Redemption Review of May 

   Welcome to this May's edition of Redemption Review! This month, we have Cris Eli Blak with "Ava Hearts Riley"! 

AVA HEARTS RILEY  

By Cris Eli Blak  

________________________________Cast of Characters  ___________________________________

RILEY:: 17-18, white female.  ____ 

AVA:: 17-18, Black female. 

   

Darkness. 

A screen appears, RILEY appearing with it. She  fidgets with her camera, straightening it up.  She looks at her reflection on the screen for a  moment, making sure her clothes are not  

wrinkled. She looks around, makes sure her door  is closed. 

RILEY: It's okay. Everything is going to be okay. 

Another screen pops up, this one with AVA on it, in her respective bedroom. Riley forces a wide  smile, waves. 

RILEY: Hi. 

AVA:(less enthusiastic) Hi. 

There is silence. No one knows what to say or  how to say it. It is clear that they both have something on their minds, but can't think of the  words to express it. 

RILEY: So...what's been up? 

AVA: What do you think? 

RILEY:I don't know. It's been a few days, a lot could have  happened. 

AVA: Nothing else has happened. 

RILEY:I didn't mean specifically having to do with what happened with us, I just meant in general, in your  life - in your personal life, I don't know if anything has happened in the last few days. 

AVA: Nothing has happened.

 

RILEY: Oh okay. Cool. 

Another silence. 

RILEY: Should we... 

AVA:I don't know. 

RILEY: I've been thinking about you. 

AVA: Yeah. 

RILEY: Have you been...? 

AVA:I guess. 

RILEY: Can you talk to me? 

AVA:I am talking to you... 

RILEY: Really talk to me. A conversation. I don't know you look at me. 

AVA: I'll turn off my camera. 

RILEY :No! I don't mean that. Your eyes. You're looking at me like you want to kill me. 

AVA:I don't want to kill you... 

RILEY:I didn't mean it literally. 

AVA:...but I'm not your biggest fan. 

RILEY: You don't have to make me feel worse than I already do.

AVA: So it's still about you. 

RILEY: No. I didn't say that. I'm just saying we both feel bad enough right now. To pile on to it is just, like,  overkill. It's like running over somebody then backing up and doing it again. 

AVA:I don't know what I'm supposed to say, what you expect me to say. 

RILEY:I want us to talk like we used to. Before a few days ago we barely went half an hour without hearing from each other. 

AVA: Things change. 

RILEY: Not that quickly. 

AVA: Sometimes they do. 

RILEY: I'm sorry, okay? I didn't think things were gonna go down like that. 

AVA: Yeah you did. 

RILEY:I didn't. How could I? 

AVA: You knew your parents wouldn't like me. Forget that. Here I was thinking you were embarrassed about coming out but that wasn't even it. You lied. 

RILEY:I didn't lie - 

AVA: You came out a year ago.

RILEY: Okay but -

AVA: It wasn't that. That's not what you didn't want them to find out. It wasn't that you didn't want them  knowing you liked girls. You didn't want them to know you liked a Black girl. 

RILEY:I said I was sorry. 

AVA: That doesn't cut it! 

RILEY:I didn't know they would come home so soon. 

AVA: That doesn't make me feel any better! Jesus, Riley.  All that means is that the only reason you feel bad  is 'cause you got caught, which, in turn, means that if we hadn't gotten caught I would have remained your Black little secret. 

RILEY: That's not true. 

AVA: Then when? 

RILEY: When what? 

AVA: When were you going to tell them, if you ever planned  to? 

RILEY:I did. 

AVA: Okay. 

RILEY: Okay. 

AVA: When? Tell me.

RILEY:I don't know. Eventually. 

AVA: "Eventually" could mean that you planned on waiting until they were blind and deaf on their death beds or something. 

RILEY: That's not funny. 

AVA: I'm not telling jokes. 

RILEY:I would have told them, at some point. 

AVA: Or would you have broken up with me? 

RILEY: Never. 

AVA: It's a little late to say "never." 

RILEY:I care about you. 

AVA: Lucky me. 

RILEY:I love you. 

AVA: She's a liar too. What an all-around kind of girl.

 RILEY:I have never lied to you. 

AVA: Just me. about- 

RILEY: I'm trying to make things right. 

AVA: Can you?

RILEY:I can try. 

AVA: And what if you fail? 

RILEY:I haven't thought that far yet. 

