petrichor

End of You and Me

Riley

Today, Riley thought, is the day everything's gonna change. The words that Lena said to them in the hospital the other day in the morning after she came to Natasha's house kept ringing in her head. "If we want Nat to get better, then we gotta fix ourselves first...Riley, you said you wanna break up with Jared, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then do it! You can't expect him to change because he never will, but you, you can change, right? You can't expect yourself to grow in the same environment that poisons you, so you have to get out of there." Lena ranted. Riley nodded as she strengthened her intentions. Yes, today was the day she was going to end her relationship with Jared and all the things that had to do with him for good.

Riley bit her lip, was she scared? Yes, from the start of when she first knew him, Jared had the ability to play with words, he could twist facts and make the good guy be the bad guy and vice versa. What if he would do the same thing with thing with Riley? Accusing her with lies and making her look like she was the bad guy.

Another thing that was always in her way with what she had always wanted to do was because her parents favored Jared and hoped that someday, Riley would become his wife. Clearly, they were oblivious to the way their sad future son-in-law treated their daughter. It was easy to do so too, all he had to do was act nice whenever Riley's parents invited both for a dinner somewhere.

Yeah well, he got money, so everything's easy for him .Jared also came from a rich family, so if they both marry, well, that would mean more money for both their parents as they can become business partners. Riley wondered, does her parents approve her relationship with Jared because of his "nice" attitude, or because he was rolling with dollar bills?

Okay so the plan is, I'm gonna tell him later, after class, tops. Riley went through the plan in her head, she was going to take her boyfriend out for lunch at a restaurant where she will tell him to leave. She figured that if ever Jared went berserk and wanted to beat her up, he couldn't do so because they were in a crowded and public place.

All day, she was a bundle of nerves, making her unable to focus on the material given to her in class. At breaktime, she didn't even flinch when Callie told them a horror story. Riley almost got Kayla hit a book to her head because she kept zoning out when she tried to tell her something. "What's wrong with you?" Kayla asked, "Nothing, my brain's not in my head today I guess." Riley replied simply.

I'm finally gonna do it

Today's the day

After this, my parents will probably be so mad.

But think about it, I won't have to deal with him anymore.

Those were the only words she could think of before all the classes she had for today were finished, but then a thought entered her psyche, what if what she was about to do was the wrong thing? What if Jared really had no faults? What if she turned out to be the bad guy instead? No. she dismissed the thought, that's what he wanted you to believe.

Riley thought of all the times Jared yelled at her, belittled her, and making her feel like she was constantly not worthy before she decided enough was enough. He had played mind tricks on her, questioning her if she was right or wrong. "Oh, babe, you're just too paranoid." she remembered him say, "Why did you think I was looking at that chick over there?" when they went out for dinner together when it was clear that her boyfriend had been ogling over a random girl's ass.

No doubt that when Riley finally told Jared, he would make her look and feel as if she was the one guilty one. He'd probably yell and call her a psycho bitch too. But other than that, what would he do? What if he tells lies about me? What if he did this? What if he did that? What if he---then she got it, if she kept thinking about it, then she wasn't going anywhere.