Chapter 5: Courage and Fear

I laid awake half the night, contemplating what I should do. I wanted to confront Riley and ask her first about what the marks were from before I jumped to conclusions. On the other hand, I had a strong intuition that it had to be because of Kyle. My blood was boiling, but I also knew that I couldn’t do anything to hurt him. He was twice my size and had all his friends to back him up as well.

I was already awake when my alarm sounded. I slowly crawled out of bed, feeling rather groggy from getting little to no sleep. I dragged my feet to the bathroom to get ready for the day. After stepping out of the shower I leaned in close to the mirror. I had large bag under my eyes. The effects of a hard night, I suppose. I went through the rest of my morning routine and headed downstairs.

I walked into the kitchen where my mom was reading the paper. “Good morning Marcel…. Oh I have your glasses here for you.” She stood up and began rummaging through her purse in search of my case.

“Morning mum.” I stated in an unusually tired tone.

She handed me my glasses and I slipped them onto my face. She looked at me a bit oddly. “Long night?” You look exhausted, dear.”

I grabbed an apple from the counter and before taking a bite I stated, “Something like that… I guess I just have some things on my mind.”

“What sort of things? Anything serious?”

I scrunched my face up as I didn’t really want to say, but knew advice from my mum would probably be the best. “Well, I’ve recently just become a bit concerned for a friend.”

“Hmm a friend… really?”

I knew she knew I was talking about Riley. “Yeah…and I am not sure if I should jump to conclusions about things, or should ask first.”

She expressed concern in her voice. “Marcel… you know you should never jump to conclusions about anything. I’m not sure what this is about… but that piece of advice can go for just about anything.” She smiled weakly at me when she finished.

I smiled back, feeling better about talking to Riley about it. “Thanks mum.” I walked up to her wrapping my arms around her for a few seconds. “Well, I should get going. I have to see if Riley wants to walk with me today.” I went over to the trash to throw away the apple core.

“Alright. I’ll talk to you later. I’ll be off for work in a few minutes myself.”

“Okay have a lovely day mum.” I stated as I walked off towards the door.

“You too, love!”

I grabbed my bag and headed down the street and around the corner to Riley’s house. It was a gorgeous day outside. The sun was out warming my cheeks as I walked. When I arrived at her door, I didn’t find a note, so I knocked against it a couple hard times. Not a second later the door swung open to see a positively beaming Riley.

“Hey Marcel!” She stepped outside and shut the door behind her.

“Hey Rils. You seem cheery this morning.” I stated in only a slightly joking manner.

“Yeah. It’s just a beautiful day! It’s hard to feel gloomy on a day like this!” Her face shined as she closed her eyes and looked up and the yellow sun glow over her face.

“I guess so!” I smiled at her.

We began our walk to school and chatted a bit more about the weather. After we grew silent I decided it was now or never and found the courage to bring up the topic I had been thinking about half the night.

“So, Riley… I just wanted to ask you about something.”

Her smile fell as knew exactly what I was going to ask about. She stated a bit reluctantly, “Okay… what’s that?”

“Well… yesterday I noticed when we were working on our homework together you had sort of bruised marks around your arms.” She folded her arms, holding them tightly over her chest, trying to discreetly pull down her sleeves. I continued, “I don’t know, maybe I imagined it.”

She watched the ground as we continued to walk. When she spoke it was lower tone. “Marcel. I was hoping you didn’t see those… I’m sorry I worried you.”

I pleaded with her asking, “What are the marks from then?”

“It’s just…erm… it’s not exactly what you are thinking probably. After we went to town I went to Kyle’s house you know… He still wasn’t thrilled that I had spent the entire day with you, but I told him that I had known you my entire life, and would remain important to me.” My mouth dropped wide as I thought I knew where she was going with this. I thought it was my fault. She continued, “Well… he must have just been well a bit jealous about not seeing me the whole day, and… desperate to get things heated between us… and got a bit rough when he grabbed my arms to pull me close into a kiss.”

My face twisted up in confusion. “You’re telling me… he was that insecure about not seeing you for a day…that he grabbed you so violently for a kiss that you bruised.”

She slightly giggled to herself. “It sounds funny when you put it like that I guess. It hurt really badly though. I guess I am sort of a weakling. He can get really aggressive without realizing it though… so it kind of scared me and I ended up yelling at him.”

