Teach Me to Please | Please Me #1 - Chapter 56: Chapter 56

The next morning, right before school, I went straight to Rya's. I parked right outside and waited after I knocked on the door a few times. Her dad answered.
"Sienna? Lovely to see you! How are you?" her dad enthusiastically said as he opened the door and saw me.
"Good, thank you! Erm, sorry to be blunt but is Rya...?"
He nodded and gave me a knowing look, smiling softly, "She's right upstairs."
I returned the same smile back and quickly walked inside as he moved to the side to let me through. It was safe to say Rya's house was huge. I mean, we're talking mansion here, but it wasn't the modern kind. No. Her dad liked to keep it more simplistic and classier, almost like a French estate.
Rya's bedroom was on the second floor, and I nervously walked past and numerous doors lining along the open halls. When I finally reached it, I held my breath and knocked. I got no response. I knocked again.
"Come in!" Rya called and I let out a breath. Carefully, I gradually opened the door to her bedroom. Rya's bedroom was what I would call 'the dream bedroom of Blair Waldorf'. It looked like it belonged to a Parisian princess with white walls, black accents on the furniture, and pink and gold accessories scattered neatly all around. However, my eyes happily welcomed the image of Rya sitting on her king-sized bed, wrapped up in her duvet like a little cocoon with only her head poking out.
"Your world would be easier if I didn't come back." I heard the voice of Chuck Bass through her laptop perked in front of her.
"That's true...." Blair replied. "But it wouldn't be my world without you in it."
"Are you blind, Chuck?! Stay! Please Stay!" Rya cried at the scene, throwing her stuffed sheep at the screen. "You'd never leave me. Right, Piggy?" she turned to her cat who was also wrapped up in a blanket with his own mini stuffed sheep in between his paws. Piggy gave a meow in response.
As soon as Rya huffed, she looked up and noticed me standing by the doorway. "Sienna?" she squinted her eyes as if I was some mirage.
"The one and only." I nervously chuckled, walking further into the room.
"What... What are you doing here?"
"Checking on you." I answered simply. "And I really want to talk." She didn't respond and I sighed sadly. "I really don't like us fighting, Rya. You're... You're my best friend and it hurts so much without you." Tears began to cloud my vision.
She looked at me, eyes also beginning to water, still wrapped up in her duvet. "Same."
Wearily, I walked over to her bed, with my hands awkwardly by my side, "So then..." I swallowed down the limp rising in my throat, "Can we be friends again?"
She gaze at me for a minute and then wiped away the tear falling down her cheek. "Fuck you. You're making me cry, dude!" She sniffed and I laughed.
"Glad to know I'm still special," I then joked.
"Yeah. In the head." She rolled her eyes.
I waited a few more seconds for her to say something more before she looked at me. "I'm really really sorry, Sienna. I know you probably didn't mean to tell Christopher —" she gagged saying his name. Classic Rya. "— about the Spanish pop quiz. I was just so... upset because Principal Cunningham wasn't necessarily the nicest when telling me I'm off the list."
"I'm so sorry I said it anyways. I should've known better at the time." I took a step toward.
"Yeah..." she sighed and glanced down at the floor, "But what can you do? And if I've already lost that, the last thing I want to do is lose my best friend." She looked up at me hopefully. My heart lit up at the words.
"So... does that mean...?"
"I really want my sister back." She confessed with watering eyes.
Without a second thought, I ran up to the bed and jumped on it, flinging my arms around her. She hugged me back tightly like she never wanted to let go and we both giggled, sniffing as we felt the tears run down each other's cheeks.
"I missed you." She mumbled into me.
"I missed you more." I mumbled back.
We pulled apart and laughed some more. Now everything felt right. I had my partner in crime back and, in reality, that was all that mattered. It was true when they said boys came and went, but best friends stayed forever. I knew that if Rya and I had each other, we'd always be okay.
She reached down to pick her stuffed sheep off the floor. "I think Choppy is getting sick of me using him as a cry buddy anyways." She huffed. Yes, Rya named her sheep stuffie 'Choppy', as in 'chops'..... lamb chops.
"Have... Have you told your parents about not being valedictorian?" I cautiously asked.
"My dad knows..." she began. "And I told my momma there were complications but my mom... I don't know how to tell her. She was so excited for me getting it!"
"I'm sure she'll understand." I reached out and rubbed her arm.
