Teaching Noah | √

037

IT WAS ALREADY a whole day since I locked myself up in my room and refused to come out. After everything I heard yesterday evening, I didn't have the willpower to do anything, so I just lay on the floor and stared into space.

The night had been a bit rough, and even though Noah was right when he said the coffee I drank wouldn't interfere with my sleep, I was kept awake for the most part of the night. Nothing felt real after I heard Mom speaking over the phone. It was hard to believe that she had been in contact with dad all these years while acting clueless and being as confused as I was. It meant that for every time Mom had seen me cry about dad, she had always known something— now this was what I was struggling to digest. How had she been able to lie conveniently to me for years? Why would she tell him to stop coming home? Why would she tell him I didn't want to speak to him when she knew that was one of the things I wanted to do so badly? Those were just few of the many questions that had been running though my mind all night. The questions had caused me to toss and turn when I tried to get some sleep.

"Riley, you know you have to eat. You haven't had anything to eat since last night. Please, just come have lunch," Mom's voice pulled me out of my thoughts, but I didn't say anything in response.

We had both been doing this. I couldn't count the number of times she had come to my door, either asking me to talk to her, or asking me to come eat, but I would always remain quiet because, not necessarily because I was angry at her, but because I was scared that I spoke, I would say something I would regret.

"Riley, come on..." I heard Mom say again, and this time, I heard a sniff follow. "Can you at least open the door, so we can talk about this?"

I was tempted to open the door, but I didn't. I wasn't even ready to look at her, and few minutes later, I heard her say, "I'll drop your lunch by the door."

It was only shortly that I heard a familiar voice call quietly, "Riley?"

I closed my eyes to not feel guilty about not going to open the door up for Lennon, but I knew for a fact that Mom was with her. It wasn't going to be the first time Mom would call Lennon over to help speak to me. The very first time it happened was when I realized dad was probably never coming back. I sat in my room and shut everyone out. I hated feeling so alone, but at the time, it was what I wanted. I knew it wasn't fair to Lennon, especially since she waited the whole day for me to open the door.

"You're shutting me out again, Riley. Literally." I heard her say.

I wanted to tell her I was sorry, but I swallowed instead.

My stomach growled lowly, but I didn't want a situation where I would open the door and see Mom. Letting out a breath, I fell back on the floor and closed my eyes. The next time I opened my eyes, it felt like forever, but there was a knock coming from my window. Furrowing my eyebrows, wondering who might be there, I hoped it was Lennon, although I knew that her small self wouldn't even think of climbing up my window. I peeked at the window and was surprised to see Camden looking like he was hanging on to something for his dear life, which was good for him because my window was a little high up there.

"What? How did you..." I gaped. "Is that a ladder?"

He nodded stressfully, "Yeah, now let me in before I fall off this thing or someone thinks I'm trying to do something sneaky."

I swallowed and pushed my hair away from my face before opening up the window for him to come in. "I can't believe you."

"I can't believe myself either, but I left you a bunch of texts and you weren't replying. No one was answering the door, I had to do something."

"Wow, is this that urgent?" I wanted to be amused.

"I promised myself I wouldn't wait another day," he answered before looking around, "Nice room."