She kept her eyes forward but murmured, “Sure, Riley.”
Swallowing against the coming humiliation he probably had planned, she held her breath and willed her body to settle. Her fingers curled around the edge of the small writing surface just above her lap.
“I’m sorry for everything. All the bad things that happened in school. Please believe me.”
It was not what she expected, but she didn’t relax her guard either. “Okay. Thank you.”
She heard him stand up and watched as he took the seat directly in front of her. Turning around, he stared directly at her. His eyes were very blue.
“I know you don’t believe me but I mean it. I…I’m gay, Elizabeth. I stood by as my so-called friends tortured you so I could survive high school by keeping their focus away from me.”
With a small nod, she looked down at the top of her desk. She couldn’t imagine being a gay male in high school. It must have been awful because young people thought being mean was cool.
Thinking back, she remembered that Riley had never actually said or done anything directly to tease her or hurt her feelings.
That he hadn’t stepped up to help her might have been weakness and immaturity, but in the cutthroat world of high school, it wasn’t unusual.
“Alright, Riley.”
“I’ve lost sleep for years over what happened to you, Elizabeth. I wanted…so many times…to help you, to stop it.” He added in a whisper, “I was a coward.”
Riley reached out and took her hand. “You seemed so much stronger than me and I’m so fucking sorry I took advantage of that.”
Glancing up, she was surprised to see that his eyes were filled with tears. Actual tears…for her. The expression on his face was tortured.
“Please, Elizabeth.”
Nana had always taught her that forgiveness cost nothing and it was good for the soul. Holding on to anger and hurt eventually turned poisonous to the bearer.
She gave him a careful smile. “I forgive you, Riley. School was hard for all of us.” Taking a deep breath and hoping she wasn’t being pranked, she added, “I hope things are better for you now.”
His fingers curled around hers and he squeezed.
Over the years, when she thought back on her first real conversation with Riley, the one thing that would stand out was the fact that he held her hand.
“I had to move out of my house. My parents, they aren’t okay…with who I am. I worried so much about people outside my house…I never thought I’d lose the people who raised me.” His face contorted in true pain. “I’m staying with the youth pastor at our church. He believes I can be “prayed well.” They think I’m sick.”
Riley’s expression told Elizabeth that he probably wondered the same thing.
“I’m sorry, Riley.”
“Why are you sorry?”
She shrugged. “Of all the reasons I would have had to dislike you, whether you liked boys or girls would have been at the bottom of the list.”
His eyes widened in surprise.
“You aren’t sick, Riley. If you go through your life being as kind as you can be to others, it doesn’t matter who you love along the way. Not to me and, I don’t think, to God. I bet He has bigger issues to worry about.”
His hands wrapped around hers and she noticed they were smoother and his nails were in far better condition. The smile he gave her reached his eyes and it struck her for the first time how beautiful Riley Pritchard was.
“Elizabeth, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
A few minutes later, their professor entered and took his place behind a podium.
Riley moved to sit in the spot beside her and commented under his breath about how funny the acoustics made the man sound – who obviously had a severe head cold or some sort of allergy.
She barely controlled her laughter. It was fascinating to her how much Riley touched when he spoke. Tapping her arm, leaning close, and nudging her with his shoulder – all simple interactions she’d never experienced with anyone but Nana.
At the end of the hour, Riley stood and linked arms with her. Grinning, he asked, “Coffee?”
“Um…you want to go get coffee with me?”
Pulling her to a stop, he told her seriously, “I want to be friends, Elizabeth. I’ve always admired you. I think you are one of the smartest and kindest people I’ve ever met and I would be honored if you’d give me another chance – in the adult world – and come have coffee with me. I promise I won’t ever give you cause to regret it.”
Initially hesitant, not sure if or when Riley would reverse to the boy she remembered, Elizabeth agreed to have coffee with him that day.
Over their four years of college together, the two of them would share thousands of beverages over conversations ranging from politics to travel and everything in between. She was thrilled to discover that Riley was well read and knowledgeable on many of her favorite subjects.
Nana loved Riley and his effect on Elizabeth. She would tease them while they sat studying together at the dining table. She told them they filled the kitchen with the sound of happy magpies.
They would invite her to sit and soon enough, the elderly woman would be chattering right along with them.
Six months into their freshman year, Riley appeared at her house in the middle of the night.
Though it was freezing outside, he wasn’t wearing a coat. There were strange marks on his skin and raised welts around his wrists.
Barely able to stand, he allowed Elizabeth to half-carry him to the sofa in the living room. The sound of the doorbell woke her grandmother and she joined them downstairs.
Shaking, in tears, he related what had happened in the twenty-four hours since they’d seen him. Riley’s parents – at the urging of the pastors at their church –subjected him to a sort of “exorcism” to cure his “gayness.”
He’d been tied down, flogged, and prayed over while he was doused in holy water. He hadn’t been allowed to sleep, eat, or use the bathroom.
Horrified and furious, they insisted he move into one of their guest rooms immediately. Before Lizzy took him upstairs, Nana hugged him tightly.
