Chapter 11: We Care About the Drama that You Do Bring

My head inclined as it was smacked hard. My body followed ending up sliding down against the closest wall. I was definitely crying now if I wasn’t before. I kept questioning what I’d done for Kristine to set me up again. It always happened around the same time of the year too.

 

“What were you doing in my office?!” My father boomed. I shook in fear clinging to the wall as much as I could. I didn’t dare get back up�"“Answer me.” He said through his teeth. My father was beyond pissed. I’d never seen him this bad. 

 

“Kristine told me that you said to shred some things.” I stated truthfully still crying. I hadn’t known a picture was one of those things. I didn’t even know who the lady in the picture was. My father didn’t seem to buy it though.

 

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?!”�"He yelled. I shook my head making my father even more upset.�"“That picture was very important to me! It was the only one I had left!” My father screamed throwing stuff around in my room wrecking everything.

 

“I’m sorry daddy I didn’t know!” I cried and repeated over and over. My nine year old frame kept huddled towards the wall. He ignored me and continued to smash, break and tip over things. At this point, I knew that his actions weren’t just about me anymore. It was about the woman on that picture, with my belongings and I just as a scapegoat. While my eyes were closed, I was lifted roughly by my arm.

 

“Next time you think to go into my office…don’t. Is that clear?” My father said with a deadly tone to his voice. He squeezed my arm until I nodded roughly with a whole new set of tears falling. He stalked out of the room. I stood in my place watching where my father had just stood. I slid down back to the floor crying again. My cheeks were already starting to burn. I only looked back up at the sound of a descending whistle.

 

“Wow, daddy must’ve been really upset.” Kristine said acting innocent. I was too shaken up to glare at her.

 

“You set me up.” I stated knowing it was the truth. She didn’t confirm or deny my accusation. Instead, Kristine just looked down at me cold and emotionlessly. She went to leave again.�"“Who was she?” I asked before Kristine left. I needed to know.

 

“Our real mom.” She said monotonously.

          

                        I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. It was 4:00 in the morning. Aaron was still asleep with his arm around my waist. He had taken me back to Shannon’s and offered to stay the night with me. We had just watched movies and basically enjoyed each other’s company. I sat up slightly trying to fan myself. I was sweating from the flashback I had. Everything was so vivid and real. It was almost as if I had relived the moment. I didn’t want to wake Aaron up so I decided to just stay put and sit in the darkness. I looked out toward the window. There was some light shining in. All the construction for the new Freedom tower had ceased for the night. I looked out at the lights emitted from the city. I began thinking about how I could get started on proving everything. I knew I needed the case file first. That was the most important. I’d have to figure out how to get that. Then after, there was revisiting the scene, and examining the evidence taken...One thing was for sure, Aaron was right, I couldn’t do this all by myself. I needed help. That was when I thought back to the gym just a few hours ago.

 

“The only thing I could do then Griffon is proving my innocence…And that takes a lot of work.” I said. Griffon furrowed his eyebrows in thought.

 

“Well I don’t know much about that stuff Ria, but if you need help I’ll be there.” Griffon said smiling at me. I smiled back.

 

Griffon seemed like the only person I had at the time. It was better than nothing.

 

“Hm…Ria?” Aaron asked sleepily. I looked down to see him squinting at me. He looked half asleep.

 

“What is it love?” I asked combing my fingers through his tousled hair. He brought me closer to him and fixed his wrapped arms around me.

 

“Why are you awake?” He asked.

 

“I had a nightmare.” I lied. I didn’t want to say ‘flashback’ because then I’d have to explain it. At least I wouldn’t have to go into details about a nightmare.

 

“You want to talk about it?”

 

“Not really. I know it’s over now. So it’s okay.” I said still playing with his hair.

 

“You know I love you right?” He said after a few minutes of silence. I chuckled silently.

 

“Yeah…and I love you too.” I said. He shook his head. 

 

“No I mean I love you…and I want to love you forever.” He said. I stopped stroking through his hair and just looked at him.

 

“Really? You mean that?” I asked.

 

“Of course I do... I’ll never stop loving you.”

At that moment, I was filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. I couldn’t help the exploding butterflies inside my gut. I had never been loved like this before. I couldn’t describe the other feeling that came with Aaron telling me he’d love me forever. It was something that I had never felt before. All I knew was that I liked it…a lot. It was that feeling, that later on I’d miss the most about being in love with Aaron. It was something that I’d miss in general.

