Dirty Laundry
10
2012
Alex was more than thrilled when he got the text from Riley saying that she and her friends would be coming to the show.
His thrill quickly faded when he remembered that meant Riley would have to meet his friends. He was nervous about that because from the second they saw his bruised up face and heard what happened, they hadn't stopped making fun of him.
When he told them Riley would be coming to the show, he made each and every member of the band and crew take out their "friendship card" and swear they wouldn't say or do anything stupid. They all swore, but Alex wasn't convinced they'd all be able to follow through.
Riley had made a similar deal with her friends. They weren't permitted to say anything embarrassing and they especially were not to mention Summer. It made Riley feel like the world's worst mother but she just didn't think it was necessary to drop the baby bomb when she would only get to see Alex for one more night. Why risk ruining a good thing?
The day of the show, Riley ran around like a crazy person trying to fit in everything she needed to get done during the day so she could get home in time to have dinner with Summer, give her a bath and put her to sleep, with enough time of course to shower and get herself ready for the night as well.
Of course, nothing went the way she needed it to. Most of her meetings in between classes went late, either because someone showed up late, so it started late or because someone had a lot more to say than was anticipated.
Summer was in a cranky mood, so she refused to eat anything Riley offered her for dinner. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with a bath and bed time seemed like a God damn punishment.
Stacey, Katie and Vanessa all patiently waited for Riley in the living room while she tried to get Summer to bed. Aunt Penny kept insisting she would take over and Riley should just go, but she refused. She missed putting her daughter to sleep two nights in a row. She wasn't about to miss another, even if her daughter was being completely unreasonable.
By the time Riley had gotten Summer to fall asleep, it was just before nine o'clock. Alex told her to be at the venue no later than nine-thirty since the band usually went on anywhere between then and nine-forty-five. She certainly didn't have any time to shower again so in record time Riley changed her clothes, re-curled pieces of her hair and shoved her makeup necessities back in her bag, deciding to finish that in the car - which wouldn't be the first time she had to , but still was no easy feat.
When they were close to the venue, Riley sent Alex another text apologizing again that they were running late. She blamed school and traffic and not the tiny child who didn't want to go to sleep.
Riley was a little thrown off when Alex didn't immediately respond to her text. Despite all her running around today, she still managed to keep a pretty constant flow of texts going with Alex throughout the day.
They continued their 'get to know each other' game with asking each other silly questions. Alex learned that Riley was obsessed with all things Harry Potter and the Royal Family (from even before she moved to London). Prince William was even one of her top celebrity crushes.
Riley learned Alex was obsessed with all things space related and that in addition to the guitar, Alex really wished he knew how to play piano. Riley had promised to give him lessons with the limited knowledge of the piano she still had. They both knew that was an empty promise. When would they ever have the chance to sit down at a piano?
Just as they approached the venue, Riley's phone buzzed with a call from Alex.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Hey! It's Alex."
"Duh," she laughed. "Sorry, that was dumb. Are you here yet?"
"Just about to pull up," Riley said, looking out the window.
"Okay. Go to the box office and give your name. You might need to show ID. They'll give you guys a bracelet or something. Then go to the lobby. Our tour manager, Matt, will be waiting for you. He'll bring you up to the balcony where you can watch the set from ."
"Okay, sounds good. We are here now," Riley said as she and the girls shuffled to get out of the car quickly.
"Great. I'm sorry I can't meet you right now. But we go on in like ten minutes so I'm sort of stuck back stage."
"Don't be sorry. It's my fault for getting here so late."
"It's okay. You're here and that's all that matters. After the set someone will come get you guys and you can hang with us in the green room for a while."
"Sounds like fun. I'm at the window now." She paused her conversation on the phone to give the girl at the window her name.
"Any problems?" Alex asked.
"No," Riley answered. "We all have our bracelets and are in the lobby. And there is a guy with dark hair and a walkie talkie on his shoulder coming towards us."
"Good. That's Matt. I have to go now but he'll take care of you."
"Thanks! Good luck. Break a leg!"
Alex laughed. "Thanks. I'll try. It will go great with my face."
They both disconnected the call as Matt approached the group of girls.
"Riley?" He asked carefully.
Riley raised her hand. "That's me."
"Awesome." He extended his hand to hers to shake. "Matt."
"Nice to meet you," Riley smiled and quickly introduced her friends.
"Let's get you to your seats. The show's about to start."
Once the girls were settled in the balcony, Matt said he'd be back when the show was over to bring them backstage and quickly ran off to do his job.
"We're going to be in some kind of trouble tonight if all of Alex's friends are as cute as that guy was," Stacey whispered to Riley.
Riley laughed and shook her head but just as she opened her mouth to say something, the lights dimmed and the crowd started to cheer and her attention immediately went to the stage.
Riley never pretended to be any sort of music expert. But growing up in Arizona with Brian and the rest of his band, she was around live music a lot and knew what it should sound like. She was incredibly blown away by the performance she saw. And not just because of Alex. Everything seemed to flow like such a well oiled machine. From the way the guys fed off each other's energy, how the lights perfectly matched the music and of course Jack and Alex's banter.
"Okay, Alex," Jack yelled into his microphone halfway through the set. "I think it's time to address the elephant in the room."
"Which elephant is that?" Alex asked, his guitar hanging at his side as he turned slightly to Jack.
"Your face." Jack answered.
"Oh no," Alex grumbled.
"Okay, so, check it..." Jack started into his microphone. "You might not be able to tell from the floor with the lights and the hat he's got pulled down pretty far, but Alex's face is all sorts of messed up."
"Do we really have to do this?" Alex groaned.
