Under My Skin

37 | in your eyes

Chapter Thirty-Seven:

The room was dimly lit, and the curtains were still closed, although it was nearing midday. Hazel stood at the doorway, peeking in; she could just about make out the subtle flickers of light drifting from beneath the covers, indicating that Ria was awake.

"Hey, Ri?" Hazel called out, dragging her satchel off her shoulders and letting it crumple to the floor with a clamorous thud. The russet-haired girl glimpsed up at her from behind her phone; her eyes drooped and blood-tinged from the sleep deprivation. Hazel could hear the hushed chatter from Ria's phone beneath the covers. "What you watchin'?"

Ria somewhat reluctantly swerved the phone toward Hazel to show her the subject of her attention.

Hazel's mouth sank open almost comically. "Really, Ria? You're watching the Jeffrey Dahmer documentary? That might not be the best choice of distraction right now."

"Who says anything about a distraction? I'm actually interested in it."

"Hmm, let's see. It's past noon on a Sunday, and you're yet to leave your bed. Instead, you're watching a documentary about a serial killer." She said unhurriedly as though it were the single most nonsensical thing in the world. "I mean, what happened to the early bird catching the worm?"

"Who needs the worm when you've already caught the snakes?" Ria uttered the words so quietly that Hazel nearly missed them. And that was presumably the intention.

Hazel soughed as she glided into the bed beside Ria, shoving her along the mattress with her intrusion. "Do you want to talk about it?" Hazel knew she didn't even need to say his name for Ria to know precisely what and who she was alluding to. It was evident in how Ria's nose flared and crinkled for a brief interlude before she recovered composure. "Everyone's talking about it. The news reporters keep calling him the wolf in sheep's skin. It gives me the creeps."

Ria hadn't realised she'd been holding her breath until she felt her chest expand, forcing her to expel the torrid breath. Despite Sihem's efforts to shield Ria away from the news outlets' version of events, she'd watched the news that morning. Ria had heard he'd been taken directly from the hospital to the station for questioning only five days ago. And how he'd confessed almost immediately, corroborating the audio clip Ria had handed to the police, prompting his arrest. She'd felt her heart dip impossibly low into her stomach as the reporter stated how he'd been refused bail. The severity of the act, the class A drug use, the drink-driving, the disposal of evidence and the close links he had with the Aslan family made him both a flight risk and at risk of breaching his bail conditions.

She'd read between the lines, under and above them, and she knew Blaine was going down for this. For a long time.

Ria recalled how she'd rapidly deviated her eyes when his photo popped up on the screen. She'd told herself it was because she never wanted to set sights on him ever again, but even she knew she was kidding herself.

Both Sihem and Reid had reprimanded her the day she'd returned home after handing in the confession to the police, much to Ria's initial dismay. It was an accident, they'd said repeatedly until she'd wanted to scream. Ria knew she had acted on sheer impulse. Would she have made a different choice if she'd stopped to think about the implications of her actions? She wouldn't let herself think about the answer to that question.

"Ria, I can't believe it. I don't believe it." Hazel whispered, her empathic forest-brown eyes meeting Ria's lighter caramel-hued ones.

"I don't either." Ria breathed, her eyes firmly glued to the ceiling. "But he told me himself, and you should have seen the conviction in his eyes. I even offered him an out. I told him he could tell me the truth, or I'd go to the police, and he still said he did it." She could feel Hazel's delicate fingers scouring through her hair soothingly.