volatile [h.s]

1 - sloth

(Riley's pov)

"You need to do something with yourself Riley, you're literally a sloth," my mom says while cleaning up the filth I call my room. She was right, I graduated from college two years ago, I had a degree in fine art but that was about it. At this point in my life, frankly I didn't really want to go anywhere, or get a job. I just wanted to sleep, binge watch my series and eat whatever I could. My mom forced me to slip some exercise into my lazy, sloth-like routine everyday. But I hardly got it in.

The most exercise I got in a day, would probably be driving to the store to get more food or snacks for myself and my sisters when they got back from school. I was the oldest, so I'm supposed to be a role model to my two younger sisters. Currently, I haven't been the most inspiring big sister to look up to. "Riley!" My mom yells, waking me from my hazy state. "What mom?" I reply, sounding a bit ruder than I expected.

"I'm not your maid, clean this shit up now, before I call your father. God, why do I keep speaking to you like you're still a child? You're twenty-fucking-three years old." I just stared at her as she hissed at me with her degrading words. I nodded and hoped she would leave me alone, and she did. My mom literally thought I was depressed at one stage.

My phone started buzzing and I grabbed it from my nightstand. My sister was calling me from school for some reason. "Shouldn't you be in school Jessica?" I answer, confused. "Yeah, but I'm not feeling great. Dad's in a meeting and mom's not answering as usual. Can you pick me up?" I thought about it for a second. She was only in the tenth grade, and I felt bad because she never really asks me for anything.

"I'll be there in 10, just chill for a bit," I tell her, ending the call and throwing over a sweater and then putting on some sneakers. I grabbed my phone and car keys, ruffled through my hair to make sure I looked mildly decent. I told my mom I was picking up Jess and left.

"Hey," she says while getting into the car, looking rather pale. I smiled at her and looked to my front, and noticed twin brothers, who looked about 6 years old walking with a tall man with long-ish brown hair that was perfectly styled. He wore flip-flops, a hoodie, and black skinny jeans with a pair of sunglasses pushed back into his hair.

"Why are you staring at him?" My sister interrupts my daydream. "Oh, he just looks too young to be a father." She laughs, "Yeah, well those are his sons. He's like 27 I think? He's got a massive house, and probably the most beautiful wife ever. He's stupid rich." I nod my head and raise my eyebrows as I listen to her slightly detailed description of the man. He was very attractive, but he didn't notice me. I don't blame him though. I'm probably the most average looking woman you'd ever come across. Your average brown eyes, with your average mid-length dark brown hair.

I drove home and Jess took some meds and went to her room to sleep. After doing the most exercise in probably days, my best friend texted me, asking me if I want to meet her at the mall. I agreed to it and put on more presentable clothes, I mean as lazy and sloth-like as I am, I still want to look good in case I encounter men. My mom always tells me, 'If you can't get rich, marry it.' Probably the most shallow thing she's ever said, but that's who she is.

I put on a silver satin strap-vest, black skinny jeans, my black high-top converse and a fleece brown jacket. I walked out my room and my mom stopped me in my tracks, "Riley, sweetie, did you get dressed in the dark? And where are you going?"

"You tell me to get a life but you question my every move? So much for a mom," I smiled sarcastically and walked down the stairs, and out the front door. I pulled up in the parking lot and grabbed my purse, phone and locked the car as I got out. I saw Emily standing outside the first entrance of the mall. "Crackhead!" I yell, grabbing her attention and seeing her wide smile, noticing her pearly straight white teeth from a mile away.

I greet her with a hug and we walk into the mall, going into the first store, browsing through clothes. It wasn't very practical, the clothes were rudely expensive, but we liked to imagine we could afford them. "Who the fuck is that slice of hunk?" She says, emphasising almost every word. She points subtly to the direction of the same man I saw in the parking lot. "I saw that guy earlier, what about him?" I chuckle slightly.

"And you didn't talk to him?!" She exclaims, very confused with my words and tone of voice. "Em, he's married, his twin sons go to Jess's school. Remember, her school's got all grades there. It's sections. Kindergarten's there too." She looked very disappointed with my response. We continued to browse other clothing stores until we eventually got bored, and hungry. We went to a café and enjoyed each other's company, catching up as much as we could. Emily and I weren't your everyday, best friend duo.

I didn't have many friends, and I don't consider everyone I meet and talk to for a few months 'friends' either. But Emily, she's been in my life for as long as I could remember. She's always been there, and our fights and arguments were small, we were always very mature about it and resolved it in less than a day. We didn't see each other everyday after high school, we didn't necessarily talk that much either, there was no time. But we always made time to see each other, and when we did, nothing ever seemed to be different, we'd still act the same with each other. And we'd talk and talk like we hadn't been apart for almost 5 months.

I heard a husky and coarse British accent coming from behind me. It was very unique, I had to turn around, and to my surprise it was the man. He flickered his eyes up to me and he smiled, but quickly went back to scrolling through something that looked like an article on his phone. But he was with a woman and she looked like a goddess. Although she wore an awful lot of makeup and it looked like she had Botox in her lips, she was still pretty. She was probably the wife Jess told me about. "Oh my god, it's him. And he's with a woman!" Emily proclaims.

"Can you keep it down? He's going to think we're fucking weird," I tell her softy and roll my eyes. Emily laughs and sips from her coffee. The man was British, I wasn't really a fan of British men but I guess it worked for him. I also wondered what he could be doing here in Seattle. Maybe he has a big company here? I don't know, Jess did say he was 'stupid rich'.

This was the third time seeing him in less than two hours. It was strange. I didn't even know him, and he was married. Yet I thought about him so much.

The next day

It was a Saturday afternoon, Jess was at a friend and Stella was at dance practice. Dad was in his office, working his ass off as usual, and mom was at the gym. I was basically home alone. I thought about what my mom said yesterday. How I have no life and I'm a sloth. I gained all my courage, and gained motivation from Hagrid, my large ginger cat laying, spread out on my bed. I put on a pair of old running tights, a grey sweater and running shoes. I plugged my earphones in and went running around the block.

I think it was fair to say my neighbourhood was pretty safe, it was always quiet, nothing barely happens here anyway. I ran at a safe pace, making sure I didn't exert myself to the point where I'd fall over or get a stitch in my stomach. I wasn't very fit, I wasn't actually fit at all. I began to pant and bent over, resting my hands on my knees. I heard footsteps coming from behind me, it got closer and closer. It sounded like whoever was behind me, was exercising too. I pretended to not hear anything and continued to run ahead. I wasn't that fast, if I ran any faster I'd start to look suspicious.

The person eventually caught up to me. It was him. It was the man.

-

A bit predictable I know, I hope you like it so far! Tell me what you think bc I'm not so sure about this. I'm kinda liking it but also not so yeah :))