Welcome Back, Riley

Chapter 11

I step inside and everything looks different. Maya must have done some real redecorating because everything screams her. I see art hanging everywhere, but it doesn't look crowded everything fits together perfectly. Is she living here by herself?

I follow her into a living room. She takes a seat on the teal couch and I follow suit taking one directly across from her on the matching single seat. I watch as she shifts uncomfortably and I do the same. My eyes keep wandering around the apartment.

"It's my apartment for now," I pull my eyes from the art hanging on the walls and focus on her.

"It looks nice. I just thought you and Zay would be living together."

"We're working on it. He wants me to move in with him, but I can't seem to let this place go."

"Of course, it's your home. It's the place you've always known."

She looks around the apartment, "I guess."

"Change is okay. Sometimes it's what you need.

She shrugs her shoulders, and doesn't say anything. We don't say anything for a while, but I can feel her eyes on me when I turn my gaze away from her. I'm waiting for her to say something, however, the more I wait the more the nerves build up.

She coughs to fill the silence, "I need to explain what happened." I nod. She takes a deep breath, "Did Lucas tell you about how I found out?" again I nod.

"He told me that day that he was going to stop. I believed him. I really thought he was going to stop, Riley."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask not once looking up from my hands.

"I wanted to! Lucas begged me not to. He was worried that if you found out, you would leave him. But I knew you wouldn't. You loved him way too much to ever do that. But he wasn't convinced. He cried, Riley. He cried for me not to tell you, so I promised him I wouldn't say anything as long as he stopped."

She lets out a small sigh, "As far as I knew he had, so I kept my promise. That was until prom night. I watched the whole night as people walked up to him, and when I saw him leave you I followed him." She takes a deep breath, "I watched him as he handed little baggies filled with god knows what to people for money."

She looks at me trying to find my gaze, but I keep my eyes on my hands as I fiddle with my thumbs. "I was furious, Riles! It's like something in me just snapped. You had just told me you were pregnant a few days before and here he was doing something that could potentially put anyone he cares about in danger. Especially you!"

"I waited until he was alone in the hallway before I approached him. I was-"

I stopped her, "Why didn't you just find me and tell me right then?"

"I wasn't thinking. I was scared you weren't going to believe me. He was replacing me." I shake my head. "He was, Riley. I was okay with it though. I knew you found the person that was meant to be by your side your whole life. You found your person. So I didn't tell you because I knew you wouldn't believe me."

She clears her throat and I look up at her. I see her eyes shine from the wetness of tears she is holding back. "I yelled at him for lying to me. He told me he didn't have a choice that he couldn't stop until he was allowed to. So I told him to leave you because you didn't need the stress of him possibly being in trouble. You were pregnant!" I watch as she tried to blink back the tears that already started to fall, "I didn't want to hurt you Riley, but I was scared something was going to happen to you and to the baby."

I slowly get up and walk over to the couch and take a seat next to her, "I never meant to hurt you, but when he told me he couldn't." She stares off into the corner, "All that played in my head was the day I went home with him and walking into his house. Him shoving me into the closet because we heard someone," more tears start to fall from her blue eyes. "I heard him being slammed against the closet door. I had to muffle my cry with my hands. Riley, I was terrified. I didn't know what was happening, and then," she gulps, "then it was quiet and I hear a gun cock back. It was so quiet I could hear everything. I heard the fear in Lucas' voice." She lets the tears fall freely and I shift closer to her and grab her hand. She's shocked. She looks down and then locks eyes with me.