Under My Skin

32 | it was him

Chapter Thirty-Two:

"It was him." Reid whispered in Ria's ear, "Blaine killed our dad."

A familiar uneasy silence crept into the room, encircling and wrapping its gnarly arms around her, tightening its vice-like grip, restricting her access to oxygen as she tried to drink the new information. The same uncomfortable silence that had become ever-present in the last few weeks, as though it had become an entity in its own right. Her mouth fell agape, and her vision blurred; Blaine's face in front of her blurred into two as he gaped down at her, concern lining every crevice of his face. She could feel her legs weaken beneath her, similarly to when she'd been intoxicated. The concerned calls of her mother were drowned out in the background of her array of thoughts; she was condemning Reid, Ria thought, but she couldn't be sure.

Her eyes peeked down at the portrait that had watched the commotion unfold. It felt as though the ground had cracked open beneath them and that Rayhan was eye-balling the chaos from the burning pits of Hell. She could hear him aloud as though his voice boomed from a stereo box, whispering turning to laughter until she wanted to scream to wash away the piercing sounds. She felt her mouth flailing open and closed, her voice refusing to release from her larynx.

"You're lying," Ria whispered; her voice sounded like one she didn't quite recognise. She swung away from her brother's touch, the effect of the botulinum toxin wearing away as she faced him. The irises of his eyes were forest green; clear, natural, and pure, except Ria didn't think Reid was any of those things. "You hate the idea of me being with Blaine so much that you would lie about dad's death to keep me away from him? You're sick." She tapped the side of her head as she spat the venomous words out. She pressed her hands against his shoulders, shoving him away from, the thought of being in such close proximity to him disgusting her.

"You think I could lie about something like this?" Reid replied, his voice low, his jaw set in line with his teeth, his eyes sad and disappointed, "You think I would use dad's death as an excuse?"

"Yes." Ria panted, "I think you would say anything you could to ensure we would never stand a chance."

Reid let out a low guffaw, "Fine. Don't believe me when I tell you the truth. But you'll believe him, won't you?" She felt firm hands on her shoulders, reverting her position towards Blaine, "You tell her, Blaine. Tell her the truth."

She glared up at him, the oh-so-familiar boy who was always so facetious but now did not utter a single word. Blaine's lips parted, his tongue slivering to moisten them, his gaze upon Reid. She tried to read the expression etched across his face – she thought she saw betrayal, but it disappeared as quickly as it came, replaced only by pain and sorrow. She could hear quiet sobs; at first, she thought her own body had begun to betray her. But then, she recognised them as the sobs of a doting mother and a loving wife. She averted her gaze to her mother and witnessed her using the end of her shawl to wipe away the stray tears from her eyes before firmly readjusting the cloth over her body.

"Mama, don't cry. Reid's lying." Ria muttered weakly, but the pained expression plastered across her mother's face didn't diminish. Instead, her words seemed to evoke the opposite effect because she burst into another bout of tears. Sihem initially nodded at her daughter's words, and then, as though she needed to correct herself, she aggressively began shaking her head.

"Mum, why don't you tell her what happened? Because he clearly can't." Reid snapped out. Ria allowed her eyes to flutter to a close as she formulated a meek prayer asking any higher power to remove her from this torment, to halt her beating heart. But despite her desperate pleas, the wretched organ continued to sustain her life.

"How would mum know, Reid?" Ria asked quietly, and then as a realisation hit, "Wait, Reid, how would you even know?"

"I was there." He stated matter-of-factly, "Indiya and me. We were in the back of the car." The words rushed out like traffic zooming past as soon as the traffic light flickered from red to green. "We'd gone bar hopping, and we were all drunk. So, so drunk. I don't remember everything exactly, but when we left the bar, we stopped at Blaine's parent's house because Indiya was desperate for the toilet. And, then...Blaine was driving us home. I remember Indiya was singing too loudly to some stupid song on the radio. And, then, it's all a blur. We hit something. I remember someone saying something about it being an animal." He stopped, his face screwed up, "And then, nothing. I remember Indiya crying, and then...we were in this house."