525,600 Minutes

The Tragedy

When she finally finds Riley, alone, Lucy takes a breath and walks up to the girl with bruised eyelids and cloudy pupils. Riley is sitting on a bench in the hallway of the center, stray hairs in front of her face that would easily trigger her. Lucile Jameson sits next to her, almost in a hurry, still fully believing Riley can read her mind even when she talks too fast;

"I know you know what I'm about to say because of your cool super powers and you probably don't want to hear it, and less from me. But I am so so so sorry. I never ever meant to hurt anybody... I just snapped. I snapped Riley. I know it's not an excuse, but I wasn't trying to hurt you and I wasn't trying to make you go blind I swear. You don't have to forgive me and like. It's impossible to forgive that, I know..just..,' Lucy swallows her tears, ready to explode, 'I can't like! Move on or like, live with myself without knowing you're okay, so..are you okay?"

"I'm blind,' Riley takes a deep breath and finally musters a response, 'I can't see."

"And you hate me, you absolutely hate me!"

It's annoying for Riley to need to hear instead of feel through Lucy's incessant self loathing, blaming herself for something that was ultimately her own mistake. But punching Riley to the point of both retinas, snapping, as she said, is still a bit excessive no matter if she meant it or not. So Riley decides to keep her response vague, long dark black strands moving with the slight cool breeze in front of her face;

"I'm never going to see the way I could before. And playing my guitar will be basically impossible, unless I take a lot of extra training since I can still hear, and I'm mad. But if you think I hate you then you don't know me at all."

"You don't?" Lucy questions and looks up to her hopefully, mentally chastising herself when she realizes the other girl can't see her.

Riley reaches with her hands to pull her knees in closer to herself.

She tilts her head back slowly until it hits the wall, "I don't hate anybody."

"I'm sorry," Lucy doesn't know what to say, looking back down and swinging her feet nervously on the bench.

Riley tugs her thumb with her opposite thumb, still unable to breach Lucy's mind and judge her feelings properly. The Jameson girl stays silent, surprisingly, while Riley mumbles the confession she's yet to tell a soul;

"I lifted the turf. I made Vi trip so that you would stick around..."

Lucy looks shocked, leaning forward with her eyes wide, "Why?! Why would you cheat for me?!"

She shrugs. Closing her eyes feels pointless but she does so regardless in an almost involuntary action. "Garrett likes you,' she finally confesses, 'Izzy trusts you...and Vi was going to win."

Lucy sinks into the bench, her shoulders slumping forward, "Why? Why would you do that?! When I turned around- I thought you were Michael, he kept poking and when he pushed me-."

"He punched you, actually. Really hard and everyone heard it. So that's why I jumped in between. I thought he hurt you," Riley clarifies with her head fixated forward.

Seeing that the girl with 'no emotion' has a ton, defending her teammate with a full confession leaves Lucy feeling even worse. She is trying to process- as much as she can for her age. Riley is tough and let's no one in. Someone content to keep all emotion and feeling to herself is opening up a little.

Lucy sniffles a shaky inhale, "I'm so sorry I couldn't stop."

Riley tucks her chin, a strain in her temple she feels the need to address with both of her pointer fingers, one for each, "It still hurts."