Comfort
Maya placed her arm halfway out of her car window and tapped a rhythm on the car door, humming to "Perfect Two/I'm Yours" mashup. She doesn't know why but the weather has been rainy lately in New York City, luckily today was just drizzling. She doesn't hate it, she just doesn't like the fact that when she's walking around, she only has one hand that is free.
The blonde snatches her phone that was on the dashboard and inspects the time. She reads that it was 12:15 noon, but her eyes isn't seeing Riley anywhere on the area. She scans the surrounding area one more time before taking deep breaths to calm herself and driving off to find a parking space.
After closing the door with a bit more force than intended, Maya stalked towards the science building with her fists tightly clenched by her sides. The blonde isn't mad at Riley at all, in fact she was furious that Riley -a girl that she knows that doesn't like to be late- is late, and if she discovers whoever or whatever made her late, the blonde is going to give them a piece of her mind.
Maya stops a few students to see if they've seen a brown-haired girl with a ponytail and a grey NYU sweatshirt, she should have worded it properly, but surprisingly people knew who Riley Matthews was and pointed the blonde to the right direction.
From what Maya has heard, they say that Riley takes dual majors, Botany and Zoology. That fact makes Maya's heart clench in pain, she feels as if someone had just pierced her own spear through her chest. Riley being so familiar to her godlike counterpart makes the blonde love her even more and Maya feels more protective of the brunette than ever.
She spots a student exiting what looks like a botany classroom, she speedwalks to the person.
"Excuse me?" The redhead turns around with a questioning stare. "You know Riley Matthews yeah?" Maya asks in a hurry. The redhead nods slowly, still confused on why this blonde was asking for one of the best botany students.
"Can you tell me if you've seen her?"
The redhead fully turns around with an explanation. "Uh..yeah, I saw her talking with a guy outside here, it looked kinda intense to be honest," Maya tensed at the sentence, there was a high chance that the person had bad intentions.
"If you're looking for Riley Matthews, they headed that way." She pointed down further down the corridor, "If I were you, I would hurry. I have a bad feeling about him." Maya thanked the redhead multiple times and began to dash.
Maya's heart pounded against her chest as she sprinted through the corridor, heavens help her if she doesn't make it and save Riley, if she is in trouble.
The blonde slows down to a jog when she hears a sound of struggling in a room, she eventually stops in front of a wooden door with a window that allows a view into the room. What she saw made her blood boil.
A guy around 6 feet 2 inches had Riley Matthews pinned to a wall, one of his hands gripping at the collar of the sweatshirt and the other sliding towards the hem of her sweatshirt. From Maya's view, she assumes that his face is as close to the brunette's, and she could see that Riley had tears rushing down her face. However, the last straw for Maya was the fact that she could a large bruise blossoming on the brunette's cheek.
At that point, Maya was fiddling with the door knob, but found that it was locked. She growled in frustration as she attempted to break the wooden door down. She stopped trying to break it down and stepped back.
Maya's eyes flared with ange- no, rage, rage was a more appropriate word for her emotion, she refuses to let Riley be in further pain. She shut her eyes and focused. She could feel the sensation of her ocean blue eyes changing colour, she opened her eyes, it had changed into icy blue ones and it seemed like it glowed. The blonde allowed her godlike energy to flow within her. She felt as if she could take on the whole world, take on anyone who dares stand in her way.
Her yellow aura surrounded her, waving and pulsing with energy. Her fingers were twitching to release the pent up energy. Between the fingers, energy jumped between them, waiting to be released. She stood by the door, lifted her foot up and had kicked the classroom door open with one kick.
The door had slammed into the wall with a loud bang, startling the two people inside the classroom. Riley's eyes had widened at the sight of the blonde at the doorway of the classroom, she blinked multiple times to make sure that her dizzy brain wasn't playing tricks on her. She would have cried tears of joy if it weren't for the fact that pain was radiating off of her cheek and her backside, plus she thinks that she's on the brink of unconciousness.
Charles was in front of her, facing Maya, he's furious though, because the blonde had interrupted their 'session'. That's what Charles had called it when he had roughly grabbed her outside of her classroom and dragged her to this one. She shuddered as she imagines what would have happened if Maya hadn't come through the door.
Meanwhile, Maya stalked towards the boy who was protecting his prey, her face showed indifference, but her eyes showed anger, rage, and if looks could kill, the boy would have been dead by now.
Charles crossed his arms, "Uh...Who the fuck are you?" He raised an eyebrow. "You're kind of interrupting something here." He gestured to himself and Riley behind him.
"Interrupting something? Well I'm sorry," Maya spits, her voice dripped with heavy sarcasm. "But it looks like she's not enjoying it, from what I see from here."
"It's not any of your damn business and well, the door's right behind you. So go." He waved her off, turning around to finish what he was doing, but he was spun back around by some force.
