Happening >>Riley Matthews<<

Chapter 13

"Hey Riles?"

"Hey Peaches?"

"Can I have my ring back?" I knew she was embarrassed to ask, but haven't we all been?

I gratefully gave it to her as we skipped off to school. I put mine back on my finger, too. Forgiven and forgotten... Well, we didn't  literally skip. There was no physically possible way that I could skip with that elephant ankle. We actually took the subway. It was more crowded than normal, but a nice lady gave up her seat for me so I could sit down. Forgiven... For that, I was very thankful.

We arrived at school. The halls seemed to start closing in on me almost immediately. I clung onto Maya for dear life. Nobody paid attention to it though. It just looked like I was being the usual, goofy, out of whack me. But I wasn't. I wasn't the Smiley Riley people used to know. Oh, I could fake it and fake it real well, but it still wasn't me. The old me didn't pretend. People came up and asked me about my crutches and I told them that I had sprained my ankle. And forgotten... They had nodded and hoped that I got better soon. Yeah right. Like anyone could be that considerate.

Maya told me on the subway that when she had gotten home last night from grabbing her backpack, Farkle and Lucas were there to great her at her window. Forgiven and forgotten...

The words forgiven and forgotten  kept running through my mind. Could I actually forgive Maya for the things she said? Could I forget them?

Could I actually forgive Farkle for the words he said? Could I forget them?

Could I actually forgive Lucas for the things he spoke? Could I forget them?

I wonder how many people actually say that phrase but don't mean a lick of it. I sure haven't forgotten about it. I haven't been able to forget it ever since the words were spoken. Forgiveness takes time and I don't know how long it will be until I can forgive them...

They all mean the world to me, but I don't think I can forgive and forget. At least not yet.

But the boys were sitting on Maya's bed, with their backpacks, doing their homework, apparently waiting for Maya, when she climbed through her window.

···

"What the heck are you guys doing here?"

The boys looked up from Maya's bed to see her in her own window. They slid down to the far end of her bed and Farkle patted for her to sit down.

Maya skeptically entered her room and asked "Guys, what's going on?"

"Maya, you know why we're here, don't pretend like nothing happened tonight." Maya examined Farkle's face.

"I yelled at her."

"I left her."

"I pushed her."

"You what?!" Farkle and Maya yelled in unison.

"No, no, no, not like that! I pushed her too far! You guys know I would never do that, c'mon!" Lucas wasn't pleased that his friends thought that he would actually hit a girl. Especially after getting expelled and not being able to get an education for a year. They knew he had changed.

It was silent for a moment.

"I think we all did all of those. We all yelled at her, we all left her, and we all pushed her too far."

"I forced myself on her. Do you know how awful I felt after I saw that innocent face crying after I picked her up for the first time? And what about the second time, huh? She was scared of me!"

"I threw my ring at her." The boys both looked at Maya. The room fell silent. Lucas and Farkle knew how much Ring Power meant to Riley and Maya. There was really power behind it, they weren't just rings.

Maya had promised Riley that she would never take the ring off until the day she died. Did she die today? Or did she kill someone?

"How do you come back from that?"

The room was silent. Nobody had anything to say. Farkle started running different scenarios through his mind of ways they could come back from that night.

"Guys?" Lucas and Maya faced him. "We are just going to have to embrace tomorrow."

···

I sat down at my desk at the front of the room when Farkle ran in as fast as his legs could carry him. Lucas followed, but he had this calm aura about him. Farkle paused to catch his breath and in the process, accidentally knocked down my crutches from their perch leaning on my desk. I flinched when I heard them clatter and so did everybody else in the room, which consisted of Maya, Farkle, Lucas, and I.

Farkle picked up my crutches and looked at me with apologetic, puppy dog eyes that I don't think he even tried to make. Natural reflexes, maybe? Who knows. He took one more deep breath and exhaled before opening his mouth to speak.

"Riley? I am so so sorry," he began. "I left you right after you told us you didn't want to be left. I was your shoulder and I left. You've always been my shoulder and you always stayed. I didn't. I shoul-"

"Fark-"

"Let me finish, Riley."

I wanted to tell him that he didn't need to apologize. I was the one who told him to leave. It's my fault, just like everything else is.

Actually, it's not all my fault. It's all my neighbor's fault. He does everything and then blames it on me. He never gets caught so he keeps on doing what he's doing while I on the other hand get caught all the time. I get caught so I stop. I stopped functioning. My brain didn't work anymore. Neither did my arms, my eyes, my ears, my sense of touch, my sense of taste, my nose. I had to be fed through a tube.

My neighbor moved out of his old home in my heart to the hollow place that is now my brain. He took a knife to it and did some carving on the inside although I really don't see why it was necessary. Isn't my brain wavy and bumpy enough, already? I don't need my neighbor woking on it.

"Riley, I left. I don't know how I'm going to make that up to you I'm really sorry."

"Far-"

"Riley, I'm so sorry that I didn't come back in!" Lucas! Shut up! I told you to go! "I had the idea to help you and then I just ditched. We all came back while you were gone and grabbed our backpacks and left. We're so sorry, Riley. Is there anyway we can make it up to you?"

"Well, let me say this first. I was the one who told you all to go. It's none of your guys' faults. It's all on me." Our classmates started to trickle in. "But, I might need some help getting from place to place," I said through my grin that seemed to keep getting wider.

They all chuckled, wrapped me up in a group hug, and then dispersed.

Riiiiing!!!!!

My smile instantly faded.

*****

What did you guys think of the flashback? I'm trying some different writing techniques. What ideas do you guys have for the story? What do you think is going to end up Happening? See what I did there? With the title? Okay, Imma shut up now. Byeeeeee.