Fire Escape Visits

Storms

Riley's POV

"Mom, I'm going out," I said walking through the living room to the front door to grab my keys.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Lucas'," I lied knowing she wouldn't want me anywhere near Maya after what happened last night.

"What are you doing at his house?" she asked. "You may or may not remember this, but your father and I grounded you last night after that stunt you pulled with that girl."

"I know, but it's for a project."

"Alright, what's your project on?" she asked suspicious of me.

"The Civil War," I said without much thought. It was the last thing I could remember from history class yesterday.

"No drinking," she said sternly. "And one more thing, Riley."

"Yeah, mom?"

"Stay away from Maya," she said.

I nodded my head.

"Do you understand me, Riley?" she asked.

"Yeah, mom. I promise I'll stay away from her," I lied through my teeth.

I walked out and got in my car. After driving for almost two hours on a completely empty road, I saw a blonde haired girl walking alongside the street.

"Maya?" I asked slowing down near the figure, almost one hundred percent positive it was her.

"Hi, Riles," she smiled trying to sound cheery, but I could tell that she was exhausted.

"How's your face?" I asked as she climbed into my car.

"Great. It stopped stinging an hour ago so that's a good sign."

"What has your mom said about it? Has she talked to Shawn yet?"

"I haven't told her," she said straight-faced. "And I'm not going to."

"Maya, he hit you."

"It was an accident, I know he didn't mean to. It's my fault anyway."

"How can you possibly think that?" I asked in disbelief.

"We were fighting and I said something about him not being my father," she told me. "I shouldn't have said any of it because it's not true. He's been more of a dad to me than my own father has," she said shaking her head.

"Still, none of that gives him the right to hit you."

"Can we just drive?" she asked with a sigh. "I wanna go home so I can curl into a ball and go to sleep forever."

"Alright," I quietly said putting the car into drive.

She put her bags in the back seat and leaned her head up against the window and quickly fell asleep.

Maya's POV

I woke up in Riley's car, but Riley wasn't there. It was pouring rain and I was on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere.

"Riley?" I asked searching the car for her.

I was startled by a few weird sounds coming from the back side of the car and a dark figure appearing at the driver's side window.

When the door was opened, the interior car lights turned on revealing Riley, drenched from head to toe.

"Riley, why on earth would you go outside during an insane storm like this?"

She turned her head to me and glared daggers.

"I was replacing a flat tire that I got while driving to freaking upstate New York to pick up a girl that got me into trouble that I'm not even supposed to be hanging out with," she snapped.

"I'm sorry, Riley. I didn't mean to drag you into this whole mess," I tried apologizing.

"You could've fooled me," she said continuing to look out at the road in front of us.

Great I thought to myself. I'm in a fight with my best friend and we still have an hour left of our drive. Just great.