"What th-"
He was being held by his shirt by the blonde, his eyes widened at the sound of what seems to be growling originating from the blonde's throat. The blonde yanked him forward, his face close to hers. He could see the icy blue eyes glowing, he gulped and he attempted to act tough.
"Listen here asshole," Maya growled, "I don't know who you think you are, but you have no. Fucking. Right."
Maya then shoved Charles, making him stumble back. He regained his balance and tried to intimidate the blonde in front of him, he towered over her, but to no avail, she was undeterred.
"I can do whatever I want to her," he claimed, nearing his face on hers. "She's my bitch a-"
He was cut off by a punch in the face. Maya was taking deep breaths, her jaw set hard and she was glaring down at Charles as he clutched at his nose. blood was splattered on the ground and blood was dripping from his hands.
Maya loomed over him and had kicked him in the stomach for a last measure, he balled himself due to the pain. She scoffed at the sight of his patheticness.
Her eyes widened, she began to spin around to scan the room if there were other hostiles in the classroom, her face softened when her eyes landed on the brunette leaning against the wall. Her heart jumped at the sight of Riley breathing in shallow breaths.
She rushed towards the brunette and kneeled beside her, she inspected Riley for any more injuries. Other than the bruise on her cheek, she also spotted a red mark on her arm while Riley not-so-subtly moved her hand to hide it from Maya, however the blonde had seen it.
"Hey, it's okay, just let me see it, please?" The two girls made eye contact. They held it before Riley slowly but surely nodded and reluctantly showed Maya the arm with the red mark.
Maya tried to suppress the anger for the boy groaning in pain on the floor of the classroom, she really did. She had to take deep breaths to just calm herself a little.
"How dare he?!" She thought as she allowed her aura to turn her hand slighty cold. She bit her lip as she ghosted the chilled hand over the mark, feeling guilty when Riley released sharp intake of air from the sudden coldness.
"Your hand is cold." Riley's face gradually turns crimson, it goes unnoticed.
Maya bites her lip even harder, "M'sorry." She mumbles, her eyes trained on the red mark on the arm. Her jaw is still clamped tightly, still trying to convince herself to not kill Charles right here, right now.
"It's okay, it's feels nice."
Riley closes her eyes, relishing the feeling of Maya's chilly hand -probably from the weather- on her arm. She sighs contently, enjoying the presence of the blonde.
The sound of movement makes her jolt, her eyes dart left and right and her mind panics. She calms down when she only sees Maya beginning to stand up. The blonde grabs both of her hands then slowly helped the brunette stand up. It was slow, sure, but it was better slow than painful.
Riley made an effort to hold in a whimper, she hoped that it went unnoticed, her body was sore and she felt... dirty. She shudders, the sensation of chills lingering on her spine. She instinctively wrapped her arms around her. Pain still radiating from her cheek and she's also pretty sure that the swelling will reach her eyes.
She felt an arm draping over her shoulder, she tenses of course, she was never used to contact. Realising that the arm belonged to Maya, she relaxes, allowing the warmth to just flow from the arm to her body. The blonde pulls her closer and Riley suddenly the scent of peaches and paint, not the awful chemical paint smell, but the smell of art or something equivalent to that, invades her nose. She inhales deeply, wanting to engrave the smell within her mind.
A groan pulls Riley out of her thoughts, both girls look back where Charles was lying, they see him attempting to stand up.
His face was a mess, blood splattered on his face as well as on the ground, he grits his teeth as he speaks. "Hide... all you want Riley, I'll always... find you." He grunts before he collapses back on the floor.
Riley stood there frozen, his words ringing in her ears. She feels like her mind is going to collapse on itself. Her knees shake, threatening to bring her down. She feels queasy, her stomach churns and she feels bile coming up her throat.
A soft whisper brings her out of her panicking mind and body, she feels the arm draped over her shoulder tighten its hold, she gazes into Maya's eyes and she feels comforted. The blue eyes tell Riley all she needed right now, 'you're safe', 'I'm here', somewhere along those lines.
The two girls turn around and started heading towards the slightly splintered wooden door. They walk out of the classroom with Maya's arm still protectively draping over Riley's shoulder, which calms her down.
Riley glances back towards the door, 'Maya sure did a number on that door,' she thinks. As they walk through the corridor, Riley swears that she heard the sound of cleaning inside the classroom, but she dismisses it, thinking that it was just probably in her mind.
What Riley failed to hear or see, was that Maya had snapped her fingers when their backs had turned away from the scene, the blonde had manipulated some cleaning supplies to clean up the blood and among other things that were out of place, leaving only Charles lying on the floor with blood on his face.
After stopping by to pick up the bag that Riley had dropped when she had been dragged, they headed outside. The rain had not picked up, it stayed drizzling, so Riley simply placed her sweatshirt hood over her head and Maya had draped her leather jacket over hers. Both girls were chatting with each other, the blonde's arm still over the brunette's shoulder, they eased into a simple conversation.