“I’m dirty. I smell so bad, Nana,” Riley told her sadly.
“Hush, now.” Glancing up, the little woman smiled. “You are just as God made you, Riley. As striking and flawed and filled with potential as the rest of His creations. In this house, you are loved and accepted without condition.”
She stroked her fingers through his dark red hair. “Lizzy will get you all settled and tomorrow morning, she’ll make her banana pancakes. Those always make me feel happy on the inside. Tonight, a snack and sleep. Yes?”
He started to cry and they hugged him, murmuring softly as he let go of a family who would never accept him and embraced the two women who always would.
After Elizabeth went upstairs and started the tub, adding a scoop of bath salts that always soothed her muscles after a run, she returned to the first floor to get him some sliced fruit, meats, and cheeses.
Her tray held a pitcher of lemon water to help him rehydrate.
Elizabeth sat cross-legged on the bathroom rug while Riley soaked away the soreness from being in the same position too long. His hair damp and slicked back from his face, Riley stared at the ceiling and she didn’t interrupt his thoughts. Turning his head, he smiled. There was less sadness in it this time.
“You and Nana are like Glenda the Good Witch without the inability to give good directions.”
She laughed. “Thanks…I think.” Worrying the towel she held in her lap, she told him quietly, “I’m sorry, Riley.”
“Me, too.” Raking one hand through his hair, the water made it look brown instead of dark red. “I think back, you know? I remember spending Christmases together as a kid, trick-or-treating, learning how to ride my bike…and I don’t understand how they can be the same people who used to read me stories before I went to bed at night.”
Tears slid from the corners of
his eyes.
“They stood on one side of the room staring at me like they’d never seen me before, Elizabeth. Letting this guy they’ve known less than a year lay a strap over my body, trying to get a demon out of me that doesn’t exist.”
“Have you always known?”
He nodded. “Even in first grade, I knew I wasn’t supposed to like my friend the same way he liked one of the girls in our class. I hid it. For so many years, I hid. I didn’t want to make anyone mad. I didn’t want to be different.”
She laid her hand over his where it rested on the edge of the tub. “Being different is hard. I know. I like that you aren’t the same as everyone else, Riley. You have a fresh perspective and I think you’re a wonderful, caring person. I’m so glad you’re my friend.”
Turning his hand, he whispered, “I didn’t do anything to deserve a friend like you, Elizabeth.”
Gently, she petted his hair back from his forehead. “Sure you did. You talked to me.” She grinned. “As pretty as you truly are, I don’t need to see your naked butt. You clean up now that you’ve snacked. We’ll pick clothes up for you tomorrow but I think we’re about the same size so I left some stuff for you on the counter.”
Leaning over, she kissed his temple. “Take your time. I’ll make up the guest room so you can get some much-needed sleep.”
“I’ll figure it all out, Elizabeth. I won’t overstay my welcome.”
She’d started to stand and lowered again until they were eye-level. “Listen to me, Riley. As long as you want it, as long as you need it, this is your home. You’re part of our family now. Get through school and then decide what you’d like to do.”
Between the two determined women, they talked him into doing exactly that.
* * *
Elizabeth and Riley would live together for years. It was one of the many times in her life that she would be grateful for the lessons she learned from Nana.
Forgiveness, opening her heart despite past hurts, had initiated her first true friendship at age eighteen.
Riley would play a crucial role in her happiness as someone, her own age, who could understand the struggles and pain she never talked to anyone about – not even Nana. Though the causes of sorrow were different for each of them, the results were real and achingly similar.
The night she talked to Riley about Dylan, he listened carefully and urged caution.
Over the next decade, Riley would often warn her to protect her heart. Elizabeth would wish she’d asked her best friend more questions.
He’d known far more about Dylan than she did – and he didn’t even know it.
Chapter Four
Age 20
The more time that passed without seeing Dylan, the more Elizabeth wondered if she’d imagined the moments she spent with him. They took on a surreal quality that she examined more than she was proud to admit.
Nana’s health took a turn for the worse as Elizabeth neared the end of her freshman year.
In the early spring, an unexpected ice storm struck while she was in the city for class. Nana, in an attempt to check the mail, slipped on a patch of ice on the porch and fractured her hip.
Never had the commute home seemed so long as she raced from subway to ferry and took a cab to the hospital.
Olive, Nana’s lifelong friend, had brought her granddaughter Dani to the hospital and they were keeping her company until Elizabeth could get there. The sight of her only relative in a hospital bed almost caused her to break down in tears.
After hugs and kisses to assure herself that Nana was truly alright, Elizabeth smiled and said gently, “I would have gotten the mail for you when I came home.”
“My subscription to People came today.” As if that explained everything and in a way, it did.
“I’ll bring it to read when I come back tonight.”
“Stay home and get some sleep, Elizabeth. I’m fine.”
Kissing the forehead of the woman she loved more than anything or anyone on earth, she whispered, “I know you will be. I’ll make sure of it.”
Knowing the statistics involving the elderly and broken bones, Elizabeth nursed her religiously.
