About 15 minutes later, Ezra was pulling into the driveway of my house. I saw my car on the street and I felt immediately relieved that Aiden brought Jessa home. I trusted him with her more than anyone else. He made sure she was safe even when I couldn't.

We climbed out of the car and went up the steps to the door. My Mom pulled open the door before I could even step foot on the porch. She rushed over to me and pulled me away from Ezra and into her.

"Riley, are you ok? Aiden told me what happened." She smoothed my shirt over my back and then turned her attention to Ezra. "This is all your fault. You tell your little girlfriend to stay away from my daughter and grandchild."

"Mrs. Davis, I am sorry. I didn't know anything like this would happen. Aiden and I got Jessa out of there and I made Jenna leave. She was wrong to do what she did. Riley hasn't done anything to be treated like that. I will never let Jenna do that again around either one of them." Ezra's tone was sincere.

"You just keep coming around and tearing my daughter up into little pieces. She has sat here and waited for you for the last three years. The second you come back, you start hurting her all over again. I'm not going to sit back and watch it happen again this time. You've never been good enough for her." My Mom screamed at him. I pushed her back off me. She had no place telling Ezra any of this. I wasn't waiting for him to come back to me. Was I?

"You don't think I know that?" Ezra raised his voice. "I can never make up for all the terrible things I did to her. I have spent every day wishing she had never met me or I had the strength to push her away when I realized how wrong I am for her. I have spent every day for the last three years regretting everything I did to ruin her life. I will have to sit back and watch her fall in love with someone else, watch my daughter call someone else Dad, all because I screwed this up." His hands were in his hair and he pulled it in frustration.

I looked between my Mom and Ezra. They were acting like I was not even here.

"Only you can make this right, Ezra. I will not let you hurt these girls. They need you to be better." She turned and went back into the house without another word.

What the hell was going on today? Did I fall asleep at Aiden's house and wake up in an alternate dimension?  I was so confused. Ezra said he loved Jenna. Jenna was a recovering addict, just like him. She called me a slut even though she didn't even know me because she is jealous of me for reasons I will never understand. Ezra says I was his obsession and biggest regret. He knows we can't be together, but he still touches me and says things to me that he shouldn't. This was all too much for me, I couldn't keep up and my head started spinning. My hands were digging into my stomach as I bent over, trying to keep the world from turning upside down.  I stumbled and almost fell over as my chest constricted and the pain came again.

"Riley, calm down." Ezra held me up when he saw me freefalling off the cliff. "What is going on?"

"It hurts."  I grabbed at my chest.

"Aiden!" Ezra screamed back into the house, not sure what to do.

Aiden ran to the door and I could see little Jessa on his heels. She was smiling because she thought Aiden was playing chase with her.  When she saw me crumbling, her innocent, playful smile fell from her face.  Her Momma was a hot mess and it scared her.

"What is going on?" Aiden said, staring between us. I started gasping for breath and I heard him curse. Aiden ran over to me and pulled me into his chest. His hands were rubbing my back, trying to soothe me. "Riley, you're going to be fine."

"What is going on with her?" Ezra asked Aiden.

"She has been having panic attacks. They started about six months before Jessa was born." He told him as he was holding me close to him. "You have this, Riley. You can beat this."

Jessa started crying at the door, calling my name. I hated when I couldn't stop this from happening in front of her, it was a snowball. The more I heard her cry, the worse it got. Ezra picked her up and pulled her into his chest, trying to help calm her down.

I was over the edge.  I pushed Aiden back, screaming and swinging and he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me to the ground to hold me in place.  He was wrapped around me while I cried and screamed as my body burned from the inside out.  There was a freight train in my head filled with twisting metal and Jessa's cries.

"What's going on?" My Mom said, running back out to the porch.

"She's having another attack." Aiden told her as he held me down. Every muscle in my body was constricting at once.  I was going to die. 

"Aiden, Ezra, take her upstairs. Get her to her Dad. I'll get Jessa calmed down." My Mom grabbed sobbing Jessa from Ezra and began trying to soothe my baby girl.

Ezra and Aiden both grabbed my arms and tried to lead me into the house.

"I... I ... can't breathe." I said stumbling and began to fall over.

