Chapter 15

Riker POV

I stopped and sat back down at the picnic table across from Kat.

"What?" I asked.

"I-I…"

"What?"

I could see Kat breathing quickly. She was looking down at the ground, and running her finger across the edge of the picnic table.

"Kat?"

Kat looked up at me and I saw she was crying. I was so confused right now…

"Kat, what's wrong?"

"I-I just… I…"

Kat sighed and put her head down on the table.

"Kat…?"

"This is just so much for me!" Kat shouted.

"Shhh, calm down. We don't want the police hearing us or something!"

Kat let out a breath.

"It's ok. Now what was it you wanted to tell me?"

"I… I believe you."

"You… what?"

"I believe you!" Kat said, crying harder.

"You-you do?"

"Yeah… I can just… I just know now…"

"You really believe me?"

"Yeah… And I'm sorry I didn't believe you sooner. It was just hard because of… everything from my past…"

"It's ok. I understand…"

"No. It's not ok. I put you through so much. You didn't deserve any of it. You don't deserve me."

"Kat, you can't say stuff like that! You're worth more than you give yourself credit for. You keep putting yourself down. You focus on your faults, and never anything else. You have to stop doing that! WAIT! Does this mean you'll get back together with me?"

"Riker… I don't know if I can right now. There's just a lot going on and stuff. My mom's not even out of the hospital yet!"

"I know… I just-"

"I know. You love me, you're waiting for me, I know, I know. I just need you to… Just… Stay away from me. I need to focus on my family right now."

"What?"

"Look, I should be getting back home now. You should go home too. We don't want to get caught. Just don't call me, don't text me, just stay away. Ok? I'm sorry."

Kat got up and walked away. After 10 minutes of just sitting there in the dark, I went home too.

A Few Days Later…

Rocky POV

"I'm really worried about Riker," I told Ross.

"I know. So am I. He's practically living in his room and he barely eats anything."

Suddenly, Riker came walking down the stairs.

"Hey Riker," said Ross.

"Hi…"

"Hey Riker! We were going to go skateboarding in a few minutes. You want to come?" I asked.

"No."

"Aw come on Riker! It'll be fun!" Said Ross.

"No. I really don't want to…"

Riker swept his blond hair out of his face and I could tell he'd been crying. That's pretty much all he's been doing lately. We have to figure out some way to get him out of his room…

"Wait Riker! I forgot! We're actually going to the park to shoot some hoops with everyone. Come on. Let's go," I said.

"I'm not going."

"Come on Riker. We need even teams."

"I'm sorry. I'm not going."

"Riker, come on."

"I'm never going back to that park Rocky! Now leave me alone!"

Riker stormed up the stairs to our bedroom. What did he have against the park?

"Stay here," I told Ross.

I walked up to our bedroom. Riker had locked the stupid door on me.

"Riker open the door," I called, really annoyed now.

"No."

"Riker, it's my room too you know."

Silence.

"Uh… We need the basketball," I lied.

Seconds later, the door flew open, and a basketball was thrown hard into my face.

"RIKER!" I screamed.

I lunged towards the door. Riker tried to shut it, but I pushed it open. Once I was in our room, I tackled my brother to the ground and pinned him there.

"What do you think you were doing!?" I shouted, only inches from Riker's face.

Riker looked absolutely terrified. I had never done anything like this before, and I was pretty mad.

"I said, what do you think you were doing?"

Riker sighed, and looked away from me.

"Riker, the sooner you answer, the sooner I'll get off, and the sooner I can put ice on my forehead WHICH IS THROBBING!" I shouted.

Riker still wouldn't look at me. I sighed, got off my brother, and left to go get some ice. I came back up to our room, and I was determined to get my answers this time. I was so surprised when I walked into our bedroom, I almost dropped my ice pack when I saw Riker still laying on the ground.

"Riker? Are you ok?"

"I'm… Dizzy…"

I helped Riker sit up against his bed. I noticed how sweaty and shaky he was.

"Riker, when was the last time you ate something?"

"I don't know…"

"Come on. You need to eat something. You should see how pale you are."

Riker groaned and laid down on the ground again.

"Come on Riker. You're not going to feel better until you eat something."