"Hell yeah," Jack laughed. "Our pal Alex got himself mixed up in something of a bar fight the other night and didn't come out so well."
"That's not exactly what happened," Alex defended himself.
"So, what happened?" Jack asked.
"You know what? Screw it. I'll tell you all exactly what happened. Maybe it can be a public service announcement about not being a dick to girls in bars," Alex said.
Riley's eyes started to widen a bit as she continued to watch the scene unfold on stage before her.
"So, we're in some club in London the other night and I'm watching this guy shamelessly hit on a girl I know. And from afar, I can tell she is not into it. She's backing away, her body is stiff, she's shaking her head no, but the guy won't back off, so I decided to intervene."
"Alex to the rescue!" Jack interrupted, earning a laugh from the crowd.
"I interject myself into their conversation by sort of leading the guy to think me and this girl are together. We're not. But I figured if he thought we were, he'd go away easier. Which he did... but not before saying some pretty insulting shit to my friend before he started to walk away."
"And of course, Alex just couldn't let it go..." Jack interrupted again.
"No! I couldn't!" Alex defended himself again. "Just because a girl refuses to let a guy buy her a drink does not give him the right to be a dick to her. So I demanded this guy apologize to my friend."
"Which he didn't like..." Jack added.
"No," Alex agreed. "He didn't like that at all so he punched me in the face. And normally I wouldn't brag about something like this, because I absolutely do not condone violence, but I nailed him a few times too," Alex continued, earning bout of cheers from the crowd.
Riley giggled to herself, shaking her head. She'd never have the heart to tell him now but she may have made up the part of the story where the guy from the bar left with a fat lip. But everything had happened so fast that maybe he did leave with some other minor injury she wasn't aware of.
"Okay, Alex, what's the moral of this story?" Jack yelled into the mic.
"The moral of this story is easy. Guys, I get it. It sucks when you see a hot girl out and you hit on her and she turns you down. We've all been there. But for the love of God, if the girl says no, the answer is fucking no!"
The crowd cheered for Alex again before Zack started speaking into his mic.
"While that's the number one and more important moral of the story, I think there is another one that you're missing," he said.
"What's that?" Alex and Jack asked into their mics at the same time, turning their bodies to face Zack.
"You shouldn't get into fights without me around," Zack teased, letting his bass hang to his side as he subtly flexed his muscles.
"Fuck off," Alex laughed. "This next song is called Weightless."
-----
As soon as the set ended, Alex ran off stage to the dressing room. He changed his clothes and cleaned up in record time while Matt went up to the balcony to bring Riley and her friends down.
Alex was already in the green room when Matt came in with the girls. A big smile spread across his face the second he saw Riley and he started to make his way across the room towards them.
"Hey!" he greeted excitedly but stopped dead in his tracks when he got close enough to Riley. He wasn't sure how to he was supposed to greet her.
"Hey!" Riley matched his excitement and went in for a hug right away.
Alex wrapped his arms around Riley and gave her an extra lingering squeeze before she let him go. "Did you like the show?" he asked.
"I loved it!" Riley gushed. "Oh my God, you guys are so good!"
Alex smiled again. "Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it."
"Of course," Riley replied just as Stacey cleared her throat. "Oh, duh! Alex, these are my friends," she said quickly. "This is Katie," she introduced, gesturing to the blonde.
"Hi Katie," Alex smiled. "You were the one celebrating a birthday in Paris, right?"
Katie nodded. "I was!"
"Well, happy birthday," Alex said and Katie smiled.
Normally, Riley would roll her eyes at this display since guys were always throwing themselves at Katie. But in this case, she knew Alex was mentioning Katie's birthday in a way to show Riley how much he paid attention to what she had to say.
"And this is Stacey," Riley moved on, gesturing to her future business partner.
"Ah," Alex nodded. "You're going to open the gallery with Riley in California, yes?"
"That's correct," Stacey nodded. "I'm also the one you can thank for getting laid over the weekend since I supplied our friend Riley with those condoms."
"Oh... God..." Riley mumbled under her breath as Katie and Vanessa tried their hardest not to laugh.
"Wow, okay," Alex cleared his throat. "Well, thank you." Riley shook her head, quickly shooting an apologetic look to Alex and then a death glare at Stacey.
"And finally, this is Vanessa."
"Hi Vanessa," Alex smiled. "I'm sorry; I don't think I have any cute little anecdotes to share about you."
"Bitch," she grumbled, glaring at Riley, causing the group to laugh. "But that's fine. All you need to know is I'm the one that will fuck you up if you hurt my girl."
"Got it," Alex nodded.
Riley let out a long sigh. "Well thank God that's over."
Right about then the rest of the band and some of the crew started to file into the room.
"Hey guys! This is Riley, Stacey, Katie and Vanessa. Be nice to them and share the alcohol."
"There's alcohol?" Riley asked, excitedly.
"Duh," a tall guy with mostly dark hair and a patch of blonde said, planting himself at Riley's side. "There is always alcohol," he said, dropping an arm over her shoulder. "Can I get you a drink?"
"Please," she smiled.
"And don't worry, if you said no, I would respect that. No need for a brawl tonight," Jack winked and ran off, presumably to where the alcohol was.
"That's Jack," Alex explained. "He's a psycho."
"He seems fun," Riley laughed.
Seconds later Jack returned with enough beers for everyone but Alex. "Sorry dude," he smirked. "I could only hold so many."
Alex rolled his eyes and excused himself briefly.
As the night progressed, Riley forgot all about whatever bit of nerves she was feeling. It was so easy to get along with Alex's friends. She felt like she knew them forever.
