Chapter 3: His Frozen Vision
I looked back at my best friend and I knew something was definently wrong. "Okay, Maya. You must still be half asleep" I thought, not believing what I was seeing. Riley was wearing her layered clothing as she was before. Her left sleeve was rolled up and she had a bruise bigger than Russia, darker and crueler too, all across her arm. It was almost as black as my mother's heart. Riley still hadn't noticed I was there. She was looking straight down into her lap, like she was looking at something in specific, but what is so interesting about that? I thought these things, everything, so unlogical to me.
Finally Riley looked up and saw me sitting there staring at her. "Maya! Why are you still here? The bell went 5 minutes ago!" she shouted, startled. I didn't know what to say. What should I say? "I was staring at you because I feel something is wrong and I am wondering why there is a huge bruise across your arm and what is so interesting about your lap?" I thought that, it was the stupidest response I could come up with. "I-I-I don't know. I was just waiting for you, t-to go to our next class together" I said stuttering, I sounded like I was repeating something someone was whispering to me, but not getting the right words out. "Why didn't you say something?" she asked mad, but calming down. "I don't know, I am now" I said. Riley glared at me and got up from her desk. She was struggling, I was assuming it was because of the incredible amount of clothing she was wearing. I watched her getting up, what could be going through her head?
I thought to myself, hopeless. I took both my hands and reached for the edge of my desk and plopped my head slowly onto the face of the desk. What else could go wrong? I wondered.
Once the Period 8 bell wrang and it was time to go home, I tried to get out of that school as fast as I can. I was on my way out the door, I was almost there, when Lucas ran into me. "Hey, Maya" he said walking along beside me. "Hey" I said taking a deep breath. "So, did you go looking for a solution?" he asked me, talking about Riley. "No, but something else came to me" I said. "W-What do you mean?" he asked. We were walking in the deep snow, on the way to my house, frozen like popsicles. "Well, I saw something today, like...it was weird" I explained as best as I could. "Okay, like what?" he asked. "Too much, way too much. We're moving way too fast" I remarked. "Okay, so what are you going to tell me?" he asked. We reached my house and I pulled out the key and tried to unlock the frozen door. "No! It's frozen shut. Why does this happen everytime she's out!" I cried. "Here, let me try" Lucas said ripping the key out of my hand. "Ouch" I whispered to myself, very quietly, rubbing my hand. He was jamming the key into my door. "Okay, okay. That's not gonna work" I said snatching it back. "We will have to revert to this" I said walking down the 2 steps up to my house and trampling into my backyard. Lucas followed with no concern. I grabbed a metal bucket in my backyard and walked up to the hose. Lucas placed himself beside me, we were so cold, I could feel him shivering beside me. I turned on the hose and waited until warm water came out. I filled the bucket with steaming water and carried the heavy bucket back around to my front door. "This oughta do it" I said dumping the water all over the door. "Thawing it out?" Lucas asked. "Yeah, this happens at least 10 times every winter" I said.
I re-jammed the key into the lock and it finally opened. "Brrr! I'm freezing" I said trembling, walking into the house. Lucas stood outside it, glaring inside of it. "What? Waiting for a written invatation?" I asked, hanging up my coat on the railing. Lucas stepped inside and examined the house. I put on my slippers and housecoat and walked into the kitchen. "What are you wearing that for?" he asked. "What? I own the place, I can do what I want" I said making hot cocoa and sitting on the couch. Lucas grabbed a cup and sat down beside me. "So what are we gonna do about..." he drifted off. "Riley?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at him. "Uh, yeah" he said. I went channel surfing, looking for the Christmas Movie Marathon. I finally found it and switched to the channel. I didn't pay attention, I looked over at Lucas. He didn't look at me, he was looking at the TV, but I could tell he wasn't watching it. He was thinking of something. "Maya?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the TV. I nodded in response, he didn't see that, but continued anyway. "What happened today? Why are you all worked up and won't tell me what is going on and what you saw?" he asked, now looking directly at me. "Okay, because maybe you and your child-like cowboy senese wouldn't get that things happen in New York that Texians couldn't even think of" I responded, truthfully.
"Can't you trust me?" he asked. "You think I can trust you?" I responded. "I don't know, I asked you" he replied. I went and took a package of rasberries out of the fridge and started eating them, placing myself back on the other side of the couch. "Why can't you tell me? Is it about Riley? She's my friend too you know, you can't hide this forever" he said. I chucked a rasberry down my throat and swallowed it without chewing, I nearly coughed it up, but I didn't. "You want me to get a doctor?" he asked, laughing. Lucas looked at my bin of rasberries and read the side of it. "Oh and by the way, those rasberries of yours are 2 weeks overdue" he said. "Eww!" I screamed spitting one onto the floor. "Haha!" Lucas laughed. "Haha...You really wanna know what's going on?" I asked. "Yeah, I do actually" he said."I saw after History class today, Riley was still in class after the bell and her sleeve was rolled up and she...she..." I drifted off, can I really trust anyone at this point? I wasn't sure. "Maya" Lucas moved up beside me and looked me dead in the eyes. "You can tell me, you shouldn't keep something this huge to yourself" he said. "It was there. But why?" I asked. "Huh? What was there?" he asked confused. "The bruise" I said. "Bruise?" he questioned. "Her arm, it had a huge black bruise on it, and it wasn't there 2 days ago" I said. We sat there in silence, Lucas trying to process what I was blabbing about. "Well, maybe she just got fell or something, you never know" Lucas finally said. "Then why was she wearing so much clothing? Why was she so dull looking this morning? Why was she not talking this morning?!" I asked painfully. "Maya, honestly I--" I cut him off right away. "Why was she looking down!?" I added and flopped back into the couch. "Looking down?" Lucas questioned. "What do you mean, looking down?" he asked worried.
"She was looking down after class today, like she was looking at something, something not good" I said. "But what is so interesting in her own lap?" Lucas asked. "I don't know, Sundance, you tell me!" I yelled. "Maya, calm down" he said. "No, I can't. I don't understand!" I screamed. "I'd better go" Lucas said. "Yeah, when you get the concept, call me" I said madly. He nodded his head and walked right out the door. "Uggh!" I sighed and fell back down onto the couch. "What am I ever gonna do?" I asked myself. Then my phone started blinking. I picked it up and it was a text from Riley. "MsyAs, HWLP i;M trapdhd" it said. "What?" I quietly whispered to myself. "This can't be good!" I thought. I grabbed my jacket and ran out the door as fast as I could. I slipped on the sidewalk and I was covered in ice and snow. I didn't bother to dust it off, instead I ran all the way to the subway and made my way to Riley's house.
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