Riker groaned again and closed his eyes. I put my hands under his arms, and started dragging him towards the door.

"What are you doing!?"

"Bringing you to the kitchen. You're eating something!"

"Rocky stop. This is silly."

"Look, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. You pick."

"I pick lay in bed."

"That's not an option."

"It is now."

"NO IT'S NOT!"

I grabbed around Riker's stomach and pulled him out of the room. He fought back, but he was too weak from not eating to escape from my grasp. When we got to the stairs, Riker started elbowing me. Hard. I continued to pull him down the stairs, but I tripped, sending both of us flying down the stairs. Ross came running around the corner to see what all the noise was.

Ross POV

I was surprised to see Riker smooshed under Rocky at the bottom of the stairs.

"What happened?" I asked.

"We kind of fell down the stairs," said Rocky.

"What? How?"

"Riker's practically starving to death, so I was dragging him downstairs to get something to eat. It wasn't exactly Riker's fault that I tripped, but him elbowing me wasn't helping!"

"Would you get off me!?" Riker shouted, annoyed.

Rocky helped Riker up, and walked him to the kitchen. I sat next to Riker as Rocky angrily slapped cold cuts onto some bread and made a sandwich. He threw it on a plate and put it in front of Riker.

"Eat," said Rocky.

Riker just stared at the sandwich.

"Riker. Eat," Rocky repeated.

"Come on Riker. You look awful. You need some food in your body!" I said.

Riker rolled his eyes.

"Riker, come on. Seriously," said Rocky.

"I'm not eating it."

"Riker!"

"I don't want it!"

"I don't care! You have to eat!"

"I don't want to!"

All of a sudden, Rydel came running in from the living room.

"Riker you have to eat! I can't stand seeing you like this! Now eat!" Rydel demanded, pointing at the sandwich, crying.

Riker slowly picked up the sandwich and started eating. If Rydel was crying, he pretty much did anything to make her stop.

Rydel stayed and made sure he finished the sandwich. When he was done, he walked back up to his and Rocky's room.

Rocky POV

I followed my brother up to his room. He wasn't getting away that easily.

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Riker asked back.

"What do you think you're accomplishing by starving yourself? What do you think you're doing to yourself? What is wrong with you!?"

Riker looked down at his feet.

"Ok. Actually, I know what's wrong. But you have to move on!"

"It's not that easy!"

Ok, maybe he had a point…

"Riker, that still doesn't make it ok for you to hurt yourself like this."

The floor suddenly turned into the most interesting thing in the world, and Riker couldn't stop looking at it.

"Riker. I need to tell mom."

"You can't tell her!"

"Riker this isn't ok!"

"Rocky please, don't tell her!"

"Riker-"

"Give me a week! Give me a week to get myself together, and if I don't, then you can tell mom. Deal?"

"Fine…"

This was going to be a long week…

Later…

Kat POV

Suddenly my door flew open.

"What are you doing!?" I shouted at Cody.

"You didn't tell me Ross was coming over!" Cody shouted, looking at Ross sitting on my bed.

"Cody, you're supposed to knock first!"

"Whatever. Can I talk to Ross for a minute?"

"No. We're busy right now."

"Doing what?"

"None of your business. Now get out!" I shouted, pushing Cody out the door and locking it.

"Sorry about him. Now, what was it you were saying?"

"Um… I was going to tell you about this new amusement park that's opening."

"Ok," I said, uninterested.

"Well it's opening tomorrow, Friday night. I was wondering if you wanted to go with me."

"Ross… I… I thought we agreed we shouldn't be doing this. For Riker's sake."

"It's not a date. It's just 2 friends going to an amusement park together. What's wrong with that?"

"It just doesn't seem… Right…"

"Oh come on. There's nothing wrong."

"Well I don't really like amusement parks either."

"Why not?"

"I… I just don't. Ok?"

"Well then we don't have to go on any rides. There's still fun stuff to do like games and stuff."

"Ross-"

"Come on! If at any point you want to leave, I'll take you straight home."

"Why can't you go with Rocky or something?"

"Because I want to go with you."

"Why me!?"

"Kat please. I'll pick you up tomorrow night at 7:00. Ok?"

"Fine," I grumbled.

"Great! I'll see you tomorrow."