Riley's friends tried not to make it obvious but they couldn't help but observe the way Alex and Riley interacted with each other. Alex kept trying to impress Riley with his quick wit and the way she would giggle at everything he said, just made him try impress her even harder.
They also couldn't keep their hands off each other. Alex either always had his hand somewhere on her back or she had her hand somewhere on his arm. It was definitely hard not to notice the strong connection these two had, despite knowing each other for approximately seventy-two hours.
"Hey, can I show you something?" Alex whispered in Riley's ear.
She looked up at him and nodded slowly. "Okay..."
He nodded his head towards the door and started walking in that direction. Before following, Riley excused herself from the conversation she was in the middle of and shot a warning glare to her friends, reminding them to be on their best behavior.
"So, is there something specific you wanted to show me or am I supposed to be impressed by these winding hallways?" Brook asked after they'd been walking through the maze that was backstage hallways for a few minutes.
"There's something specific I wanted to show you, wiseass," Alex snickered, bumping his shoulder into Riley's side and shoving her ever so gently as they walked.
"Don't let Vanessa see you do that," Riley warned, the smirk on her face betraying her.
Alex laughed. "She seems very intimidating."
"She is. I was afraid of her when we first met," Riley admitted.
"That would have been an nice anecdote for me to share with her earlier," Alex laughed. "Okay, here we are," he said as they rounded another corner and found an old piano pushed against the wall.
"Shut up," Riley muttered under her breath.
"I believe someone promised someone a piano lesson," Alex said, walking towards the instrument and pulling out the bench.
"You're not serious," Riley laughed, slowly walking towards him. "I haven't had a lesson in forever."
Alex shrugged and took a seat, stretching out his fingers. "You promised..."
Riley sighed and took a seat next to him. She removed her cross body bag that was over her shoulder and placed it on the floor.
Alex chuckled at the bag, remembering Stacey's comment from before.
"Okay," Riley started, ignoring his chuckled. She would have much rather forgotten Stacey's comments. "I'll start you off easy."
"I'm ready!"
Riley positioned her fingers across the appropriate keys and softly started to play Mary Had A Little Lamb. "You think you can do it?" she asked when she was done.
Alex laughed. "Oh come on, everyone can play this on the piano!"
Riley pulled her hands off the keys and gestured for Alex to play, which he did perfectly.
"Well done," Riley nodded. "Now, here's something a little more challenging," she said before starting to play Happy Birthday.
"Do it again," Alex said and this time when Riley played the song, Alex did his best to copy her at a lower octave. She laughed at how silly it sounded.
"I think you should quit the band so we can start our own."
Alex laughed. "Oh, totally. We definitely have the next big thing here."
"Okay. I know one more song. Let's see if you can recognize it," Riley said before she started to play a slightly familiar tune.
Alex stared at her for a second. "I don't know what that is. But it sounds like I should. Play it again!"
Riley laughed and played the tune again. "Anything?"
Alex shook his head. "I got nothing," he sighed, defeated.
Riley laughed again. "It was the Rainbow Brite theme song."
"Are you kidding me?" Alex gasped. "Do I look like I would know the Rainbow Brite theme song?"
Riley shrugged. "I'm sorry. I was obsessed with her as a kid. Which I guess is why I learned the song at seven."
"Well, I'm sorry, too. I missed the Rainbow Brite train. I was busy with Superman and Batman."
"Oh!" Riley gasped and quickly started playing something else on the keys.
Alex laughed, immediately recognizing the Batman theme. He watched her fingers a few more seconds before joining her in playing.
"If anyone else can hear this, they must think we're crazy," Riley laughed.
Alex shrugged. "Who cares?" He certainly wasn't worried about anyone else in this moment. "I'm really glad you made it to the show tonight," Alex said, turning to face Riley and scooting a little closer to her. His eyes kept gazing toward her lips.
"Me too," she smiled, suddenly feeling a bit nervous. "I'm sorry again for getting here so late. I was running around all day in between classes and you know how it is when you're busy and pressed for time... Everyone else is late and everything goes wrong and -"
Alex pressed his lips down to hers in a soft kissing, abruptly cutting her off. "You ramble when you're nervous," Alex pointed out when he broke away from the kiss.
"Then stop making me nervous," Riley said quietly before Alex's lips were back on hers.
Alex reached out and lightly grasped Riley's waist, pulling her closer to him as the kiss intensified. Riley's arms snaked their way around his neck and just as she moved to deepen the kiss, Alex backed away.
"Sorry," he said in response to the soft whimper of protest that left Riley's mouth.
"Why did you stop?" she asked, letting her arms fall from around his neck.
He laughed nervous. "We're not exactly in the most inconspicuous location and I didn't want to get too carried away."
"Well, in the twenty minutes or so we've been down here, I certainly haven't seen anyone else come by..." Riley shrugged.
"Riley..." Alex shook his head.
"What?" she asked, brushing her lips very lightly over his. "Is there somewhere more inconspicuous we can go then?"
"Really?" he asked, pushing his eyebrows up.
Riley slowly let her gaze fall to her bag on the floor and then back to Alex.
"Really?" he asked again, his eyebrows going even higher this time.
Riley shrugged. "Is there?"
Alex jumped up from his seat, grabbing Riley's hand. "This way," he directed.
Riley was sure to grab her bag before letting Alex led her back down a few hallways before coming to the band's dressing room.
"Here," he said, opening the door for her and quickly closing it behind her. He was grateful to find there was no one else in there.
"Won't anyone else be able to get in here?" Riley asked, quickly losing whatever confidence she had moments ago.
"Not anymore," Alex said, popping the lock so no one could just barge in.
"Of course," Riley shook her head and before she could say anything Alex's lips were on hers again and he was pressing her up against the back of the door.