Her professors were understanding of the situation and allowed her to send work in remotely when she couldn’t physically travel into the city. Her grades were excellent and she planned to keep them that way – but not at the expense of Nana’s health.
Whenever possible, Riley traded off sitting with her grandmother and running errands so Nana wasn’t home alone while she recovered. His presence in their home and in their lives gave Elizabeth the sort of peace of mind she’d never experienced.
All her life, it had been just the two of them.
Over the next few months, Nana had to be hospitalized twice. Once to get her sugar back to manageable levels and again for pneumonia.
Worrying about losing the woman who’d been the center of her universe since she was a baby kept Elizabeth awake at night.
That was why she was wide-awake when her house phone rang at just shy of two in the morning.
She picked up the handset next to her bed with a frown. No good phone call ever came in the middle of the night. “Hello?”
“Miss Elizabeth Clayton?”
“Yes. I’m Elizabeth.”
“Miss Clayton, we have a young man in custody that’s asking to speak to you.”
“Who is it?” She knew…before she asked the question, she knew who it was.
“Dylan Lang, miss.”
Closing her eyes, her fingers tightened on the plastic and she whispered, “Is he okay?”
“Yes, miss. A little banged up but otherwise just fine. Will you accept his call?”
“Yes, of course.” There was a long pause as the officer put her on hold.
“Lizzy…?” The name was familiar, the voice that spoke it was hoarse and terrible.
“Dylan. What happened?”
“Lizzy…please.” There was the sound of sobbing on the other end of the line. “Please come get me. I’m begging you, Lizzy. Don’t leave me here.”
Her heart broke at his words. He never had to beg her to help him. “I won’t leave you there, I promise. Tell me where you are.” He spoke to the officer and relayed the address to her. “Let me find out what I need to do. I’ll come for you, Dylan.”
The policeman picked up and explained what she would need to bring with her to the station. She thanked him and hung up.
Quickly dressing, she made sure she had her ID. She opened the small lock box in the bottom of her closet and removed several hundred-dollar-bills. Out of her bedroom, Elizabeth rushed down the hall to Riley’s room and tapped lightly.
He opened it looking confused and as adorable as a little boy. “What’s wrong? Is Nana okay?”
“Nana is fine but Dylan’s in jail. I have to go get him and I wanted you to know I was gone.”
“Don’t go, Elizabeth. You can’t get mixed up in this.”
There was a frown between his eyes and it was easy to read his worry for her.
She cupped his cheeks in her hands and smiled. “I have to.” One shoulder lifted in a small shrug. “It’s who I am, Riley.”
For a long moment, his eyes stayed on her face, thinking. Then he took a deep breath and nodded. “I love who you are, Elizabeth. I couldn’t imagine you any different.”
Riley’s arms wrapped around her in a strong hug and she returned it. “I’ll listen for Nana. Be careful, Elizabeth and call me if you need me.”
“Thank you, Riley.” She petted the back of his head. “I’ll be back soon.”
He kissed her cheek and let her go.
Elizabeth rushed downstairs and through the kitchen to the little door leading into the garage. The rollup door was so rarely opened that it took all her strength to move it.
It took several attempts to get Nana’s old Cadillac to turn over but when it did, it made her smile because it purred like a well-fed lion.
The big car barely fit in the narrow space an
d she backed up carefully, straightening up in the alley so she could get out and secure the garage door.
Thankful her grandmother had insisted she get her license despite Elizabeth’s insistence that no one needed a car in New York, she made her way across town.
Ten minutes later, she walked into a police station for the first time in her life. Elizabeth immediately realized she never wanted to come back.
Everywhere she looked were people in different stages of catastrophe. The smell was similar to a hospital with a slight tinge of vomit.
She did not belong here.
At the front desk, she explained to the female officer why she was there and filled out paperwork. She sat in a questionably clean chair beside an elderly man who was quietly crying.
“May I help you?” she asked him in a murmur.
From her purse, she removed a travel pack of tissues and offered him one. He nodded and said something in a language she didn’t understand.
His small smile, despite his distress, she understood well.
Elizabeth waited for more than an hour. Occasionally she would fish out one of the sugar-free hard candies she carried for Nana and pop it into her mouth. The man beside her took the butterscotch she offered and left a little while later, bowing his head in her direction.
Lifting her hand in a small wave, she saw them bringing Dylan from the back. Elizabeth quickly stood and took in his appearance.
He looked like shit. There were bruises on his face, a cut on one ear, and his clothes were dirty. As though he’d been rolling around on the ground. Once again, he was far too gaunt and her stomach knotted in worry.
When he was within earshot, he whispered, “Thank you, Lizzy.”
She nodded, anxious to get him out of such a place and back to her home where she could care for him.
It was another forty-five minutes before she was able to lead him to Nana’s car. They got in and he laid his head on the back of the seat. Everything about him screamed exhaustion and she knew he needed sleep desperately.
“Is it alright if I take you to my house or do you need me to drop you off, Dylan?”
“Take me with you, Lizzy. I want to go with you.”
Completely Wrecked: A Dramatic Romance Page 3
