Becoming Riley

Chapter 6: The Invitation

Like it has been stated before, Liam and Riley never were really invited to friends' houses or birthday parties. It was until Riley was 15 and Liam was 17 when James and Michelle started to cool down on being so harsh and abusive. Don't get it wrong though, James was still a drunken addict and Michelle still bitched her head off any second she could. Then one day Riley was in Coach Cain's class and Anastasia turned around. Riley could see her lips moving as she spoke to Riley but she couldn't hear anything. She was staring at those silver blue eyes.

"Hello? Anybody home?" Anastasia says.

"Oh, sorry, I got a lot on my mind, my bad. What'd you say?" Riley questioned.

"I wanted to know if you would like to come over to my place and hang out this Friday, maybe even sleep over!" Anastasia smiled as she spoke. You could see the excitement in her face. But it quickly went away because of the grim look on Riley's. Riley scattered her brain thinking of an excuse. She couldn't say yes because her parents would never let her and she didn't want to let Anastasia down. But she didn't want to say no either. She wanted to spend quality time outside of the classrooms with Anastasia. She was Riley's best friend. Her only friend.

"Sure, let me just ask my erm... parents," Riley offers.

"Sweeeeeet! Let me know ASAP okay?" Anastasia touches Riley's hand. She flinches away again, this time because her hand hurts. Anastasia looks at her hand, notices how swollen it is at the knuckles. She immediately looks up at Riley who's face is pale from embarrassment.

"What happened? You need to see the nurse and get that on ice! Here, I have to go to the nurse before the bell rings anyways. Come with me," Anastasia urges Riley to comply.

"Uhhhhhh sure thing but won't-"

"LADIES WILL YOU PLEASE JUST SHUT UP!! WE GET IT, YOU LIKE TO TALK BUT SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO LEARN AND SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO NOT RIP OUR EARS FROM OUR HEADS FROM YOUR ANNOYING VOICES." Coach Cain shouts from his desk. He isn't even teaching at the moment, he has a newspaper in his hands and his feet rested on his desk. The whole class is silently reading chapter 14 except for Anastasia and Riley.

"Sorry Coach Cain, Riley needs to go to the nurse, she's injured. And I need to go also." Anastasia stands up, gathers her items and shoves them into the whale bag and looks at Riley. "Well, get up."

Riley reluctantly stands up and collects her items. They stroll to the door and Coach Cain doesn't even glance up or tells them no. He's the football coach for the freshman and he could care less about the class. Coach Cain proves it everyday with his sloppy notes and constant slideshows made before dinosaurs existed. Metaphorically speaking.

As Anastasia leads Riley to the nurse's office she thinks about what could have happened to Riley that she would act so casual about a swollen fist. The nurse's office was across the hallway down a bit so Riley had enough time to come up with an excuse that didn't involve the truth about her fist. Last night Michelle decided she wanted to pop some Xanax and go on a "trip". When she saw Riley in her room reading her textbook Michelle took that opportunity to mess with her.

Michelle stumbled into Riley's room, stared her down and demanded "Have you been touching my make up? HAVE YOU??"

Riley, who is disgusted by make up, calmly closed her textbook and replied, "No I have not. Why would I touch your make-"

SLAP!

Riley's head twisted from Michelle's left hand smacking her so hard. Riley, confused and petrified, sat there as Michelle swung again. Riley felt the sting across her face but didn't allow the twist again. No one likes whiplash right?

"Now, tell me the fucking truth you piece of shit, or I'm trashing this whole room," Michelle heaved out the words as if she was some type of God. Riley flipped like a switch. She was home alone so she knew she would face the wrath of James eventually but at least not now. Riley jumped up from her chair and punched Michelle right in the face. Stumbling backwards Michelle grabbed her nose and screamed hysterically. There was blood, and plenty of it. Michelle glanced at her hand, saw the blood and started screaming even more.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Riley screamed louder.

This caused her fist to swell up. But Michelle wasn't having any retaliation in the house. She grabbed Riley by her hair and slammed her into the wall. It didn't do any damage but it caused Riley to have a good couple of bruised ribs. Michelle let go of Riley's hair and left the room abruptly. Riley fell to the floor crying, clenching her fist and her ribs.

"Hey, Riley, we're here. Hello in there?" Anastasia waves her hand in front of Riley's face. Being brought back to present time Riley shook her head and smiled. "I'm still here don't worry!" Riley was motioned into the room by the nurse who kindly handled the swollen fist carefully. After wrapping it in a cold ice pack and bandages, Riley sat in the spare chair of the office. It was then Anastasia pulled out a mini device. Riley, intrigued and concerned, watched as Anastasia poked her finger with another device and drew blood out.

Riley's head swam into waves. She felt immediately sick. She didn't understand why Anastasia was doing what she was doing. Seeing Anastasia drawing blood out, even a prick, made Riley angry. She didn't want to see Anastasia in pain. But she didn't understand what was going on. Anastasia then put her finger to the first device. It beeped and she sighed in relief.

"It's only at 114. So that means I can take 1 unit and still eat lunch right?" Anastasia asks the nurse who scribbles the numbers in a book.

"Yes, my dear. You can definitely eat lunch!" Replied the old lady.

"What, what, uh, is that?" Riley pointed at the hand held device in Anastasia's grasp.

"Oh, yeah, I guess I forgot to mention this. I'm diabetic."

Riley's head swam even farther into the sea. Blackness.