It All Ends In May

Shit shit shit shit… I’m not supposed to be here. Clifton is gonna kill me. I whimper at the thought. Vic’s gaze hits the floor, before he looked me right in the eye.
“Do you want to stay with us… uhh?”
“Riley…. And I can’t or else Clifton will- nevermind. I can’t…” I say with a shaky breath. The door opens as I talk. Mike walks through quietly.
“Or he’ll do what? Do what he did at the venue?” Mike asks, sitting on the other side of me. I look down and nod sadly. Instinctively, I start tugging at my sleeves and itching here and there. Mike looks at me with concern. Vic looks lost in deep thought.
“Can you tell us why Clifton was doing that to such a beautiful girl?” Vic broke the silence.
“You sure?” I say. Mike grabs my arm lightly and holds my hand. They nod simultaneously. I release a heavy breath I didn’t know I was holding.
“Well… Clifton was never abusive in high school…. When we graduated he moved out of his parents house. He wasn’t stable so I helped him. We eventually dated.. When he turned 20 he drank and drank. He has cheated multiple times…. I always forgave him. He started hitting me. Then kicking. Then to the point where I would go to the hospital. We came here… He mostly wanted to see BOTDF.. I wanted to see you. While BOTDF was performing, I went to the bathroom, then went to see you guys play. That’s all I really remember…” It was all true… but I remembered everything. I remember the cuts, getting beat up…. Everything.
“Oh...Well in that case you’re touring with us.” Vic said, hugging me. I hugged back and excused myself to the bathroom. I finally made my way past the bunks and into the bathroom. I quickly shut and locked the door. When I looked in the mirror, I gasped. My hair wasn’t that bad… but my eyes were puffy and bloodshot, a gash ran down the bottom of my eye, I pulled up my sleeves to see the big red gashes on my arms. I quickly cleaned up everything. I pull up my shirt. My ribs were easily visible because Clifton always called me fat and ugly. So I starved.

I quickly pulled down my shirt and walked out, wiping away the few tears that slipped out. I ran into Mike and winced. He noticed and pulled me into a tight hug. That’s when the dam broke. As I sobbed, more people joined the hug. I was pretty sure Vic, Jaime, and Tony had joined the hug. We ended up on the floor, slightly laughing.
“Well we have 45 minutes left…. Star Wars?” Tony asked, not even waiting for an answer before running to the living room/kitchen and soon after we heard the theme song.
“Fucking Turtle” Jaime muttered.

Notes

still sucks lmao