No Pads… No Helmets… Just Memories!

"Riley leave me alone!" I grumbled slamming my locker shut to reach for my backpack I had so carelessly disposed of at my feet.

"Oh sweetheart, why are you being so cold?" He scoffed tossing a hand over his chest in mock hurt.

"Because nicely telling you I want nothing to do with you didn't seem to seep in so well now did it?" I spat back knocking on his thick skull with a light fist.

"Jasey don't be like that!" He called chasing after me as I started down the hall.

"Why shouldn't I?" I quipped stopping and turning to look up at him. "What have you done to make me even want to consider dating you?"

"Well I haven't made out with Tammy recently..." He cooed rocking on his heels as he slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

"Ha, recently!" I scoffed rolling my eyes.

Riley just narrowed his eyes down on me as I crossed my arms over my chest. "HEY ALEX?" He called and my face dropped. What was he doing!

By Riley's side appeared a dark Alex, his hood pulled over his head to help hide the still incredibly prominent marks. "Don't you think Jasey should give me a chance?" He sang looking over at Alex as I did the same. My eyes filled with desperation as Alex looked over at me.

Come on Alex!

If there was one point in time for you to re-enter my life, IT'D BE NOW! Just tell him to leave and I’ll be forever grateful. "Well Alex?" Riley cooed as if he already knew what was going to come out of Alex's mouth, the pure tone in his voice causing my gut to clench. All I wanted to do was get through the rest of this day and go home. That’s all. But honestly all I wanted to do was find a dark closet and curl in a ball at that point.

"Whatever." Alex mumbled before dropping his head and walking away.

REALLY!? REALLY!

"Well?" Riley smiled down on me as my eyes narrowed with anger, "what do you say?"

I stood with my arms crossed impatiently tapping my foot to elongate the process for him. I looked up and narrowed my eyes once again before sticking my tongue out and blowing a raspberry in the direction of his face before turning and walking off. Knowing I couldn’t avoid Riley all that well seeing he was sure to be on my heels and following to our chem class we shared next.

Maybe Alex didn't care anymore; maybe he had already forgotten about little old me and moved on to blonder and sluttier things. But that didn't mean I was going to deal with Riley to defy Alex. He was already too far gone.

I stormed into the chemistry room and plopped down in my seat beside Vinny who looked over quizzically as I threw my bag to my feet.

"Do I wanna know?" He asked laughing a bit as I shot him a quick glare before placing my head on the table. I didn't need to bring my frustration from Alex and Riley out on Vinny; he had nothing to do with it. Nor did the poor kid ever do anything to me.

"No." I sighed sitting back in my seat as Riley made sure to smack my shoulder with his hip on his way to his seat and the teacher stormed into the room closing the door behind her. Great. I had a whole hour to soak up and enjoy being trapped in a room with Riley MacKay.

We couldn’t even get halfway through the class before he would try to grab my attention again.

"Psss..." His voice hissed as I rolled my eyes ignoring the call.

"Jasey!" The voice tisked again as I let out a huff and kept my head down.

You would have thought he would have given up. But no. Riley MacKay was a tough nut to crack. No matter what I did he kept at it. Kept calling me though I couldn’t recall how he claimed my number, kept trying to catch me in the hall. Even after explaining to his face that I wasn’t interested, he still wouldn’t let it go.

Why? Who the hell knows.

Tammy was practically drooling over him every chance she got and though he fed into it, if his eyes caught mine once he’d be on his feet and in my face.

Talk about the jock that couldn’t handle rejection.

"Jasey!" He hissed as a wadded up section of paper smacked my head.

I turned around as my blue eyes locked on his, for only a moment as he shifted in his seat and nipped at his lip. I raised my brows ushering him to say or do whatever was so damn important he was thirsty enough to be blunt to grab my attention. My countenance dropped as he did nothing more but wink and plaster a smug look on his face as he leaned back.

"Watta pig." I muttered rolling my eyes as I turned back in my seat.

“I know aren’t men pigs!” Vinny spoke up with a chuckle surprising me that he caught my comment. "He just can’t handle someone not buying his gimmick"

"Yeah because he's such a charmer!" I muttered sarcastically rolling my eyes one more time causing Vinny to chuckle at my side.

"He just can’t accept that someone who’s friends with Jack and Alex wouldn’t want to get with him." He shrugged returning his gaze to the chemistry work sheet on the table before him.

"If you could even call me and Alex friends!" I sighed biting at the end of my pencil as I sat forward to lean over my paper.

"You think he has something to do with Alex being distant?" Vinny questioned.

"Who Riley?" I asked and he nodded, "I don't know," I shook my head, "honestly it wouldn’t surprise me but I can’t think of why or how they connect."

"You?" He spoke as more of a possibility than an accusation.

"I don't know," I shrugged, "I just can’t shake that if it involved me that Alex wouldn’t tell me about it you know?" I questioned and Vinny nodded in deep thought, "the whole thing is just weird."

"Yeah something’s up." Vinny added and I nodded.

Something was up, but it needed to come back down so things could go back to normal, especially because I couldn’t take another day of Rian pacing about another incomplete band practice.

Notes