Breath love - adopted by Elizabeth Olsen ✔️

1 - Daily life -

(Extra update for Lizzie's bday ofc! <3)

1604 words :)
TW: bullying; panic attack

3e person POV

*Beep Beep* ...
*Beep Beep* ...

Riley groans and turns the annoying sound of her alarm. It's Wednesday, the best day of the week. Just kidding. Riley has her least favorite subjects today at school, chemistry.

Riley gets out of bed and quickly hops into the shower. She packs her stuff and quickly runs to the kitchen. Riley grasps an apple and walks toward Brooke. ''Good morning, Brooke, I am headed to school for the day. After school, I have work at the coffee shop till 9 pm after which I will come straight here to the orphanage, all right?''

Brooke signs: ''you know you can say that you will come 'straight home' Riley, no need to keep calling this place 'the orphanage' come on''

''Well Brooke I know how a home is supposed to feel and I can assure you that this place is no home, so stop pushing me to call this place something it isn't!''


''Watch the attitude, Riley Mae!''


''1. Don't call me Riley Mae! You know why so stop! 2. I am leaving bye.''


And with that Riley walks out of the house and slams the door. She knows she will be in trouble later, but she doesn't care. She is never going to call that place her home. No way in hell. Which is kind of ironic since the orphanage is hell for Riley, and only her mom was allowed to call her Riley Mae, she has told Brooke this a thousand times, but she just won't listen.


Riley walks to school every day, it is a 25-minute walk. Yes, there is a bus she could take but Riley gets motion sickness pretty easily, so a bus is never a good plan. Hell being in a car is hard. She quickly runs through the park, not wanting to draw attention to her but also not wanting to stay there very long.


On her walk, she can still feel her muscles from yesterday's soccer practice. Riley loved soccer ever since she was a little girl. She has always played soccer and loved to do it with her dad while her mom was cheering them on. Yesterday's training was focused on cardio, like every Tuesday. Riley felt her mussels with every step she took. She wondered if maybe she could take the bus for once but decided against it. The pain was better than throwing up in front of her classmates that already bullied her. No need to give them another reason.


After what felt like hours Riley arrived at school where she walked straight to her locker. She kept her head down not to draw any extra attention to her. While she was walking, she heard people laughing, Riley didn't know if it was directed at her or not, but she felt like it was.


Riley would always meet her best friend Faye at their lockers since there next to each other. When Riley arrived at her locker, she didn't see Faye. The schooldays were longer and harder without Faye. Riley checked her phone for the first time today to see if Faye had texted her.

Faye:
Gooodmorninggg Mae! I am sick, so won't be joining you at school today, sorry!! Update me! and you can always call me! love your bestie


'Great' is the first thing that Riley thought. Note the sarcasm. I only Riley had known, she properly skipped school today, but she was already there so that wasn't an option anymore.

Riley Mae:
Don't worry about me, Faye! Get well soon! Your better be here tomorrow for PE tho.

With that text sent Riley walked to her first class of today.

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All of Riley's classes went by slowly. English was tiring and she didn't get the chemistry lesson. The other subjects were pretty easy as usual. The really hard part was the bullying. Being alone at lunch only gave the bullies something more to say about Riley. After a quick mental breakdown in the bathroom, Riley continued her classes till 2 pm.

Riley walked to her locker again but before she reached it, she was slammed into the wall. She looked up at the person and saw the 'popular' girl. The girl laughed and said ''watch out you fat weirdo'' and walked away. Riley gathers her things and speed-walked the rest of the way. After dumping some stuff in her locker, she headed to the library for a few hours. Here she made some of her homework and tried to do some chemistry, which sadly didn't work out.

At 3.30 pm Riley packed her stuff and walked to the coffee shop she worked at. After a 15-minute walk, she walked into the cute but small coffee shop called 'A Cup of Joy' and put her stuff in the back. Riley walked out to the front, put on her apron, and waited till Lila was done with the customer.

