Within Reach

by Talie D. Hawkins

  “I just don’t get it Jane. You’re nice to everyone,” he said out of the blue.

  “Dad, it was a creep. Just a creep. Don’t worry,” I said, doing my best to reassure him.

  “Well, I know you can take just about anyone out. Just don’t let your guard down.”

  He hugged me goodnight and I took a sigh of relief. I knew he was worrying because he had a training out of town at the end of the week and didn’t like the idea of leaving me alone, and at the moment I didn’t like the idea either.

  I heard my phone buzz and saw a text from Riley on the screen.

  “Making sure you got home okay on the receiving end.”

  I looked at it and smiled. He had the capacity to be very thoughtful.

  “Safe and sound,” I sent back. He replied with a wink smiley face.

  I got myself ready for bed, but I wasn’t tired so I pulled out a notebook from my backpack. “Just always be waiting for me”, a quote from Peter Pan, popped into my head so I wrote it in exaggerated script with mix matched fonts across the paper. I shaded it in and surrounded it with stars and little planets of varying sizes. The act of drawing was one of the only things that relaxed me so it didn’t take long before I finally started yawning. I set my sketch pad aside and let sleep win me over.

  Chapter 8

  School was pretty uneventful the next day, and a little bit lonely. Gwen was flirting with someone new and that left me on my own for the most part. Every time I caught a glimpse of Riley he was with his Lacrosse team or one of our many cheerleaders, and I didn’t get the time of day from him. This bothered me more than it should and the fact that it bothered me at all was upsetting. I tried to concentrate on school work or anything else, but as usual, that was impossible in Chemistry. We were back at our desks instead of the lab tables and I was no where near Riley. I was stuck with my own thoughts as I tried to drown out Ms. Moore’s voice.

  “Is there no way out of the mind?” ended up being the doodle of the day. The quote from Sylvia Plath spoke to me because all of my time alone often made me feel trapped in my own head. I was almost finished with the chaotic drawing when the bell rang.

  Gwen had saved our usual spots in the back of study hall and she was holding out something that looked like a brownie.

  “I need a favor,” I started to say, but she cut me off before I could go on.

  “No, please! Me first,” she begged.

  “Sure, speak,” I said with a smile.

  “Jake Gray,” was all she said. I waited for her to go on, but she looked like she would combust.

  “What about Jake Gray, the love of your life?” I asked, a bit sarcastically.

  “He asked me out!”

  This was news. Huge news. Gwen didn’t chase boys, but there was one guy she had nursed a crush for since seventh grade, and that guy was no other than Jake Gray. Just the mere mention of his name had the ability to transform my casual and cool friend that every girl wanted to be into a squealing fan girl of epic proportions.

  “Holy crap, G! That’s great!”

  She told me the entire story of how her dream come true came to be.

  “And basically it was because of you. He was at the party the other night and said you stopping us was cool. Then he said I didn’t deserve to date such assholes, and bam! He said he should show me how I should be treated.” Her face was plastered in a perma-smile. “Oh, then he said something about you flipping Riley to the ground?”

  “Oh, right. That happened.” The bell rang before I had time to explain and we were out of there in minutes.

  “Wait- you were going to ask me for a favor,” she reminded me as I got my books out of my locker.

  “My dad is gone this weekend. He’s leaving Friday. I was going to see if you could stay over.”

  “Shoot, not Friday, but I’m all yours on Saturday. There better be Cheetos,” she threatened. I laughed as I turned to walk to class and ended up walking into Riley.

  “Hi,” I said after the shock wore off.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked with a smile.

  “Cheetos and Gwen. You couldn’t possibly understand,” I said, realizing it sounded crazy.

  “Probably not,” he agreed.

  “Well, I’m late. I should...” I awkwardly pointed down the hall. Words were becoming difficult to form around him.

  “Me too. See ya,” he said as he walked away. I didn’t understand why I felt deflated as soon as he was gone and I tried not to give it much more thought, but it nagged at me for the rest of the day.

