The End Of Us

Chapter 3

Riley's POV

I walked straight into the kitchen, avoiding everyone else. I just needed to be alone for a while, only a minute, just to calm down. I took a couple deep breaths, steadying myself, and turned to the cutting sitting on the counter. I slowly picked up the knife, calmly cutting the carrot again. Less than a minute later, Chloe walked in the kitchen, a concerned look on her face. She had decided to skip practice at ballet de la rien today, so she could be here to see everyone again. She was still one of my closest friends, even though we only really video chatted now. But I made sure to be at every single performance she performed at Toronto. I looked up at her, before back down to the cutting board, speeding up my chopping slightly. "Ri, is everything alright?" She asked me, concerned. I sighed.
"Yeah, fine. Everything's fine." I said, continuing to speed up my chopping.
"Have you and James been fighting often?" She asked. It was the question I didn't want to hear anyone ask. Because the answer was 'yes'. We were going through a ruff patch right now. I was sure we'd be fine though, we always were in the end. But nothing had ever been this bad before. I continued chopping, looking up at Chloe slightly, before I felt pain shot through my finger.
"Shit!" I exclaimed, dropping the knife from my hand, and bringing the tip of my left middle finger to my mouth, sucking on the blood escaping from my finger.
"Is it bad?" Chloe asked, walking beside me, and pulling my hand from my mouth, staring at my finger. From the left side of my finger, to the right was a diagonal cut, bleeding drops of blood, that slowly ran down my finger. "Do you have any bandaids?" She asked me. I nodded.
"Powder room medicine cabinet." I told her. She smiled slightly at me, and went to retrieve the bandaids from the bathroom. She returned a minute later, and held my arm out, as she put the bandaid over the cut, after cleaning up the blood of course though. Chloe looked around at the kitchen, and sighed.
"Want any help?" She asked me, smiling. I smiled back, and nodded.
"Yeah. Sure." I told her. She grabbed an apron from the back of a chair, and put it on.
"What can I do?" She asked.
"You know how to make potatoes?" I asked her. She rolled her eyes, in a 'duh' way, and grabbed the bag of potatoes. I started to cut carrots again, staying slow this time. By the time we both finished, it was 6:00. I finished putting the gravy in the gravy boat, and set it on the dining room table, before smiling. "Dinner." I called loudly, so everyone could hear me.