wood floor after a moment. She closed her eyes, trying to control her breathing as the itchiness began to start. She could see nothing around the room that was sharp enough to cut. She kept breathing, thinking about stars and planets.
A while later her body began to feel numb. Riley slowly got up. People were starting to walk past the room, but no one had noticed her alone and crying.
Typical.
She almost left the room till she saw the i-pod hooked to the sounds system. Riley smiled, it was hot pink with red and pink flower stickers on it. She pressed the middle button bringing the device to life and starting a strong that had a heavy bass and guitar. She was desperate to lower the volume or turn off the music but the lyrics got to her. The song seemed too fast to be used as song for contemporary dance but she liked it.
'I'm super girl and I'm here to save the world. And I wanna knowwho's gonna save me? I'm super girl and I'm here to save the world and I wanna know why I feel so alone?'
She found herself dancing to the song, following the beat with swift and graceful moves. She was feeling better as she danced and listened to the lyrics. It was a good way to burn her emotions and energy. It felt amazing to take ahold and control of something.
She was so lost in her thoughts, movements and the song that she didn't realize that she had company till the song stopped and the person applauded.
"You were wonderful." Harley smiled as she continued to clap.
Riley could feel the batch of butterflies release into her stomach. She was happy that she could use the excuse of dancing in order to explain the blush that she was sure was now covering her cheeks.
"Thank you?" Riley said shyly, unsure of what to say or do next. Harley walked over to the i-pod, "Is that yours?" Riley asked.
Harley nodded, "Forgot it here last night." She smiled dazzlingly at Riley. "I'm glad you liked that song. Not a lot of people like it for whatever reason."
"Oh." Riley's butterflies were now at her throat, it was the only thing she could come up with at this point. Her mind was a blank.
"Are you here for another class or something?" Harley asked hopefully. "We could practice a dance together if you're up for it?"
Riley finally found her voice, her hands rested on her stomach to help stop the fluttering. "Sure." She smiled. She nearly jumped out of her skin when Harley held her hand to pull her to the middle of the room as another song started.
"Yay!" Harley squealed. "Hope you like this song."
Riley knew the song that was playing, "I love it." She told Harley honestly. They both smiled at each other as Harley and Riley began to dance, sharing and going over different steps and routines.
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
"How would I know if I'm bi-sexual?"
Amira had a know it all smile plastered to her face. "Who's the girl?"
Riley could feel the blush creep onto her face. "Her name is Harley Wilson."
"Is she the first girl you ever liked romantically?"
Riley shook her head 'yes.'