Miracle in the Making

Chapter 4

Riley's POV

I breathed a shaky breath, and was about to open my mouth to talk, when my phone rang. Talk about good timing. "Sorry, gotta take this. Better go." I said quickly, grabbing my phone and hopping up from my spot, practically running to the kitchen. It had only been a telemarketer, which I wasn't going to answer, but it was an excuse. I wasn't going back. I was gonna barricade myself in my room. Good plan Riley. I headed up the stairs and into my room, closing and locking the door. I think everyone knew I wasn't going back down. But that didn't stop them from trying. Because not a minute after I had sat on my bed, someone knocked on my door.
"Riley, are you alright?" Emily asked worriedly.
"Yeah." I responded, not really interesting in conversing.
"I'll tell people you aren't feeling well." She told me, realizing I wanted to stay here. I owe her. Thank god though. I looked down at the locket around my neck, playing with the pendant. I wished I was ready to tell people, I can trust them and they deserve to know. But I'm not ready to hear myself say it. It'll become too real then. It's real now, it's happened, I can't change it, but saying it just feels like I'm admitting it to myself. I just can't. I can't do it. I sighed. James can do it. He has so much more confidence than I do. People always think I'm smarter than him, but he's probably way smarter than me. He told me to stop dancing, that it'll be bad. I didn't listen. It's my fault this happened. I know that. I've always known that. Maybe I'm just not the type of person that can be in charge. Everyone seems to know better than me. Even Margie, and she's like 4! I wish I would've listened to James, I wish I had been smarter, I wish that I was the type of person who could do this, then this wouldn't have happened. Twice! It's all my fault. Everyone knows it, secretly. They just won't admit it. Everything's my fault. Back at Regionals, Emily left The Next Step because of me, James kissed Beth because I hadn't been smart enough to say no to him doing the duet, Emily hurt her knee because I had been distracting her, keeping her from stretching, James didn't audition at the Internationals auditions because he didn't want to hurt me when he got the spot, he is the better dancer after all, and then I ruined everything for him after he tried so hard for me. And then, when we had finally fixed everything, I went ahead and broke it again. It's all my fault. I've known it all along, I just didn't want to admit it. Tears were flowing down my face as I pulled my knees into my chest. I'm like a hurricane, I break everything I touch. Maybe I should just stop. Stop breaking, stop pushing, stop dancing, stop crying, stop laughing, stop smiling, stop feeling, stop breathing. Stop everything.

James's POV

I ran upstairs, knocking on Riley's door. It was almost as though I could hear her crying in my head. She wasn't fine, she was broken. I knocked on her door again, but there was no response. "Riley! Let me in or I'm breaking the door down!" I told her. Nothing. The next thing I know, I'm staring at her, the door on the ground, having been broken off its hinges.