New girl

Chapter 7

2am suicide

His taste still lingered on my lips. I couldn't get the image of Riker's hand holding me, out of my head. Tonight was perfect....I think. Something deep inside me just felt off though. I tossed and turned in my bed, unable to sleep.

So I slipped on my jacket and shoes and snuck out of the house, and wandered to the park. It was 2am when I left and a cold breeze swept over me. I looked ahead of me, and could see someone sitting on the bench, it looked like Riker.

I was kind of relieved and hurried towards the bench. But as I approached, I heard sobbing. The boy was not Riker. It was Ross. Scared, I inched forward and saw blood dripping from his shaking wrists.

"R-ross?" I whimpered
He didn't jump nor look at me. Another tear escaped his cheek and fell to the concrete.
"Oh my god Ross wha-what happened? Are you, o...okay?"

"No. I'm not okay Riley." He growled.
I kneeled beside him and carefully took his bloody wrist.
He flinched and flung it away from me. "STOP RILEY!" He cried. "Just...stop."

Tears filled my eyes. "Ross did you do this to yourself?" I whispered
He nodded, tears rolling down his face.
"Why? Who possessed you to do this Ross?" I said grabbing a tissue from my pocket and wiping the bloody slits.

"Riley, I'm depressed. I have been for a while now." His breathing was shaky and tears streamed down his face still.
"Ever since my girlfriend and I fought. She said I am too childish, too weak, too stupid."
A tear escaped me. I felt horrible that this girl would cause Ross to do such a thing.

"Ross you shouldn't of done this over her, she obviously isn't worth it."
He looked up at me, eyes red and blurry. That's when I smelled the alcohol.
"Oh Ross." I was now crying. I wiped a tear from his cheek. "Don't drink over her, please."

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" He yelled, throwing an empty beer bottle at the ground. I winced slightly as it shattered around us.
"SHE! She did this to me! She beat me Riley! She punched me and pushed me into drinking! And I was too afraid to do anything!" I then noticed the bruises on his face and arms.

Ross was now on the concrete crying and yelling. I grabbed him as he tried reaching for a shard of the glass bottle.
"ROSS PLEASE! NO!" I screamed cradling him, sobbing now too.

I reached for my phone trying to call Riker but Ross smacked it away.
"No! Please Ry! Please don't call him or anyone! Please!"
He cried into my shoulder.
I decided not to call anyone, but I still held Ross as he screamed curse words into my shoulder.

"Ross! Hey shhhhh. She's gone now right? She can't hurt you anymore, not while I'm here." I said rocking back and forth.
"No! She said that she's not done with me. She wants to come back and hurt me to make sure I don't tell anyone"
He sobbed.
"That's why I came here, to end it. So she can't hurt me."
I fell quiet. Ross was going to kill himself. He was going to do it tonight!

"No Ross! NO! I won't...I WON'T let you!" I yelled, now crying into his shoulder.

"You don't understand! I need to!"

Ross shoved me off and stumbled to his feet. I scrambled up to see him pulling out a gun. He raised it to his head as he sobbed loudly.
A scream escaped my mouth as I tackled him to the ground. The gun went off but missed both of us. I landed on the broken bottle shards, him on top of me, but I ignored the pain. I straddled Ross, keeping his hands away from the gun.
"NO!!! LET ME DIE!!! PLEASE!!!" He shrieked.
I was completely devastated. I held Ross crying with him. I heard sirens in the distance. I could feel blood loss, obviously from the glass we landed on. My last memory was Ross screaming and crying as I held on as tightly as I could, lights flashing all around us.

●●●

A bright light shone in my face. The smell of cleanser stung my nostrils. I could hear beeping and footsteps everywhere. I quickly shot up and looked around. I was in the Hospital.
I panicked and jumped off the hospital bed but fell in pain.
My mom and two nurses rushed in and carried me to the bed.

"Riley! Calm! It's ok, your safe. It's ok!" Mom stroked my face as I lied in pain.
Dizzyness overcame me and I started sobbing again.
"ROSS! WHERE'S ROSS?! IS HE SAFE!!!?" I screamed over again.
I blacked out and woke up an hour later.

This time Stormie and mom sat by my bed talking and Rydel was reading a magazine in the corner.
My mom explained that Ross was in the room next to me, still sleeping, but he was ok.
Stormie said that if I wasn't there, he could of been hurt a lot more. She said I broke his fall and prevented him from landing on the glass, and that I have stitches in my side and right arm. Other than his wrists, Ross just had a few scrapes.

I was relieved and happy he was ok. But a deep anger grew inside me.

I'm going to find out who this girl is. And she will be sorry.

Riker walked in the room an hour later while everyone visited Ross.

"Hey new girl" he said shakily.
"Hi neighbor" I forced a smile.
Tears filled Riker's eyes and he sat at the foot of the bed.
"I um, I wanted to thank you Riley. For what you did. You... you s-saved Ross' life."
I teared up too and frowned.

"Riker did you know? What his girlfriend was doing to him?"

He looked at his feet for awhile.
"N-no. I'm a terrible brother" he said burying his face in his hands.

"No you're not! Obviously he didn't tell anyone and it's not your fault!" I sat up, wincing at the pain.

Riker stopped me, by kissing me
It felt like the first time we kissed. Time stopped. The world spun around us, I felt so safe with him. But my anger still remained.

"It's ok Riker, we'll figure this out ok?" I broke our kiss.
He nodded and left me so I could sleep.
"It's ok Ross. We won't let anyone hurt you." I whispered once more before falling asleep.