Playing for Rya

44. Hiding Place

Song: Cold water by Major Lazer ft Justin Bieber and MØ;  cover by Connor Maynard & Alex Aiono.

Rya checked her phone as it rang for the umpteenth time since leaving the hospital.

It was Derek calling.

'Is that him again?' Kris asked as they trailed behind a darkly suited man who led them through the significantly smaller and very unfamiliar back entrance of their building, down a bare concrete hallway and up a set of stairs.

She nodded.

'You should take his call Ry.' Her friend said in response to her nod.

Rya was silent for a few moments as all four of them made their way up the dimly lit set of stairs, including Paul who trailed behind the small party. 'I just need a minute.' Was her response.

To her credit, Kris simply nodded and said nothing more, for which Rya was grateful. For someone who was usually loud-mouthed, Kris almost always knew when to hold her tongue.

And her restraint couldn't have come at a better time than now. Now, when all Rya needed was quiet.

For someone who had just discovered what was going on, Kris appeared to be taking everything in stride. For her, it was the opposite. She felt as though she was quickly losing control over matters in which she should have been making her own decisions. She felt as though the rug had been pulled out from under her feet and she had gone from slow walking to a full-on sprint all in the space of a few hours.

Just the evening before, her life had been hers alone. Her affairs private. She had been able to move freely without fear or anxiety of the media popping out of the woodwork to accost her. And now, she couldn't move without needing an escort.

Now she was pretending to be sick in order to avoid going to work and facing everyone who, it seemed, now had an opinion about her yet didn't know her. She felt like the decisions she should be making for herself were no longer hers to make, and if there was anything she had learned about herself over the years, it was that she needed to be the one holding the reins in matters that concerned her. It was important for her to make her decisions, to take her chances. And right now she didn't feel like that was the case. What she needed was a minute to take it all in. A minute by herself and away from the prying eyes of people.

Thankfully, it didn't take them long to arrive at her third-floor apartment, and with a quiet word of thanks to their equally quiet male companions, she unlocked her front door, and let herself and Kris in before shutting it behind them.

Kicking off her shoes, she sagged against the door and looked to Kris who had an uncharacteristically somber look on her face. 'At some point, I'll have to say something to the press.' She whispered. She had no idea whether Paul and the other man who had accompanied them were still outside her door. Something told her they were.

She felt like a prisoner in her own home now.

Kris's brows rose as Rya straightened and padded barefoot to her bedroom. 'Uh, Ry,' she said with a note of caution in her voice, 'I don't think that's how this works.'

'Well,' Rya gave a frustrated sigh as she released her hair from the loose bun she had placed it in that morning, and ran her hands through the dark locks as she paced the floor of her bedroom, 'I have to do something!'

'You're only going to make things worse if you talk to the media,' Kris said as she plopped down on the bed, 'they'll just twist your words and make shit worse if you ask me.'

Rya stopped pacing as she stared at her friend. She sank onto the bed a second later.

'Fuck.' She whispered dejectedly. ' I don't know how to make this go away.'