"You look beautiful."
"And you look over dressed."
I looked down at what I was wearing and frowned. I wore a white white button up shirt that was tucked into some black slacks. I wore white high top converse with some silver rings. Was I really over dressed?I looked at what Riley was wearing and smiled slightly. She wore dis-colored jeans and a black graphic t-shirt, with white shoes."I should've dressed like you." I said and she laughed lightly.
"You seem really happy today, is it because of me?" I said and leaned close to her. She turned her head away from mine,"You could say that." She scanned the area around her with her dark brown eyes."We should start with something big!" She said and pointed to the biggest roller coaster in the carnival."Sure," I said, but really I was giving myself a mental pep talk to not throw up on the ride. This was my one chance that it's finally me and her.
It's just Riley and me.
"That was fun!" She said as she fixed her braids I held my stomach and my head. I felt dizzy and nauseous at the same time, and that was not a great feeling. We began walking around and looking at all the food stands.Then suddenly she turned around to face me."You know you barely talk about yourself. All I know is that your dad's a big shot." She said and I scratched the back of my head. I honestly didn't want to tell her about my family. She'd probably think I was being selfish for not agreeing to inherit the family company."Well I'm the youngest of four older brothers." I said and she had a look of amazement.
"Lucky, I wish I had siblings." She said as I laughed."I don't think you'd want that, you get peace and quiet."I said and she shook her head sadly,"No you get company." For some reason when I looked at her a wave a pity flew over me. She had no mom or no siblings, I couldn't even imagine. She'd probably be annoyed about how much I'm looking down on her.
"Then I'll ask you a question." I looked at her and smiled widely, almost with a goofy look on my face."Sure."
But before I could answer I was punched right in my nose. My body was forcefully thrown onto the ground and the people around us gasped loudly. I covered my nose and looked to see who punched me. My eyes furrowed when I saw Riley's boyfriend angrily staring down at me."I already told you to stay away from her!" He yelled, but all I could focus on was the shock on Riley's face."And you, why are you outside with him?" He yelled but all Riley could do was cover half of her face with her hands.
"Seven I-"
"Answer me!" He yelled, and before I could react he had raised his hand and slapped her violently. I immediately got up from my spot on the ground and ran to stand in front of Riley,"What's your problem? Why'd you hit her?"I yelled and he looked around at the growing crowd that was around us. He angrily turned around and shoved his way out of the crowd. My heart was racing, I was feeling so many emotions right now.
Riley had lied, and I let her.
I turned to face Riley her hands were covering her face and only her eyes shown. Tears were falling down her face while her eyes grew red. Without saying anything I pulled her into my arms and hugged her. She started crying harder and that's when the people around us started to disappear. After a while Riley and I were sitting on a bench in a near by park.
I handed her a soda from a convenience store that was a few blocks away from us. She was still sniffling and wiping her face. She stared at the ground sadly."Riley, why did you lie to him?" I asked and she took a big deep breath in.
"I lied, because if I told Seven I was hanging out with you he wouldn't let me go." She said and I stared at the sky that was slowly going dark."I should've told you to tell him about me, then you wouldn't have been hit like that." I said and watched as she gripped her soda. She never drank from it."It would've been to late by then, truth is he's always done that to me. For a long time I thought that it ways supposed to be that way, but after a while I realized I needed to get away. You were my escape Liam. I used you to get away from Seven, I'm sorry." She said and her eyes began to swell with tears again.
"Why are you sorry? I know you lied to him and everything, but I don't blame you one bit. I actually felt really confused and angry when he hit you like that. Why didn't you leave him sooner?" I said she opened her soda and quickly drank from it. I looked her surprised and she wiped her mouth satisfied.
"It's hard to get away from someone you've been with for so long, especially when it takes you a while to realize what situation your in. It's hard to believe what they did to so you label it as in accident, but the accident keeps happening over and over again and all your doing is believing them and forgiving them over and over again." She put her hands over her eyes then looked at me sternly."I need you to be my escape, I need you to be my safe zone." She said and I shook my head.
"As much as I'd love to do that, what about Seven? He's extremely violent and he's way stronger than I am, all I wanted is to be with you, all I wanted was for you to like me back." I said as I stared at the bubbles in the can that popped."What you need is a friend, and as much as I hate what I'm saying to you right now, it'd be better if I just protected you until he goes away." I said and she looked at me with relief. It seemed as if a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders.
"Really, thank you for this." She said and looked at the sky. I raised my head to look as well. It finally became night and the stars were slowly shinning into view.
I have no idea what I just got myself into.