Rich lies & poor truths

Chapter 5 - The sight of lips

I open my eyes, seeing blurry.  I hear screaming and mumbling around me making my head throb in pain. I lift my head, to see blurry faces hovering over me.  Someone pushes me back down and I rub my eyes trying to see better.  My thoughts turn into knots, trying to recollect what why I'm lying with people hovering over me. 

"Riley." I hear a familiar voice and immediately respond with a small. 'yeah.'

"You okay?" I nod and sit up, this time with no one pushing me back down. My body feels stiff and shaky, as if I haven't eaten for a long time. My eyes widen when I'm finally able to see properly. People are looking at me with worried expressions, Chase kneeled beside me with Carlos on the other side. I also notice Trench ahead, talking on the phone. I frown when memories start to invade my mind. The party. I look around, seeing that the party is still on.  Lisa puking. Stephen. 

I jerk my head to see the space where Josh laid is empty, blood smeared on the pool deck. 

"What did he do to you." Chase demands, almost having the same angry expression Stephen had. 

I take a deep breath, feeling a nervousness in the pit of my stomach. 

Why did Stephen get so mad? 

"Is he dead? " I ask, my voice trembling, remembering ber seeing his lifeless body.

Carlos and Chase look at each other, looking stressed. 

"The ambulance is on their way." I shudder thinking that he's still here. 

"Where is he?" I ask, biting my lips. 

"He crawled to the front."  I feel my face turn into a pained expression, suddenly feeling sorrow for him. 

"Listen Riley, what did he do to you?" Chase asks again, his hands in tight fists. 

I look around at all the people looking at me feeling uncomfortable. 

"Take her inside, Chase." Trench call making Chase and Carlos help me up, and  letting me lean on them while walking inside.  We go into the movie room and they close the door behind them and I notice Stephen sitting on the couch. I clench my teeth, not knowing what to feel. 

I sit on the couch with the three pair of eager eyes watching me. 

"Did he spike you." Carlos asks, putting his hands behind his back. 

"She wouldn't know if she was spiked." 

"Riley did he give something to drink." 

I shake my head, knowing that I didn't take anything from him. 

"Did anything suspicious happen?" Trench asks and I look at Stephen, busy rubbing ointment on his purple knuckles.  I swipe my tongue over my teeth. 

"He tried to r**e her." Stephen states without looking up from his hands. Everyone looks at him with shocked expressions. I frown, thinking that he's over exaggerating. 

"Right on the pool deck?" Trench aks frowning. 

"Then he must have spiked you, Riley." Carlos says afterwards. 

"He didn't." I state, replaying the events in my head, "I only freaked out because of Stephen hitting Josh," I glance at Stephen. "Continuously."

"Tell us exactly what you drank, where you were and what happened." Trench says, seriousness laced in his voice. 

I sigh, "I played beer pong with Carlos," I eye Carlos who is nodding approvingly, "drank two beers there." 

The boys look at each other, frowning. 

"Afterwards I had a shot and that's it." 

"Where did you go?" Trench asks as if he's a serious inspector. 

"I went to the bathroom upstairs with Lisa, put her in the guest room and went to your mom's room," I eye Chase, "went back to the bathroom and came downstairs." I almost rolled my eyes. 

"And what exactly did he do to you." 

I take a deep shaky breath, "He forced a kiss on me and held me.”

“No, he didn’t hold you.” Stephen confronts me with an angry voice, “He gripped you and you couldn’t escape and if something,” he eyes his bruised knuckles, “Then it would’ve led to something more serious.”

I look down, knowing that he is telling the truth. I give an inside shudder seeing all the boys looking at each other with concerned faces. I didn’t know why Josh would try something like that when he’s already handsome and a lot of girls would give him attention and more, freely.

Chase exits the movie room with Carlos and Trench following behind, leaving an awkward silence between me and Stephen.  I put my fingers in my mouth and nibble my nails, trying not to let my eyes wander to Stephen. 

My thoughts drift to Lisa and that she wanted to see me something and I wonder what could be so serious.  The way she broke down, isn't like her at all. 

Stephen clears his throat and stands up. I quickly glance at him to see him look straight at me, his eyes eerily dark. 

He suddenly comes face to face with me, his hands on boths sides of me. I look into his eyes just like he's looking into mine, my face turning red. I clench my teeth feeling embarrassed at how fast my heart is beating.  His masculine smell invades my nose and I want to breath it deep into my lungs. I want to melt into him. 

