Roses are Red

13. Old Friends

We talk for what seemed like ages until Rideon's  mum came in and asked to have a word. I could make out little parts of the conversation and tried to listen as she looked pretty stressed out when she came in and it worried me.

"Have you checked her?" His mum asked him, her tone strong and quite aggressive, I was taken aback as I wondered if "her" was me.

"Yeah, it's all good," I hear Rideon faintly, I could bearly hear the sigh he let out afterwards.

"She's different from the last time she was here," her words made it obvious she was talking about me, "I don't want you to get hurt." Her words hit me like a brick, I couldn't hurt Rideon even if I wanted to, I held back a growl. Bitch, The voice in my head commented, I wish I could just nudge her or something to get her to shut up.

"Rachael is different..." He said something else but it wasn't audible, they started whispering from then on. I heard the door being opened and a small jingle, letting everyone know a customer had just come in, I popped my head round to see, Carly? I get up and walk into the doorway.

"Why are you here?" I ask, clearly pissed off, "How did you know I was here?"

"Oh shh, I followed you, Foster mum intuition I guess." She waves me off, then looks for something behind me, I look around to where she was looking.

"I left an hour ago?" I ask, clearly a bit confused, "what are you looking at?" I nearly shout it but I hold back the need to.

"Just come on," she takes my hand and starts to pull me out the shop.

"Wait-" I get cut off.

"Carly?" My eyes widen in shock as I hear Rideon's mum's voice. Carly turns around letting go of my arm, wearing the fakest smile I've ever seen.

"Sylvia!" So they know each other, wait, Sylvia knows Carly's real name, my eyes widen at the thought and I turn to Sylvia. Her eyes go wide as she looks between Carly and me, her hands slowly move up to her mouth as she gasps. "We need to talk." Carly declares and the fake smile fell off her face.

"Do we ever! You need to get out of my son's life!" She shouts at me and I jump back.

"What the fuck mum." I hear Rideon coming towards us, he comes into sight and gives me an apologetic smile. "She's one of them," Sylvia whispers, thinking I won't hear it. I see the look on Will's face and then he looks at me scanning me with an unknown emotion.  We both frown in utter confusion.

"Sylvia. We. Need. To. Talk." I suck in my breath as I hear Carly's tone of voice, Sylvia nods and gestures her to come with her. Carly soon follows her to the back of the shop. I hear a loud bang of a door shutting and wince.

"Well, you were right about her being harsh," Rideon laughs, but I still frown. "Hey, I'm sure everything is okay, my Mum just gets protective sometimes y' know?" I nod and he hugs me, I felt all my worries disappear in his warmth.

"What do you think they are talking about?" I ask reluctantly, pulling away from the hug.

"I'm not sure..." I could tell he knew something, even though he seemed as confused as me, "Rachael you do know you can tell me anything right?" I smile and nod, knowing full well I couldn't. He smiles and nods back, glancing at the floor, "even like a secret a normal person would freak out about, I will keep it and won't judge." My eyes widen slightly, I was about to open my mouth to say something, but my head snapped to Carly storming through the shop obviously pissed off.

"We have to go." I do as she said, knowing it was important. Walking out of the door with her, glancing back at Will with an apologetic smile. I see him turn around as his Mum comes from around the corner, opening her mouth as if she was yelling. They both slowly fade away from my sight.