Dirty Laundry
5
2012
Graduation was quickly approaching and while Riley was excited to move on to the next chapter of her life, she also needed time to slow down just a bit.
During her time at Brunel University of London, she became quite close with three other girls in her program. Stacey Mendes, Vanessa Cooper and Katie Gardner.
After graduation Vanessa and Katie would be staying in London and Riley didn't know how she was going to function not seeing them every day.
Thankfully, Stacey would be coming back to the States with Riley at least. They had stumbled into an incredible opportunity where they would have the chance to start and run their own art gallery in Los Angeles, California with the help of a friend of one of their favorite professors.
With the end of their college careers speedily approaching, and Katie's birthday, Riley finally let the girls convince her to join them for a weekend away. In the past, Stacey, Vanessa and Katie would always take a weekend at the end of each semester to go away somewhere to just relax and celebrate their successes.
Being a young, single mom juggling college and working whenever she could was not easy, even though she had a lot of help from her Aunt Penelope, who watched Summer almost every time Riley needed her. Aunt Penelope also arranged for Riley and Summer to stay in Uncle Milton's London flat, rent free. Although, it wasn't like he was using it very much these days anyway.
Riley was very grateful for the help and support of her family but some times felt she didn't deserve it. She made the choice to raise Summer in London, while still trying to go to school. She didn't think it needed to be anyone else's responsibility.
Aunt Penelope immediately told her and always reminded her to remember that family is supposed to be there for you whenever you need it. And Riley needed it.
Because of all this, Riley didn't have the typical college experience, obviously. There were no all nighters spent binge drinking at bars and rolling out of bed after an hour of sleep to get to class.
Riley's idea of an all nighter was whenever Summer was up all night screaming and wouldn't go to sleep.
Very rarely Riley would meet the girls for dinner or a quick drink at the pub down the block. Most of their get together happened in the confines of Riley's flat. Even more rarely would she get dressed up real nice for a night at a bar or a club. And absolutely never would she consider going away for the weekend with the girls.
After being a young mother, and being extremely pregnant for a good portion of her first semester, Riley felt like she had a lot to prove of herself in order to be taken seriously. She felt that if her work wasn't always at one-hundred-percent, people would think she couldn't handle it all. And that was the last thing she wanted.
For this trip, they took the two hour train ride to Paris where they planned to have a nice dinner before heading to some super trendy club Riley had certainly never heard of. The following day they would take the train back to London and hit up another trendy club Riley had also never heard of.
Riley figured a normal weekend would have consisted of more time away from London, but she has to figure the girls made the small adjustment to make Riley feel more comfortable. She hated being away from her daughter.
---
"Guys! No!" Riley groaned as her three friends continued to attempt to get her out on the dance floor. "I am not dancing!"
They'd been in the club for a while now. Riley had a few drinks and since she wasn't much of a drinker already, it didn't take her very long to feel the effects.
She was content, leaning against the bar with her drink, watching her friends dance in a circle around each other. Being slightly drunk, in a club, in Paris was out of Riley's comfort zone enough, she didn't needed to add dancing in front of people to that list.
What Riley didn't know, was that while her attention was on her friends, someone else had their attention on her.
The moment Alex spotted Riley across the bar he was intrigued by her. She was undoubtedly beautiful but there was something else about her that was drawing him to her. It was the strangest thing. He'd been instantly attracted to girls before, but it was usually in some kind of shallow way, because the girl was hot. And while yes, by his, and probably many others' standards, Riley was hot. But that wasn't what was drawing him to her.
That strange feeling was a bit intimidating for Alex. He knew he needed to talk to her. He just wasn't exactly sure how to play it. After he watched her push her friends away and deny their requests to join them on the dance floor, Alex decided it was time.
"I Love It" by Icona Pop began to blare from the speakers as he downed the rest of his Jack and Coke and went to make his move.
"Excuse me. Do you know how much a polar bear weighs?" Alex asked, tapping Riley's shoulder.
