Halo of Light Around the Moon | Rilaya

6: Art

[The following Monday. The last bell of the day just rang, letting the students out of school.]

"Ayla, can I talk to you for a minute?" Maya asks, as the rest of the students file out of the classroom.

"Uh, sure," Ayla replies.

"Do you want us to wait for you, Ayla?" Lily questions.

"No, it's fine. My dad is picking me up today anyway."

"Okay, see you tomorrow then," Lily smiles, as her, Brandon and Danny leave the classroom.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

"I see you've already made some good friends," Maya says.

"Yeah, they're pretty nice... Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"No. I've noticed that you like art class a lot more than you like history class."

Ayla's face is blank when she asks. "Why would you say that?"

"Every single day since you've got here I've noticed that you always watch the clock during history class until the bell rings. When you're in art, you never even look up from your work."

"It's not that I don't like your history class," Ayla shyly explains.

"Then what is it?"

"Art is the only thing that lets me escape."

Maya pushes her eyebrows together. "Escape from what?"

Ayla's hand begins to slowly shake and her eyes fill with fear. "I-I need to go. My dad is waiting for me in the car."

"Ayla, is everything okay?" Maya asks, noticing something wrong with Ayla.

"I have a fresh start, Mrs. Matthews-Hart-Hunter. Things can only get brighter from here. Thank you for your concern, but my dad is waiting for me."

"Ayla, if there is something wrong you can tell me."

"I need to go," is the last thing Ayla says before she runs out of the classroom.

Maya watches hopelessly, as Ayla disappears out of sight. She gets up and walks over to Ayla's desk where she had left her painting from today. The background was painted black, with a crescent of the moon painted gray. In the middle of the moon was a bright, yellow star, the focal point of the piece. Next to the bigger star, were two smaller, more dull stars.

Maya gets out her phone and immediately calls someone.

"Come on, pick up, pick up, pick up," Maya mumbles to herself. "Riles!" She exclaims. "I need to talk to you, this is important..."

"...We can discuss this more when we both get home, okay?"

"Okay," Maya sighs.

"I love you, Peaches."

"Love you too," Maya smiles, as she hangs up he phone.

[Later that night.]

"Are you fucking kidding me, Ayla. Do you know what you've done?"

"I-I'm sorry, Dad. I didn't mean to. I promise. It was an accident," Ayla says over her sobs.

"Do you know what also was an accident? This," her father says, as he runs over to her desk and harshly opens it's drawers.

Through her tears Ayla sees all of her colored pencils get snapped it half. Paper from her notebooks being torn up. Paint thrown across the room, hard enough to make the bottles open and paint splatter all over the wall.

"Daddy, please stop it," Ayla begs.

"Or what? You're going to go tell your bitchy little art teacher?"

"I didn't tell her anything."

"You said she asked if you are okay. That's what happened last time, Ayla. People started getting these little thoughts in their damn heads, and before we know it they are trying to be 'heroes' and save you. I am not a bad guy, Ayla. You don't need to be fucking saved from me."

"I didn't tell her anything," Ayla repeats though her cries.

"I thought in a bigger city, you could just disappear in the crowd, Ayla. I thought there would be so many people that there wouldn't be anyone to give a fuck about you."

Ayla's dad starts pacing around the before he punches a hole in the wall and shouts, "fuck!"

[A couple of hours after that.]

"Maya, get the car keys!" Riley shouts across their apartment, as she runs out into the living where Maya currently is sitting.

"What why? Riley what's going on?"

"Get the keys, Maya, we need to leave now. You were right."

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A/N: The moon and the stars.