Pieces of the Past

Chapter 29- A

James's POV

"We gotta go. We're going to be late." Riley told me, before I leaned in to give her another kiss. "We were supposed to be there 5 minutes ago to work on our duet, and rehearsal is in 2 minutes now." She giggled, but didn't argue as I pulled her in for another kiss. We pulled away almost a minute later, and she giggled, getting off me, as I sat up on the couch. Riley pulled a brush out of her bag, and combed it through her hair, fixing it to look like we hadn't just been snuggling together on the couch in the music room during our 10 minute break. As she put her brush away, I saw her pause, looking at something in my bag. "James." She said, turning around.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Where'd you get that black hoodie?" She asked, looking confused and a little scared. Shit! Beth told me to not keep it in my dance bag. I should've listened to her.
"It's my dad's. I must've grabbed it accidentally from the dryer this morning." I told her.
"Oh. I understand, I do it all the time." Riley said, seeming to buy the lie I had just made up.

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Riley's POV

Riley- I know who you are, and I'll tell the cops.
I typed. My thumb hovered over the send button, before finally pressing it. None of us had ever tried texting A before. But here I was doing that now. My phone buzzed in my hands, surprising me. I looked down at the reply.
Unknown- what do you want?
I already knew what I wanted.
Riley- meet me in studio A in 30 minutes.
The reply came almost instantly, meaning A had been watching for it.
Unknown- see you there.
I looked around at everyone in Culture Shock, and smiled. This was it. I was getting my answer.

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I quietly entered studio A. The lights were out, and no one was here, except for the person in the black hoodie that had their back to me. I took a breath, before speaking. "I know who you are. So I don't understand why you're hiding from me." I said to them.
"How can I be sure you're right?" The person asked in a raspy voice, which made me realize that they were using a voice modifier.
"I knew from the guilty look you had at Stephanie's party when we got the text, and from the black hoodie in your bag. Your dad doesn't wear black, James." I said, adding his name to the end to let him know I did know it was him. He turned to face me, and pulled the hood of the hoodie off, exposing himself to me. James removed the voice modifier, and spoke to me in his normal voice.
"Listen, Riles." He said to me.
"No! You're not who I thought you were. Luckily I was smart enough to figure it out." I said, turning to leave.
"Riley I didn't mean to hurt you." He called. I shook my head, and turned to walk back over to him.
"You're a jerk!" I exclaimed, slapping his cheek as hard as I could. His hand clutched it, and he groaned in pain. "Oh did that hurt? Good!" I said, before turning on my heel and leaving him standing there, holding his soon to be bruised cheek.