It's another one of those lazy mornings. Riley groaned and grumbled as the sun shone bright into her dorm room. Everytime she tried to pry her eyes open, it was literally impossible. Either the light was a major factor in that or her eyes were simply glued toghether.
After a while of tossing and turning and internal complaining, Riley finally rubbed her eyes and slowly opened them, but quickly squinting them after. Why does the sun have to be so damn bright? Fuck you, sun. Her head quickly darted towards her alarm clock, which plastered the time. 10:34 AM. Riley was about to panic about how late she was to class, only to realise it was a Sunday.
Contemptly sighing, Riley snuggled back in bed, ready to drift back off to sleep. She loved sleeping. Finished her work in class? Sleep. Free period? Sleep. Weekends? Sleep. Holidays? Sleep. Every opportunity she gets, she sleeps. Sure, Riley also hangs out with her friends and makes plans, which she probably does more than sleep, but sleep is still amazing.
Just as Riley was about to drift off to sleep, someone knocked on the door. Ugh, great. She thought. Can't even get as much sleep as we want.
The knocking just wouldn't stop and Riley had to quickly force herself out of bed to make it stop. "Hold your horses, whoever you are! I'm coming, jeez." She finally reached her dorm's door and opened it, only to reveal Dana grinning at her.
"Morning, girlfriend," Dana happily grinned.
"Dude, why are you so happy?" Riley asked as she scratched her hair.
"Next week, we're having a party on Sunday. It's gonna be the last party before the 'End of the World' one!" she smiled, handing over a ticket. "And I got us tickets to the VIP section."
Riley facepalmed herself. "Dana.. You know I love partying and shit, but couldn't you have just waited until later on in the evening or something? I was sleeping." she glared at her. "Peacefully."
"Sorry, couldn't contain myself. I'll make it up to you later." Dana smiled, shoving the ticket into Riley's face. "Anyway, I have to go meet up with Trevor. But nice talking to you, sister!" She blew Riley a kiss before leaving.
Riley only waved before going back inside her room, shutting the door. Only now is when she realised she's supposed to meet up with Warren in, like, 10 minutes. Guess I have to thank Dana for this. Otherwise the dude wouldn't be quiet about me being late for days. She chuckled to herself before storing the party ticket into her drawer, and heading toward her closet. She picket out casual clothes: just a band shirt and jeans. She also wore a beanie ontop of her messy hair. Hipster shit, she thought. Then Riley just wore a random perfume─or cologne, she randomly picked because she wears both women and men's perfume─before hurriedly wearing her shoes, leaving them half untied before leaving her dorm.
Riley waked down the hall of the girls' dorms, waving at anyone who's out, and quicky headed to the bathroom to wash her face. After a minute or so, she made her way back into the hall and out of the dorms to meet Warren outside Blackwell Academy, and next to the fountain. (does that really count as outside? i dont know LOL)
Finally noticing Warren who was sitting on the edge of the fountain, Riley sat down next to him and greeted him with a high five.
"You're 2 minutes late," Warren joked.
"Oh, that's a new record! I thought I'd be, like 10 minutes late." Riley chuckled. "So, what is it you called me over for?"
"I was wondering if you'd let me borrow one of your sci-fi movie CD'S. We kind of watch the same things so─" he smiled, "just wondering if it's okay with you."
"Of course, anytime. But you could've texted me instead. I'll deliver them to you, let's say, like this evening? That sound cool with you?"
Warren nodded. "Sorry, I preferred seeing you in person. But yeah, fine by me."
"Ok, well good to know. I have plans to make. And a project to work on." Riley chuckled, high fiving him again. "See you later, Graham!"
He waved at her. "Bye, Riley."
Riley walked inside the halls of Blackwell, who were a bit crowded with students around their lockers. Pretty weird for a Sunday, she thought to herself. When she passed by the bathroom, she bumped into someone─no, someone bumped into her.
"Watch where you're going, fucking dumbass!" the boy said. It was none other than Nathan Prescott and his trashy attitude.
