chest rising and falling, riley fixes her eyes on the boy in front of her. he’s been by her side the whole time she’s been in the hospital, helping her as much as he can with the recovery process. & as much as she is grateful for it, she feels like a BURDEN more than a GIRLFRIEND. she’s been out of it ————— not in the mood for much of anything & she wants so badly to be a more bearable presence to be around but it’s HARD. it’s hard recovering, in each and every aspect, & riley is afraid of the fact that she may not make the complete recovery she wants to. the fear of not returning to the person she once was holds her back & is making her reject the idea of help. the way she sees it, the sooner she can be independent, the sooner she can move on and get back to who she was. & unfortunately, who she was doesn’t involve noah babysitting her 24/7. ❛ you don’t have to stay. i don’t want you to feel like you have to : like you’re OBLIGATED to stick around or something. i know you have a life outside of me. ❜