  Luckily, work was steady that night and I didn’t get a lot of thinking time. Cooler temps always meant more customers at the coffee shop. People carried Max’s signature black cups with red sleeves around like Fall accessories.

  The rest of the week was more of the same. Boring days at school filled with busy nights at Sacred Grounds. Max had given me Friday off so I could have an early dinner with my dad before he left town for the weekend.

  I sat at the Garage, a burger place close to our house, and promised him for the fifth time that I would be extra cautious while he was away. I was pretty sure he hadn’t taken a bite without reminding me of a safety tip first.

  “I let Mrs. Lindman and the Gilbert’s know, so they’ll keep an eye out for you too,” he said.

  “Nothing is going to happen. Gwen will be with me tomorrow.”

  “She can’t stay tonight?” he asked again, even though I had told him several times that she was busy.

  “Maybe I’ll call someone else. Don’t worry.”

  Once we were home my dad grabbed his weekend bag and went over the list of emergency reminders again. I finally convinced him he needed to get on the road so he wouldn’t be too late for his check-in.

  Once he was gone I double locked the door and went to my room. I had already made my alone time plan which included every John Hughes movie ever made, frozen pizza since my dinner had been so early, and ice cream. I planned to do all of this in my unicorn tank top and matching pajama shorts and wasted no time changing into them.

  I pulled my hair into a ponytail and turned on Sixteen Candles. I let it play as I read some of my favorite chapters of Emma. Every once in a while I would shovel a spoonful of pistachio ice cream into my mouth or set my book down during my favorite scenes. I was in alone time heaven, but too ambitious for my own good. I was only one movie into my marathon before my eyes started to get heavy.

  I turned off the television and headed for bed, falling asleep in minutes, but that didn’t last long. A strange tapping brought me out of a dream I was having. I looked around my room to see where it could be coming from and then I realized the sound was outside. I tip-toed out of my bed and over to my closet. I opened it as quietly as possible and took out the Louisville Slugger my dad had given me, but I almost dropped it when I heard the tapping again. It was coming from my window.

  I went over to it and pulled a tiny corner of my blinds back to see what was out there and screamed when I saw Riley’s face on the other side of the glass. I dropped my bat and tried to calm myself down before I opened the blind again. I didn’t get much calmer.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I whispered through gritted teeth as I looked around to make sure he hadn’t caught the attention of any neighbors.

  “Nice to see you too,” he said as he wiped something from his nose. It was blood.

  “Why are you bleeding?” He opened his mouth to answer but I stopped him. “Come in. Quick, before Mrs. Lindman sees you,” I said as I helped pull him in. I almost pulled away a few times because of what I was feeling off of him. He was a bad mixture of anger and consternation.

  “So, this is your room,” he said with a flirty tone that I wasn’t buying.

  “Yes, and imagine my disappointment with you being the first boy to sneak through the window. Don’t go anywhere. I’m getting the first aid kit,” I instructed as I pointed at my desk chair. He sat down and I went to the bathroom to get it, but took an extra
moment to process what I had just felt. I caught a glimpse of myself when I closed the medicine cabinet and felt a little embarrassed. I thought about covering myself with the robe on the hook, but that would be too obvious and he had already seen me in my pj’s.

  I took a few deep breaths and went back into my room. He was out of the chair and studying one of my many bookshelves.

  “Wow, how many copies of Peter Pan do you have?”

  “A lot. Please sit down.” He gave me a smirk and winced as he sat down. “Are you going to tell me why your lip is busted open and you nose is potentially broken?” I asked as I put some antiseptic on a cotton ball. I hoped it would be enough of a barrier as I cleaned the cut above his lip.

  “Only potentially?”

  “No,” I said as I examined it. I had seen this injury plenty of times during my Krav Maga training. “Definitely. You’ll have two black eyes tomorrow. Who did this?” I asked, but was pretty sure I knew the answer. I wiped the blood from his nose with a damp rag and he cringed from the pain.

