It was well past 11 PM.
Riley was laying on her bed, well beyond ready to drift off into dreams. But she didn't feel like falling asleep. In the slightest.
It's no mystery what was on her mind as she laid there, her nightlamp being among the only ones in the street still turned on.
The same aura was present in her mind's headquarters. All emotions were just sitting, either on a chair or on the floor, just staring at the main screen... Not saying anything.
Not having anything to say.
Riley deeply inhaled and deeply exhaled.
Riley, once more, deeply inhaled and deeply exhaled.
The emotions sat like that for a little bit over 30 minutes since she came lying in bed.
Once realizing there's not much more point in proceeding with this, Fear was the first one to get up from his chosen seat, and leave to his own bed.
In complete silence, of course.
Less than two and a half minutes later, Sadness was the next one to do the exact same.
Other emotions followed those two's footsteps, one by one by one. Within the timespan of around 11 minutes, the headquarters was fully empty.
Disgust was the only one left.
And she, very consciously, chose to stay.
Unbeknownst to Riley - and soon to be not-so-unbeknownst - Riley's dad was downstairs, doing whatever small work in the kitchen.
He was in the middle of putting the last plate he had to its place.
When the phone rang.
"Hello?"
He listened carefully to what the other side had to say.
Too carefully.
"I see..." was all and everything that he gave as a response.
His voice being the unfathomable polar opposite of his usual laid-back voice.
Without thanking the caller, he hung up.
The sound of hanging up - echoed.
Riley was finally feeling ready to somehow fall asleep.
The feel of her bed was finally perfectly comfortable.
Knock, knock!
Scratch that. None of that was happening for some more time.
"Riley..." her dad slowly entered her bedroom, trying to sound comforting.
For the duration of that one word he'd uttered.
As he came closer to her, he was getting himself so as to crouch when his line of sight would meet hers.
"...Yes, dad?" Riley murmured.
"Oh, great..." Disgust sighed. "He found out..."
"The principal called me just a few moments ago," he started. "She told me what happened today."
There was no more turning back for Riley. Not that she herself even considered doing so.
"She told me what you did today," Mr. Andersen continued.
Riley just stared him, still believing - despite the tone of voice in which her dad spoke to her right then and there - that it was exactly the right thing that she had done.
But as opposed to whatever she was expecting him to say next - he went completely silent.
Riley felt that little bit of insecurity.
And more so did Disgust.
"That was, by far, the last time you did something close to it," Riley's dad went on.
What he said next wasn't just verbal. It was accompanied by a certain action.
"In order to make absolutely sure of what I very clearly just told you, I will have to do something I was once so happy, and apparently so stupid, thinking I would never actually have to do."
It wasn't until the end of that very sentence that Riley - and Disgust as well - noticed that Mr. Andersen was holding something in his hand the entire time.
"Uh..." Disgust thought out loud, with unhidable worry. "What do you think you're gonna d-"
THOMP!
And Disgust went silent. Just staring at the main screen, with nothing but moderate shock.
"Did... did he just-"
THOMP!
That second one caused Disgust to take a few steps back.
"Hey... hey, please sto-"
THOMP!
A few more steps back.
"No! Please stop doing this to h-"
THOMP!
Disgust was bursting into tears.
"Please-"
THOMP!
Her hands were shaking.
THOMP!
She was already curled u-
THOMP!
...
THOMP!
THOMP!
THOMP!
THOMP!
THOMP!
THOMP!
...
...
...
A dozen more seconds passed in total silence.
...
One last thing Mr. Andersen told Riley before exiting the bedroom was:
"I love you."
Once she was all alone again... she just stared at the door. With her whole face being shaken. And not just her face.
Disgust cried herself to sleep.
Riley couldn't even do that.