Knock You Down

“You feeling okay, Riles?” Kayla dropped down on the cushion beside me unexpectedly and nearly made me scream. She smiled at the look on my face and looked at the TV to keep from laughing hysterically.

“I’ll be better soon,” I answered her honestly. I was upset now, not at the fact that Tim was a jack-ass and broke up with me because I wasn’t the one but rather the fact that I had my hopes up for thinking we could become what he wanted, soul mates.

“I never liked him anyway,” Kayla sniffed and pulled a pillow into her side and leaned against it. “He whined too much, he hocked loogies all the time, he pressured you for sex and he hated the guys.”

“I know,” I whispered looking at the TV but I didn’t really see a thing on screen, I was to busy sifting through my thoughts, my memories and my dreams. Rearranging things to better suit me, I had to do something or I’d break like a mirror.

“Riley!” someone called my name from upstairs, it sounded like Matt but I wasn’t real sure so I stood and went up the stairs, slowly instead of doing what I usually did, which was sit on the couch asking why they wanted me and why they couldn’t come downstairs.

“Yeah?” I called out, walking into Brian’s messy dark room. I stepped on something squishy and whined until someone picked me up and sat me on Brian’s desk, which wasn’t cluttered, amazingly. I spotted the culprit; Matt had picked me up and was now sitting beside me on the damn desk. “Why did you call me up here?”

“We have school tomorrow,” he told me something I had already known, since it was Sunday and Monday was when we started back. “Tim will be there, right?”

“Please don’t do anything to him, he may have been a jerk for dumping me over the internet but I’m okay with it. I’m not okay with me getting my hopes up,” I told him, patting his leg as I jumped down and grimaced as my sandals squished something, again. “I know what you can do, Matt. I’d rather you not go to jail for killing him. What good would you do me in jail?”

“I could learn how to make a shank,” he joked but hid his smile when I crossed my arms and grunted. “Alright, I won’t kill him. I just want you to know, if you see people running towards a certain area of the school, it’s just me and the guys protecting what’s ours.”

“I’m not yours,” I rolled my eyes and let my arms dangle at my sides. “You and Brian both seem to think you and the guys have laid claim over me like I’m a piece of meat. I’m family but I’m not anyone’s but my own.”

“Yes ma’am,” he chuckled and smiled so wide that his dimples grew pretty deep. I almost giggled but at the last minute realized that would give away my stern appearance. I looked pointedly at the door and gestured with my head to it. “You may go; Brian is taking a shower and Zacky’s in your room packing a bag. You’re staying with me and him tonight; we’re having a horror movie session.”

“I won’t be sleeping,” I grumbled stepping over the filth in the floor and shut the door behind me as I stepped out. “Kayla, pack a bag!”

“Already have,” I could hear her over the loud music playing in the living room. She had it on a music station as she made food in the kitchen, she must have been hooked into making the snacks for the night.

I chuckled and stepped into my room quietly, Zacky was in my bathroom singing to himself. It was a Misfits song, I was sure but I couldn’t hear the lyrics all that well over his guitar riffs, where he would play the air guitar and make noises that were supposed to be the cords. “Hey,” I called out, surprising him. He fell off my bed, since he had jumped on it and was just about bent backwards getting into his guitar playing. “Oh…are you alright, Zacky?”

“I’ll be fine,” he grunted from the floor. His eyes were closed and his hands were above his head, haloing his upper body. I almost giggled but the door opening and Matt’s head sticking in kind of distracted me.