"Are you sure about this?" Alex asked a little while later. The words came out muffled because he refused to move his lips from Riley's.
"I'm sure," she said, shrugging him away just enough. "It's now or never..."
Alex laughed slightly, shaking his head. "I feel like I've heard that somewhere else once before..."
Riley smirked, leaning forward and pressing her lips back to his as her fingers began to fumble with his belt buckle. "But this time it really is now or never..."
-----
About forty-five minutes had passed before Alex and Riley returned to the green room with everyone else. Some of the band and crew and Katie were in the middle of a seriously competitive round of beer pong that held everyone's attention so the pair was able to blend into the crowd without bringing too much attention to their disappearance.
"What's happening?" Riley asked, squeezing into the space between Stacey and Matt.
"Katie is kicking ass right now," Stacey said proudly. "This feels like freshman year of college all over again," she laughed, turning to face Riley. "Holy shit."
"What?" Riley raised her eyebrow.
"You didn't!" she gasped.
"I didn't what?" Riley asked, fidgeting nervously knowing Stacey already figured her out.
She leaned in closely and whispered. "Did you just go off to have sex with Alex?"
Riley shook her head fast. "No!"
Stacey laughed. "You're a shit liar, Ril."
"I'm not lying," she replied through gritted teeth.
"Sure you're not," Stacey rolled her eyes.
"We didn't go off with the intention of having sex. He wanted me to teach him how to play piano..."
"Piano?" Stacey asked.
"Long story," Riley waved her off. "But then..."
"You fucked him on the piano?!" Stacey exclaimed way louder than Riley would have liked.
"Shut up!" she hissed, glad for the loud music and yelling that was happening around the table. "We did not have sex on the piano."
"Bummer," Stacey sighed. "That sounds hot."
Riley shook her head. "Please stop."
"Sorry," Stacey cleared her throat. "So where did you go?"
"The dressing room." Riley said quietly.
"Ew," Stacey frowned. "Please tell me you didn't let him lay you down on a dirty couch that's probably had sex happen on it a million other times."
"I didn't," Riley said, looking away. "It was against a door," she admitted, feeling her cheeks go hot with embarrassment as she talked about it more.
"Wow," Stacey smiled proudly. "It's like you're a totally different person to me now."
"Shut up," Riley laughed, shoving her friend.
"All good?" Alex asked, coming up next to Stacey and Riley whose attention were back to the game of beer pong.
"Yep. All good," Riley smiled up at him. "Thanks," she said when Alex passed her a fresh beer.
"Did you want one, Stacey?" Alex asked, putting an arm around Riley's shoulder.
"No, I'm okay. But you can thank me again for the condoms," she said with a wink.
Alex laughed as Riley covered her face with her hands to hide how flushed she suddenly got. "You told her already?"
"Good news travels fast," Stacey winked again.
"Please stop," Riley groaned.
"She didn't have to tell me. I figured it out the second I saw her."
"Did I have it written in my forehead or something?" Riley asked.
"No, but you did have it written here," Stacey said, pushing Riley's hair to the side and pointing out the very small hickey she had on her collar bone.
"Holy shit," Alex gasped, pushing Riley's hair back. "I'm so sorry. I didn't even realize I did that!"
"It's fine," Riley laughed, looking up at him. "Clearly I didn't realize either."
Stacey watched the two of them and a small smile formed on her lips. She was happy to see her friend happy. It was just such a shame it had to end as quickly as it started.
-----
When it came time for the band to pack it up and head back on the bus, it felt like a dark cloud had rolled over Alex and Riley. They were both more than aware that Alex had to leave tonight but that didn't make it any easier.
Alex offered to walk the girls out to the car that was waiting for them in front of the venue. Stacey, Katie and Vanessa each said their goodbyes to Alex before getting into the car. Riley stood at the curb and just stared at him in silence for a few seconds.
"So, this sucks," Alex finally said and Riley laughed.
"It really does," she agreed.
He smiled, stepping closer to her and reaching for her hand. "Is it weird that I feel like I'm going to miss you?"
Riley shrugged. "Nah, I'm an incredibly charming person. How could you not miss me?"
"That's very true," Alex laughed, tugging on her arm and pulling her into a hug. "Thanks again for coming," he said
"I should probably be thanking you for that," Riley said, snorting at her own joke.
Alex looked at her for a second before he got her joke and shook his head. "Wow. I'm so disappointed that I didn't think of that first."
Riley smiled and leaned up to kiss him lightly. "Have a safe drive to wherever it is that you're going next."
"Thanks," Alex smiled leaning down to kiss her now. "And you get home safe."
She nodded. "I will."
He leaned down to kiss her again. He figured there was no use dragging this out . "Bye Riley."
She smiled at him sadly. "Bye Alex," she said before getting into the cab.
Alex waited for the car to start driving down the road before he walked back into the venue.
"You alright?" Rian asked when Alex walked back into the dressing room and began to gather his stuff together
Alex shrugged. "Yeah..."
"Are you sure?" Rian pressed.
Alex sighed. "Yeah. I'm fine. It's just a bummer that I met a really cool girl but nothing else can happen now."
Rian shook his head. "Why can't anything else happen? If you really liked her, you wouldn't let geography get in the way of that."
Alex stared at him for a second before he pulled his phone from his pocket. "You know what, you're right," he said before he started tapping at the screen.
Alex: so I was thinking
Alex: we shouldn't let geography stop us from being friends
Alex: so if it's ok with you I would like to continue a steady flow of text messaging conversations with you
Alex: possibly interrupted with brief verbal conversations.
Riley: It's okay with me. <3
***
Alex was more than thrilled when he got the text from Riley saying that she and her friends would be coming to the show.