''Hey Lila, how was today?'' Riley asked her coworker.
''Hi Riley, I am so glad you're here because I need to run to pick up Rider. Today was fine. Just a normal Wednesday. Good luck tonight.''
Lila left quickly without another word. This was normal since Lila's parents could only look after her son, Rider, till 4.30. Riley made a cup of tea for herself and waited for new customers to serve.

After 5 slow hours, Riley locked up the store. She cleaned the place up a bit and made sure everything was ready for tomorrow. At 9.15 pm Riley started the almost 45-minute walk to the orphanage.

Again, she felt her muscles with every step. Every step became a little more difficult, but she powered through. With a little sprint through the park, she arrived. Brooke was waiting for her in the kitchen.

''I'm back!'' Riley yelled, wanting to go to bed as soon as possible.
''I am in the kitchen, please come here for a second Riley''. She heard Brooke say, with a loud sigh Riley walked into the kitchen.

''Evening Brooke, what can I do for you tonight?''

''No need to be so formal Riley. I wanted to apologize for calling you Riley Mae this morning, I shouldn't have done that. I just want you to feel like this place is your home, you have been here for 2 years. I get that it is different, but you could at least give it a shot right!''

''Thank you for apologizing but I will never give this place a shot. I tried. Didn't work so stop pushing me please.''

''Fine Riley I will try.''

''Thanks. Goodnight, Brooke.''

Without waiting for an answer Riley turned around and speed-walked to her room. Brooke and Riley have these conversations almost every week. Brooke hates that Riley is so formal. For Riley, it is a kind of coping mechanism. If it doesn't feel safe, it's not home so I was taught to be formal. That's what Riley thinks and will continue to think.

Riley changes into her PJs. She needed some comfort, so she snuggled into her blanket and started an episode of WandaVision. After 20 or so minutes she fell asleep, hoping for a better day tomorrow.

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Thursday was pretty much the same. Faye was still sick, so Riley skipped PE class. No way she was doing that without Faye. Luckily nobody noted that she wasn't there. After school, Riley had soccer practice again.

The soccer practice went fine. Today they focused on the defensive line, where Riley was positioned. After Riley and her other teammate that's in the defense position successfully stopped the 'other team' from getting passed them the training was over, and Riley started her walk back to the orphanage.


Normally Riley would run through the park, but the soccer practices tired her out so speed walking it was. Riley never felt safe in the park or at least not after the accident. For a while, she walked around the park, but it took too long. She was always home late, and Brooke didn't like that. After a while, Riley decided to just run through the park. Running always made her feel better. On bad days Riley would always go for a run to clear her mind, so running through the park wasn't so bad. Today however she was way too tired from her practice.

Riley felt her breath pick up the moment she entered the park. She walked as fast as she could. Again, feeling every muscle in her body but she powered through. Riley looked around franticly seeing danger on every corner. It felt like she was there for hours. A few minutes later she could see the exit of the part. Feeling a little relieved the ran the last few meters as fast as she could. After exiting the park, they ran straight for the orphanage. Riley almost slammed the front door shut as she ran to her room. Of Couse, she shouted 'HI, I am back' towards Brooke who was watching a movie in the living room. 'Okey, there is a diner for you in the fridge' Brooke yelled back but Riley didn't hear her.

As soon as Riley entered her room, she locked the door and sat on her bed against the headboard hugging her knees. Her breathing was rapid, and tears were flowing down her cheeks. Flashes of that night in the park came back. Riley was locked in her position. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't calm herself down. Riley zoned out staring at the wall hoping she wouldn't pass out.

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Published: February 16th, 2023
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIZZIE! <3

Hope you liked this chapter! A bit off a cliffhanger I am sorry for that.. or am I.. ;)

 Please be kind to yourself! eat, drink, sleep, journal, walk, brush your teeth, and shower. If you're having a bad time, that's oke! try to pick one of these things to do today and let me know how it went! I want to know and help you :)Till the next one!! byeeeee