Blackmailing Aria Original Version

13

I'm hurt that Xander never told me about her. Yes, we haven't been together for a long time, but I'm pretty sure if you have been previously engaged, you should inform your girlfriend about that.

"Talk about epic love story now, huh?" A triumphant smile splits on Riley's face. "Not so confident in your relationship with Xander anymore?"

"You know what?" I stand tall in front of Riley even though I feel like I'm only three feet tall after her speech. "Your desire for Xander is as pathetic as it is obvious."

Riley's jaw clenches and her fists tighten. In one swift move she's jumping across the small space, on top of me. We slam into the wall behind us, and I hit my head against it pretty hard, but before Riley can land a punch on me by her already raised fist, she is being pulled away from me.

She screams and thrashes against Marco, but he keeps his strong grip.

"You bitch!" She screams with a wild look on her face.

"Calm down now, Riley." Marco holds her by the shoulders at an arms-length. "Go," he orders as he gently moves her towards the direction of the door. Thankfully, she goes.

Marco turns to me with a smirk. "I heard what you said, and bravo! But you need to learn how to defend yourself physically before you say something like that to her again."

I give Marco a death stare as a response which makes him put his hands up in surrender and exit the washroom.

After a couple minutes of calming myself down, I grow the courage to go back to the party.

I sit down next to Xander with a fake smile and assure him that I'm fine.

"You were gone for quite a while, I was about to go after you." He looks genuinely worried.

I'm about to tell him what happened, but stop when Marco sits down at the table.

We share a look before both of our eyes land on Riley coming towards our table. I'm worried that she's going to finish what we started - predicting by the evident anger on her face - and Marco seems to be worried too, as he moves to stand from his chair. If that wasn't evidence that there's tension between us girls, then the way Riley openly glares at me as she walks past me and plops into her chair at a nearby table is.

Conversation seems to switch from business and current events to our glaring match. It's obvious to everyone that something happened within the past ten minutes. Worry and shame fills me as I think about what Xander's parents think about me now.

Oh god.

And I know that what I said to Riley was downright rude and offensive. If my grandmother heard me say those words, I would be hauling hay for weeks.

...

I sigh as I lay my back onto the warm stone of the bench. After brunch, Riley along with almost everyone else, left. Xander had to stay behind to speak to his parents and assure his safety about the robbery the other day, which was why I was here waiting. He spoke to them on the phone, but he hasn't seen them since that dinner, which explained their concern.

Surrounding me are bushes of bright flowers and above me are white puffy clouds. It brings me back to the time my mom would plant flowers in the garden beside our house during the summer. While she was busying planting and tending to the plants, my dad would be teaching me how to ride a bike. That was only a few months before my Dad was shot and killed while he was on the job as a security guard.

I run my fingers over yellow tulips beside my head while remembering the quote my mother would say to me every night before bed.

"Kind hearts are the gardens, kind thoughts are the roots, kind words are the flowers, kind deeds are the fruits. Take care of your garden and keep out the weeds, fill it with sunshine, kind words, and kind deeds."