The Project

26

James

The next morning, for the first time in quite sometime. I was on time and actually excited about Saturday's practice
Yes it may be the day we all need to to perform our dances but hey, I get to see Riley so you win some and you lose some
But I'm definetly winning 

As soon as I walked into the Studio, I saw Riley stood at the cubby looking at her phone while the rest of the team were out stretching
I quickly walked over to her, placing my hands on her waist making her jump to start with before turning to look at me
"Hey" She smiled before i learnt down to kiss her 
"Hey" I smiled making her blush as she hid her face in my chest
"I thought we spoke about that" I said raising a brow making her chuckle before looking at me with a now slightly tint to her cheeks, nowhere near as pigmented as it had been moments ago

"Alright love birds, come and join us" Eldon called making Riley and I look over to see all of the gang including Hayden looking this way
I looked at Hayden expecting to see a smile but instead he was concerned and that was obvious. Something was going on. I just didn't know what 

--

We had spent all morning finalising our routines and were due to be showcasing them any minute, Beth ran off somewhere and I had no idea where but I liked that 
Hayden walked in alone. No Riley? Only solidify my thought earlier of something being up

"Hey man can we talk?" He asked taking a seat next to me, I nodded looking at him slightly worried
"is something going on Hayden? You've had the same concern on your face all day" I said and he shook his head
"I'm worried" He said
"About?" I asked
"Riley" He said bowing his head

"Why? What's going on?" I asked and he looked at me confused
"She didn't tell you?" Hayden asked
"Tell me what?" I continued to question although I wasn't getting any answers

"Right before she left for your date last night, she had a stand off with Freddie" He said making me furrow my brows at him
"she never mentioned anything" I sighed
"then it's worse then I thought" He said looking away before meeting my gaze again
"what do you mean?" I asked but he was hesitant to say anything else
"come on man, you can't say that and then not answer" I said nudging him

"Riley does this thing, when she has a problem. She'll push it aside in the hope it goes away but instead it slowly but shortly drowns her" He muttered 
"It's happened a few times, when her nana died, when her and Emily had an arguments. And then the big thing you are aware of, everyone's need to compare the two" He said
"Each time she's done this. It's gotten worse and worse until the last time where I found the note, the one I know she's told you about" he said making my breath hitch

"What happens now?" I asked
"She'll act like everything is okay, if you ask her about it. She'll ignore the problem and try to convince you that she is okay" He answered before looking at me
"But I can promise you James. She is far from okay" He whispered

"Freddie is a dick, we all know that but Freddie is like an older brother to her. It's taken a lot out of her to cut him off and I can promise you she'll drown soon" He said making my heart ache a little bit
"I want to help Hayden but you haven't told me how I can" I said and he sighed nodding

"James, I reckon all she'll need is you there when she needs you and she could be okay. But when she drowns it might not be pretty so you need to know what you are getting yourself into" He said and I nodded
"I'm in it for the long run" I said making him smile

"No matter how dark she might get" I said making him nod in appreciation

"it's crazy to think this all started from a stupid school project" he chuckled patting my back
"hey, I liked the project" I said making Hayden laugh
"Yeah because you got a girlfriend out of it" He said and I laughed alongside him
"So did you pal!" I explained 

"Looks like we both got pretty lucky then eh?" He asked and I nodded before watching both Riley and Michelle start walking in towards us 
"Yeah we did" I smiled as the girls got closer