Whispers In The Dark

Riley

Riley

“Please, Riley, just open the door.”

I didn’t move from where I was lying on my bed.

“Your dad is worried about you.”

I continued to ignore her pleas for me to let her in. Victoria had been talking to me through my bedroom for over an hour, apologizing and telling me that everyone was worried. She was the one who had told me about Reximus’s dad, but even that couldn’t get me out of my room. I called Reximus to make sure he was alright, but that was all. He told me he was tired and just wanted to sleep. I let him.

“You haven’t been to school in three days. You’re going to start losing credits soon.”

Oh well.

“I’m sorry, Riley. I really am.”

I wasn’t sure what she was so sorry about. She had been saying it over and over for an hour, and yet I still wasn’t sure why. Everything that she had said to me was the truth. I didn’t even think I was really mad at her. I didn’t think I could be. She had just been breaking the truth to me, is all.

“I didn’t mean anything I said.”

I crept to the door and revealed Victoria, faded pink hair pulled back and cheeks wet.

“You were right,” I said.

She shook her head rapidly. “No. I wasn’t.”

I let her in and closed the door as she froze mere feet from my bed. I slid down the wall and bit off a laugh. “I told you, you were right.”

At the foot of my bed was a pile of bottles, Ziploc bags, cans, and wilting daisies. They were strewn across the lilac carpet like vomit, disgusting yet familiar.

“I’m an alcoholic with a dead brother, absent parents, and an occasional drug problem.” I stretched my legs out in front of me. “Though I’m sure I could go on for hours on whatever else there is wrong with me, like how I haven’t taken my medication in over a year, just flushed it.”

Victoria shook her head. “Everything I said was wrong.”

I covered my face with my hands as tears collected in my eyes. “I hate this. I hate it so much.”

“We can fix everything, yeah? Isn’t that what you said? We’re gonna be okay?” she tried.

I pulled my knees to my chest. “That’s not reality, remember?”

“Maybe not,” she thought. “But maybe we can try. I’m not going to leave you, Riley. I swear.”

“But that’s what I always think! I always believe it, because you know, maybe, they’ll be different, right? But it never is. First Skylar, then Mom, then Jeremiah, and--”

Victoria intervened, “I haven’t cut in three days.”

I stared at Victoria incredulously, my mind reeling, before throwing my arms around her and crying, “You’re my best friend, Victoria. You can’t die until I do.”