A Reason To Fight | #Wattys2019

Chapter Two - Help Her

*Chapter Two - Help Her*

(Riley's POV)

Hours have past, Devon and Dominic have left and taken King home with them. And here I sat in my office still doing paperwork. I honestly don't mind it all that much, it helps me keep my mind off of things. 

Putting my pen down I rub the palm of my hands down my face, letting out a tired sigh. At that time my phone starts to ring. 

The name 'Nova' is read on the screen, Picking it up I hit the answer button.

"Hello?"

"Hey Riley! So um I may have a problem... Do you think I could swing by the gym real quick? It's  really important."

The terror in her voice isn't hard to hear, "Of course you can. Nova-"

"Okay thanks I will be there soon, 'kay bye!" She interrupted me before I could question her and then she hung up the phone. 

I look down at my phone, "Well that wasn't weird at all."

A Couple minutes later Nova's dark pink porsche pulls up in front of the gym. The car isn't what surprised me, it was how Nova looked coming out. She looked like she got into a fight and lost, dark purple bruises ran down her arms and legs, her lip bleeding and now that I take a closer look she has a small cut on her right cheek. Her light brown hair matted to her caramel forehead, the look of total exhaustion plastered on her face.

"Oh my god Nova, what happened to you!" I gasped out as I run up to help her. Putting her arm around my shoulders I help her walk to the curb and sit her down. 

With a struggled breath she says, "He got mad again. I tried. I promise. But he had friends."

Anger. White hot anger is all that I felt in that moment. I clenched my fists at my side, nails digging into my palm. "They did WHAT!" I roared out, my entire body shaking with pure rage.

"Riley-"

"No." I seethed, calming slightly, "You will not go back there, ever. You hear me?!"

"Riley, you need to calm down, okay? I'm not going back, I promise."

Taking a deep breath I try to calm myself down. "Do you have your stuff in your car?"

"Yeah, I do. Why?"

"You are going to live with King and me. I have a guest bedroom that you can have. And we don't have to split rent yet, I can take most of it until you get back on your feet."

Her brown doe eyes filled with hope at my words, "Thank you so much Riley!" Throwing her arms around my shoulders she lets out a cry of happiness.

"Now let's go home and get you cleaned up."

I open the front door to the apartment and look back at Nova, "I will get you a key later, but for now you know where the shower is. I'll bring your stuff up and you go get cleaned up, 'kay?"

"Alright, thank you Riles," she smiled in obvious pain and walked off to the shower.

Nova is like a younger sister to me. She first came stumbling into the gym three years ago; she was beaten black and blue by her foster father. It took her over a year to finally trust me, and ever since then I felt protective over her. I guess today he found her again.

With a huff I drop the last box on the floor next to her bed. My god this girl has a lot of shit, jesus. I grab the hair tie off of my wrist and throw my hair into a messy ponytail, then I shrug off my leather jacket and carry it back to my room.

"Riley, Are you in the room?" I hear Nova question from the bathroom.

"Yeah, I'm coming."

I walk over to the bathroom and knock on the closed door. "It's open."

Pushing the door open I try to hold in my gasp. On her back there is a long jagged scar that goes from her left shoulder blade to her right hip. "What happened?"

"He did that when I tried to run away the first week I lived there. I guess the scar never faded."

Not knowing what to say to that I ask, "Do you need anything or?"

She turns around, fixes her towel and asks, "Is everything in my room?"

"Yup. And get some rest, you are going to have to come to the gym with me in the morning."

"Okay. Wait, where is King?"

"Oh, He is with the twins tonight." I say as I turn around to go change and finally get some sleep.

Two gun shots rang throughout the house, screams echoed in the halls and in the middle of it all was a little girl. She wept by the body of her mother, and the person's gun was her father. Who had not one ounce of regret in his cold dead eyes.

"MAMA!" screamed the little girl, "MAMA WAKE UP! PLEASE MAMA DON'T LEAVE ME!"

One more gun shot stopped the girl's screams, straight through her right shoulder. Her world getting darker, darker and all she saw was her father's gun pointed at her. 

Three gun shots was all it took for an entire family to crumble.

***

A/N:

Heyo!! What do you guys think of this chapter?

Bet y'all didn't expect that ending..

Btw I'm so proud of this chapter because I wrote it in one day! Go me!!

Can we just talk about how hot this is for a second? My god, I need Jesus because of this man.

-Hailey