Ruined Relationship

A couple, happily talking with each other, occasionally taking sips of the coffee they have ordered. "She is late, right?" The lady spoke, looking up at her wristwatch. "Call her, babe. What if she faced some issues?" The man beside her asked with concern. To that, the woman nodded, and dialed a number that was right on top of the call list. But before the ring could go through, she noticed a hand excitedly waving at her, along with her name being shouted. "Sarah!"

"Oh my God, Jass! Finally, you are here!" Sarah waved back at her, ending the call she was making to this girl Riley she had been waiting for. The girl named Jass walked up to them hurriedly, and took the seat right across the couple.

"Huff, I'm so sorry, there was this little issue on the road."

"And let me guess, you ended up helping someone again, right?" Sarah cut in between, and the girl scratched the back of her head in an embarrassed manner. 

"Yeah, there was this old lady, she was having difficulty finding a place. I had to help her out!"

"Sure sure," Sarah took yet another sip from her coffee. "Oh, before I forget, let me introduce him to you. This is Ryan, my boyfriend."

Ryan extended his hands at the mention of his name. "Nice to meet you, Miss..."

"It's Riley. You can totally call me that." She took the hands gladly, giving it a firm and gentle shake. "Riley... doesn't sound like a first name to me, for some reason?" The corner of Ryan's brows went up a bit, expressing the confusion.

"Riley... is fine, actually." Her expression changed a little, fixing up into a more serious look on them.

"Yeah, Jass doesn't like to be called by her name easily. But she befriends people pretty quickly, so you gotta hang in there, Ryan." Sarah laughed, lightening up the mood. And Ryan chose not to drag over it for longer. "Hey, Jess, shall I get you something? You look like you practically ran all the way here."

"Yeah, lemme call the waiter..."

"This is a self-service cafe, Miss Riley," Ryan interrupted Riley from calling out to a waiter.

"Yep. so let me get something for you. You better be taking a little breather." Sarah placed her palm over Riley's, before walking towards the counter to order some snacks and drinks for her.

"So, Miss Riley. Westford University Alum?" Ryan made another attempt to talk to Riley, once Sarah was gone.

"Y-yeah, I am. Though not in Sarah's major. I just happened to befriend her in an elective course we took."

"The literature one?" Ryan leaned in a bit towards Riley, showing keen interest in her words and the entire conversation.

"Yep. That one." Riley replied in a low voice. "You seem to know a lot."

"Sarah speaks about you a lot." Riley let out a soft chuckle at that response of Ryan. "I hope she said only good stuff."

"She did, but quite less, I suppose." Ryan's response was quite brisk and sudden, making Riley feel a little bit perplexed. "She mentioned how much of a cheerful, free-willed person you are. But she never mentioned the absolute beauty and sexy you are, Riley. I would've been glad to meet you way earlier if I knew that.

"Now that was weird. Not the praises she was getting, but the words he chose, and the look on his face wasn't convincing to her. She was getting a weird, uncomfortable feeling from this man. Even his constant compliments about her absolutely perfect fluffy wolf cut on her short hair were making her skin crawl, when she usually loves people praising her hairstyle generally.

"Hey, I'm back." Sarah returned soon enough, breaking the chain of thoughts of Riley. "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah, everything is fine. We were just bonding here, Right Riley?" Ryan winked at Riley once before turning back to Sarah. And even though he had his hands over Sarah's waist like a protective loving boyfriend, Riley could feel this man's gaze over her, checking her out up and down in a really disgusting way, as if he was sizing her up.

"Gosh, I didn't want to do this to her at least," Riley thought to herself, as her eyes fell over both of their hands placed on top of the table. She took a breath in, and kept her eyes closed for a second. And the next time she opened them, she spoke up, interrupting Sarah's chattering. "Sarah, don't mind me asking, but are you absolutely sure about this relationship?" Sarah was left shocked by her words.

"W-what do you mean, of course, I am. Ryan is the best thing that happened to me, and he is so handsome, so smart and smooth in conversations, I couldn't ask for better."

"This is exactly why you shouldn't have asked for him to Gods, Sarah." Riley's eyes burning with a serious look, peeled onto the intertwined fingers of them, while they were holding each other's hands. "Your man is cheating on you. He isn't in love with you. So, apparently, everyone else could thank the Gods for having such a handsome man to be their boyfriend.

"What are you talking about, Riley? How could you?" Ryan was shocked by the sudden accusation, his eyes went bigger with shock, which was an act not much convincing to Riley, as she kept staring at him.

"You totally know about what I am talking, Mr. Ryan Miller," Riley responded to him, as calmly as she could, even though she was burning with anger deep within.

"You haven't changed at all, have you, Riley?" Sarah spoke up, interrupting the heated bickering between Riley and Ryan. Her eyes were blood red, and tears were threatening to come out any moment. "And I thought they were making some false rumors about you. But it was true after all. You go ahead, ruining other people's relationships, making them break up so that you can snag them."

"The hell are you saying, Sarah!" Riley responded in shock, hearing her response. It has been ages since she heard someone mentioning those things she had left long ago back in the days of college. "I am not. Trust me, girl, when I say I know if someone is being loyal or not just by looking at them, I do know that!"

*splash*

"Shut the fuck up, you filthy whore! What are you, a psychic?" Sarah poured the entire glass of water, splashing them on Riley's face. "I thought of you as a friend. Maybe we weren't close like your other two besties, but we were good friends, weren't we? And this is how you pay me back?" Sarah stood up, and walked out from the café, not even looking back for once, and not caring about whether the man with her was accompanying her or not. Ryan was unsure what to do that moment, but after a few seconds of pondering, he followed Sarah behind, leaving Riley all alone with the café full of people staring at her.

"Ugh, this is why I don't want to do this." Riley let out a sigh, taking some of the tissues from the table to wipe her face off. "Should've never looked at their hands."