Falling Up

6. Coffee Shop

"I thought Vincent was with mom. They were always going at it in the bedroom. If I had known..." said Jason, grabbing hold of her tighter. "I'm so sorry Riley."

"It's okay Jason. It's not your fault," said Riley. She felt like she had to tell him a lot that it wasn't his fault whenever she brought up something like this. And she was pretty sure he didn't believe it. You could see it in his eyes, the way he blamed himself for what happened to Riley.

But she didn't blame him at all for anything. And she no longer blamed herself either. It was Vincent's fault and he was now behind bars, as it should be. She grabbed hold of Jason tighter, now finding it was her that was comforting him. They didn't speak any further though and simply lay there, holding on to each other as Jason gently stroked at the ends of her hair.

Her shaking was almost gone and she felt the soothing motion of Jason's chest rise up and down with the gentle thrumming of his heart. With her eyes heavy and drooping, she drifted off back to sleep, feeling safe and protected in the arms of her brother.

When she awoke the next morning she found herself in the same position she had fallen asleep in, her head still on Jason's chest. It was early and the sun was barely peeking through the window as the warm glow started to fill up the room.

"Good morning," said Jason.

"Morning," replied Riley sleepily as she pushed off Jason's chest and sat up rubbing her tired eyes. She glanced back at Jason who was holding his phone in one hand, scrolling down some sort of news feed. He definitely didn't look like he fell back to sleep last night. She didn't even know if he slept at all last night to be honest.

"Did you get any sleep?" asked Riley, throwing the blanket back and climbing out of the bed.

"Yeah, I got a bit," replied Jason as he placed his phone on the bedside table.

That was a clear lie, she thought as she looked at Jason's tired face. He always looked tired these days. Come to think of it, did he ever get much sleep, even back then? She remembered he used to spend some nights sitting out her door until the early hours. Especially just before they left, when Vincent was at his worst.

"I'm going to grab a shower. Can you drop me off at campus early today?" she asked.

"It's only 6:30am. Why so early?"

"I saw a help wanted sign in a coffee shop on campus. I was going to apply," said Riley nervously, leaning up against the door frame of the bedroom.

She had never discussed applying for a job before with Jason or Noah but she wanted more independence. And she wanted to pitch in for her living expenses as well. Having spent so long relying on Jason and Noah for everything it was time she started helping out a bit more. After all, she was eighteen.

"You don't need a job Riley," said Jason sternly. "Anything you want, I can provide for you. And you need to focus on your studies. I don't want a job getting in the way of that. You're the only one of us who is at college."

"It won't. I promise. And besides, I need some job experience anyway for once I finish up college," she said before tacking on what she was really after. "And I want a car," she whispered, playing with her fingers.

She already had her drivers license but she never really had the need to get a car before. She never went anywhere without one of her brothers. But now, it would be nice to be able to drive herself to campus and not be so reliant on her brothers.

Jason walked over to her, pulling her into a hug. "You're growing up too fast," he said with a smile. "A tattoo, job and now a car. Soon, you're not going to need me at all."