Left or Right

Chapter 36

.James.

"Right, James, where's Riley? She's due on stage any minute now. Boys, where are the girls?" Kate asks, pacing up and down backstage as Ella was currently on stage representing England's team as female soloist.

I look around me, stressing just as much.
The last time I had checked, Ri had gone back to her room to change but she promised me she would be on time - she said she'd be here ten minutes before she was due to go on but that clearly wasn't the case.

I thought she was doing okay. I thought having me spend the day with her would be what she needed to lift her spirits again. I'm just praying she's not spiralling again and she hasn't started doing what I caught her doing yesterday...
Part of me feels she wouldn't think of doing it after I'd caught her but no one can ever be one hundred percent sure when it comes to such sensitive topics.

She hadn't eaten much today either. What if she passed out or fainted in the bedroom? I had intended to buy her more food to eat when we were out but she kept refusing it.

"James?" Kate asks, gaining my attention again as my head snaps back up so I was looking directly at her. "Where's Riley?"
"I don't know. She promised me she would be here in a minute though, just give it a couple of minutes and I'm sure she'll be here."

"We don't have a couple of minutes, James, she's meant to be on stage in thirty seconds," Kate stresses even more, not helping anything as all it does is send the boys and I into a panic - one we tried our bests to hide and not show.

The girls were out somewhere and hadn't returned. They'd been horrible to Riley for more than a month now and I was growing sick of it. I understand they may not see what's happened with the dances as fair, but it's not an excuse to make someone as vulnerable as Riley feel the way she's been feeling lately.

"I'll be right back, Kate," I mutter before heading away with a quick speed, completely ignoring any responses she may have had as she calls my name multiple times.

I walk through the building, nudging past the crowds of people surrounding the area until I reach the staircase leading up to the dorms. I call Riley multiple times on my phone, hoping for her to answer but she never does and it only makes me worry even more.
I didn't want it to be the thing as yesterday, I don't want to walk into the same scene as I did. But when you love someone, you go to the highest extent to keep them safe...

"Riley, please don't-" I begin to say as I open the door of her and the girls' dorm room, barging in without knocking.
But the place was completely empty. I even checked the bathroom but she wasn't in there either. The lights were off, it was silent, and I was at a loss of where to go next.

I whip my phone out of my back pocket, about to call the boys in case I had walked past Riley on the way here but hadn't seen her, but just as I had clicked onto West's contact, my eyes land on a piece of paper positioned on Riley's bed and I instantly walk over to it before grabbing it and reading it.

'Meet me backstage before you go on
I have something to show you ;)
Love, James <3'

I knew for a fact I hadn't written her that message at all... But Riley wasn't to have known that. She would have headed backstage but Kate, the boys and I were all backstage so we would have seen her if she had gotten there.
If it wasn't me who wrote her the note, then I had no idea who it might have been. Yet, all it took was a short few moments of thinking before I was able to take a guess and soon the worry within me turns to nothing but anger.

. . .

"Stephanie, where's Riley?" I growl at her as she and the girls were all huddled backstage the moment I had arrived back downstairs.
They were all waiting for Riley to take to the stage. We had three minutes until we would have been disqualified. Someone had to go on stage. Whoever it was, someone had to.

"What? I don't know," she spits back at me.
"Yeah, Riley was with you all day," Michelle points out, causing me to raise an eyebrow and scoff out of annoyance. I was tired of their bitchy games. They've made their point but they need to realise when they've gone too far.

"Oh really? You don't know where she is?" I ask them sarcastically before they both nod their heads. "So it's just a coincidence that all of you happened to be out five minutes before Riley was due to be on stage but now that you're back, she's gone missing?"

"James, we had nothing to do with this," Cierra speaks up, making my gaze flick back to her. I think out of all the girls, she was the only one I would truly listen to, considering she was still new to the team and seemed to have a natural bond with Ri.
"I was with Riley in her room a couple of minutes ago but I left to go and find the other girls. They were all in the changing rooms drying up after being in the pool."

"So none of you know about this note?" I ask them all, displaying the note I had found in the room, making Amanda instantly shake her head, rolling her eyes.
"James, you wrote that."
"No, I didn't," I snap back at her, taking her aback slightly. "I didn't write the note and that's what's worrying me."

I look around me as Giselle was stood in a costume, ready to take to the stage. Clearly, in the time I had been gone, Kate had instructed her to take Riley's place as soloist since she was the only one with a prepared solo. I wasn't sure how Riley would have felt about that but that was the least of my concerns right now.
What I was really concerned about was where my girl was in this current moment...

"James, wait," Michelle shrieks suddenly, rushing over and snatching the note from out of my hand.
She hadn't spoken to me in a long time, let alone Riley since they fell out. But she studied the writing on the note before her nose wrinkles up and she points at it, looking me directly in the eye.

"It's Nate's handwriting," she tells me, making me raise an eyebrow.
"What? How do you know?"
"When Ri was in Montreal, she spoke to me about Nate a lot. Trust me, it's him. It's got to be him. He tricked her," she says, her words flooding out of her mouth all at once, just enough for me to process what was happening.

"I need to go and look for her," I breathe out, making Michelle nod her head while the girls all exchange looks of anxiety.
"I'll come with you," Michelle adds.

It's strange how they only ever feel the regret when something else happens to Riley which wasn't caused by them...

I just hope nothing too bad has happened to her...