  “You know that saying ‘you only hurt the ones you love’? Well, my dad loves me a lot.” He was wearing his smug smile but there was no humor in his eyes.

  “Jesus,” I whispered. I felt horrible for him as I wondered what kind of parent could split open the lip of their own child. “Can you tell someone?”

  “No,” he said with a bitter laugh. “Like who? The school counselor? Or some other ‘adult I trust’?” He stood up and took the rag out of my hands. He didn’t say anything as he paced my bedroom floor for a few minutes. “I don’t trust anyone.”

  “Why did you come here?”

  “You’re not judgmental. And you keep me calm,” he said as he sat back down. This time he looked exhausted. I decided I wouldn’t press him anymore.

  “You need ice cream.” He raised a curious eyebrow at me. “For your lip. I have had plenty of fat lips from Krav Maga. Ice cream is the cure.”

  “The cure, you say?”

  “I do. I’ll be right back.” I left him in my room and grabbed the pistachio for its second appearance of this night. I picked up two spoons form the drying rack and found him on my bed when I went back in. “Gee, make yourself at home,” I said sarcastically. I handed him a spoon and he wasted no time digging in.

  “You’re a genius Janey. I do feel better,” he declared after his fourth bite. I took a small bite and put my spoon on my bedside table. “What are you thinking about?” He asked after he studied my face for a moment.

  “Strawberry,” I blurted out.

  “Strawberry?”

  “Ice cream. I wish we had some.”

  He smiled, and this time it was sincere.

  “What else do you wish you had? It can be anything.”

  “Hmm...does it have to be something real?”

  “Nope,” he said as he ate the last bite.

  “I’d like to ride a unicorn.”

  “Interesting. Not at all what I expected.”

  “What about you? If you could have anything, or do anything?”

  “I’d find that Unicorn for you. Can I lie here for a bit?” Stunned by the question I nodded yes. I looked at the clock and it was just after midnight. I was feeling exhausted and wondered if I should go to the couch. “Here,” he said as he scooted to one side. “There should be enough room.” He had no idea that I needed a canyon between us for it to be enough room, but I obliged because I was too tired to talk myself out of it.

  Riley looked comfortable on my pillow with his arms rested behind his back. He was staring up at the words on my ceiling.

  “You really love reading, huh?”

  “I do,” I said as I looked up at what he was seeing.

  “I heard you say your dad would be out of town. I was going to come here to check on you and then I got in the fight with my dad so I came sooner. Weird. I was supposed to make sure you were okay, and you ended up taking care of me,” he said. I turned to my side and I could see his jaw tighten as his frustration returned.

  “Why would you need to check on me?”

  “To make sure you’re safe,” he said, as if it would make sense to me.

  A few silent minutes passed and I waited for the awkward to settle in, but it never did. It was oddly comfortable with Riley next to me. I watched his face soften and his breath deepen as he thought about whatever was in his mind.

  “Why did your dad hit you?” I finally asked. This time his face didn’t tighten in anger. Instead, he looked exhausted and lost.

  “Because,” he said with a heavy sigh, “he’s a sick, sick man.” He closed his eyes after he said it and some sort of comfort washed over him. I studied him as he let sleep take over. I almost reached out to move a lock of his black hair away from his eyes, but my hands stayed under my pillow. Watching him was relaxing me and soon I couldn’t keep my own eyes open.

  Chapter 9

  I heard the soft sound of breathing coming from next to me and my eyes fluttered open to find Riley face to face with me. I was a little startled as my brain tried to remember how he ended up in bed next to me.

  “Shhh, you’re ok. Just me still,” he whispered. I could feel the soft tug of my curls being played with and I realized he had a lock of my hair in his hand.

  “What time is it?”

  “3 am.”

  I groaned a little and Riley smiled.

  “You made those little whimper sounds again. It’s so relaxing.” He was looking directly into my eyes and I quickly got lost in his icy blue gaze. He sighed and looked thoughtful for a moment. “You’re really beautiful,” he said, sounding a little dazed. I could feel the heat in my cheeks as it spread all around my face.

