Perhaps (Book 1) | ✔

ACT II - Scene 8

Accent Academy — outside Gloria's Dressing Room

Riley didn't show up to rehearsal on Tuesday. Or on Wednesday. Thursday, either.

Even though what he had done still hurt me, I was starting to grow worried. Sean had told me that neither he, Luke, Sam, or Layla had heard from him. He wasn't answering his phone, and he hadn't shown up to any of his classes all week.

Is he okay? Did something happen?

Horrible thoughts of Riley getting into a car accident and being in the hospital seriously injured started to plague my mind; but I tried to reason that they were unlikely. If he had been injured, then surely his parents would have contacted the university or something. Professor Baron was growing increasingly angry at his absence, and I doubted that he would have been that way if Riley was in the hospital. Plus, Riley and Sean were best friends. Sean would know if anything terrible had happened. He wouldn't have been asking me every day if I had received a call from Riley or not.

Not that I'd checked my phone since the morning after to see if he had called me.

After rehearsal ended on Friday night, I resolved to return home and check my phone for any more calls from Riley. Maybe if I called him, I could get him to answer. He had wanted to talk the day after Halloween; would he still want to? I was still hurt—I was still upset—but I was too worried to not reach out to him.

He's my friend.

I had no idea what I was going to say when I called him. It was going to be incredibly hard to hear his voice when I was still having dreams about the way he had spoken to me on Halloween. But what else was I supposed to do?

However, I was spared having to make a difficult phone call.

As I approached my dressing room, I looked up to see someone standing outside of it. My heart immediately began to pound in my ears when Riley looked up at me, and I resisted the urge to turn around and run the other way. Suddenly, all I could think about was the way he had whispered my name in my ear; the smell of alcohol on his breath; the way he had panted against my neck; the way his fingers had—

"Gloria," he spoke, and his voice quaked. "I-I need to talk to you. I need your help." I stopped several feet away from him, unable to bring myself to move any closer. His eyes were desperate as they stared back at me, and it didn't escape my notice how bloodshot they were or how they were lined by the same dark circles that seemed to be permanently stuck under mine. "What...what happened Halloween night?"

"What do you mean?" I stared back at him in shock. Was he seriously asking me what had happened that night? Did he not remember anything? Or...did he, and just wanted me to confirm it?

"I..." He seemed completely lost as he reached up and ran a hand through his hair, which looked dirty. I watched as his shirt sleeve rode up, and I was shocked to see several scratches along his wrists.

From my fingernails...

"Something happened after we left the party," he continued, finally looking back up at me. "I—We came back here; I remember that. You were looking for your phone charger because your phone had died while we were taking pictures. You...you thanked me for inviting you to the party. And then I...I finally told you that I liked you. And I kissed you..." He ticked these events off, looking back up at me after the last one as if he wanted me to confirm that everything he had just said had actually happened.

"Yeah...that's right..." I whispered back as I diverted my eyes. It hurt too much to look at him.

"I thought it was all a dream," he whispered. "I had wanted for so long to tell you how I felt; to kiss you the way I did that night. But—but something else happened. And I"—he stopped, and I heard him let out a curse—"something else happened. What was it?"