petrichor

Retail Therapy

Riley

"You ungrateful bitch!" Jared's harsh words rang in her ear repeatedly until she felt like having a migraine. Riley sat there, hugging her knees into a ball, her body and mind in a state of physical and emotional pain. She couldn't move, no matter how hard she tried, her whole system felt like it wanted her to stay there in that position forever. All over the living room, her newly purchased clothes were strewn everywhere and the retail cards and dollar bills in her wallet also suffered the same fate.

Taking a deep breath while counting to five, she tried to straighten her legs and get herself out of that position. Painfully, she tried to stand up. "Ow." Riley said quietly. She had lost count on how many times Jared had beaten her to a pulp like this.

Sometimes Jared said hurtful words to her, and then he would apologize, but he had never did a damage to her as big as this. It was a miracle she was still alive, she could've had it worse like the people she saw on the news about how they died from getting beaten up by their S/Os. Riley held on to the sofa for support, Jared had kicked her in the shins and now it hurt badly.

Riley tried her best to walk and pick up the fallen objects on the floor. Every step she took felt as if she was stepping on needles while being dragged down. Stupid f***ing---, she thought to herself. She didn't bother finishing her sentence, her mind had stopped working and now she couldn't even produce one coherent thought.

Riley thought today would turn out fine, Jared hadn't contacted her in any way last night, which meant he didn't want to have any plans with her tomorrow. He was probably going to spend the day with his friends watching football games and drinking, no big deal. When she realized that, Riley breathed a sigh of relief. Phew, that means i get to be alone today. she thought. That was good, because was also looking forward to have a little me time with herself.

Almost every day, Jared texted or called Riley telling her he wanted to spend the day with her. When he mentioned that, it meant that Riley had to devote her time for him and him only. It sounded fine to a normal person, but for Riley, it felt like prison. Being with Jared made her had to channel a different personality to please him, and it was exhausting.

Today was supposed to be a fun and relaxing day, a chance where she got to rejuvenate mind, nothing could destroy her mood.

Around campus, nobody paid attention to her that much. Even the teachers only know her as "the quiet kid in the back who barely got a passing grade". Because of that, she often wore loose clothing like a hoodie or jogger pants because she couldn't care less about what she looked like among the other people in her year. But right now she was going to a place where everyone was a stranger to her, she wanted to dress to impress. Who knows, maybe one person would look at her thought, "Wow, she's pretty."

"I'm gonna turn everyone's heads today." she said to herself as she applied her eyeliner. Riley looked in the mirror and was quite amazed at her wardrobe choice. She was sporting a black tanktop with leggings, a denim jacket and did her hair in a messy bun, to top it off, she wore gold hoop earrings in her ears. "Oh yeah, I look so fine today."

As it turned out, dressing up as someone completely different to what she usually was did something different to Riley's mood. When she entered the mall, she didnt walk in a slouchy manner, instead, she strutted around like a model with her head held high, the song blaring in her headphones felt like a background music of a main character in a movie when they were doing something cool.

Instantly, she felt the eyes of the other visitors looking at her in awe, giving her a surge of confidence. Oh yeah, baby. How do i look now? she said triumphantly in her mind. But despite of the surge of endorphins, she couldn't shake the nagging feeling in her heart. Because somewhere, in the back of her head, there was fear waiting for her to question everything she was doing. And a scary thought, would Jared find her here? What would he do if he did? Pssh. Riley dismissed the thought, Why would he even be here? Like, this ain't the only place in the area.