"You okay?" he asks with a serene voice and I frown, thinking that he was going to lash at me madly. 

I gulp and nod. I comb my hair behind my ear, staring at a small white scar under his right eye. I lick my lips as my eyes fall on his thick dry lips.

My stomach flutters when I see him looking at my lips until his eyes get filled with regret and he moves away from me. I purse my lips almost feeling empty again.  He combs his hands through his hair, showing his muscles bulging from his T-shirt and walks out. 

I frown and follow him, seeing no more people scattered around the house.  I run upstairs towards the guest room to see the bed empty. 

"Hey, you should rest." Chase says behind me. 

"No I'm fine." I say. "Where's Lisa?" 

He shrugs, his expression showing no care. I bite my lips and frown. 

"What's the time?"

"I don't know, past eleven." 

I widen my eyes, feeling pathetic not keeping track of the time. 

"I'm going to head back to my house." 

He opens his mouth to probably say I must stay, but I push past him before he can say anything. 

I notice the room that's door is alway closed is standing askew. I hear muffled voices and without thinking I step forward trying to see through the small opening of the door. 

Lisa and Stephen. 

My stomach turns, seeing her in the bed, laughing at him, standing without his shirt on. I nibble my nails and roll my eyes as Lisa twirls her hair through her fingers. I violently turn around and run down the stairs. I feel anger building in my body and I escape their front door, before I throw something from their shelves. The calming air relaxes my tense muscles and I start to walk to our house, wondering what's going to happen with Josh. 

"I had a great night." I hear a woman's voice, coming from our house.

Through our outside lights I make out a beautiful redhead woman, her hair made in an elegant bun on top of her head. She's wearing an emerald green dress, ending just below her knees, showing her white calves. She climbs into a silver ford and I wait until she drives off before I skip towards the front door. 

"Riley, dear." Dad says with a big grin. 

"Who was dad?" I question as he makes space for me to enter. 

"Oh, Elizabeth?" he questions but almost seems guilty, "She's just a work friend." 

I frown at him, "That stayed so late?" 

He looks down and pushes out a laugh, "Don't think otherwise, it's the only time we both have available." 

I raise my eyebrows and utter an okay. 

"You're still my darling." 

I lick my lips, feeling hungry and exhausted. 

"You hungry?" he asks gently and I nod eagerly. 

"There's some quiche in the oven, dear." 

I nod and go to the kitchen and  dish myself a delicious looking triangular piece of quiche.  Dad has magical hands when it comes to making food and I can be sincerely thankful, since I don't know anything about making food. 

"You stayed out late?" he says, ticking his finger against the table.  I notice a golden ring on his middle finger, a dark red diamond in the middle. 

"Where'd you get that?" I ask ignoring his question. 

He jerks his hand away, his lips turning into a shy smile. "Oh." he huffs a laugh.

"Just some family heirloom." 

I raise my eyebrows at him, filling my mouth with food.  I have never seen him wear that heirloom or any kind of ring before. 

"Let me see." 

He hesitantly puts his hand in front of me and I inspect the ring, closely. 

"Is it real?" I ask tapping on the diamond, or whatever it is. 

"Of course." he shrugs his hand away, before I can look further. 

"I'm going to bed." I say, after eating and head towards my room, feeling strange at my silent dad. I close the door behind me and see Chase's and Stephen's room lights still on. I close my eyes and take a deep breath as my thoughts run back to Lisa in Stephen's bed, her hand flirting with her fingers twirling her hair. I open my clothes revealing my dull, dark clothes. I stare at it for a while before I fall on my bed.  I look at my phone standing on my bedside table, seeing a few notifications. 

Game tomorrow needs to replace two players. 

I frown at my coach's message and it low-key makes me nervous. 

Tomorrow is a sunday, so it must be pretty serious. I sigh, knowing that hockey is my only chance to get me out of the house and far away. Not that I hated it here. It sometimes just feels like I need to start over on a clean page. 

With my thoughts racing around the incidents earlier and the hockey game, I struggle to fall asleep.  I look out my window, to see Stephen's light still on.  What are they doing? What are they doing? I want to stop my knotted mind and just scream all my questions in open air.  Maybe someone will scream the answers back. I grab my phone and message Lisa. 

You okay? 

But without responding, tiredness takes over and I fall asleep.