Her Sister's Boyfriend

13

James's POV:

As I saw Cierra come out of the office, I immediately know something had gone on. She begins to walk over to the rest of us, and then when Miss Kate arrives and she tries to go inside the office it doesn't seem to open. That's when I look over to the window and notice the blinds were shut. I didn't even realize when Riley had closed them. She must have done it fairly quickly.

"Okay, why isn't the door opening?" Miss Kate asks us all, agitated. No one seemed to have acknowledged the fact Riley had gone in there except for Cierra and I, but she wasn't saying anything.

"Riley's in there," I state. Cierra looks at me, a face of bewilder and hatred. That's when it hits me. She knows. I choose to ignore her as I focus on Riley who is in that room, doing god knows what, because of me. I can't believe I've put her in this situation. A situation where she doesn't know what to do. All of this is my fault, and yet I've made her feel like she has to put the blame on herself.

"What's she in there for? What's happened?" Kate asks, arms folded and looking unimpressed. Everyone began to chatter amongst themselves, their voices echoing with worry and concern, but Cierra didn't dare to look away from me, a stern look as if she was trying to figure out what to do. As if she was so torn between what was best for the team and what was best for Riley.

In that moment, Stephanie and Emily come walking in, talking to each other in the girly way they do, but then they immediately notice how the team are all surrounding each other and are huddled in small groups, discussing this whole thing.

"What's going on?" Steph asks. Emily looks around at everyone before making eye contact with me and then she smiles softly. After our break-up, things have been strangely awkward, obviously I know why and it's a whole lot more awkward for me than it is for her.

"Riley's in there and she's not coming out for whatever reason," Michelle says concisely.

"Why? Is she okay?" Em questions, a frantic look crossing her face.

"I don't know. Maybe you should try talking to her," Kate says, except that she sounded exhausted. She's probably tired of all the A-Troupe drama, but little does she know that a whole lot more was about to come.

"She's not okay," I mutter to myself. West hears this and then smirks.

"How'd you know if she's not okay? Do you even talk to her?" he laughs. Max and Eldon then choose to join in on this and add to the conversation like the annoying people they are. All I want to do is talk to her, but I can't. If I do, everyone will know and then Riley won't talk to me, she'll just avoid me. Everything she said earlier was true. Everything about how it's for the best and that if we don't say anything, we'd be better off breaking up. The only reason I'm so hesitant about doing so is because everyone will have it out for both of us and I know Riley wouldn't be able to deal with it. The relationship we have right now just won't be the same when people find out and I suppose I just want to hang onto every minute I've got left of the fun-side of us being together before it drastically changes.

"Well I mean they are working on a duet together, maybe they hooked up," Eldon jokes, wiggling his shoulders from side to side with a wide grin on his face. I roll my eyes, trying my best to ignore their theories, but as they continue, I figure that it's not that easy.

"Man, if they did then I'd be jealous. Despite Riley being one of the youngest out of all of us, she sure is hot," Max retorts. I just about throw-up in my mouth at that. But then again, wouldn't they do the same if I said that about her?

"Nah, I picture Max with Amanda," West interjects.

"Um, no thanks," Amanda says from behind us. She was the only one who had hardly taken notice of this whole thing as she kept trying to rehearse something by herself. I guess becoming an alternate really has taken a hard hit to her dancing.