His thrill quickly faded when he remembered that meant Riley would have to meet his friends. He was nervous about that because from the second they saw his bruised up face and heard what happened, they hadn't stopped making fun of him.
When he told them Riley would be coming to the show, he made each and every member of the band and crew take out their "friendship card" and swear they wouldn't say or do anything stupid. They all swore, but Alex wasn't convinced they'd all be able to follow through.
Riley had made a similar deal with her friends. They weren't permitted to say anything embarrassing and they especially were not to mention Summer. It made Riley feel like the world's worst mother but she just didn't think it was necessary to drop the baby bomb when she would only get to see Alex for one more night. Why risk ruining a good thing?
The day of the show, Riley ran around like a crazy person trying to fit in everything she needed to get done during the day so she could get home in time to have dinner with Summer, give her a bath and put her to sleep, with enough time of course to shower and get herself ready for the night as well.
Of course, nothing went the way she needed it to. Most of her meetings in between classes went late, either because someone showed up late, so it started late or because someone had a lot more to say than was anticipated.
Summer was in a cranky mood, so she refused to eat anything Riley offered her for dinner. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with a bath and bed time seemed like a God damn punishment.
Stacey, Katie and Vanessa all patiently waited for Riley in the living room while she tried to get Summer to bed. Aunt Penny kept insisting she would take over and Riley should just go, but she refused. She missed putting her daughter to sleep two nights in a row. She wasn't about to miss another, even if her daughter was being completely unreasonable.
By the time Riley had gotten Summer to fall asleep, it was just before nine o'clock. Alex told her to be at the venue no later than nine-thirty since the band usually went on anywhere between then and nine-forty-five. She certainly didn't have any time to shower again so in record time Riley changed her clothes, re-curled pieces of her hair and shoved her makeup necessities back in her bag, deciding to finish that in the car - which wouldn't be the first time she had to , but still was no easy feat.
When they were close to the venue, Riley sent Alex another text apologizing again that they were running late. She blamed school and traffic and not the tiny child who didn't want to go to sleep.
Riley was a little thrown off when Alex didn't immediately respond to her text. Despite all her running around today, she still managed to keep a pretty constant flow of texts going with Alex throughout the day.
They continued their 'get to know each other' game with asking each other silly questions. Alex learned that Riley was obsessed with all things Harry Potter and the Royal Family (from even before she moved to London). Prince William was even one of her top celebrity crushes.
Riley learned Alex was obsessed with all things space related and that in addition to the guitar, Alex really wished he knew how to play piano. Riley had promised to give him lessons with the limited knowledge of the piano she still had. They both knew that was an empty promise. When would they ever have the chance to sit down at a piano?
Just as they approached the venue, Riley's phone buzzed with a call from Alex.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Hey! It's Alex."
"Duh," she laughed. "Sorry, that was dumb. Are you here yet?"
"Just about to pull up," Riley said, looking out the window.
"Okay. Go to the box office and give your name. You might need to show ID. They'll give you guys a bracelet or something. Then go to the lobby. Our tour manager, Matt, will be waiting for you. He'll bring you up to the balcony where you can watch the set from ."
"Okay, sounds good. We are here now," Riley said as she and the girls shuffled to get out of the car quickly.
"Great. I'm sorry I can't meet you right now. But we go on in like ten minutes so I'm sort of stuck back stage."
"Don't be sorry. It's my fault for getting here so late."
"It's okay. You're here and that's all that matters. After the set someone will come get you guys and you can hang with us in the green room for a while."
"Sounds like fun. I'm at the window now." She paused her conversation on the phone to give the girl at the window her name.
"Any problems?" Alex asked.
"No," Riley answered. "We all have our bracelets and are in the lobby. And there is a guy with dark hair and a walkie talkie on his shoulder coming towards us."
"Good. That's Matt. I have to go now but he'll take care of you."
"Thanks! Good luck. Break a leg!"
Alex laughed. "Thanks. I'll try. It will go great with my face."
They both disconnected the call as Matt approached the group of girls.
"Riley?" He asked carefully.
Riley raised her hand. "That's me."
"Awesome." He extended his hand to hers to shake. "Matt."
"Nice to meet you," Riley smiled and quickly introduced her friends.
"Let's get you to your seats. The show's about to start."
Once the girls were settled in the balcony, Matt said he'd be back when the show was over to bring them backstage and quickly ran off to do his job.
"We're going to be in some kind of trouble tonight if all of Alex's friends are as cute as that guy was," Stacey whispered to Riley.
Riley laughed and shook her head but just as she opened her mouth to say something, the lights dimmed and the crowd started to cheer and her attention immediately went to the stage.
Riley never pretended to be any sort of music expert. But growing up in Arizona with Brian and the rest of his band, she was around live music a lot and knew what it should sound like. She was incredibly blown away by the performance she saw. And not just because of Alex. Everything seemed to flow like such a well oiled machine. From the way the guys fed off each other's energy, how the lights perfectly matched the music and of course Jack and Alex's banter.
"Okay, Alex," Jack yelled into his microphone halfway through the set. "I think it's time to address the elephant in the room."
"Which elephant is that?" Alex asked, his guitar hanging at his side as he turned slightly to Jack.
"Your face." Jack answered.
"Oh no," Alex grumbled.
"Okay, so, check it..." Jack started into his microphone. "You might not be able to tell from the floor with the lights and the hat he's got pulled down pretty far, but Alex's face is all sorts of messed up."
"Do we really have to do this?" Alex groaned.
"Hell yeah," Jack laughed. "Our pal Alex got himself mixed up in something of a bar fight the other night and didn't come out so well."
"That's not exactly what happened," Alex defended himself.