“He probably deserved it Riley!”

She nudged gently at my arm, not realizing how serious I was about the situation. “That’s why I probably seemed like such a grump to you yesterday. I’m really sorry. I wasn’t speaking with Kyle because of what happened, and I just felt really horrible about it all.”

“You shouldn’t be the one feeling horrible about it. He is the one who hurt you.”

“Well, he called later last night, and apologized for it all. He promised that he would keep himself in check. I was hoping you wouldn’t see, because I knew how concerned you’d be about it.”

“Well. Of course. You are my… best friend… Riley.”

She laughed. “You’re mine too Marcel… but you don’t need to protect me. Especially from Kyle. I can handle him. He is really not as bad as you think.”

“I don’t know how you can say that. He physically harmed you.” I stated in a serious attitude.

“Marcel… please don’t blow this out of proportion. I’m fine.” She gave me a reassuring smile. A smile I couldn’t deny.

“Alright fine, as long as you are happy and everything.”

She gave me a half smile. “I am Marcel. Thank you for understanding all of this.” We had approached the school grounds and walked up the steps to the building.

When we walked in the door, sure enough, it was the devil himself. Kyle walked beside Riley placing a kiss on her cheek causing her to giggle. He happily greeted her, “Hey babe!”

“Hey!” She beamed at him. It disgusted me that she had forgiven him so easily. She turned to me as the hallway came to a divide. “I’ll talk to you later, okay Marcel?”

“Yeah sure.” I gave her a parting smile, as she turned to walk away hand in hand with Kyle. I glared at him, still not trusting him. There was something that didn’t set right with me. To my surprise, Kyle had turned his head slightly towards returning the same face at me for just a split second. My heart jumped as I had no clue what that could mean.

I walked to my locker and straight to my first period, successfully avoiding any mistreatment along the way from my peers. I sat in my seat, grabbed my assignment from my backpack, and folded my hands over my desk as I patiently waited for class to start.

Just minutes before Mr. Calhoun walked in, I heard a shrill voice speak from behind me. “So, Marcel. I see you got your glasses fixed. Did Riley help you with that too?” She and her friends began to giggle. I just rolled my eyes. I had bigger things on my mind than to worry about Valerie and her obnoxious friends. I had a feeling in the back of my mind that I really needed to confront Kyle before I would feel alright about it. I was just feeling extremely nervous as I didn’t know how to do it, and I didn’t want Riley getting upset with me for doing it.

For the first time I can ever remember, I actually zoned out for most of a class. It didn’t matter too much as I had already read ahead, but it wasn’t like me. I couldn’t help but think of Riley and Kyle. I decided that I was going to have to find him sometime in the day when Riley wasn’t around. I figured the end of the day would be perfect as I believed Riley to be having plans with some of her girlfriends.

For the rest of my classes, I did my best to stay attentive. I couldn’t lose focus, not when we were near months away from graduation. Not even when there was this major a concern for Riley. At lunch Riley and I sat in private, as Kyle and all her other friends had the early lunch hour. She seemed happy. She giggled and laughed at random thoughts she had and she also discussed more about testing out the Harry Styles thing. She was really excited to “see the full package.” We made plans to have another music session the following night, and also dress me all up in my new clothes.

After an afternoon of a few more classes, I rushed to my locker, grabbing my bag, and then to find Kyle. I didn’t want to miss my moment to speak with him. I rounded a hallway corner and saw him kissing Riley goodbye as she walked out with her two other friends, Hayden and Anna.

He was all by himself, which was perfect. I definitely didn’t want his friends around when I approached him. With a deep breath I began taking steps towards him. When I was nearly standing behind him I called, “Hey Kyle.”

He turned looking a bit confused as to who would be calling his name. His eyebrows rose with surprise as his eyes lied upon me. “What the hell do you want, geek?”

Shaking off the lame excuse for an insult, I stated as confidently as I possibly could, “I need to talk to you… about Riley.”

He slammed his locker door shut and looked down at me with disgust. “Okaaay?”

I looked around to make sure nobody was taking notice of us, as I really wanted keep this conversation under wraps from Riley if at all possible. I spoke softly, “About those marks you left her on her arms.”

