A Beautiful Mess｜ONGOING

12. Distorted Truth

Yet, it was definitely an eye-raising moment when Riley had accepted Irena into her small group of friends. Irena Ford — who was a town legacy that owned half the real estate in this town.

I hadn't expected them to get along but they were like two beans in a pod. Together with the third member of their group — Daisy, Elias used to joke that they were like The Three Stooges.

Irena and Riley were not just friends — they were best friends.

So what the fuck happened that made Riley punch her?

I felt my phone slip through my grasp and tumbled freely until it collided harshly against the hardwood floor. The sound reverberated loudly between the four walls of my room and yet I didn't react.

My body simply moved with a mind of its own as my back made contact with the wall and I slowly slid down until my body eased into a sitting position. The door to my room was shut, blocking out the distinct echoing of my brother's voices as they played video games downstairs.

My head felt heavy — the pressure building up inside as I tiredly rested it against the crook of my arm. My gaze trailed blearily around my room as my eyes flickered over framed photos of my family to the stand of trophies pushed into one corner.

They then settled on my desk, where envelopes and files were cluttered on the surface. My shoulder's sagged with exhaustion as I thought about the heaviness of the words on those papers — they ranged from bills to be paid to my signatures for forms from school.

Everything was going too fast and I couldn't catch up — it was like every day I was making life-changing decisions and I had been making the wrong choices. I was failing as an adult and as a guardian.

Maybe if I didn't have to balance a job and all these stacks of bills or all these errands, then I could have the time to really focus on the damaging issues surfacing in our family. But I had been distracted, between working and sleepless nights, I was being stupid.

It was stupid of me to fuel Julian's rage instead of being understanding of the twin's painful past. It was stupid of me to delay that talk I had with April because then my attention had been shifted elsewhere. It was stupid of me to push Nova when she needed comfort instead.

Lately, I have been making a lot of ignorant decisions.

It was naive of me to assume that Riley's friendships would stay standing after everything else had fallen apart. I had been so caught up in my happiness that Riley had supportive friends after reeling from Ma's death, that I had overlooked that maybe it was all a front.

After all, Riley was a master at creating an illusion of the distorted truth. She controlled how everyone perceived into her life with precision.

It was a trait common with Julian — both could cunningly portray a joyful and pain-free life with just a simple smile. Hiding the depth of despair and damage that tore deeply within them.

Maybe I should've learned how to differentiate between the truth and the lie — but I didn't. Just as I had fallen for my ex-girlfriend Diana's false affection, I had fallen for the twin's convincing act.

I might've sat on the cold hard floor for an hour or maybe it was more and I would've stayed in that cramped position the whole night if I had not felt the numbing sensation climbing up my leg from poor blood flow.

With a bone-tired groan, I hauled myself up and decided to check up on the boys downstairs. I willed my fatigue to fade from the tight pull of my face as I replaced it with a relaxed smile.