whisper | rilaya

twenty one

It's been about a week since Riley has been back in everybody's lives, except for mine. It took a bit of eavesdropping for me to find out, but it turned out that the courts didn't have enough evidence to go through to trial with Riley. The entire city has just been forced to wait in anticipation for justice to their beloved football player until either Riley remembers something or the police find enough evidence to convict her, or someone else of the crime. The state doesn't want to take their chances because if Riley is acquitted then they can never charge her for the same crime again, even if more evidence comes up in the future.

The concept makes perfect sense to me, it's called double jeopardy. I read about it last year when I developed a short lived interest in law. However, to the rest of the school, the students just can't seem to understand the legal system.

"Shouldn't you be in jail right now? Who let you out of your cage." Missy Bradford spat at Riley as they walked past each other in the hallway.

My heart ached for Riley as I watched the viscous interaction. The tall brunette girl simply kept her head down and ignored the rude comments. Missy wasn't the only person. In the 30 seconds I was walking behind Riley, 4 people snarled rude comments at her.

I tried to help. I wanted to help, but Riley doesn't want anything to do with me anymore. She thinks that I lied to her, and I can't even explain myself to her because I don't know what kind of false information detective Larson fed her.

Hesitantly, I tapped her right shoulder gently.

She didn't respond.

I did it again, a little more roughly this time.

"What do you want?" She growled without looking back. Riley spoke as she turned to face me. "Listen I've heard just about every insult and synonym for murderer today so whatever you want to say, be quick because-"

Her eyes widened when she realized who she was talking to.

For a split second, the brown tint in her eyes sparkled and she softened. "Maya.." she whispered, about to break into tears.

"Hi, princess" I replied quietly, waving my fingers lighting.

That was her breaking point. She threw her arms around me, burying her head in my chest as best as she could considering she was a lot taller than me. "I can't take it anymore Maya. I thought I didn't need you. That I can handle this myself, but I can't. Please... make it stop."

My heart shattered. "Hey, everything will be alright, I'm here now." I cooed into her ear. "Come on, let's get you home, school isn't the healthiest place for you given right now." I muttered, causing her to reply with a slight nod.

~

Riley pulled the edges of her blanket to wrap around her body tightly, while she sat up to face me.

It had been silent in her room since we've gotten here, I couldn't tell if she wanted me to leave or not but I stayed in case she needed something.

"Maya?" She asked, her voice was just above a whisper.

"Hm?"

"I need to know if you did it." She said slowly, making sure that each of her words were clear.

I turned my head to face her, feeling a slight breeze coming in from her bay window. "Did what?"