"Yeesh, dude, who peed on your cereal this morning?" Riley asked defensively, raising her arms up until shoulder length. "But, hey, if you like pee in your cereal that's fine too. I don't judge." she joked.
The boy only glared angrily at her before walking away the opposite direction from her. He really thinks the Prescotts own this shithole.. when themselves they ARE a shithole, she thought with a sigh. But Riley did notice that his eyes were quite puffy. But she didn't think much of it, though─she only thought of it as allergies or something. Riley thought that Nathan was too cold hearted to have any will to cry.
Back into her dorm room Riley slumped on her desk and opened her laptop. She quickly closed it again, realising she won't need it and that she opened it for absolutely no reason. "Fucking dumbass," she mumbled, chuckling at herself.
The project Riley had was to paint a self portrait. Given she sketched herself alot on paper with a pencil, she thought painting would be the same. Like painting a scenery. But the project was due tomorrow, and she was trying since last Tuesday. Riley was a pro at painting other people, painting scenery and such─she was a good artist in general─but when it was time for her to try out painting herself, she drastically failed. In her eyes, atleast.
She could totally learn how to do it in a month or two, but in a week? It was a challenge. But, hey, anything for that A+, baby, she thought to herself.
Positioning herself infront of her canvas, sitting down on the stool, mirror next to her to capture her features without any flaw, or with the minimum possible, atleast, Riley first picked up her pencil to start sketching herself. She wanted to make it simple: no detailed background, just plain white with a painting of her (from an up angle) looking into the distance.
At first, she wanted to make it as basic as making every color perfectly accurate to her, but remember her teacher's words: Being different isn't being weird, it's being yourself, it's being creative. And so, she started messing around with the colors.
After about 30 minutes of polishing and detailing, Riley was actually proud of herself. The painting ended up with a mix of blue, yellow and red paint, the hues contrasting her skin color and shading the features perfectly. The colors weren't any normal human skin colors─because who is born with blue skin?─but in art, you could do whatever you wanted. Smiling at the art, she got up the stool and let the painting dry as she grabbed her palette and dirty paintbrushes and got out of her dorms to go wash them.
While walking in the hallway, she spotted Max, casually waving at her. "How are you holding up with photography, girl?" Riley asked.
"Fine, I guess," Max nonchalantly shrugged, "Mr. Jefferson wants me to join the Everyday Heroes contest, but I don't really think I want to." she paused for a bit, "but again, he's insisting so much and I just─"
"Don't pressure yourself. If you don't feel like doing it, don't do it. But, personally? I love your pics, Caulfield." Riley chuckled. "Wish I could high five you or pat you on the shoulder, or anything, but," she pointed at her hands filled with paint and the fact that they're already filled with dirty art supplies.
Max chuckled aswell. "It's fine."
"Hey, are you going to that party on Saturday? Or was it Sunday? Anyway, you gonna be there?"
"No, I'll think I'll pass for this time." Max rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize. It's totes fine." Riley smiled. "Anyway, I'll see you around. Later!" The two girls waved at eachother one last time before they parted ways. Riley loved conversations, even if it was just small talk. She then headed to the bathroom to wash her art supplies.
A bit later in the evening, Riley was hanging out outside with some of her friends, discussing about the party and what they should prepare, or bring.
"I can bring the drinks." Riley spoke up as Dana and Juliet were bickering about who was going to bring the drinks, and almost were about to play rock paper scissors over it. "Sodas, beers─whatever. I just won't buy any illegal shit because I don't want to have 'arrested for underage drinking' files in my criminal record."
"You sure?" Juliet asked. "You don't want me to get them?"
"I was going to get them before you, girl," Dana scoffed jokingly.
Riley rolled her eyes playfully. "None of y'all are buying the drinks. I will. Period, end of discussion."
Dana and Juliet both sighed, both sad (jokingly) because they couldn't buy the drinks. But soon they started discussing snacks and this time, it wasn't just the girls. The whole friend group was bickering about what snacks to buy and what to get as extra supplies. Riley, however, didn't want to participate in this banter that has been going on for atleast more than an hour, so she got up from the grass and bid everybody goodbye, before heading back to her dorm.
