The Girl They Couldn't Find

Chapter 6

Riley's POV

He was the one I feared the most. 

Maya's POV

I wish she'd talk to me. 

When it happened, she hid from the world. She locked her door, and when she let us through the window, she would stare at the ceiling. When it was over [or when we thought it was over] she told us.

I'd never do that to her. 

Riley's eyes teared up, telling us how the girl who looked like her would stare at her for hours on end. How the boy who looked like Lucas would shove her against the wall, and draw cries from her mouth. How the boy who looked like Farkle would command her to kill herself.

How the girl who looked like me, whisper words of contempt into Riley's ears until those words became truths in Riley's mind. 

Riley's POV

I knew what happened wasn't real. 

I knew that anything that he did to me never happened.

And yet, it did. 

I'm in the train station, watching as happy children smile and laugh.

Suddenly, a jolt of want shot through, pain spreading faster than a Japanese bullet train. 

He did so many terrible things. 

Worst of all, he made me want to feel the pain. 

Maya's POV

Ranger Ricky-Roy. 

That's really all I can say. 

A year after it happened, we were seventeen. We were having a sleepover and watching a Disney marathon of our favourite movies. We were giggling over who I should date, the nerdy Canadian or the geeky kid from Minnesota. 

"It was Lucas."

We were watching 'the Little Mermaid,' and when Ariel and Eric kissed, Riley blurted those three words out, and began wailing like a tortured soul.

She was a tortured soul. She still is. 

"I k-know it wasn't real, but it hurt so much. I-I know I-I'm still...b-but he made me think that...f-feel like..." 

I held her tightly and told her it would never happen again, and that she was blameless. 

I was wrong.