The War for Love (A Team Crafted Fan Fiction)!

Chapter 26: Reinforced Walls

**Hey guys! Welcome to chapter 26! Thank you all SO MUCH for over 2.1K reads! This is awesome! Hopefully I'll have the next chapter out sooner to celebrate! Anyways hope you enjoy chapter 26 and please read on.**

**Darcie's POV**

I pulled myself off of Jason's bed and walked over to Jason's door. I looked over to Jason, he must've seen in my face how badly I didn't want to do this. He frowned and just nodded. Sighing, I opened the door and stepped into the hallway. I padded over to the room that Riley and I shared and stepped in. Riley was sitting on our couch watching Ghost Adventures with Mitch. Great. Just Great.

"Riley can you come out here for a second, I need to show you something... important", I said, trying my hardest to make sure that my voice didn't shake.

"Sure!", she smiled and turned to Mitch. "I'll be back in a sec. Make sure you tell me the evidence that they find"

"Sure thing babe", Mitch said and he kissed her cheek. I think I saw Riley roll her eyes. I remembered that she usually hated being called that.

She got off the couch and walked past me into the hallway. Mitch gave me a confused expression as I gave him the death glare before closing the door. Man is that guy going to pay.

"So what did you wanna show me? Darcie? Are you okay? Your face is pale and you look like you've just seen a ghost"

"It's... in here", I said as I led her to Jason's room.

"Okay?..."

We walked into Jason's room and saw him sitting at his desk. He spun around in his chair and gave Riley a sympathetic gase. Riley looked back at him, udderly confused.

"Um... guys? What's going on?", Riley asked. Luckly, Jason answered for me.

"Riley, I was editing your birthday video for you. I noticed something that's a bit... unsettling"

"Okay? What is it? Whatever it is, it must be pretty bad considering the fact that you both look like your faces have been bleached", she said. I was just about to smile and laugh but my nerves for Riley's reaction got the best of me. It's going to kill me to see everything she loves crumble again. This will be what? The third time?

First, she got kicked out of her appartment. She worked SO hard to try her best to keep everything in place. Then, she fell for Mitch's trap and saw what happened to Tyler and completely fell for it. It took her a while to build her walls up after that, and they still are a little shaky. They could crumble again so easily. Now, since she's about to see Mitch's true character, I have to watch those walls fall down again. Who knows how long it will take for them to come back up. If they even do come up.

Jason motioned Riley to stand next to his chair. He gave her one last sympathetic look, zoomed into the video, and pressed play. Jason and I watched in horror as Riley watched everything unfold. We saw saw Riley's expression of realization and I could tell that my face dropped. To my surprise, she almost had no expression at all. She just stood there with a blank stare. She didn't move or say anything.

"Um... there's more", Jason cautiously said and played the second video with Mitch and Ashley. Her eyes widened, her face reddened, and I saw her fits clenched. Wow. She is just like her brother. Before I could say anything she grabbed a pair of scissors.

"Jason, do you need these?", she asked

"Riley, I don't think-"

"Thanks", she interrupted.

Before anyone could object, Riley somehow must've turned into a body builder. She took the scissors and somehow completely tore them in half.

"RILEY!", I snapped, but she didn't listen. She took the one of the scissor knives and chucked it at Jason'd dart board and got a bullseye. She took the other knife and threw it as well, hitting another bullseye.

"wow...", I heard Jason mutter to himself. His eyes widened. Aww!

Riley's breathing eventually grew more controlled. She put her hand over her face and sat down next to me on Jason's bed. Jason was still in his office chair.

"How did I not see this coming?!", she wined.

"None of us saw it coming Riley. We were all played. All part of Mitch's game."

"No, Darcie', she began. "He told me that Tyler was going to mess up. I didn't believe him. Then I told Mitch that he was right when he came to comfort me. It makes sence now. He made Tyler mess up. In fact, he honestly didn't mess up. MITCH DID THIS TO HIM!" Her words were jumbled as she confessed this. Her walls were practically breaking down right in front of me.

The three of us just sat there in silence, as if we were each waiting for someone to do something next. None of us budged. Each of us were lost in the sea of our own thoughts. That is... until Jason spoke up.

"So Riley... when are you going to break it to Mitch that you two are over?", I sensed about an ounce of excitement in his voice.

"I'm not..." WHAT?! Jason's face dropped.

"Riley!!! Are you FRICKING kidding me? After all he's done to you?!", I just about screamed.

"Let me finish", she calmly said. "I'm going to expose him to everybody in the house"

"Well how the heck are you going to do that?", I asked.

"Jason can I have the videos? I think I've got some editing of my own to do", he smirked. Jason threw her the DVD.

"But what does that have anything to do with staying with him?" Jason asked, with a slight dose of annoyance intwined in his voice. She grew an evil smirk on her face. I'm going to have to get used to that.

"Beacuse the longer that I stay with him, the more it'll hurt when I do this to him". she said. "He needs to know what this feels like"

I saw it. Something that I thought I would not see in a long time. Riley built her walls back up. Not only that, but she reinforced them. She's bolder, not only that but she's stronger. She looks more ready to take on the world. Jerome should be proud of what she'd become. Her plan is kind of extreme though. I guess it kind of made sense considering how insane Mitch's plan was.

"How long are you going to do this?", I asked.

"Give me two to three weeks", she said. "I need this to work"

"What about Jerome? Are you going to tell him?"

"Don't worry. He'll find out... when I want him to", she said. Then a voice rang through the hallway.

"RILES ARE YOU DONE YET? ZAK RECORDED AN EVP OF SOMETHING SAYING HIS NAME!", Mitch called.

"YEAH I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!", she called back and walked towards the door.

"Guys can you do me a favor?", she asked.

"Sure", we both said.

"Please don't tell anyone. I really want this to be a shocker", she said we both nodded.

"Thanks guys! I really owe you one", she said and walked out the door, only to poke her head back in and say,

"Let's show Mitch who's really being played"