His face clenched up and his eyes looked at me with surprise. I knew he wouldn’t have expected me to know about that. He rolled his eyes dramatically at me, “Shit….come on.” We walked around a side hallway that had nobody in it, so we could talk more freely. I wasn’t sure if I should feel good that he was taking it seriously, or nervous that there was nobody around to stop him from pummeling me to the ground. Kyle took one more glance around before getting in my face, “Alright, what the fuck do you know about anything?”

“Riley told me everything.”

“So what? You’re here to intimidate me are you?” He let out a short laugh before continuing, “We worked it out. I apologized to her, and we’re fine again. I told her it wouldn’t happen again. Besides, I wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for you, you little prick.”

I was a bit confused. I knew he had been jealous how I spent the day with her, but I didn’t know what I had to do with him grabbing at her like he did. “Me? What about me?”

He grew a little angrier, “If she wouldn’t spend every waking moment talking about how sweet and fucking caring you are, I wouldn’t have a problem at all. I’ll admit it, I got carried away. She had gotten a text from you late…like 11 or some shit… and it pissed me off that she hadn’t said one thing to me all fucking day, and even though she spent the entire day with you… there she was… about to strike up a conversation with you.”

I remembered texting her about our study session, but I still wasn’t following. It wasn’t the same story Riley had told me. “So…?”

“So I grabbed at her arm too aggressively to make her drop her phone!” He shouted in my face. “I yelled at her for talking to you all the damn time. I could tell she was scared, but she still fucking defended you, saying you had been friends for ages, and that would never change. So, getting even more angry I began to shake her a little bit. Does this story sound familiar to you?”

I felt the anger and confusion boiling inside of me. “That’s not what… You did what!?”

“Yeah! I did something really shitty that I regret, Marcel! Get over yourself! I have nothing to say to you. Everything between me and Riley should be our business. So butt the hell out, or I’ll fucking –,”

Suddenly a new wave of courage burst through me, “You’ll do what Kyle?”

“I’ll –,” His face grew frustrated as he turned away from me quickly, before coming back around, swinging his clenched fist straight into my jaw. I fell to the ground in pain. I put my hand up to my lip and pulled it away briefly to see blood trickling down my hand. Kyle looked like he was going to take another swing and I flinched, not sure how I would handle any more punches, but he stopped himself. “Fuck.” He stated out loud. I laid on the ground, being used to it. I held my jaw as Kyle released more aggression by punching at the lockers around us.

After a few minutes of this, I wobbly rose to my feet. He turned to face me, sending fear throughout my body. He relaxed his face a bit. “I’m sorry, Marcel.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. “Excuse me?”

“I got out of hand. I’m sorry. I’ve just had a lot of… built up anger towards you.” He began to plea with me. “Please. I am begging you. Don’t tell Riley about this. She is already on edge about what happened over the weekend. I can’t lose her.”

I didn’t have any sympathy for him, but I couldn’t help but feel on the same page as him. Fear was still growing inside of me as I stuttered, “H-How do you expect me to explain this?” I pointed to my chin which I could already feel swelling up as it pained me to even touch it.

Kyle had desperation on his face. “Just blame it on Seth. Tell everyone who asks it was Seth. Just say he got out of hand. I’ll talk to him, and he’ll understand.” That was one of his close friends, one who had also helped bully me constantly, day in and day out.

“I don’t want you to keep hurting Riley.”

“Marcel. I won’t. That’s it. I know I will lose her if anything else happens. I promised her. I also promised her I'd cool it with you...Shit... I wouldn’t be begging you like this otherwise… trust me.”

I believed the last part for sure, but not so much the first. “Alright. I will agree to blaming Seth...” It was only to cover myself. I didn’t want to upset Riley by going behind her back and talking to Kyle. “…but if you ever harm her in any way ever again… That’s it. I will make sure you never get another chance with her again.”

A half smile grew across his face that I had even considered going along with him. “Marcel…thanks.” With that said he turned on his heel and began to quickly exit the school.

I couldn’t believe the events that had just unfolded. My chin was still throbbing with pain, and I was pissed that Kyle really had intended harm against her. I was also concerned that Riley had lied to me to keep it a secret. In the end, I just wanted to keep Riley’s best interest in mind, and protect her in any way that I could. I just hoped that this promise from Kyle would keep.

Notes

Here's an update! I hope you all are getting excited about this story! Please tell your thoughts by commenting below! :)

Do you think Marcel did the right thing? Does Kyle really regret what he did? Will Kyle keep his promise? What will Marcel tell everyone?

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