"So, what happened?" Jack asked.
"You know what? Screw it. I'll tell you all exactly what happened. Maybe it can be a public service announcement about not being a dick to girls in bars," Alex said.
Riley's eyes started to widen a bit as she continued to watch the scene unfold on stage before her.
"So, we're in some club in London the other night and I'm watching this guy shamelessly hit on a girl I know. And from afar, I can tell she is not into it. She's backing away, her body is stiff, she's shaking her head no, but the guy won't back off, so I decided to intervene."
"Alex to the rescue!" Jack interrupted, earning a laugh from the crowd.
"I interject myself into their conversation by sort of leading the guy to think me and this girl are together. We're not. But I figured if he thought we were, he'd go away easier. Which he did... but not before saying some pretty insulting shit to my friend before he started to walk away."
"And of course, Alex just couldn't let it go..." Jack interrupted again.
"No! I couldn't!" Alex defended himself again. "Just because a girl refuses to let a guy buy her a drink does not give him the right to be a dick to her. So I demanded this guy apologize to my friend."
"Which he didn't like..." Jack added.
"No," Alex agreed. "He didn't like that at all so he punched me in the face. And normally I wouldn't brag about something like this, because I absolutely do not condone violence, but I nailed him a few times too," Alex continued, earning bout of cheers from the crowd.
Riley giggled to herself, shaking her head. She'd never have the heart to tell him now but she may have made up the part of the story where the guy from the bar left with a fat lip. But everything had happened so fast that maybe he did leave with some other minor injury she wasn't aware of.
"Okay, Alex, what's the moral of this story?" Jack yelled into the mic.
"The moral of this story is easy. Guys, I get it. It sucks when you see a hot girl out and you hit on her and she turns you down. We've all been there. But for the love of God, if the girl says no, the answer is fucking no!"
The crowd cheered for Alex again before Zack started speaking into his mic.
"While that's the number one and more important moral of the story, I think there is another one that you're missing," he said.
"What's that?" Alex and Jack asked into their mics at the same time, turning their bodies to face Zack.
"You shouldn't get into fights without me around," Zack teased, letting his bass hang to his side as he subtly flexed his muscles.
"Fuck off," Alex laughed. "This next song is called Weightless."
-----
As soon as the set ended, Alex ran off stage to the dressing room. He changed his clothes and cleaned up in record time while Matt went up to the balcony to bring Riley and her friends down.
Alex was already in the green room when Matt came in with the girls. A big smile spread across his face the second he saw Riley and he started to make his way across the room towards them.
"Hey!" he greeted excitedly but stopped dead in his tracks when he got close enough to Riley. He wasn't sure how to he was supposed to greet her.
"Hey!" Riley matched his excitement and went in for a hug right away.
Alex wrapped his arms around Riley and gave her an extra lingering squeeze before she let him go. "Did you like the show?" he asked.
"I loved it!" Riley gushed. "Oh my God, you guys are so good!"
Alex smiled again. "Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it."
"Of course," Riley replied just as Stacey cleared her throat. "Oh, duh! Alex, these are my friends," she said quickly. "This is Katie," she introduced, gesturing to the blonde.
"Hi Katie," Alex smiled. "You were the one celebrating a birthday in Paris, right?"
Katie nodded. "I was!"
"Well, happy birthday," Alex said and Katie smiled.
Normally, Riley would roll her eyes at this display since guys were always throwing themselves at Katie. But in this case, she knew Alex was mentioning Katie's birthday in a way to show Riley how much he paid attention to what she had to say.
"And this is Stacey," Riley moved on, gesturing to her future business partner.
"Ah," Alex nodded. "You're going to open the gallery with Riley in California, yes?"
"That's correct," Stacey nodded. "I'm also the one you can thank for getting laid over the weekend since I supplied our friend Riley with those condoms."
"Oh... God..." Riley mumbled under her breath as Katie and Vanessa tried their hardest not to laugh.
"Wow, okay," Alex cleared his throat. "Well, thank you." Riley shook her head, quickly shooting an apologetic look to Alex and then a death glare at Stacey.
"And finally, this is Vanessa."
"Hi Vanessa," Alex smiled. "I'm sorry; I don't think I have any cute little anecdotes to share about you."
"Bitch," she grumbled, glaring at Riley, causing the group to laugh. "But that's fine. All you need to know is I'm the one that will fuck you up if you hurt my girl."
"Got it," Alex nodded.
Riley let out a long sigh. "Well thank God that's over."
Right about then the rest of the band and some of the crew started to file into the room.
"Hey guys! This is Riley, Stacey, Katie and Vanessa. Be nice to them and share the alcohol."
"There's alcohol?" Riley asked, excitedly.
"Duh," a tall guy with mostly dark hair and a patch of blonde said, planting himself at Riley's side. "There is always alcohol," he said, dropping an arm over her shoulder. "Can I get you a drink?"
"Please," she smiled.
"And don't worry, if you said no, I would respect that. No need for a brawl tonight," Jack winked and ran off, presumably to where the alcohol was.
"That's Jack," Alex explained. "He's a psycho."
"He seems fun," Riley laughed.
Seconds later Jack returned with enough beers for everyone but Alex. "Sorry dude," he smirked. "I could only hold so many."
Alex rolled his eyes and excused himself briefly.
As the night progressed, Riley forgot all about whatever bit of nerves she was feeling. It was so easy to get along with Alex's friends. She felt like she knew them forever.
Riley's friends tried not to make it obvious but they couldn't help but observe the way Alex and Riley interacted with each other. Alex kept trying to impress Riley with his quick wit and the way she would giggle at everything he said, just made him try impress her even harder.