  “You must be very confused from a bad night. Probably due to lack of sleep,” I said as I tried to brush off his compliment.

  “You’re so delicate,” he said, ignoring my dismissal of his compliment. I prayed he couldn’t hear the sound of my heart thudding in my chest. I knew I needed to get up or pull away, but I was locked in place with his eyes. “I could stay here all night and probably have the best sleep of my life.”

  He cautiously moved his hand toward my cheek and I braced myself for what I was about to feel, but I chickened out at the last minute. I tried to sit up, but I rolled off of the bed instead, landing on my wooden floors with a loud thud. Riley sat up and looked down at me.

  “Ow. I’m fine.” I sat up on my floor and decided I could never feel more humiliated than at that moment. Riley shook his head and ran a hand through his hair.

  “I should go.” That was the last thing I wanted him to do, but I knew he was right. “This has been a very interesting evening,” he said as he tried to open my window.

  “Why don’t you use the front door,” I suggested, opening my bedroom door. I didn’t know what to say to Riley as he left so I watched him walk away without a word. He stopped halfway down my front steps and turned to me.

  “Thanks,” was all he said.

  “Yeah. No problem.” I hugged myself to keep warm as I watched him drive away and wondered how I’d be able to fall asleep again after such a strange night.

  It took quite some time and quite a few chapters of a good book, but sleep finally found me. The next morning the blaring sun had me squinting at my alarm clock to see what time it was. The evening was coming back to me little by little and I remembered that my blinds were up because Riley had crawled in through my window. I had to pause to make sure it wasn’t all just a super vivd and super weird dream. His presence was confirmed when I saw the empty ice cream container and two spoons next to the bed.

  I grumbled to myself as I sat up. I was starting to feel guilty for flinching when he tried to touch me and bad about not saying “thank you” when he called me beautiful.

  “He called me beautiful,” I said in disbelief to myself as I remembered it. “Gwen!” I screamed to my phone. I dialed her number and she didn’t sound pleased about being woken up. “It’s 10:00 am. Wake up. I need you!”

&nbs
p; “I’m so tired. Can you tell me when I come over tonight?”

  “Ugh!” I groaned in frustration. “Fine. Do not be late!”

  I hung up with her and paced my room for a few minutes as my nervous energy sank in. I knew I needed to do something otherwise I would combust. I looked at my phone a few times and thought about calling Riley to check on him, but that idea wasn’t sitting well with me. A call didn’t seem like enough of a gesture. I decided I would go in person.

  I took a quick shower and went through my closet to find something to wear. I finally settled on a black and gray striped t-shirt dress and my boots. It was chilly outside so I grabbed my army jacket and I was off.

  I pulled into his circular drive and sat in my car. I was unable to move and trying to figure out why I had driven all the way over to see him. Nothing about my friendship with Riley made sense and it was eating at me. I finally got up my nerve to get out and ring his front door bell. I could hear muted footsteps from the other side of the door as they echoed against his marble floors. He opened the door with a huge smile, but it faltered a little when he saw me standing there.

  “Jane,” he said in surprise. “What are you doing here?” Both of his eyes had faded purple shadows under them and his lip was starting to scab over.

  “Your eyes,” I whispered, forgetting that he had just asked me a question.

  “You’re here about my eyes?”

  “No,” I stammered. “I just thought I would check on you and ...” I was cut off by the sound of someone slurring Riley’s name.

  “Is that Ubereats?” a girl’s voice called from somewhere in the house.

  “Oh, you’re not alone. I’m so sorry.”

  Mary Kate appeared behind Riley in an over-sized t-shirt that probably belonged to him.

  “Hey, I know you,” she said as a wobbly finger pointed at me. “You’re in my English class. You’re the one who’s already read all that crap he makes us read,” she said as she wrapped her arms around Riley’s bare chest. I hadn’t noticed his lack of shirt until she inadvertently pointed it out to me. I could see Riley cringe as she squeezed him close.