Falling Up

21. Trouble

Riley was sitting in the passenger seat of Kendra's car as she glanced at the clock on the dashboard again. 8:04am. Nervously she encouraged herself to turn over her phone, which was face down in her lap, and she tapped through to her messages.

Noah
12:05 am
You're late. Where are you?

12:10 am
Seriously Riley, you better be on your way home

12:20 am
Do you need me to pick you up?

12:22 am
Just let me know you're okay

12:28 am
Please just answer the phone

The text messages from Noah went on every few minutes. There must have been close to 100 of them, asking if she was okay and just begging her to let him know she was safe and how much he loved her. He must have been going out of his mind.

She felt so bad putting him through this. Noah had been through enough in life and she couldn't even answer the phone to put his mind at ease. Her fingers started tapping away, writing a quick message to let him know she was heading home. She was such a coward for sending a text message, but she couldn't even think about calling him right now.

Riley
I'm okay. Heading home now.

Once she sent the text message, she switched over to Jason's messages, even more fearful of what he had to say. Unusually, there was just one single message, and she gulped.

Jason
Call me. Now!

"So, how dead are you?" interrupted Kendra. "On a scale of quick gunshot to the head or full on AK47 assault rifle type of dead."

"More like slowly being mauled to death by two hungry bears, type of dead."

"That painful, huh?"

"I screwed up Kendra," sighed Riley as she let her phone drop to her lap and rested her head on the back of the seat.

"It's okay. They'll forgive you. It was one night out. I'm sure they've done it plenty of times before."

She didn't say any further. It was different for her family. They were closer than most. After going through hell and back together, there was an unspoken bond between them that no-one else would understand.

The drive back to her house wasn't nearly long enough as she tugged on the sleeves of her maroon dress, fidgeting nervously in her seat. Not only had she stayed out past curfew, she also drank, got high on weed (even if it was unintentional) and slept in Kain's bed. She literally broke all four rules that Noah set for her before leaving. Don't be late, don't drink, don't do drugs and don't talk to boys. She was so dead. And she hadn't even had time to think up a good cover story.

Eventually Kendra made the turnoff and drove up to Riley's house, parking on the gravel outside. Her stomach churned as she thought about what her brothers would do to her.

"I didn't see much of your house in the dark last night. It's cute," said Kendra, trying to ease the tension.

"It's not much, but it's home," Riley replied as she got out of the car, already nervous about what Jason and Noah were going to do to her when she got in. She gulped visibly as she grabbed her bag from the back of the car.

"You look nervous. Do you need backup?" asked Kendra.

Thinking about it for two seconds and glancing up at the house, she decided this may be a way to negate the outburst that she was sure Jason would have the minute she walked through the door.

"Do you mind?"

Kendra let off a laugh. "Not at all. Besides, I'm curious to meet these brothers that you keep mentioning," said Kendra as she hopped out of the car.