Ria Colton | on hold

Under our rocks

For 丂.卂
• You create the rocks upon which we stand •

"Meet Ria Colton, a classic, clumsy character sucked out of a good girl novel, forced to live the hell we call life. Her story was a tragic one, if only she knew."

"You'll have to excuse my brother." She eyed Damien with controlled anger, control is key as she believed, but it never really did anything against her good old brother, Damien. "He can be demonic and loves to take the mic out of my intellectual introductions and most of the time has no clue of what he utters." She smiled at the little boy holding onto Damien's hand. "I'm his sister, that's all he had to say. Who are you, little one?"

The little boy squinted at her. "You have stuff on your head."

"Sorry?"

"Stuff on your forehead!" He shriek giving her a tiny heart attack, enough to make her back away from the demon child.

"Kids are just menaces these days" she whispered under her breath.

She wiped her forehead with a tissue and brought it to her eyes. "Ahhh, This is an extract from the great Lavender Works. You know, the company which sells facial products to stationery." She paused thinking about the many occasions where no one had a clue what Lavender was in the first place. "Everything a girl needs."

"You're weird." he stated bluntly, like it was a fact.

One who has ever seen that emoji with two dots for eyes and a line for a mouth, will know exactly why it's being thought of currently. Ria Colton absolutely loved that emoji, it was the perfect presentation of how she felt in these exact situations. Children have no manners and they certainly didn't understand the function of curiosity. Call them demons or call them children, they were all lunatics from purgatory.

"Ah burn." Damien sucked on his lower lip and suppressed his laughter. "Even kids are bullying you these days."

"Damien." She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Shoo! Go away." Ria fluttered her hands in his face as her cheeks burned with embarrassment.

"She sure is weird." The boy rolled his brown eyes. "I feel bad that she's your sister, Dami."

Dami?

"I do too, Tommy, I do too. Well at least I have a wonderful child to babysit to keep me sane." Damien gave her a wink and pushed Tommy ahead of himself.

"You two are unbelievable." Ria fumed incredulously.

"And you're weird." Tom stuck his tongue out and marched away with Damien, the two guffawing like hyenas in the wild.

"Imbeciles."

—

Ria climbed down the stairs and into the house. She had grown accustomed to rock house. It may have been small and underground, but it was still home and it made her feel safe to hide within its architecture. From the outside, it seemed like an abandoned basement or cellar in the middle of a busy, commercial street, but in the inside, it was a different story.

The inside was majestic; red curtains with gold intricate designs embroidered were draped upon the windows. Sleek, black, leather covers upon the two perpendicular sofas. A black and white scene of the London Bridge was pasted onto the wall, making the room seem like a studio. It carried sophisticated ambience as Ria liked to say. It didn't just feel like home, it was home.

"Mum? Dad?" A puzzled expression clung onto Ria's face as she watched her parents stuff cardboard boxes with crystal mantelpieces. "What are you doing?"

"We're packing, Ria, come help us." Mrs Colton beckoned her forward and gave her a box.

"Packing... for what may I inquire?" Ria took her brown boot off and sat on her knees upon the velvety, fluffy red and baby blue, Turkish carpet. "Are we going on holiday?"

Mrs Colton placed Ria's hand in hers and squeezed it. "Ria, don't get your hopes too high." She gave her a smile. "We're moving houses."

"We're moving houses? Don't we required a three months notice for that? Are we doing a house swap? With whom?"

"Calm down, Ria." Mrs Colton gave her a reassuring nod. "We found a house near the North, it's a big and nice one. And about the notice, we thought it was time you didn't have to share with Damien anymore, so we decided to move before giving a notice, it was a last minute decision."

"I don't understand." Ria whispered. "Without the notice, we won't get our money back, the money we gave to landlord before moving in. It was a large sum, mum."

Ria couldn't comprehend how her mother could so easily forget that day. The day her father had to go around begging his self-absorbed, mercenary and narcissistic friends for money just so the Colton's didn't have to live on the streets. Just so they could move into the rock house. That money, made their lives better thus Ria didn't understand how her parents had agreed to just forget about it. They may not be in the same circumstances as three years ago, but that day three years ago, left a scar on all of them. She wouldn't forget and she was certain that her parents wouldn't forget either.

"Don't worry about the money, Ria, your dad and I have already thought about it. We have it sorted." Mrs Colton stood up to take down a few candles from the glass shelves. "Oh and did you get the part when I said you have your own room now?"

"Wait. I have my own room now?" Ria gasped, clamming a hand to her mouth in utter disbelief and joy. All the worry in her mind thrown to a dark cell in her head. "My own?"

"Yes!" Mr Colton and Mrs Colton exclaimed simultaneously.

Ria threw the empty box over her head, slip her slippers on her feet and headed for her and Damien's room. "See you later mum and dad! I have to tell the RAYS!"

As she shut the door behind her, shutting of her parents laughter, she should have considered that it may have been the last time she'd hear their joyous laughter. It may have been the last time they were happy. Maybe she should have paused for a second, lived in the moment, because it was, indeed, the last time she heard that special sound of contentment.

The very last time, under the very last rock of home.

•—•

Now that you've met our MC, what do you think, dear reader?

Why the sudden change?