petrichor

Who Are You Anyway?

Riley

7 UNREAD MESSAGES

JARED: Riley

JARED: Look, I'm so sorry

JARED: It won't happen again, I swear

JARED: Ffs I just don't know what came over me

JARED: Can you please forgive me

JARED: I'll try to be better, I promise

JARED: Riley?

Riley only glanced at the notification before she decided to ignore it. To hell with him. she thought. It wasn't the first time her boyfriend had lashed out at her and then beg for an apology like this, situations like this already happened multiple times---and Riley knew that every one of his promises were lies before he started acting like a jerk again.

DING! DING! DING! more messages started pouring in and tugging on Riley's nerve. For real, get a life! she screamed in her head. So much for a quiet morning before she left for college today. This morning she woke up after having enough sleep after several nights of sleeping a little past midnight and she was determined that nothing could spoil her day.

She got up, did a little yoga routine she looked up online, took a shower before finally settling down to grab a bite for breakfast. Also, today her mind was set on the thought of her focusing on today's lesson instead of zoning out. Two nights ago, her parents called, asking how she was doing and how her grades have been. "I hope you're still the most hard-working student, Riley." her dad said from the other line.

"Oh, yeah, hahaha." she replied nervously, if her parents knew just how much she had flunked her studies, she might as well work as a waitress in McDonalds, they said to her if she ever thought about dropping out. When the call ended, Riley knew that she had to get her grades up if she ever wanted her mom and dad to be proud of having her.

Riley's parents were what she called "Rich PeopleTM ". Her dad was a businessman and her mom were a lawyer, and her parents had always hoped that when she graduated, she would take over the family business---which wasn't something she wanted to do. No, I don't want to have like a nine to five job with a monthly salary, like that is the most boring shit ever. she thought to herself.

Riley wanted to be a human rights activist. She wanted to participate in marches demanding for a better world, she wanted to be a lawyer that could defend the weak people who were wrongly accused and sent to jail because the system only cared for those who were pouring with cash. That was her dream ever since she was in high school, back when all she did was study 24/7.

If you still wanna catch that dream, then you sure as fricking hell gotta study. she reminded herself when she arrived at campus. Riley looked at all the people who passed by her in the courtyard who were in the same major as her. Look at all these people, they also wanna be just like you. How could you lose to them? You said you wanna be the best. You can't lose from them.

JARED: Babe...

1 MISSED CALL

JARED: Where are you??

JARED: Please, I wanna talk to you

It was annoying, constantly hearing the notification sound of her boyfriend spamming her inbox, texting her name multiple times saying "I'm sorry" but she was tired of answering them. At this point, she couldn't care less if Jared ended his life like he always threatened to when Riley paid no attention to him. "I can't live without you, Riley." he said, "So if you break up with me, I might as well die." back when Riley still didn't know the truth about him, it sounded like a wedding vow, but now it seemed like a threat to her.