motive // colby brock

prologue

My name is Riley Margo.

I'm 19 years old and have dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. I live in a small town in Florida.

I had one reason for moving to L.A, one reason and one reason only.

Money.

Now, before you start making assumptions and start calling me selfish, let me explain.

It all started on February 14th, Valentine's Day, 9 years ago.

I was only 10 years old when the first fight happened.

I remember it as clear as day.

My mom didn't get the watch my dad wanted for his gift for Valentine's Day.

It was just a soft slap on the arm, nobody thought much of it at the time.

Little did everyone know that it would evolve into constant verbal and physical abuse towards my mom, me, and my future 7 year old sister, Cora.

The abuse towards us got worse.

It went from playful slaps, to shoves, to hard slaps, to punches, to black eyes and nose bleeds.

It was terrible.

So when Cora was born, my mom filed for a divorce.

I was 12 when the divorce happened.

It changed our lives.

You see, my dad grew up rich, and my mom grew up the complete opposite way.

When they got married, they shared his fortune.

But if you couldn't tell already, my dad is greedy and childish, so he took all of his money away from us.

My mom, me, and newborn Cora, had to move to a trailer park and live there. To make matters worse, my mom didn't have a college degree, and we had no family that lived in the same state as us.

That's not all of it either.

My best friend moved away right before the school year started again. And since I went to a private school, I was going to have to change schools.

But we managed to get by, of course the change was hard at first, but I eventually got used to it.

I learned to ignore the names everyone called me at school, Ratty Riley being the main one.

They made fun of me because I didn't have money.

What a bunch of dicks.

Throughout high school, I only had one friend, Sam.

That was until he moved away at the beginning of 11th grade.

Then, I had no one.

I had no friends and sat alone at lunch.

I was miserable.

I don't want Cora to have to go through that.

I don't want her to wish she had been dreaming the whole thing, like I did almost everyday.

I don't want her to wake up and worry if she'll eat breakfast or dinner that day, like I did.

I want better for her.

So that's why I'm moving to L.A, to make money and send it to my mom.

If I don't, Cora will be miserable like I was. She might even be put under my father's custody, and I cannot let that happen.

I started working in senior year and eventually saved up enough money to fly to L.A.

A few weeks ago, I tweeted out asking if anyone knew any cheap places to live at in L.A. The only reason I have a phone is because my dad got it for me for my 18th birthday.

A few days later, I got a message.

I opened it and saw that it was from a guy named Sam Golbach.

It read: Is this Riley Margo?

We talked back and forth until I realized, this is the same Sam that was my best friend back in high school.

We talked and talked about anything and everything for hours and hours on end.

I told him about everything that happened to me once he left, he told me everything that happened to him once he left.

I told him that I'm moving to L.A.

He told me that he lives in L.A.

After catching up, we decided that I could stay with him and his roommates in L.A for free while I go to college. The only reason I can go to college is because I received a scholarship for playing volleyball.

Now that you've heard my explanation, do you still think that I'm selfish?

Or do you think that I have a good enough motive?