They also couldn't keep their hands off each other. Alex either always had his hand somewhere on her back or she had her hand somewhere on his arm. It was definitely hard not to notice the strong connection these two had, despite knowing each other for approximately seventy-two hours.
"Hey, can I show you something?" Alex whispered in Riley's ear.
She looked up at him and nodded slowly. "Okay..."
He nodded his head towards the door and started walking in that direction. Before following, Riley excused herself from the conversation she was in the middle of and shot a warning glare to her friends, reminding them to be on their best behavior.
"So, is there something specific you wanted to show me or am I supposed to be impressed by these winding hallways?" Brook asked after they'd been walking through the maze that was backstage hallways for a few minutes.
"There's something specific I wanted to show you, wiseass," Alex snickered, bumping his shoulder into Riley's side and shoving her ever so gently as they walked.
"Don't let Vanessa see you do that," Riley warned, the smirk on her face betraying her.
Alex laughed. "She seems very intimidating."
"She is. I was afraid of her when we first met," Riley admitted.
"That would have been an nice anecdote for me to share with her earlier," Alex laughed. "Okay, here we are," he said as they rounded another corner and found an old piano pushed against the wall.
"Shut up," Riley muttered under her breath.
"I believe someone promised someone a piano lesson," Alex said, walking towards the instrument and pulling out the bench.
"You're not serious," Riley laughed, slowly walking towards him. "I haven't had a lesson in forever."
Alex shrugged and took a seat, stretching out his fingers. "You promised..."
Riley sighed and took a seat next to him. She removed her cross body bag that was over her shoulder and placed it on the floor.
Alex chuckled at the bag, remembering Stacey's comment from before.
"Okay," Riley started, ignoring his chuckled. She would have much rather forgotten Stacey's comments. "I'll start you off easy."
"I'm ready!"
Riley positioned her fingers across the appropriate keys and softly started to play Mary Had A Little Lamb. "You think you can do it?" she asked when she was done.
Alex laughed. "Oh come on, everyone can play this on the piano!"
Riley pulled her hands off the keys and gestured for Alex to play, which he did perfectly.
"Well done," Riley nodded. "Now, here's something a little more challenging," she said before starting to play Happy Birthday.
"Do it again," Alex said and this time when Riley played the song, Alex did his best to copy her at a lower octave. She laughed at how silly it sounded.
"I think you should quit the band so we can start our own."
Alex laughed. "Oh, totally. We definitely have the next big thing here."
"Okay. I know one more song. Let's see if you can recognize it," Riley said before she started to play a slightly familiar tune.
Alex stared at her for a second. "I don't know what that is. But it sounds like I should. Play it again!"
Riley laughed and played the tune again. "Anything?"
Alex shook his head. "I got nothing," he sighed, defeated.
Riley laughed again. "It was the Rainbow Brite theme song."
"Are you kidding me?" Alex gasped. "Do I look like I would know the Rainbow Brite theme song?"
Riley shrugged. "I'm sorry. I was obsessed with her as a kid. Which I guess is why I learned the song at seven."
"Well, I'm sorry, too. I missed the Rainbow Brite train. I was busy with Superman and Batman."
"Oh!" Riley gasped and quickly started playing something else on the keys.
Alex laughed, immediately recognizing the Batman theme. He watched her fingers a few more seconds before joining her in playing.
"If anyone else can hear this, they must think we're crazy," Riley laughed.
Alex shrugged. "Who cares?" He certainly wasn't worried about anyone else in this moment. "I'm really glad you made it to the show tonight," Alex said, turning to face Riley and scooting a little closer to her. His eyes kept gazing toward her lips.
"Me too," she smiled, suddenly feeling a bit nervous. "I'm sorry again for getting here so late. I was running around all day in between classes and you know how it is when you're busy and pressed for time... Everyone else is late and everything goes wrong and -"
Alex pressed his lips down to hers in a soft kissing, abruptly cutting her off. "You ramble when you're nervous," Alex pointed out when he broke away from the kiss.
"Then stop making me nervous," Riley said quietly before Alex's lips were back on hers.
Alex reached out and lightly grasped Riley's waist, pulling her closer to him as the kiss intensified. Riley's arms snaked their way around his neck and just as she moved to deepen the kiss, Alex backed away.
"Sorry," he said in response to the soft whimper of protest that left Riley's mouth.
"Why did you stop?" she asked, letting her arms fall from around his neck.
He laughed nervous. "We're not exactly in the most inconspicuous location and I didn't want to get too carried away."
"Well, in the twenty minutes or so we've been down here, I certainly haven't seen anyone else come by..." Riley shrugged.
"Riley..." Alex shook his head.
"What?" she asked, brushing her lips very lightly over his. "Is there somewhere more inconspicuous we can go then?"
"Really?" he asked, pushing his eyebrows up.
Riley slowly let her gaze fall to her bag on the floor and then back to Alex.
"Really?" he asked again, his eyebrows going even higher this time.
Riley shrugged. "Is there?"
Alex jumped up from his seat, grabbing Riley's hand. "This way," he directed.
Riley was sure to grab her bag before letting Alex led her back down a few hallways before coming to the band's dressing room.
"Here," he said, opening the door for her and quickly closing it behind her. He was grateful to find there was no one else in there.
"Won't anyone else be able to get in here?" Riley asked, quickly losing whatever confidence she had moments ago.
"Not anymore," Alex said, popping the lock so no one could just barge in.
"Of course," Riley shook her head and before she could say anything Alex's lips were on hers again and he was pressing her up against the back of the door.
"Are you sure about this?" Alex asked a little while later. The words came out muffled because he refused to move his lips from Riley's.