"Yeah... and I guess the last thing I want to do is get to graduation and not be up on the stage. It's just so scary not being the best, you know? I feel like a huge failure."
I sympathised with Rya. She also wanted to be the best but not necessarily for competition — that only came in with Christopher — but it was like she always wanted to prove something. Not to others but to herself. I had a feeling being the best ran deeper for Rya than what everyone else assumed. Sometimes I believe that Rya being the best, in a sense, equates to my problem with my insecurity of being the 'mean girl'.
"By the way," she called me out of my thoughts. My head shot to her. "Thanks for taking me home after the party. I got a little carried away because I was trying to forget everything."
I paused for a moment. I took Rya home? No... Christopher took Rya home.
"Wait. Why do you think—?"
"Because my dad told me you took me home." Wait what? Why would Rya's dad say that? I wanted to say something. In a strange way I wanted to tell her Christopher did. Despite that, I knew she'd lose her shit if she found out so I decided right now wasn't the best moment.
Suddenly my mind flashed back to the party. "I have something to tell you!" I remembered her singing and giggling.
"Oh... hang on, you said you had something to tell me at the party thought. You was adamant it was important."
She tilted her head to the side for a mere second before her eyes lit up. "OMG yes!" Within seconds, she was scrambling to get her laptop and clicked off her Netflix to a new tab.
"What is it?" I questioned, suddenly feeling a jolt of adrenaline watching the determination seep out of every aggressive hit her fingertips made on her keyboard.
"So you know the video that was exposed between you and Nikki. The one that's all round school and made you look like a mega bitch." Urgh, Nikki. Just hearing her name made me want to puke.
"Yeah, thanks." I huffed and rolled my eyes. Kind of hard to forget it.
Rya began typing faster and click something on her screen before typing again. "Well, after I got home that day, I couldn't sleep. All that kept going through the my mind was that video because something seemed really off. I knew you'd never talk about Roman like that anyways and i honestly feel the worst for believing it but... you know."
"You were in the middle of a mental breakdown?" I suggested.
She frowned a little, "Yes... that." She clicked on something on her screen again. "However, there was something else about the video that's weird." She then pulled the video and Nikki and i up. "Look."
I grimaced, "Rya, I really don't want to —"
"Just look." She cut me off and pressed play.
"You've obviously caught me fucking a nerd. Go on, tell everything what you know. See if I give a shit."
It began and just the image of Nikki made me want to throw the laptop across the room."
"You may not give a shit about your life, but I'm sure you give a shit about Roman's."
God, Nikki's voice made me want to rip her eyes out.
"You know, maybe you were right. It's true, I was just looking for a quick fuck. So, go on. Tell everyone."
"You looked too upset when I told you for Roman to be just a quick fuck. You obviously care about him."
"You ever heard of acting, hmm? I was bored and lonely and needed some fun, some excitement. A challenge more like. Like as if I would want to screw someone like that. C'mon, Nikki, you know me better, I've always loved a good challenge. Roman's there and he's easy, so why not? Sometimes it's fun to pretend."
I couldn't even recognise myself. That was the worst part of it all. It gave me flashbacks to that day and how everything went straight down to hell.
"But... But I thought..."
"Well, you thought wrong, didn't you? Here's a tip, honey, you don't challenge a queen when you're only a pawn and trust me when I say, you don't fight fire with fire. You can say anything you want, see if I care, but if you want to be a bitch. You have to do much better than that."
The video ended and I was already cringing, so badly holding back to urge to throw up, especially now how I knew it was all a set up.
Rya looked back at me eagerly and asked, "Did you see it?"
I furrowed my brows. "See what?"
"The glitch!" She exclaimed. Glitch? What glitch?
She sighed and dragged the video back a specific part.
C'mon, Nikki, you know me better, I've always loved a good challenge. Roman's there and he's easy, so why not? Sometimes it's fun to pretend."
"But... But I thought..."
"— There!" Rya paused it and announced. I still couldn't she meant. "Urgh, okay. Watch very closely from when you stop speaking to when Nikki starts."
I sighed and nodded, resting my chin on my palm. She replayed and video and I studied it closely, focussing in on the bit where she told me to. Then I saw it.
There was a glitch. Right when I finished speaking it was like I was cut off. It was tiny but when you caught it, you couldn't un-see it.
"Oh my god..." I whispered.