Alex knew his pick up line was cheesy as hell but on the right girl it would work.
Riley rolled her eyes before she even turned around. She wasn't in the mood to be hit on by someone willing to use a line as lame as that one.
"Enough to break the-"
Riley started to finish the punchline for him but just as she turned around, someone passed by, bumping into Alex, causing him to bump into Riley, sending her drink splashing down the front of her shirt.
"Ice!" She squealed as the cold liquid (and ice) hit her skin through the thin fabric of her now ruined top.
Alex stared at her, frozen to the spot, as he realized how absolutely terrible this was already going.
"Shit!" he exclaimed when he finally came back to life. "Fuck. I'm so sorry."
Riley shot him a smile that made that strange feeling Alex had towards her increase significantly, leaving Alex sort of frozen again.
"It's fine," she shrugged. "It's an old shirt anyway."
"Really?" Alex asked while trying to flag down the bartender to get some napkins.
Riley laughed. "Actually no. I only just bought it recently for tonight."
"I'll pay you back. And I'll buy you another drink," Alex insisted, successfully getting the napkins and passing them to Riley.
"That's not necessary. I got the shirt on sale," Riley explained, carefully dabbing the napkins against her shirt to soak up some of the cranberry juice (and vodka).
"Really?" Alex asked, hopeful.
"No," Riley giggled. "It was actually the first shirt I bought in a long time that wasn't on sale."
"Dammit," Alex cursed under his breath, reaching into his back pocket to pull out his wallet. "Please. How much was it?"
Riley shook her head and pushed his hand with the wallet in it away. "Stop. Don't be silly. You don't have to give me money. Plus, it wasn't your fault."
"It was kind of my fault..."
"Nah," Riley shrugged. "I saw that guy push by you in a huff. It was his fault. You have no reason to feel guilty."
"Yeah?" Alex smiled slightly, slipping his wallet back into his pocket.
"Scout's honor," Riley smiled, holding up three fingers. "However, I'm starting to think the whole thing was just bad karma."
"Bad karma for who?" Alex asked.
"You," Riley answered, pointing a finger in his direction.
"Me?" he gasped. "Why me?"
Riley laughed. "For using that incredibly lame pick up line."
Alex was grateful for the dark club lighting so Riley didn't see his cheeks turn red with embarrassment.
"Okay," he nodded. "I earned that one."
Riley smiled, dumping the wet napkins on the bar and extended her hand to Alex. "Riley Hastings."
Alex immediately shook her hand and smiled. "Alex Gaskarth."
"Nice to meet you, Alex," Riley said once she dropped his hand.
"You as well," he replied. "Now, I hate to be rude but I can't help but notice that you speak English and don't have a French accent. So what brings you to Paris?"
Riley leaned against the bar and paused for a second while her eyes scanned the dance floor for her friends. When she spotted them again she turned back to Alex.
"I'm here from London with a few friends. We're kind of celebrating," Riley answered.
"Oh, cool. What are you guys celebrating?" Alex asked.
"Graduation is coming up soon. And it's Katie's birthday," Riley explained, pointing towards her friends. "She's the blonde one in the middle."
Immediately Riley cursed herself for pointing out Katie. She was drop dead gorgeous and pretty much any guy that laid eyes on her instantly fell in love. Most girls would hate her for it, but on top of being beautiful, she was the sweetest.
"Well, happy birthday, Katie," Alex nodded, glancing in the direction she pointed out but quickly gave his attention back to Riley. "So, again, I don't mean to be rude, but you don't have an English accent either so..."
"I'm from the US. I've been in London for the last three and a half years for school. I'm an art major at Brunel University." Riley explained. "But don't think you're getting off the hook so easily. You don't sound French. Or English for that matter."
Alex laughed. "Well, you're right. I'm not French. And while I don't sound it, I actually am English. I was born in England but moved away when I was six."
"Oh," Riley nodded. "So are you back over here visiting family?"
Alex shook his head. "I'm here for work..." he said carefully.