AVA: Of course not. 

RILEY: It's better to think positive! Positive thoughts lead to positive outcomes. 

AVA: What on-sale Buddhist book written by a white boy did you take that one from? 

(off Riley's eyeroll) 

And don't say you love me when the whole concept of  love has clearly flown right over your head. Love isn't something recyclable or something you can feel satisfied hiding. It's so emotionally taxing and overwhelming and exciting and scary that you have to talk about it. You have to tell somebody. You want to tell the whole world about it. It tears through your  heart and flips it upside down. It blinds you - it blinds you to race, to culture, to everything! Love is pride and pride is something worth fighting for.  At least that's what I feel. That's what I believe. 

RILEY: You don't have to explain the concept of love to me,  Ava. 

AVA: Apparently I do. 

RILEY:I didn't think it would get so messed up. 

AVA :You thought a secret as big as this wasn't going to eventually blow up in your face? You know what they  say: Karma is a - 

RILEY:I thought Karma only messed with people who messed up or, like, did things -  bad- 

AVA: You did do a bad thing! Why can't you see that? After all this time and you still refuse to take a step back and look at yourself and see that you did the one thing you promised to never do. The things your dad said to me, what he called me, the way your mom  looked at me...like I was a burglar, like I was intruding in their home, in their lives, like you were in danger, like holding me was the cardinal sin. 

RILEY: They're a little old fashioned. 

AVA: They're racist. 

Riley looks away. 

AVA: Look at me. 

RILEY: They're still my parents. 

AVA: Listen to me. 

RILEY: You don't know them. You had one bad encounter with  them, that hardly gives you the right to call them  names, to accuse them of being monsters. 

AVA: Riley. 

RILEY:(turning back) 

What? 

AVA:(slowly) 

Your parents are racist. If they had been mad at you for sneaking someone in and...doing things, that  would be understandable. Any parent who isn't totally weird or neglectful would have a big problem with stuff like that but they didn't say "Riley, you had a  girl in our home? How disrespectful!" They looked you square in the face and, without the smallest flake of delay, said "What's this Black girl doing in our  home, who let her in? Why is Riley is grabbing her hand? her she your  Why does she think can talk to us? Why is she not in her neighborhood?" I live down the street from you. I had to walk home. It was late. It was dark.  I'm still a girl. Not a stray person's dog. I live down the street but that walk felt like it took five hours. 

RILEY: Okay so my parents are old fashioned...

 AVA: Old fashioned? 

RILEY: Maybe a little problematic. 

AVA:A little? 

RILEY: That doesn't automatically mean that I am too. 

AVA: You said nothing, though. You moved from my side and walked to theirs. 

RILEY: They're family. 

AVA: Exactly, meaning you can't escape them. 

RILEY:I can. 

AVA: But you won't and who could blame you for that? 

RILEY: Clearly you. 

AVA:I can't. I would choose my family too. 

RILEY: Oh. 

AVA: But they know about you. They've about you. We don't talk about it...any of it, but they know.

RILEY: They're good people. 

AVA:I know...they created me. Something has to give. 

For a brief moment a familiarity comes through, the girls making eye contact, fighting back  

mutual laughs. Then, the moment passes. It fades. 

RILEY: Are we going to be okay? We can make it work. 

AVA:I don't know if we can. 

RILEY: We'll be in college soon, and no one cares about these kinds of things in college. We can make it work. We're gonna be art majors. That is the freest major of them all. Tailor made major for interracial lesbians. 

AVA: Sure, and over the holidays? Christmas, Thanksgiving?  Do we pretend not to know each other when we come home? 

RILEY: No. 

AVA: How am I supposed to believe that? 

RILEY: You're gonna have to trust me. 

AVA: I've been public enemy number one since...day one.  Everything, everyone, is already against me. I want a  place where I can be loved. I need that. Somewhere I can sit down without being on edge, without feeling like I might have to run out. Forget it. 

RILEY: No, I'm listening. 

AVA: But you're not hearing me. I'll talk to you later, Riley. 

RILEY: Ava. 

AVA: Later. We'll talk. 

RILEY:I love you. 

Ava's screen goes off. 

Riley stays on for a moment. There is a knock at her bedroom door. 

RILEY:I'll be out in a second. 

She turns off her screen. 

We are left in darkness. 

THE END.

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   I hope you enjoyed this month's Redemption Review! Come back next month for more works from talented writers! 

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