Rya looked make way a gave an an agreeing expression. "I know right? That was what I thought when I first saw it. So, bringing back all my knowledge from that computing summer camp I went to for three weeks in the 6th Grade, I hacked into the CCTV footage."
"You DJs what?!" I burst out.
"Hey! I'm already off the valedictorian list! What else do I have to lose?" Okay, she had a point.
She then pulled up about video and hit play.
"C'mon, Nikki, you know me better, I've always loved a good challenge. Roman's there and he's easy, so why not? Sometimes it's fun to pretend, don't you do that with all your affairs with Mr Bernard, who's married with two kids just in case you didn't know which I'm sure you do."
"But... But I thought..."
Rya paused it immediately and I knew exactly what she was talking about.
"Don't you do that with all your affairs with Mr Bernard, who's married with two kids just in case you didn't know which I'm sure you do."
"The last bit is cut out." I whispered.
"See, why would someone want to expose you but cut that bit about Nikki and Mr Bernard out? I can only think of one person."
Roman was right. Nikki knew how to get a rise out of me so of course it made sense for her to put that video out to the entire school. However, what Rya had here was hardcore evidence it was her. It all perfectly clicked.
"I have something to tell you..." I muttered. And that was when I spilled the beans about Nikki. I told her all about Roman, about the audio, then Leah, and it was safe to say her jaw was on the floor by the end.
"Oh my... what the fuck?! Oh my God! This is so messed up!" She exclaimed.
I slumped my shoulders and pressed a hand to my forehead as if retelling it all was giving me a headache. "Tell me about it." I sighed.
"Oh, Sienna." She instantly pulled me into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that alone! I should have been there for you."
"But that's why you weren't at school, though. Or at least why I didn't see you. You were busy trying to hack into the CCTV footage." It made perfect sense.
"Yeah." She admitted. "That I was still too upset and embarrassed about the whole valedictorian thing." She then sheepishly confessed.
"You shouldn't be. And if we're talking fact, Christopher is much less of a saint than you." I said matter-of-a-factly.
We sat in silence for a few moments before she said, "I guess you and Leah are besties now."
I chuckled and ran a hand through my hair. "I wouldn't say besties, but, I don't know, maybe friends. It's so weird, isn't it?"
She chuckled softly, "Yeah, but I guess everything is coming together."
A frown pulled down my lips, "Yeah... almost." Roman came to mind. In reality, Roman was always on my mind.
Rya grabbed my hand and offered a kind smile, "Talk to him."
"I'm going to." I told her. "But everything is so messed up, I don't even know if we can fix it."
"Do you want to fix it?" She asked. I must have looked at her funny as she repeated it again. "Do you want to fix it?"
I thought about it long and hard but everything answer in my body was screaming 'yes!'. I did want to fix it.
"Yes."
"Well then you have to try." She squeezed my hand a little tighter. She was right. "You never know the full story until someone tells you. Right now, you both are playing a game and now you need to call bullshit."
I cringed and sighed, "We're acting like idiots, aren't we?"
She laughed and nudged my side. "You're dealing with it better than some people. At least you got good dick out of it too —"
"Rya!"
"What?! I've never had angry sex, what's it like?" She eagerly asked me, shaking my arm.
A redness flooded my cheeks and I decided to change subject. "I missed you."
She smiled back and me and rested her head on my shoulder, "I missed you too."
"Let's promise to never fight again." I held out her pinky.
"Definitely." She agreed and linked hers with mine. "We're seamless, baby."
I laughed lightly, "Yep... seamless."
The feeling of having my best friend back was one you couldn't replace. Rya was more than a best friend, she was my number on partner in crime and losing her would be worse than losing some boy; it would be like losing a sister.
I felt her lift my head off of my shoulder, "So, tell me we're gonna create a killer plan."
Rushes of mischievous adrenaline burst in my veins. "Oh, honey." A smirk lifted my lips. "Sienna and Rya always create a killer plan, and, boy, do we have some work to do."
"And does this plan include prom dress shopping?" Mischief lit up in her bright, blue eyes.
"Why, of course!" I grinned. "But we also need to buy three dresses, I know someone who's in desperate need of a dress and I have a feeling she is not gonna want to miss prom."
Rya giggled and flung her arms around me, "We're back, baby!"
"We're back!" And, hell, were we coming back stronger than ever.