whisper | rilaya

thirteen

"Stop! Stop!" Riley flailed frantically in her sleep. She was clearly having a nightmare.

I was worried her screaming might wake up my mom and Shawn who were sleeping down the hall so I placed a hand over her mouth.

Bad idea.

Immediately, Riley turned over so she was facing me and smacked me right across the face. "Mason, Mason, you're alive!" She exclaimed, holding onto my face.

I stared back at her blankly, debating whether or not I should wake her up. When I didn't reply, she started crying, while still asleep. "Oh my god. You're dead. You're really dead. It's my fault, isn't it?"

Grabbing onto the thin frame of her shoulders, I shook her gently. "Hey, Riles, wake up."

Her eyes shot open, relieved that her nightmare was over. "Peaches?"

"It's okay. You're safe now, I'll protect you." I whispered, pulling her body closer and kissing her gently on the forehead.

Riley let her head rest on my chest, holding onto my shirt tightly. She was still crying. My hand rubbed up and down her back repeatedly, trying to soothe her. I hummed a sweet lullaby in her ear, hoping that it would calm her down.

Slowly, her breathing began to even out. Riley peered up to look at me. I didn't bother trying to fall back asleep. Instead I focused on calming Riley so that she could instead. "Maya."

"Yeah?" I replied, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

She gulped and looked back down, pressing herself closer to my body. "I'm scared." Riley paused before continuing. "I was so confident that it wasn't me. Yet, I can't even remember what happened that night. What if they're right Maya? What if I really did do it."

"Are you listening to yourself?" I asked.
"You were framed, Riley. I know it."

Riley pushed herself up to sit upright on the bed. "Do you know for sure? Because yesterday you ran in screaming at me because everyone in New York thinks I killed someone."

Not wanting to sit up and have a deep conversation at 3am, I reached up to grab Riley's hand. Massaging it between two of my own, I urged her to lay down with me again.

Once she did, I took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm sorry about yesterday, princess. I had a meltdown and I shouldn't have reacted that way, it was stupid. I was in shock. I don't believe that you did it, Riley. Not for a second. We'll deal with this tomorrow. Get some rest for now, okay?" I told her, half awake.

Riley listened and grabbed my arm to place it around her waist. Even though she was taller, the brunette insisted on being the little spoon. It was adorable. "Okay." She agreed and closed her eyes, quickly falling back asleep.

~

Danielle sat beside me in art class, painting absentmindedly. "Hey, I was looking for you in all of my classes after lunch. The boys said you were acting weird and then took off. Is everything alright?"

Keeping my head down, I focused on drawing the thin strand of hair on the portrait of a young boy I was drawing. "I'm fine." I replied dryly. "Can we talk after class? It's personal."