NOTE: A reminder that this story alternates between past and present. In the past, Bella is a junior. In the present, she's a senior.

Word Prompt: Breakthrough

Dialogue Flex: "Take a walk with me?"

Something True

Breakthrough

Last Winter to Early Spring

Adjusting to addressing him as Riley instead of Mr. Biers took some getting used to. A few times, with a smile, he corrected her.

"Riley," he said, and she liked the way it sounded coming from him.

The more time she spent with him and the more she thought about him as Riley, the more natural it began to feel.

Just as Riley had said, things at school were becoming busy. Midterm papers and comprehension exams had to be graded and grades needed to be entered into the system.

The student journals had to be read through as well. Riley let his classes turn in their daily free-writing assignments by choice as extra credit.

The difference was, instead of working at school on Mondays and Fridays, the two of them worked at his house.

On the weekends, things had to remain the same, he'd told her.

Sleepovers as usual, it was. That weekend, Rose's parents were out of town, so even though it was technically Alice's night, the girls stayed at Rose's. The guys had talked her into throwing a party.

In the living room, they were playing old school hardcore rap so loud that even when Bella tried to plug her ears the beat vibrated through her body.

All her friends were paired off with their boyfriends, making out.

Wishing she were somewhere else, wishing she were with Riley, she went to Rose's room and played her records even though the bass from below was shaking the floor. Lying back on the bed, she closed her eyes and listened to the two different sounds fight each other.

The door burst open, muffled laughter following. Rose and Royce were kissing each other into the room. Bella sat up, waiting for them to notice her.

"Bella?" Rose said, her lipstick smeared. "Why are you up here all by yourself?"

Bella shut the record off. "No reason."

"Come downstairs with us."

"With us?" Royce asked.

"With us." Rose swooped one arm through Bella's and the other through Royce's, guiding them down the hall and down the stairs. The stairway was wide enough for all three of them to fit down side by side.

"If it's a guy you want," Royce said, "Pete is interested."

"Pete is always interested in everyone," Bella said, gripping the iron railing.

"But no one more than you."

She knew he was trying to get rid of her. Unlinking her arm from Rose's, she turned them around so they were heading back up the stairs. "You two go," she said. "I'm getting a drink."

In the kitchen, Bella grabbed a cup from the counter and went to the keg in the center of the room to fill it. A group of senior girls were hanging around the table. One of them, Jane, was lighting up a cigarette.

"She checks her hair and makeup every day after school," she said with the cigarette dangling from her mouth. "I've seen it in the bathroom." She pulled herself up to sit on top of the table.

"It's pathetic and so obvious," said Charlotte, as if Bella wasn't standing right there knowing she was the one they were talking about. Or maybe they wanted her to know.

"Yeah. Like, of all of us, he would go for her, right?" Heidi made eye contact with Bella. "She has the body of a twelve year old boy."

Bella downed her beer, went over to the girls, setting her empty cup on the table between Charlotte and Heidi. Facing Heidi, she said, "We can't all get what your daddy bought you." She looked pointedly at Heidi's chest. Bella didn't know if they were truly fake or not, but that was the rumor and she used it to her advantage. She turned and headed back up the stairs to one of the guest rooms.

She stood on the bed so she could see her whole body in the mirror above the dresser.

There was a deep throat-clearing behind her. Bella turned to see Pete, his blond hair a total mess. She jumped off the bed.

"You followed me?"

"Just for a second." He stumbled in, closing the door behind him. He was so drunk he could barely open his eyes. Maybe he was high, too.

"Look at me," Bella said.

"I am looking at you."

"What do you see?"

"Fucking hotness." He put his hand on her hip. She picked it up and took it off.

"Are you sure?"

"Damn straight, I'm sure." He seemed to strain to open his eyes wider, but it was really only his eyebrows that went up. "Every day I look at you I'm sure." He put both of his hands on her hips over her dress. "I like these right here." He twisted her back and forth. And then his lips came down toward hers.

She turned her face away and just hugged him instead. "No kissing."

"Why not? That's a dumbass rule." He hugged her back, sighing against her shoulder.

"Because we've known each other since third grade."

"We're not eight anymore if you haven't noticed. I've noticed."

"No kissing."

His sigh was heavier this time. "All right."

"Girls are bitches," she said under her breath, so quiet he may not have heard.

His arms were different, skinny. Being in them was a bit like being in the arms of a child, a boy.

...

At home, Bella's mother had been trying to talk to her, but Bella was giving her the silent treatment, turning her back to her whenever she could. There was nothing her mother could do about it, and Bella was sure that eventually she would give up trying.

She hadn't given up yet, though. One day Bella came home to find a note for her on her bed.

My Bella, it read. There are some things you would give up anything for. I want you to know I have given it all up. My heart tears a little more every day knowing how I've hurt my own daughter...

Without reading the rest, Bella crumpled it up and left it on her mother's side of the bed. She had no doubt her mother would find it before her dad did, but the fear would be imbedded in her mother. She would know what a threat Bella could be.

This made coming home later on the nights her dad was working that much easier. She didn't have to explain herself.

Getting home before her dad was all that mattered to Bella, and on some nights her dad didn't get home until four or five in the morning.

...

"I cleaned my fishtank," Riley said after removing her coat and switching on the heat.

She went over to it and watched the fish swimming in clear water among a rainbow of decorations. Next to the tank, on the table, she noticed the picture frame was gone, the one that held Victoria's picture.

Bella's grin couldn't be held back.

"What?" he asked.

Her eyes settled back on the fish tank. "It's pretty like this."

"You're pretty like this." He tugged at the end of her skirt and then drew his hand down her thigh to her knee. She turned to him and smiled.

He already had his tie off and his shirt unbuttoned.

Dropping his briefcase to the floor, he lifted her chin with a finger, and kissed her, backing her up to the sofa. The stubble of his beard scratched her, a sharp contrast to his soft kiss.

On the sofa, he took her arms and placed them around his neck, then his hands fell to her thighs and drifted up her body, his weight pushing her back against the sofa.

When his palms were at the side of her breasts, almost on her breasts, she pulled back and looked at him. His eyes opened, his breathing slowed. He seemed to be watching her face.

"You're not ready. It's okay."

Bella wasn't sure. She felt ready, like she wanted him to touch her there, but she was afraid he'd be disappointed in what he felt. She couldn't kid herself into believing she was anywhere close to the woman his ex-wife was. Not a woman with curves. Like the girls had said, did she really have the figure of a boy?

She couldn't bring herself to believe what Pete had said. He'd been drunk and he'd wanted to make out with her. He might've said anything.

She smoothed her skirt down her legs.

He turned her face toward his. "Really, it's okay. I'm not one of those boys you're used to. I can wait for you."

Something filled Bella, her lungs expanding with his care for her, her chest rising with the inhale of his words. He gave her one more kiss before lugging his briefcase over. "Before we start," he said. "Take a walk with me? It's getting hot in here."

They went out the back where they wouldn't be seen and trudged down the hill, through the massive trees. Bella had left her coat inside and when she shivered, Riley stepped behind her, rubbing her arms up and down, and then wrapping his around her. She leaned back against him and closed her eyes. She hadn't thought it was at all obvious how cold she felt, and here he was trying to warm her up.

"You make me feel cared about," she said.

"I'm glad."

"Do I make you feel cared about?'

She turned her head to look up at him. He bent to meet her lips with his. "You do." He kissed her again. "Very much." His voice was so deep and his arms so strong the way he held her that she felt incredibly safe, like there was a wall of stone around her nothing could break through.

A tingle leapt from her stomach to her chest. She was wrapped up in more than just arms.

She knew it.