Under My Skin

15 | stay with me

TW: Discussions about substance abuse and mild sexual content towards the end of the chapter.

Chapter Fifteen:

"What? Are you planning on standing out here all night?" He asked her, the shadow of a smirk hanging off the edge of his lips.

She shook her head and followed his lead, walking behind him at first and then beside him, the two remaining in complete silence.

"Are we not...are we not even going to talk?" Ria asked, confused by the boy's reaction to the situation they had been in only moments before.

"Okay, let's talk. How was work today?" He responded, his eyes fixated on the road ahead. The evening street lights harshly illuminated his olive skin.

"Blaine," she interrupted.

He ignored her. "My day was pretty good, actually. It was my second day back in my old I.T. tech support job. I hated it, but at least the pay was decent. And you'll love this; I managed to get a date for a football trial through the old youth club. It's next month."

She stopped walking, knowing it would be the only way to get his attention. "That's amazing, Blaine. I'm so happy for you." She said honestly, but her tone betrayed her, for her voice was melancholic. "But...Blaine, can we maybe talk about that? About what just happened in there?" She gestured behind them - the house no longer in view as they entered the main street, but he knew what she referred to.

He halted in his track but didn't turn around to face the girl. "You should never have been there. Why did you go there?" He inquired, a hint of accusation evident in his words.

"Because it was eight o'clock and you haven't come to the house. And you weren't answering your phone, and I wasn't sure...I didn't know if something had happened."

Blaine chuckled ruefully. "You've been begging me to leave you alone for the last three weeks. And the one day I do as you ask, you decide you don't want me, too? What exactly do you want, Ria?"

"I don't know," she whispered truthfully, "but I do know that I missed my babysitter."

They were amid a busy street, and despite it being ten in the evening, the street was still a marriage of sounds like most central London streets tended to be. From the buses' and cars honking loudly to the chattering and hollering of the people preparing for a wild night around them. Blaine grinned inwardly as he turned to face her. "You missed me, huh?" He teased.

Ria rolled her eyes jokingly and almost regretted having uttered those words. She didn't respond but quickened her pace beside him.

"I'm sorry." He spoke suddenly, "for what I said the other day. You didn't deserve that."

She cleared her throat. "You were right." She continued, "I did think about having sex with him for the promotion. And maybe, if that same proposition came up again in the near future, I would have gone through with it. And that scares me." She admitted.

"You're worth more than that, Ri." He sighed, meeting her eyes briefly. "You're worth more than a thousand Rocco's. And you're worth more than a job that doesn't truly value you and recognise how much of an asset you are to them."

"And you're worth more than being a money bank to fund your parent's drug habit." She whispered.

He inhaled deeply through his nose, knowing that this conversation would arise sooner or later this evening. "Ria, you don't understand. It's not that simple."

"Well, then explain to me because you're right. I don't understand why you're throwing wads of cash for Benji when you know it's fuelling their nasty habit."