1:03 AM.
For some reason, Riley couldn't sleep tonight─which was rare to hear because the girl takes any occasion to sleep. She kept tossing and turning for god knows how long. She came up with two theories: either she was nervous about her painting submission tomorrow, or it was the energy drink she drank when she was with her friends this afternoon. Nevertheless, she needed out. Like, urgently. Yanking the blankets off of her, she only wore her shoes before sneaking out her dorm, practically tip toeing her way out. Then she got the dumb ass idea to visit the boys' dorms. She was thinking about writing something like 'wanna get high 2nite' on a random boy's slate jokingly.
Slowly making way towards the boys' dorms, Riley finally reached the door, and tried to open it. "Shit," she mumbled. It was locked: probably David Madsen locking it so no boy can escape. But how did she get out of her dorm? Too many questions, too little time. Still trying to budge the door like an idiot, clicking and unlocking was heard from the other side. Riley froze. Instinctively she let go of the door knob, and out from the door burst out Nathan, crying. He didn't even acknowledge her─or didn't give two fucks that she was here, anyway. But he sure did take his sweet time to lock the door again, so yeah, he totally just ghosted her.
Riley looked at him with a slight frown as he walked away. Even the most horrible people deserve some comfort, I guess, she thought to herself. She let the Prescott get a bit more far so it doesn't seem like she's stalking him or something, before quietly following him. He went as far as into the Blackwell Academy parking lot, and sat on one of the benches near the fountain. And there he was. Hands on his face, crying like a child. Riley couldn't help but feel bad for him. Like, a tsunami ton of bad. At first, Riley hesitated. She wanted to go back to her dorm, let him deal with his own shit, she thought. But she wasn't cruel, and was open to listen to anyone. And at that moment? Nathan looked like he really needed it.
Taking a deep breath, she marches towards him and sat down beside him.
"Uh," she started, hesitantly putting a hand on his shoulder. "Hey."
He flinched at her touch and pushed her hand away, quickly wiping his tears before staring at her with his venomous gaze. "Don't fucking touch me. Piss off."
"Piss off?" she snorted, "is that a reference to what I told you this morning? About pee in your cereal?"
He didn't reply. He just crossed his arms and slumped against the bench, looking ahead. Right, I never comfort arrogant people, she told herself.
"Um, uh, er.." Riley was stammering. She had zero idea on how to start this. "I─"
"Stop fucking stammering, weirdo." Nathan glared angrily at her.
Riley gulped, rubbing the back of her neck. After a moment of awkward silence, she finally spoke. "Are you, well, okay? I mean I know you're not, you were literally just fucking crying right now."
"Good to know your little pea brain actually put 2 and 2 toghether. Glad I don't have to answer that stupid question."
Riley paused again. "It's not stupid. Asking about mental health is very important."
Nathan just rolled his eyes.
"Seriously though, Prescott─"
He slammed his hand on the bench, seething at her. "Do not call me that."
She seemed taken aback. "Woah, woah, okay, dude. Jeez. Nathan." Nathan seemed to calm down just a bit after that. "Do you, like, need someone to talk to? Let it out? I dunno. I know you're fucking rude to everything and everyone but even the coldest hearts deserve something, right?"
"Get the fuck away from me, Riley Erikson. I don't need your 'help'." Nathan got up from the bench, putting the word 'help' in air quotes. He then walked away.
Riley sighed to herself. "Well, it was worth a shot," she mumbled, "and atleast he bothered to remember my name."
This quick set of events tired her, which queued her to go to sleep, and so she headed back to her dorm and went off to sleep.
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WORD COUNT: 2377 WORDS
basma says ! ^_^ :
hii chat! i stayed up until 2 am writing this LOLOLOL!! the friendship between nathan and riley wont start now so SUIT YOURSELF BECAUSE THIS WILL BE A VERY VERY SLOWBURN (atleast until i cant wait anymore) SO SEE U UNTIL NEXT CHAPTER! BAI! (>▽<)ﾉ