"I'm sure," she said, shrugging him away just enough. "It's now or never..."
Alex laughed slightly, shaking his head. "I feel like I've heard that somewhere else once before..."
Riley smirked, leaning forward and pressing her lips back to his as her fingers began to fumble with his belt buckle. "But this time it really is now or never..."
-----
About forty-five minutes had passed before Alex and Riley returned to the green room with everyone else. Some of the band and crew and Katie were in the middle of a seriously competitive round of beer pong that held everyone's attention so the pair was able to blend into the crowd without bringing too much attention to their disappearance.
"What's happening?" Riley asked, squeezing into the space between Stacey and Matt.
"Katie is kicking ass right now," Stacey said proudly. "This feels like freshman year of college all over again," she laughed, turning to face Riley. "Holy shit."
"What?" Riley raised her eyebrow.
"You didn't!" she gasped.
"I didn't what?" Riley asked, fidgeting nervously knowing Stacey already figured her out.
She leaned in closely and whispered. "Did you just go off to have sex with Alex?"
Riley shook her head fast. "No!"
Stacey laughed. "You're a shit liar, Ril."
"I'm not lying," she replied through gritted teeth.
"Sure you're not," Stacey rolled her eyes.
"We didn't go off with the intention of having sex. He wanted me to teach him how to play piano..."
"Piano?" Stacey asked.
"Long story," Riley waved her off. "But then..."
"You fucked him on the piano?!" Stacey exclaimed way louder than Riley would have liked.
"Shut up!" she hissed, glad for the loud music and yelling that was happening around the table. "We did not have sex on the piano."
"Bummer," Stacey sighed. "That sounds hot."
Riley shook her head. "Please stop."
"Sorry," Stacey cleared her throat. "So where did you go?"
"The dressing room." Riley said quietly.
"Ew," Stacey frowned. "Please tell me you didn't let him lay you down on a dirty couch that's probably had sex happen on it a million other times."
"I didn't," Riley said, looking away. "It was against a door," she admitted, feeling her cheeks go hot with embarrassment as she talked about it more.
"Wow," Stacey smiled proudly. "It's like you're a totally different person to me now."
"Shut up," Riley laughed, shoving her friend.
"All good?" Alex asked, coming up next to Stacey and Riley whose attention were back to the game of beer pong.
"Yep. All good," Riley smiled up at him. "Thanks," she said when Alex passed her a fresh beer.
"Did you want one, Stacey?" Alex asked, putting an arm around Riley's shoulder.
"No, I'm okay. But you can thank me again for the condoms," she said with a wink.
Alex laughed as Riley covered her face with her hands to hide how flushed she suddenly got. "You told her already?"
"Good news travels fast," Stacey winked again.
"Please stop," Riley groaned.
"She didn't have to tell me. I figured it out the second I saw her."
"Did I have it written in my forehead or something?" Riley asked.
"No, but you did have it written here," Stacey said, pushing Riley's hair to the side and pointing out the very small hickey she had on her collar bone.
"Holy shit," Alex gasped, pushing Riley's hair back. "I'm so sorry. I didn't even realize I did that!"
"It's fine," Riley laughed, looking up at him. "Clearly I didn't realize either."
Stacey watched the two of them and a small smile formed on her lips. She was happy to see her friend happy. It was just such a shame it had to end as quickly as it started.
-----
When it came time for the band to pack it up and head back on the bus, it felt like a dark cloud had rolled over Alex and Riley. They were both more than aware that Alex had to leave tonight but that didn't make it any easier.
Alex offered to walk the girls out to the car that was waiting for them in front of the venue. Stacey, Katie and Vanessa each said their goodbyes to Alex before getting into the car. Riley stood at the curb and just stared at him in silence for a few seconds.
"So, this sucks," Alex finally said and Riley laughed.
"It really does," she agreed.
He smiled, stepping closer to her and reaching for her hand. "Is it weird that I feel like I'm going to miss you?"
Riley shrugged. "Nah, I'm an incredibly charming person. How could you not miss me?"
"That's very true," Alex laughed, tugging on her arm and pulling her into a hug. "Thanks again for coming," he said
"I should probably be thanking you for that," Riley said, snorting at her own joke.
Alex looked at her for a second before he got her joke and shook his head. "Wow. I'm so disappointed that I didn't think of that first."
Riley smiled and leaned up to kiss him lightly. "Have a safe drive to wherever it is that you're going next."
"Thanks," Alex smiled leaning down to kiss her now. "And you get home safe."
She nodded. "I will."
He leaned down to kiss her again. He figured there was no use dragging this out . "Bye Riley."
She smiled at him sadly. "Bye Alex," she said before getting into the cab.
Alex waited for the car to start driving down the road before he walked back into the venue.
"You alright?" Rian asked when Alex walked back into the dressing room and began to gather his stuff together
Alex shrugged. "Yeah..."
"Are you sure?" Rian pressed.
Alex sighed. "Yeah. I'm fine. It's just a bummer that I met a really cool girl but nothing else can happen now."
Rian shook his head. "Why can't anything else happen? If you really liked her, you wouldn't let geography get in the way of that."
Alex stared at him for a second before he pulled his phone from his pocket. "You know what, you're right," he said before he started tapping at the screen.
Alex: so I was thinking
Alex: we shouldn't let geography stop us from being friends
Alex: so if it's ok with you I would like to continue a steady flow of text messaging conversations with you
Alex: possibly interrupted with brief verbal conversations.
Riley: It's okay with me. <3
***
Notes
Story Title: All Time Low - Dirty Laundry
And now we go back to present time. Any predictions on what's to happen? Anything you want to happen?
If you could come back and update, that'd be great <3
1/23/19