Happily Unhappy: Season 3

Season 3, Episode 12: The Big Bang Theory

On Monday at school, Aisha walks out of the library after printing off her English paper, slowing down in her tracks when she notices Riley coming in through the doors from the parking lot. She holds her breath. She's been ripping into Troyan for what he did to Riley the entire weekend, with good reason. But, Troyan didn't need Aisha telling him that he was in the wrong for him to already know it. Sure, Riley is scum but sinking to his level like the other trauma club members did doesn't make them any better. Playing with fire is only going to cause larger flames until everything around them is burning. Aisha isn't ready to torch this school yet.
"Hey." Aisha finds herself saying as she approaches Riley in the hall. His hair is dripping wet from the rain outside and his hands are shoved deep into the pockets of his black jacket. He has a bandage on his face from where he was burned during the firecracker prank and it's only a matter of time until people start making fun of him for it. "How are you?"
Riley stares at her. "Is that a serious question?"
Aisha clears her throat. "Yes? I saw what happened. You may have done bad things before but that was uncalled for."
"Yeah, it was."
"I'm sorry people are jerks."
Riley stares at her for what feels like a very long time but doesn't say anything. It's like his eyes have turned into two pits of darkness, nothing inside of him.
Aisha awkwardly clears her throat again. "Okay, well, I'll see you around."
"Have you seen your boyfriend?" Riley finally speaks when Aisha turns to leave. "Troyan."
"Uh, not this morning, no," she answers honestly. "Why?"
He shrugs. "Just curious. I figured he had something to do with the whole thing."
"Why would you think that?"
"Because all of you people in that club with Lynn would be responsible for something like this," Riley answers.
Aisha doesn't say anything. She might not have agreed with the other members of trauma club doing this to him but that doesn't mean she's going to throw any of them under the bus. "I don't think so. But I understand why you would think that."
He walks away without another word. Aisha watches him make his way down the hall. There's something about the way he's walking that shows he's on a mission.

River zigzags through the people in the cluttered hallways of the high school, pointless chatter bouncing off the walls as students shake off their umbrellas and teachers converse about the rain outside and how it hasn't stopped all night. There has been a tight foreign feeling at the pit of River's stomach all morning ever since he woke up and checked his site for new entries.
He had gotten a new submission under Letters to People Who Hurt You and even though the site encourages students to be open and raw about their emotions and feelings, this entry was only a few letters long. River has seen enough of the news and teen dramas to know what a cry for help is. Or a threat.
He rushes into the trauma club room, where Ms. Torres is taking off her dripping wet jacket and hanging it by the door.
"Ms. Torres, I need to talk to you," River tells her breathlessly.
"River, are you okay?" She looks concerned, caught off guard.
"I got a new entry last night on my website," River explains, setting his laptop down on her desk and moving the mouse around to wake it up. "It worried me so I thought I would show you first before going to the principal."
"Don't take this the wrong way, but you're starting to scare me." She gently shuts the door and leans over his laptop to get a look at the screen as River pulls up the newest submission.
I'm gonna end you all.
River reads the words again and his stomach sinks once more. He's got a terrible feeling about it. Perhaps because the sentence is so vague that it can mean a number of things. Or maybe it's because Riley keeps racing through his mind on a loop. Their firecracker prank in his locker was supposed to scare him away from Lynn and the rest of potential victims at this school. It was supposed to be a clear message telling him that he isn't wanted here. But it did so much more harm to him than good. Now, his face is burned and it's only a matter of time until he's walking around like Freddy Krueger with knives as fingers.
"Okay..." Ms. Torres calmly sits down in her seat. I'm gonna go ahead and call Mr. Keller for him to come take a look at this."
River nervously glances out the window of the classroom and into the hallway where no student has a clue that something could be wrong. Very, very, wrong.