Blame

"There, just give it time to heal." The nurse said as she got up and picked the tray containing all she had used.

The door went open and closed as she stepped out, leaving only Riley and Natasha in the room.

Riley looked remorseful and was going to apologize to Natasha. Natasha took note of that face of his. The last thing she wanted to hear was Riley apologizing and then advicing her to stay away from him.

"Excuse me." she said as she got up

"let me go get those drugs that were prescribed."

Not giving him a chance to say a word, Natasha walked out of the room. She walked down the corridor with an angry look. She was fed up of him apologizing.

'Why the f**k does he even apologize when he's not in the wrong? Is he trying to make people feel guilty the more, I just don't get it.

Damn yes. This is only making me feel more guilty. If I hadn't asked him out for lunch, he would be at his home. I never should had chosen the alleyway to get to that street, we could had passed the normal way, but the alleyway was shorter,so I guess I decided to use a quicker route. I see I'm repeating the same mistake, but I couldn't even think about it, I really was not expecting people to come for him. Whatever, that doesn't matter right now. I was the one who got him into this mess, I should be the one apologizing, not the other way round.'

Riley sat on the bed and took a deep sigh

"She must be fed up of being my friend. Afterall, ever since she became friends with me, people have been avoiding her and she is also being attacked. This is all my fault, if only I wasn't such a..."

"There you go again, it's always your fault."

Riley looked up to see who came in. That sounded like something Natasha would say, but he was surprised to see his big brother. Well, a little bit surprised, he knew Richard's voice, he was just surprised Richard could say such.

"Why are you here? "

That sounded like a stupid question, and Richard was not planning to answer such a question.

"How did you know?"

Now, a better question.

"Natasha."

"Oh" he said in a sad voice "she told you what happened?"

Richard sat on the chair that Natasha sat on just before she left the room.

"Yes." he did sound tired.

"And she also told me 'you look like shit'"

"Me?" he felt a bit confused "Why?"

Richard took Riley's left palm and held it in his.

"Cause you won't stop blaming yourself. She's fed up of you blaming yourself whenever such a thing happens. And I am hundred percent sure you would end up ruining your friendship with her if you keep on blaming yourself."

"But it's all my fault."

"It ain't your fault"

"It is, if she didn't befriend and protect me in the very first place, then they would not even think of targeting her."

"Do you then blame her for befriending you?"

"Of course not, do you think I do? I very well do appreciate the fact that she even thinks of me as a friend. I just don't want her to end up like Cole."

His voice starts to break as he remembered all that happened to Cole , his once best friend.

"Fine, blame yourself all you want, I no longer care. I'm here to take you home."

Riley froze upon hearing this. Home was the last place he wanted to be.

"I don't want to."