"I have seen him in his darkest nights and his brightest days, and I will be there for him forever, waiting in his dusk."

-

There stood Annalise Blake, River's sister and one of those people who loathed him to bits.

The sister that he had not met for two years, the sister who blamed him for everything that happened two years ago.

It was hard for him, hard for him to look at her in the eye when she was giving him nothing but a disgusted look.

She really did hate him.

And somewhere, it tore him apart.

"Mom, I am going to my room." The brunette gritted out, glaring at River before running upstairs.

"Anna, hun, come have some dinner?" Brenda shouted, running to the hall.

"I already had it in Wendy's." River heard Annalise shouting before a door slammed shut.

"River, d-dinner is ready, I have made your fav-favorite dishes, let's eat?" His mother was trying too much to mend their broken relationship and River didn't mind.

He nodded before walking behind her, wondering if his sister will ever be able to look at him with something else other than hatred.

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"I don't know Faye, she, she hates me, she hates me so much... I can tell that by the way she looks at me, she hates me, when I saw her in the hall, it felt like she wanted nothing but to get away from me." River mumbled under his breath, his eyes on the couch where Faye was sitting with her legs up in Indian style.

Her eyes were laced with concern and she could almost feel the hurt in his eyes. How she wanted to put a smile on his handsome face, how she wanted to whisper soothing words into his ears.

But she knew it will not make anything better. She knew it better than anyone.

"River, you are tired, go get some sleep, we will talk about this later, yah?" She said and he did not object.

He nodded and laid on the king sized bed, turning his back to her face.

"Where are you gonna sleep?" She heard him asking as she pulled the duvet upon him.

"Oh, with Maggie, she wants me to sleep with her, said she is scared of the threeleged monster." Faye shook her head, smiling to herself.

"So, you are not gonna sleep with me? What if a threeleged monster decides to kill me?" She could practically feel the smirk making its way to his features.

"Then I would be more than happy to accompany him." She said, smirking.

"Ouch Lockwood, that hurts." He feign a hurt look on his face as he turned around to look at her.

"Oh shut up already." She rolled her eyes before flicking off the table lamp.

"Goodnight Lockwood, do not dream about me too much." She heard his faint voice as she made her way out of the room, a small smile planted on her lips.

The smile did not last for long as she found herself thinking about River and Annalise.

What was she going to do?

She could not see River being hurt like that. She knew she needed to do something. Something to make him smile once again.

Massaging her forehead, she made her way to the kitchen, just to see a brunette sitting on the tiled floor, crying her heart out.

"Annalise, you alright?" Faye instantly walked up to her side, sitting next to her.

"Go away." The girl managed to say.

"I cannot leave you like this, you do not have to tell me anything, just, let me stay." Faye whispered to her, concern laced in her voice.

And they remained like that for what felt like hours. Annalise bawling her eyes out and Faye sitting there, being her shoulder to lean on.

"I... I ruined your shirt." Faye heard Annalise's shaking voice.

"Oh, do not worry about that." Faye shrugged before turning around to face her, "Are you feeling better?" She asked, making Annalise look at her with a small smile.

"Can I trust you with something?" And Annalise saw Faye giving her a wide encouraging smile.

"Please do not tell anyone about it, I am begging."

"Hey, I am not that bad you know." Faye playfully glared at Annalise, making her chuckle.

"I got bullied at school, yesterday." And Faye's eyes widened by a fraction as she heard her voice.

"What?" She gasped, her eyes not leaving Annalise's.

"They said such things to me Faye, they hurt me so much, it is eating me. I... I do not want to go to school anymore." And she broke down once again.

Faye wrapped her arms around her and patted her back soothingly.

"I know I am not beautiful enough, I know I am fat, I know I am not good enough, but they made me feel worse than that." Fat tears made its way down from her eyes once again and she furiously wiped them by the back of her hands.

"Hey, Anna, please stop crying love, look at me, what did they do?" Faye cupped her face between her hands and wiped the stain of tears from her cheeks by her thumb.

"They dumped spaghetti on me at lunch, they said I should not eat or I will gain more meat." Annalise breathed out, hiccuping.

"Oh sweetheart, you are perfect, your body is perfect, you are thin as a stick, please do not listen to them, you are beautiful." Faye whispered.

"You are lying." Annalise scoffed.

"Anna, I am not lying to you. I am saying the truth. You are beautiful." Faye said, truthfully.

"But..." Before Annalise could say anything, Faye cut her in, "You are starving yourself. You lied when your mom asked you for dinner, you have not eaten anything today." Concern was visible in her eyes as she looked at Annalise who sank on her place.

"I did not have the appetite." Annalise said, looking away from Faye.

"And what are you doing here in the kitchen with a granola bar?" She asked, her eyes on Annalise's side pocket.

Annalise felt defeated, her lower lip trembled.

"Anna, live for yourself love, stand up, you are a strong girl, you can take up any storm, kick their butts and show them who is the queen." Faye stood up, followed by Annalise.

"Wanna go for a walk?" Faye asked and saw her nodding.

"You know, if River will come to know about this, he will break their faces, making sure that they never get the courage to even talk to someone." Faye said as they both walked out of the mansion.

"He would?"

"Of course, you are his little sister after all." Faye said with a small smile.

"He is angry with me, isn't he?" She heard Annalise's voice as they walked through the sidewalk.

"He can never be angry with you, upset? Yes. Why? Cause he thinks that you hate him and-" Before Faye could continue, she felt arms wrapping around her.

"I am so sorry... so sorry for pushing him away. I am so sorry for being such a bitch, Faye. I am so sorry for everything that I did. I ruined everything, did not I?" She heard Annalise's voice as she cried on her shoulder.

"Hey, hey... it's never too late you know, you can always talk to him, he will always be there." Faye whispered.

"I am such, such an idiot." Annalise said, still crying.

"Anna, stop with the tears love, he will always be waiting for you."

"How is he, really? After everything that happened, was he able to get over it?" She asked as she composed herself.

"Honestly? He took his time... River does not mourn Anna, he never does... He has a weird way to cope up with things. He does not cry, he tries to show that he is the strongest... he does not know though, he is broken at the worst way possible." Faye sighed, making Anna pull away from her and looking at the eye with confusion.

"You do know that River's stepmother died after the day John's truck fell off the cliff?" Faye asked Annalise, to which she nodded.

"Like I said, he is not good with tears, so he picked the other way to get over all those shit that was happening with him. He choose the dirtiest way to save himself. He started taking up drugs, heroine, weed, everything that lead to destruction. He shut down the world around him... he built walls, walls that we could not cross..."

"But you were there for him, were not you?" Faye heard Annalise voice from behind, to which she chuckled slightly.

"I was not. I was not there for him."

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@tomboy_16