Solving Riley

❄Chapter 10

"You can close your eyes to the things you don't want to see. But you can't close your heart to the things you don't want to feel."

~Johnny Depp

Zohac's POV

<<<<>>>>

When I was ten and we went to a zoo in Thailand, I saw a pregnant tiger there. There was a spherical glass room where you went to observe all the rare tigers. For two minutes, she didn't realize that I was staring at her and when she finally looked at me, I never forgot that moment. With a heavy belly, she walked towards me and I just froze, being completely mesmerized. We had the same height and she stood there, two inches away from the glass, with her eyes meeting mine. I swear I could hear her breathe. At the end, Dad had to drag me away so that we wouldn't miss our Dolphin show. That was the first time I wasn't able to take my eyes off someone. Today was the second.

She looked so cute there, standing on the table in the backyard with a comb in her hand. Addressing her soldiers which were- Woody from toy story, Bugs bunny, a barbie doll, a frog which she kidnapped from the grass, lily's pet lizard and lily herself. It took me a while to digest that fact but she actually had a pet lizard. His name was Charles. She even made little clothes for him.

"Everyone ready? Listen to me carefully. These few minutes will be the most crucial minutes of our entire life. This is a matter of life and death. One mistake and you'll be out of the team. One hit, and you'll lose your life. Now come on soldiers and get your weapons! One gun in one hand."

The things she called 'weapons' were water balloons.

I didn't know why I ever agreed to do this. I better hope I don't get a call from work. Abigail would definitely be mad at me to keep the phone in the room in case an important crisis turned up. Violet's neighbours whom I've never seen were kind of scary from what she spoke about them. If they'd come to know about what we intended to do, they'd probably kill us and bury us in their backyard.

"Johnny Bravo!! Stop dreaming and come here to collect your balloons right now!" she ordered.

I got scared like a kitten. This girl surely was high.

She handed me two water balloons in my hands and four in the plastic bag. She did the same with rest others. And there we were, all armed. Ready to attack the enemies. To be very honest, it was thrilling. I was happy.

"Zohac, I'm doing this only because of Riley. Trust me, the lady over there has a big fat butt and a bull dog of the same face. Her two kids look like Darla- the girl with braces from finding nemo." Violet said

"Whoa whoa, what is this thing with ya'll mentioning cartoons?"

"You won't understand. Leave it. My point is, if they lodge a complaint, things can go terribly wrong. If the media finds it, you know what it can do to your reputation. Lily and I are there to take care of Riley. Are you sure you still want to do this?" she asked.

"Don't worry about me. I'm all in for this."

Riley heard this. She walked towards me, slightly tripping. Her response was completely unexpected. Yet I kept thinking about it all day.

"I like you Zohac. You're really nice, really funny." She hugged me with one arm, chucked and looked towards Violet. "And he's really hot." She whispered, loudly.

***

The house was just next to Violet's. It was decent. We were at the fence, peeping at the backyard of their house like Sherlock Holmes. It wasn't anything like Violet described it. We tiptoed and stood against the wall to the backyard when Lily tied a handkerchief to her forehead.