 

                        Later on that day, Aaron left to work from Shannon’s house. I was nervous for him but I knew he could handle anything. I was sitting in the kitchen having a bowl of cereal. Shannon hadn’t come back yet at all. This wasn’t the first time she’d pull a twenty-four hour shift, but I didn’t like it. I felt bad usually whenever she did and extremely bored. I looked at the time, reading 8:45 am. I thought that if I wanted to get started on my inquiry for proving my innocence, I should probably start as soon as possible. I picked up the cordless phone and dialed a vaguely familiar number.

 

“Hello?” A groggy male voice answered.

 

“Um is Griffon there?” I asked.

 

“Uh yeah sure, hold on a sec.” The guy said with annoyance. I waited patiently.

 

“Dude just give me the f*****g phone!” I heard Griffon say from a distance.�"“Thank you now, was that so hard?” He asked the other guy sounding closer to the receiver. I shook my head laughing.

 

“Wow my first five and a half minutes on the phone with you and you’re already making this sound interesting.” I said. Griffon laughed nervously.

 

“Yeah…excuse my roommate, he’s a bit of an a*****e.”�"Griffon explained.�"“Ouch…it’s true!” He said to his roommate I assumed. I laughed again.

 

“At least I know now where you get it from.” I said looking down at my nails. Griffon started chuckling.

 

“Yeah…Hey!” He said realizing what I just said. I laughed loudly.�"“Humph, yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. Now what is it that you need? I know you’re not calling me to insult me.” He said with some humor in his voice. I calmed myself down.

 

“I want to take you up on your offer.” I said with all seriousness.

 

“To prove your innocence and get out of that s****y prison of a place you live?” He asked.

 

“Griffon I’m being serious here.”

 

“So am I.” He said sounding just as serious. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

 

“Right well I need your help. So I was thinking if-”

 

“I could pick you up and you can meet a friend of mine that can help you…He used to be one of the best Kin-Intel Specialists that there is.” Griffon said cutting me off.

 

“And why isn’t he still the best now?” I asked.

 

“They forced him into the Field…He doesn’t do much work now that he’s teaching in basic ninja training.” He explained. I nodded even though he couldn’t see me.

 

“Okay then. I’ll go get ready and…wait. Don’t you have work today?” I asked.

 

“Yeah but I’ll take off. Don’t worry about it. Where am I picking you up?” Griffon asked.

 

“On Barclay Street, all the way by the construction for the Freedom Tower.” I replied.

 

“Okay I’ll be there in about an hour, maybe less…I’ll call you when I’m close so you can tell me which building.”

 

“Sounds great, see you when you get here.” I said hanging up the phone. I left the kitchen to go get ready. Being eager, I was able to finish within twenty minutes. I took it upon myself to write a list of everything that I needed and where they could possibly be. I wasn’t an expert on the Ninja System but I at least knew it more or less. I was hoping that this friend of Griffon’s would know more. I assumed he did.

                        Griffon arrived later than he expected but I wasn’t complaining. We started towards his house. He was behind the wheel focusing on the road. We hadn’t talked much since I entered his car. I didn’t really mind though. This would be my only relaxation time with the amount of work that was ahead of me.

 

“You ready.” Griffon said after he parked. I nodded unbuckling my seatbelt. We walked into Griffon’s building and into the elevator.

 

“This friend of yours that’s going to help us, does he have any connections to Protectors?” I asked. I needed to be sure that whoever was helping me could be trusted. I could hope that Griffon took that into consideration, but you could never be too sure.

 

“Not that I know of.” �"He said. I nodded and followed him out of the elevator.�"“He’s not going to turn you in if that’s what you’re thinking. I wouldn’t do that to you.” He said. I gave him a small appreciative smile. We entered the apartment with Griffon behind me. I walked in ignorant of what room I was walking towards. I walked to the end of the hall and turned to find Griffon smiling and walking ahead of me. He lead me to the living room. Walking in behind him, I saw two other guys on the sofa watching TV. One seemed to be around the same age as Griffon and I, while the other looked to be quite a few years older than us. The older of the two stood up after noticing us.

 

“Long time no see Griffon.” He said giving him a brotherly hug. I stood awkwardly at the entrance not knowing what to do.

 

“Good to see you again X.” Griffon said pulling away from the man. He turned towards me.�"“Ria, this is Xavier. He’s the guy I was telling you about.”

I nodded and went to shake Xavier’s hand. He smiled at me and shook my hand with a firm grip.

 

“Nice to meet you Xavier.” I said politely. 

 

“Same here Ria...and call me X.” Xavier said. I nodded and smiled back.

 

“And that over there is my roommate, and X’s younger brother, Austin.” Griffon said motioning to the other guy on the couch. I nodded a ‘hello’ that he returned. Griffon then turned off the TV, and had all of us take a seat. I sat down facing Xavier. Griffon took his seat next to me and said I could take it away. I took in a deep breath before starting.

