Dirty Laundry

“Cutting it a little close huh, Rile?” Alex teased his girlfriend as she stumbled onto the bus very close to bus call.

“Shut up,” she grumbled, walking passed Alex and the other guys sitting in the front lounge watching a movie.

Alex followed the clearly very drunk Riley towards the bunks and observed as she poked her head into her daughter’s bunk to kiss her goodnight, even though Summer had been asleep for a few hours already.

Riley jumped when she stood up from the bunk and saw Alex standing behind her.

”You are so drunk,” he laughed.

“Shh,” Riley hushed him, pressing her index finger to his lips as she kicked off her heels and pushed them to the side before climbing into their bunk.

Alex quickly followed behind her and tried not to laugh at her again while she struggled to pull her bra off under the dress she was still wearing. “Can I help you with that?”

“I got it,” Riley grunted, twisting her arms behind her and finally successfully undoing the clasp and tossing the bra into the corner of the bunk.

Alex nodded slowly, sitting across from Riley and tucking his legs underneath each other. “So, how was your night?” he asked with a smirk.

”Why are you so entertained by this?” Riley asked, matching his position. “You come back drunk all the time.”

”Because, I don’t get to see you at this level this very often…” Alex admitted.

Riley rolled her eyes and leaned back against some pillows. “I only planned on having one drink but Jess said I was sad so she kept buying me more.”

“Jameson?” Alex asked.

“Yep,” Riley nodded.

Alex sighed and moved so he was now sitting next to Riley instead of across from her. “I guess your talk with Brian didn’t go so well.”

“What gave it away?” Riley asked letting her head fall to his shoulder.

Once Riley got back to the venue after her Starbucks outing with Brian, Alex had been occupied with pre-show commitments. He had a few minutes after All Time Low’s meet and greet to talk, but Riley blew him off. She wasn’t ready to talk about it and certainly didn’t want to irritate Alex before he had to go on stage.

Brian must have gotten back to his bus and spilled everything to Jess because within an hour of him leaving Riley in the Starbucks, Jess was texting her, demanding that they went out that night. Alex was pretty tired so he already had no plans to go out that night himself and was more than happy to spend the night with Summer.

“What did he say?” Alex asked.

Lifting her head from his shoulder, Riley shrugged. “Basically, he appreciated my attempt to protect him but he doesn’t want to be involved.”

“What?” Alex gasped. He tried to hide how shocked he was by that but he clearly didn’t do a great job.

“He thinks it’s been too long and Summer will hate him for not being around all this time. And if I made sure she knew that was my fault, she would hate me and then I would hate Brian for it.”

Alex shook his head. “But that wouldn’t happened. Summer isn’t like that.”

Riley nodded. “I know that. And you know that. But because I’m a terrible person, Brian doesn’t get to know that.”

“You’re not a terrible person,” Alex assured her.

”But I am.” Riley insisted. “I’m a terrible mom. I’m a terrible friend. And I’m pretty sure I’m also a terrible girlfriend.”

”Okay, no,” Alex shook his head. “You’re an amazing mom, an amazing friend and I can confirm, by personal experience, that you are an amazing girlfriend.”

Riley sighed, dropping her head to his shoulder again. “You have to say that because I’m your girlfriend.”

”Exactly,” Alex said, kissing her head. “And if you were so terrible at it, you wouldn’t have been my girlfriend this long.”

Riley just shrugged, not really sure how to respond.

“Come on; let’s get under the covers and get you to bed. I bet you’ll feel better in the morning,” Alex suggested. He was trying not to take Riley too seriously since she was drunk. He hoped that she’d wake up and realize how dramatic she was being.

“I’m not so sure about that,” she said, crawling under the covers Alex lifted for her. “I’m still going to be terrible in the morning.”

Alex just rolled his eyes and laid down next to her, pulling the covers up over them both.

“This is all my fault. I lied to Brian. Therefore I deserve all the bad that comes from it.” Riley rambled to herself. “Sometimes I wish I just told him and never went to London.”

“Hey,” Alex nudged her leg under the cover with his foot. “If you never went to London, we would have never met.”

Riley quickly shot up into a sitting position and gasped. “See! I am a terrible girlfriend,” she pouted.

Alex shook his head. “Stop it. You’re not,” he said, reaching for her hand. “I love you,” he reminded her, hoping it would make her feel better.