I collapsed at the front door, unable to get my muscles to work any longer. My body was shutting down. 

"I'll carry her upstairs." Ezra said to Aiden.  Ezra leaned down and picked me up and pulled me to his chest. I was limp in his arms. "Go check on Jessa to make sure she's ok." 

Aiden nodded and went inside to the kitchen, where she was still sobbing.

Ezra ran up the stairs quickly and pushed his weight into the door of my parent's room to swing it open.

"Oh no, not again. Bring her here and lay her next to me." My Dad said calmly to him. Ezra moved around to the other side of the room and laid me down next to my Dad. My lungs were on fire and my whole body was shaking.

"Hey, peanut." My Dad said sweetly as he rubbed his hand in my hair. "Can you hear me?"

I nodded with my head buried into his side as my foggy brain tried to find a way out.

"Riley, listen carefully. I know how bad you are hurting right now. It's ok if it is too much to handle.  Take all the time you need, but you will come back from this.  You are strong. There is a little girl downstairs who loves you and needs you. Come back for her." He soothed me, running his hands over my shoulders. I felt my body start relaxing, where he was touching me. I looked up at him with blurry eyes and he smiled back down at me before turning his attention to Ezra.

"Hey Ezra, she needs to sit up.  Can you give me a hand?"

Ezra bent down to me and wrapped his arms under me to scoot me up. I placed my arms around his neck and buried my face in him and wouldn't let go when he tried to pull back from me. I felt my Dad chuckle when he saw me locked onto him.

Ezra shook his head and picked me up. He walked me over to the chair on the other side of the room.  He sat down and held me on his lap.  His hand gently rubbed my burning skin as he pulled me tighter.

Each breath I was taking was shallow; the room felt like there was no oxygen.

"Well, don't just sit there and be the strong silent type. You are allowed to talk to her." My Dad told him.

"About what?" Ezra asked unsurely.

"Talk to her about anything. It doesn't really matter. Tell her a story, talk about Jessa, recite a poem. She needs something to focus on." My Dad said, encouraging him.

Ezra looked down at me and I looked back into his light blue eyes. He cleared his throat and a slight blush spread over his cheeks.

"Riley, you remember the night at Bannon's when the band played.  You were wearing those ripped up jeans and that t-shirt that had all those metal pins." I nodded my head, staring directly into his worried eyes. He stopped and swallowed and looked over at my Dad, not sure if he should go on.

"Go on. Pretend I'm not here. I'm not listening anyway." My Dad laughed.

"When I saw you walk in, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I couldn't keep my eyes off you. I was so nervous about playing in front of you. I have never been nervous about playing in front of anyone." He paused, taking a deep breath. "When I saw you in the crowd, I froze.  My hands wouldn't move. I almost ran off the stage. You were full of life and I prayed you would look at me the same way I was looking at you. I was about to give up when you raised your eyes to me and smiled. I will never forget that smile. You are so perfect and you don't even need to try." He sighed, reliving the memory. I realized my breathing was relaxing and the burning was lessening with every breath.

"See, that's all she needs." My Dad said. I looked over at him and he was smiling at me.

I sat there holding on for dear life with my head buried into him. He laid his head back against the chair and stroked my hair and fixated on one of the little finger curls that escaped the back of my bun.  He wrapped his finger around it, twirling it and letting it bounce back. He moved his fingers down until the tips were lightly tracing my spine.  I closed my eyes, focusing on the way his fingers felt as they moved slowly up and down my back. His hand moved lower with each pass, growing more confident the longer he touched me. He shifted in the chair underneath me and a bolt of electricity shot through me.

"Ahem." My Dad made a noise like he was clearing his throat. "You can stop pretending I'm not in the room now."

It took me a few seconds to realize I was staring at Ezra and he was staring back. We both were breathing shallow uneven breaths.  I pushed away from him quickly and jumped up.

"You kids should go check on Jessa." My Dad laughed. "She is probably still scared."

Ezra stood up behind me and his hand went to my back to help keep me on my feet.  He was still touching me as we walked to the door.

"Behave you two." My Dad said with a huge grin on his face.

"Always." Ezra smiled back.