Jiley Oneshots

Not Completely Heartless [a]

Season 4- after Riley kissed Alfie and broke with James

⚠️warning sensitive content⚠️

Riley sank her body into her desk chair and felt immediate relief in her ankles that truly hated her black, heeled boots. Her body felt heavier everyday, partly due to her severe lack of sleep and therefore exhaustion and partly due to the emotional baggage she carried with her everywhere she went.

She glanced at her watch, tapping the glass when she noticed it had stopped ticking. The jolt was enough to start it up again but of course it read the wrong time. Her ears picked up on the sound of voices growing closer and soon three figures appeared in the doorway.

Piper sulked behind Cassie and Amy who seemed oblivious to their friend's mood.

"Hi girls" Riley feigned a smile, "can I help you?"
"Um we were wondering if we could use the music room later to rehearse for our trio" Amy asked politely, "we just wanted to get more practice in"
Riley nodded, "of course you can, I'll just mark it in my diary so I don't book a private in there"

The three girls thanked her and left as quickly as they had arrived, leaving Riley alone to dwell on her feelings. Piper was still ignoring her after witnessing her kiss with Alfie and if she was really honest, Riley didn't know if it was better or worse than when she was vocally mad at her.

Her gaze fell upon the pencil sharpener that was sat on her desk, beside her hole puncher and stapler. She knew it was wrong, but she'd done it before and so nothing prevented her from doing what she did next.

The blade fell from the plastic rectangle, free after she unscrewed the screws holding it in place. Then she enclosed it in her palm and walked down the empty hallway to the staff toilet. Having bolted the door shut behind her, she closed the toilet seat and sat on it.

Riley bit her lip, letting her tears fall down her cheeks. With only a smidge of regret, she tugged her sleeve above her elbow and positioned the blade perpendicular on her arm.

Her eyes lingered on the pale scars that lay there already, from a time in her life when she'd cut before. She'd sworn never to harm herself again but things had changed and she wanted to feel something more than her emotional pain.

She winced as the blade broke skin and beads of red blood leaked from beneath it. She cut herself three more times before grabbing some toilet paper and dabbing the blood off of her skin. The crimson stained her skin so she wet another square of paper and used that to clean herself up.

Then she pulled her sleeve back over her stinging arm and stood up. Peering at herself in the mirror, Riley attempted to fix her makeup but it was no use. Mascara was staining her swollen eyes and all her concealer had been completely cried off.

Deciding she didn't care anymore, she unbolted the door and trudged back to her office. The building was very quiet seeing as it was after hours so Riley was uninterrupted on her way.

Roughly an hour later, Cassie appeared in the office doorway, followed closely by Amy and Piper. "Hey Riley can we show you our trio?" She asked.
Riley sighed, not in the right state of mind to objectively judge a dance, "would you mind if I looked at it tomorrow?

"Oh for goodness sake Riley, just watch us dance and we'll leave you alone again" Piper snapped angrily at her brother's ex-girlfriend. She grabbed her studio head by the arm and pulled her to her feet, noticing when Riley winced because her cuts instantly stung. She eyed her suspiciously before quickly saying, "you know what? Fine, you can watch it tomorrow"

"But-"
"No Amy" Piper interrupted her friend, "Riley has lots of paperwork to do, don't you Riley?"
Confused at Piper's sudden change of tone, Riley sat down and spluttered, "I- yes, yes I have lots of regionals forms that need doing"