Teenage Desires

Teenage Desires Part Fourteen

Grayson's Point of View

I ran into the hospital and up to A&E, Ava ran behind me, trying to keep up.  

"Gray" she shouted. 

I kept running. 

"GRAYSON!" she screamed. 

"What?" I replied.  

"He's in this ward," she replied.  

"Oh right," I said looking a tad pissed off.

What am I going to say to him? I thought to myself. I'm the one who put him in here, if I hadn't gotten blaze and the boys on it... this would never have happened. I feel terrible, I only ever wanted to protect Ava and this is what it came to? I better pluck up the courage and face what I have done. I hope i can fix this.

I walked into the ward. When Riley realised it was me, he panicked. He sat up in the hospital bed and struggled to lean as far back as he could. 

"Look Riley, I didn't want this," I tried to explain. 

"What? How could you have not wanted this, it was you right?" he asked. 

"No Riley it wasn't me... I made a call" I replied. 

"A call to who?" he asked.  

"Just some guys I know; I wanted them to scare you... I never meant for them to hurt you. I wanted them to threaten you to stay away from Ava... I never expected-"   

"Why would you do that?" he intersected. 

"I thought that I was protecting Ava," I replied, trying to think of a reason. 

Riley shook his head in disbelief.  

"Well how did that work out for you? If anything you've hurt me more! How the fuck would you have felt if he had died Grayson?" Ava questioned. 

"I feel terrible, I really do" I admitted. 

"You should, you need your head scanned Gray." Ava said. 

"Ava, leave it." Riley intersected. 

"Leave it? Are you delusional? You could have died Ri, I don't think you understand how serious this is!" Ava said to him.  

"He's your brother and he wanted to protect you. It just didn't work out," he replied. 

"Riley you don't have to stand up for me, I was wrong about you... you're really not a bad kid," I replied, not believing the huge mistake I had made.  

"You really should have gotten to know me first before judging me." Riley said. 

"You're right, I don't expect you to ever want to get to know me after this," I admitted. 

"Look, I love your sister. She's the best thing that's happened to me; do you really think I would hurt her?" he said. 

"No, I was wrong" I admitted, looking down at the floor.

I looked down in shame. I knew I had made a huge mistake. He's really not a bad kid, he hasn't shouted, been a dick to me or pressed charges. Boy was I wrong. 

"Listen, we can put all of this behind us and I won't press charges. On one condition." Riley said. 

"Anything?" I replied. 

"My condition is that you actually get to know me before you judge me. You need to know I would never hurt Ava," Riley reasoned.  

"Agreed" I said. 

I held out my hand, Riley took it and we shook on it. Ava smiled approvingly.

We sat at Riley's bed side for the night. We spent the whole time talking about hobbies, interests and ambitions, obviously amongst other things. We got to know each other and to be honest I think he's actually a nice kid. If only I had realised before, instead of getting all care bear stare on him.

I now realise how strongly he feels about Ava. I can see it just by the way he looks at her, kind of like he would take a bullet for her. I like knowing I can trust Riley to look after her.

I think this just goes to show, you cannot judge a book by its cover. For now, I just hope that Riley makes a full recovery.