Whenever Maya sensed that Riley was thinking back on what had happened in the classroom, she would successfully divert the subject into something more pleasant. She would even mentally high-five herself whenever she made the brunette laugh, giggle or smile. The blonde even swears that she could see the brunette blush when a smile -hers especially- was directed her way.
Maya's smile would slightly falter due to the dark purple bruise on Riley's cheek, the blonde would bite the inside of her cheek and clench her fist when her eyes would land on the mark, she was just glad that she was able to stop the asshole in time. She runs a hand through her blonde hair and she swears she heard Riley's breath hitch for a split second.
By the time they reached the parked car, they were ready to get out of the drizzling rain and into the car. Before Riley could touch the handle of the passenger door, Maya had already opened it.
"Ma'am," the blonde bowed, prompting a giggle from the brunette.
Riley pretended to have a skirt and bowed politely with a smile as well. "Thank you miss."
As soon as Riley had entered the car, Maya had rushed around and got in on her side of the car. She backed out of the parking spot and began to drive.
Silence filled the vehicle and obviously Riley didn't want to talk about what had happened, for now, so all Maya could do was drive at the moment. A growl resounded from Riley's side of the car, the brunette blushed and wrapped an arm on her stomach to prevent the stomach from protesting about lack of food any further.
Maya chuckled, "Wanna grab lunch? I'm pretty hungry too." She grins at the brunette.
Mesmerised at the blonde beauty beside her, all Riley could do was shyly nod in response.
"Great! I know a good pizza place."
Riley tries, she really tries to hide her bruised cheek, yet people still notice it. The whispers, the whispers she hears are probably in her head, then there's shouting, she knows that voice anywhere and it has been following her ever since she escaped to a different part of New York City. It's been okay, she's been safe, but the shouting and the whispers ring in her ears.
She tries really hard to cover her cheek, but her and Maya had stopped walking on the way to the pizza place, after she parked the car, and sat on a bench nearby. The blonde had held her hand, her thumb rubbing back and forth on Riley's back of the hand. She relaxes of course, because that's the effect Maya has on her, she knows that she's safe with the blonde, she somehow knows that the blonde would never hurt her, and she doesn't.
They talked on the bench, with Riley consciously to shield the bruise from other people's eyes. Maya stared at her for a moment before bringing up a hand to lower Riley's to her side, the blonde smiles.
"Hey, you don't have to cover it up. It's okay, you're okay." Maya said. "You'll be safe, he won't come near you as long as I'm here."
The blonde had hugged Riley, and that had been the red button to Riley. She cried, she allowed all her tears to go free. She sobbed into the blonde's shoulder, she let her pent up feelings go. She had never informed her friend, Darby, about the problems that she had, about being paranoid that Charles will eventually find her and do things to her, because Riley thought that she would just abandon her just like the others. The sobs died down, all were left were sniffling and the constant rubbing on her back. They sit there on the bench and Maya waits until Riley is ready.
Once Riley had completely calmed down, she had told Maya that she was okay now. The blonde was skeptical, but was willing to let it go for now, so they stood up and continued walking to the good pizza place the blonde was talking about.
They had arrived at the pizza place, Riley hadn't caught the name of it though. She was kind of spacing out when they had entered the place.
"Riley? Any pizza preference?" Maya asked, not noticing her spacing out.
Riley responded with a shake of her head, "Huh? Oh, anything is fine."
"Okay, so I'll order the pizza and the drinks. You can go find any seat you want."
The brunette nods and starts to look around the place, her gaze lands on a table by the store window, she contemplates then nods to herself. She sits on one of the chairs and stares at the outside world through the window.
She stares into the outside, the trees slightly sway from the breeze, people walking by with umbrellas over their heads. It's such a simple scenery for a place like New York really. Cars pass by, taxis as well, often motorcycles pass by as well. So many things can happen all at once and that's what scares Riley.
So many things happen all at once and no one will even notice what would happen to her. Before she had moved here, she was known as the sunshine girl, the girl who was always happy, the girl who was never broken. False, that was the word that would always go through Riley's mind, false.
"Hey, I got the pizzas, hope you like hawaiian." Maya smiles at the brunette only to fall when Riley continues to stare out of the window.
The blonde places down the pizzas and sit down on the opposite chair of Riley, she stays silent and places her hand over Riley's. The brunette blinks and stares at the pale hand laid on top of her own, Riley tiredly smiles at Maya then she gets a comforting smile in response.
Maya tightens her hold on Riley's hand, "We can eat and talk at the same time if you want. Take your time." She states. She stares at the warm brown orbs in front of her, they look warm but Maya now knows that they're actually broken on the inside.
With those words, Riley nods with tears brimming in her eyes. They stay silent for a while, the blonde serving the brunette, pizza slices on her plate while still holding her hand.
She has never told anyone this because she was afraid they won't care and leave her, but Maya, so far, has saved her, gave her time, and has been there for her even if they had just known each other for a while. This time, she'll try. She'll try, because somehow she knows that Maya will stay and listen.