All That's Forgotten {RIARKLE}

Chapter 12

I sit down on the park bench with Riley and Zay not far behind waiting for Smakle and Maya to arrive. Zay called them both earlier to see if they were up to meeting us today and they both agreed. Waiting here I can't help but think that they probably don't know anything.

I sigh and hope that this isn't just a big waste of time.

"Hey," Riley calls to me while taking a seat beside me.

I try to smile at her but when my eyes meet hers I can tell she's worried. "We're going to get to the bottom of this Riley. I promise."

She smiles in a sad way and nods. "That's not what I'm worried about."

I look out to the playground and watch some kids running around so carefree. I miss those innocent days.

"Then what are you worried about?" I ask her.

The girl puts her head on my shoulder with a sigh which surprises me, but I don't protest. She tells me, "I'm worried about you."

I'm taken aback by this, so I wrap my arm around her and take in what she said. There's no logical reason for her to be worried about me when she has so much on her plate right now. I mean there's most likely some psychopath after her right now. I'm am the least of her problems.

"And why is that?"

"Because," the brunette struggles to find her words, "You've been working on this all this time and I don't want you to think it's the end of the world if you can't crack it."

I rub my face in a tired way and reply with, "I know what you mean, but Riles, in a way if we don't get to the bottom of this it is the end of the world."

She shrugs against my and reaches for my hand. "I don't see it," Riley insists.

"I want to keep you as safe as I possibly can. Now you probably don't remember this, but I'm known as a genius around this town and if I really am than I should be able to solve this mystery."

I stop to adjust myself so that I'm holding her hand and still cuddling her.

"You may think that it wouldn't be the end of the world if this isn't solved, but if something were to happen to you... well let's just say that you're my world and I don't want to see you get hurt."

She looks up into my eyes and smiles at me. "I love you so much. Even if I can't remember everything just yet, I'm sure of that."

I feel my heart skip a beat just like it did when I first met her and then when we decided to be more than friends. "And I love you."

"Awwww y'alls are just too cute," Zay says snapping us back to the present, "Are you guys back together yet?"

I blush a bit out of embarrassment since I forgot that he was even here. Then I reply, "We have more important things to figure out right now."

"Mhmmm. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that," he tells me then sits on the other side of Riley who is giggling at his comments.

Finally the two girls arrive. They spot us and head our way in a slow manner. If I were them I wouldn't be in any rush either considering the fact that they intentionally hurt Riley.

They stop right in front of us and say quiet hellos. We respond politely then there's an awkward silence.

"Lets just cut to the chase," Riley breaks the ice after a moment. "You two did something awful to me that I don't even completely understand at the moment due to all my memory gaps, but now you guys can help us."

Maya looks up slightly still avoiding our eyes and that when I notice the bags under her eyes. She looks like she hasn't had proper sleep in ages. Even though she did something awful to our best friend, I've known her since we were kids. No matter what I'll always care for her.

"We'll do everything we can," the blonde promises.

"Yeah," Smakle surprisingly agrees, "You were one of the few people that was nice to me and in return I let myself hate you for loving my ex-lover. I'm truly sorry."

Riley just nods and that's when I cut in. "Long story short the day of Riley's accident someone distracted her parents long enough to have someone else to push her in the street and we're trying to figure out who did it."

The two look shocked, but try to recover quickly so that they can help.

"And what do you want from us?" Maya asks, "If you think we did it we didn't."

I'm about to say something pretty nasty when Zay interrupts me.

"We know that since you guys looked genuinely shocked and were at school with us that day. We just need to ask if you guys have heard anything or have any idea as to what might've happened."

Maya shrugs. "I swear I don't know anything for sure and if I did I would tell you. I may have been jealous but I still care about you Riles."

I feel Riley tense up beside me and I try to comfort her by rubbing circles in her back.

"I think I know something that might help," Smakle pipes in.

"What is it?" I ask urgently.

"Well as you guys know by know I'm the one who was sending those awful texts to Riley and to do that I need to be somewhat computer savvy. Being somewhat computer savvy I'm on the internet quite a bit and I saw something a while ago that I just couldn't shake.

"It was a user by the name of cgsoufflé talking to another user named historytoday. They were talking about teaching someone a lesson and it just didn't feel right to me so I traced back some stuff and it lead me to the school server."

"Wait," Riley breaks in, "You're telling us that you saw those names and just 'had a hunch' and followed it and came back to our very own school server?"

"Let me explain everything okay? Anyways, I put two and two together and figured that historytoday is Mr. Matthews and the other guy is Charlie Gardner."

"You haven't explain how you got that hunch yet," I say to keep myself from freaking out.

"I know hold on. I remember Maya constantly referring to Charlie as a cheese soufflé so when I saw it and couldn't place it I decided to track down their IP address, but Charlie must have bounced it off of something."

"Why? Because you couldn't trace it?" Zay tries to clarify.

"No," Smakle says, "Because I traced it to Lucas' house."