“I know,” she groaned. “And that’s another reason why I’m so terrible.”

”You’re terrible because I love you?”

Riley shook her head fast. “No. You know exactly why I’m terrible.”

Alex stared at her in the darkened bunk for a few seconds before it dawned on him what she was referring to. Out of the almost four years they’ve been dating, Alex had been telling Riley he loved her for about three of those years. Riley never said it back.

”Oh,” Alex said quietly. “We’ve talked about that, Riley. I get that you have some issue with saying ‘I love you’ back to me. And that’s fine.”

”Bull shit,” Riley shook her head. “I know it bothers you.”

“Riley,” Alex groaned her name. “Can we please just go to sleep? I have a feeling you’re not going to be happy about this conversation in the morning.”

“Fine,” she sighed, laying back down. “But I still know that it bothers you.”

Alex didn’t reply right away. He was suddenly distracted by a memory he wasn’t aware he had.

2013

“Alex, I completely forgot to get ketchup at the store earlier and you know Summer refuses to eat a cheeseburger if there’s no ketchup,” Riley announced, stepping out into Alex’s backyard where he stood over the barbecue with her aunt. “I’m going to run out and get some.”

Aunt Penny was in town visiting while Uncle Milton was off on another business trip. Riley and Alex decided to have a nice barbecue in his yard in honor of her visit.

A few of their friends who knew Aunt Penny were there sitting around the yard sipping on various cocktails while Summer and a friend played in the pool.

“Want me to come with you, Sweetheart?” Penny offered.

“No, that’s okay. You stay here and bond. I’ll be back in ten minutes,” she insisted, leaning over and pressing a quick kiss to Alex’s cheek. “Don’t forget about the kids in the pool.”

“There are kids in the pool?” Alex gasped causing Aunt Penny to laugh.

“Don’t be a wiseass,” Riley warned with a wag of her finger.

“Yes ma’am,” Alex frowned, looking down at the barbecue.

“I’m on it,” Aunt Penny assured her, moving her position so she could still talk to Alex but face the pool.

“Thank you,” she smiled at her aunt. “Text me if you see we need anything else,” she instructed Alex before kissing him again; this time on the lips and making her way towards the house.

”Got it,” he called after her. “Love you.”

Riley turned around before stepping in the house and blew Alex a kiss.

”Don’t take it too personal, kid,” Aunt Penny said, patting Alex on the shoulder.

“Don’t take what too personal?”

”The whole her not saying she loves you too thing. I can see the way your eyes kind of darkened when she didn’t say it back.”

Alex just shrugged. It had been a few months since he first told Riley he loved her, and sure, he wasn’t crazy about the fact she hadn’t said it back yet, but he didn’t think he showed it.

”She does love you,” Aunt Penny continued. “I’m sure of it. She’s just got issues.”

”Issues?” Alex asked.

“My niece has had a complicated past, as I’m sure you gather. I probably shouldn’t even be saying anything so I beg for your discretion.”

Alex nodded slowly as he put his focus on flipping a few burgers. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to ask for more information. He wasn’t sure if he even wanted more information.

”Don’t worry about it too much,” Aunt Penny shrugged. “There’s just a guy from her past that I think is making it hard for her to say it back to you.”

Alex again nodded slowly. Riley never really mentioned guys she seriously dated back in Arizona. Of course, they briefly discussed Summer’s dad who bailed when she told him she was pregnant but that was it.
***

2015

Shaking his head, Alex brought himself out of his memory. It was in that moment that he realized the guy Aunt Penny had to be talking about was Brian.

Was Riley so in love with him back then it made it impossible for her to truly feel that way about someone else?

He could feel himself begin to overanalyze the situation and he knew he was going to make himself crazy if he kept doing it.

“I know how you feel about me, Riley,” he told her. “You don’t have to actually say the words.”

That was true. Saying it aloud sounded kind of cheesy, but Alex always felt like he could see how much Riley loved him in the way she looked at him.

Riley lifted her head from the pillow and smiled slightly. “Really?”

He nodded. “Really.”

Her smile grew as she leaned up and pressed a firm kiss to his lips. “What does that say to you?”

He smiled, touching her cheek lightly. Again, it was cheesy to think but there was always an electric shock between the two of them whenever they kissed.

“It says everything I needed to hear.”
***

Notes

Okay! Kind of a filler chapter. But the time skip happens next. :-D