Lost and Insecure {Rucas}

Bandaid

It was the end of the day, and no one had noticed Riley's wound yet. She made sure her hair was always hanging over it, and, sure, people have her weird looks, but it was better than having her friends worry about her.

It was the class of the day, her dad's,
And Riley was certain she could last until she got home so she could cover up her scratch with makeup.

Her eyes would fill with tears whenever she would think about what happened, and she would have to bury her face into dress sleeve or something.

Maybe he was right. Maybe Riley wouldn't have fell so hard if she wasn't so fat. Maybe she needed to eat less, lose some weight.

Riley was quieter than normal her dad's class, and her friends noticed. Whenever they tried to draw her into their conversation, she would just nodded or smile and tune out.

They were working on a worksheet at the moment, and Riley couldn't think of one of the answers. She was beginning to get frustrated, and she tugged at her hair.

"Riley," Maya said, interrupting the silence. "What's that?"

She was pointing at her bandaid. Riley became flustered and tried to mumble out an excuse.

"I tripped over something in the library and hit my head on a bookshelf." She said.

Not completely a lie. She didn't trip, she was tripped.

"Riles." Maya said, almost it accusingly.

Riley looked at her friends. Maya was just staring at her, waiting for an answer. Farkle looked confused, almost hurt even. And Lucas, Lucas looked mad. Mad at Riley, no, mad at whoever did that to Riley.

"I'm telling the truth." Riley defended herself, crossing her arms.

No one believed her. But they didn't say anything. Obviously, Riley wasn't going to budge and tell them what was going on. So they'd find out themselves.

"Riley, what happened?" Corey asked, coming up to her.

"I fell Dad." Riley said, with the most innocent look on her face.

Corey looked at Maya, and her head shook no ever so slightly. He looked back and forth between Maya and Riley, and slowly made his way back to his desk.

Riley turned back to her work. Maybe it would be a good idea to tell her friends, they could help with this, she thought.

No. Remember you solve problems, not create them.

Lucas looked at Riley. He could see through her act as if it was glass. She was obviously lying, and she was obviously hurt. He could tell Maya and Farkle thought the same thing. It hurt Lucas that Riley thought she had to hide something like this from them.

Anger started to course through his veins. Whoever did this to Riley would feel pain like she was.  And he had no doubt in his mind that he would find this person.

Farkle was hurt. He knew that look on Riley's face. He saw on himself almost everyday. Whenever someone would make a snide comment at him, or give him a weird look, he saw that look. Farkle wanted to help her, but to do that he'd have to find out what was wrong.

Maya was concerned for Riley. Riley was clumsy, but if she did that by tripping or whatever, it would have been obvious. And she wouldn't have tried to hide it and would have told them or her dad almost immediately. But this was different. This was something else. And Maya wanted to find out what.