                        I told them my whole situation, throughout the whole time Xavier kept a straight face as if examining every detail of my story. I even explained a little of Kristine and I’s family history, relationship wise. I had never really talked about that kind of stuff to anyone before. It was very rare. Talking about my family made me dwell a lot on my experiences with them and they weren’t the best at all. I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about it from time to time though. Truth be told, I would jump on any opportunity to make my family an actual family. I knew it wouldn’t happen though. It was all just wishful thinking.

 

“That’s a tricky thing to prove.” Xavier said. I nodded understanding.�"“But not impossible.”

I lit up knowing that Xavier had taken my case.

 

“Then how are we going to get this done? We don’t have anything.” Austin said.

 

“I can get the information, don’t worry about that…we just need someone with a lawyer expertise that can help us find the holes in your case.” Xavier said holding his chin in thought. I lit up once I thought of the perfect person. I turned to Griffon tapping his arm excitedly.

 

“Deborah!” I said. Griffon raised an eyebrow in confusion.

 

“Deborah? But she’s a psychologist’s assistant.” He said. I nodded still bouncing in my seat.

 

“Yeah but before that she was studying to be a lawyer. She knows a good amount of it. Plus she can help prove that I was set up by Kristine based off of psychologically related aspects.”

 

“Sounds perfect…Will she be willing to help?” Xavier asked.

 

“Hell yeah she will.” I said growing more excited. This meant I could go see Deborah. Griffon chuckled at my excitement.

 

“Alright now Ria, calm yourself.” Griffon said still chuckling.

 

“Shut up I’m excited.” I said. Xavier smiled and Austin simply rolled his eyes. I was very ecstatic about everything. I was closer to having everything over. I knew it would be very time consuming but it was worth it. After drawing up a plan of action, Griffon and I went to ask Deborah if she could help. She gave us a definite yes. Every other day I was over Griffon’s house planning and going through things. Xavier was able to get the proper documentation needed for us and even helped to get an external hard drive that we could keep our computerized information on. That little beauty never left my sight. Me doing all of this work however, didn’t do much for me and Aaron’s relationship though. I didn’t see much of Aaron but I did try to keep him updated whenever I did see him or called on the phone. I had the feeling though that Aaron wasn’t too crazy about Griffon but he tolerated it and said nothing. On my part, I tried not to mention him too much. I didn’t want to make Aaron angry on purpose, even if it did feel somewhat satisfying to see him jealous of another guy.

                        It was a about a month and a half later from when we first started. It was late at night and snow was already on the ground. I think it was January. I remembered it being late or looking late outside. Griffon and I were piecing stuff together on the computer. He would read notes we had taken and I’d type it. We were almost done.

 

“So how are things with your boyfriend going?” Griffon asked out of the blue. I continued to type the sentence that was previously dictated to me.

 

“Pretty good I guess…I haven’t seen him in a while.”�"I said truthfully typing the last word�"“Next.” 

 

“Now it’s ‘cause you’re ‘working’ right? Is he jealous?” He said teasingly putting the paper he was dictating from down on the table. I grabbed the paper knowing Griffon wasn’t going to continue dictating for me. Whenever he asked about Aaron, he always found a way to implant some kind of problem or doubt.

 

“I don’t want to continue this conversation.” I said looking at the paper for what to type. I saw Griffon raise an eyebrow from my peripheral vision.

 

“And why not? I’m your bestest friend right? You can tell me anything.” He said trying to get the subject out of me. I shook my head.

 

“First off I don’t believe in opposite genders being best friends and second I just don’t want to talk about it.” I said matter-of-factly. Griffon seemed somewhat offended.

 

“Well then what am I to you?” He asked with a slight attitude.

 

“You’re a close male friend. Not a best male friend.” I replied typing away.

 

“What’s the difference?”

 

“A close male friend has more boundaries than a best male friend. Plus when it comes to best friends between opposite genders, there really isn’t much of a friendship…just dormant longing.” I stated, thinking back to the experience that made me form that belief. Griffon leaned back in his seat and folded his arms.

 

“Are you saying that you wouldn’t want any feelings for me to arise up?” He asked.

 

“Who said it had to be just me?” I challenged. Griffon stood quiet for a few minutes after that.

 

“So why then don’t you want to talk about Aaron to me?” He asked changing the subject. I let out a sigh.

 

“Because every time you bring up some point against Aaron that I can’t defend him on.” I admitted. 

“You can only defend when there’s a lie, if you can’t then it’s the truth.” Griffon replied.

 

“Okay but you’re coming up with cynical and exaggerated truths that make Aaron seem worse than he really is and I don’t like it.”

 

“No one ever said the truth was pretty.” Griffon said leaving me yet again with no kind of response.