The whole "I'm in a band" thing didn't always go over so well if the girl didn't immediately recognize him.
"That doesn't sound suspicious..." Riley pointed out, her eyebrows raising.
Alex laughed, leaning in a bit closer as he was struggling to hear her over the loud music. "I'm here on tour with my band. We played a show down the street tonight."
Riley nodded slowly, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. Of course he was a musician. She apparently hadn't grown out of her attraction to them.
"A band, huh?" she nodded. "Would I have heard of you?"
"Um," Alex shrugged uncomfortably. "I'm not sure. We're called All Time Low. We're from Baltimore, Maryland."
"Baltimore," Riley frowned. "I'm from Arizona, so I'm a west coast kid."
Alex laughed. "Arizona's great. We've been there a ton of times over the years."
Riley nodded slowly. "I've been to Maryland once. It was brief though. My family drove from Florida to New York once."
"That's a brutal drive," Alex laughed. "So, I take it this pivot to talking about geography is your polite way of saying you've never heard of my band..."
"Sorry," she winced. "I've kind of been living under a rock the last few years. What do you guys sound like?"
"Hmm," Alex paused to think for a second. "I guess the comparison that we get the most is to Blink 182. But we get inspiration from all sorts of bands we grew up listening to. New Found Glory, Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard...Do any of these bands ring any bells?"
"Yes. I haven't been under the rock for that long," Riley laughed. "I guess you're one of those emo kids from the early 2000s that never grew out of that phase, huh?"
"Wow," Alex laughed. "But I guess you're right. Did you ever go through that phase?"
"Yeah..." she admitted. "There was a period of time in my life where I thought I was going to marry Brendon Urie."
"But didn't we all?" Alex laughed. "So, now that you've taken a dump all over my career, let's talk about you. What exactly does one do with a degree in art?"
"I'm sorry," Riley leaned in a little closer. "I feel like it's getting louder in here. What was that?"
Alex laughed, realizing they had basically been yelling at each other while trying to have something of a normal conversation.
"Do you want to get out of here?" Alex asked, not realizing the implications until it was too late. "I don't mean anything weird by that. I just would like to continue this conversation, but it really is so loud in here," he said quickly.
"Yeah. We can just go take a walk or something," Riley smiled at him. She was surprised but she wanted to go. "I'll meet you back over here. Let me just go tell my friends I'm leaving."
"Yeah, same," Alex nodded. "See you in five minutes," he said as they walked in opposite directions.
"Are you going to dance with us?!" Katie squealed with excitement when she spotted Riley making her way across the dance floor towards them.
"No, but listen," Riley spoke quickly. "You see that guy over there," she subtly gestured towards where Alex was standing with his friends. "His name is Alex Gaskarth. He's in some band called All Time Low. They're from Baltimore, Maryland. He's really nice and really cute and we've been talking for a little while and it's really loud so he suggested we get out of here so we can keep talking without having to scream at each other. I agreed because I really want to go so I need you guys to tell me that I'm not crazy for going off with a guy that I just met."
The three girls stared at Riley for a few seconds as they tried to comprehend all the information she had just given them.
Stacey was the first to spring into action, pulling out her phone and immediately googling Alex's name so she could find a recent picture of him. She then grabbed Riley's phone.
"What are you doing?" Riley asked.
"I'm making sure the "find my phone" feature is turned on on your phone," Stacey explained, tapping at the phone's screen a few times before handing it back to Riley.
She quickly shoved the phone in her pocket and stared at her friends now. "Why did you have to do that?"
"That way if we can't get in touch with you, we can track you by your phone and hope that when we find you, you're not dead in a ditch somewhere," Vanessa explained.
Riley rolled her eyes. "That's not helping to convince me to do this."
"Go," Katie encouraged. "You deserve it. Plus, the odds that this guy really is some kind of insane, psycho freak are pretty low."
Riley groaned. "Forget it. I'm not drunk enough to make a dumb decision like this."
"Stop it," Stacey yelled. "You're going. And you'll be fine."
Riley took a deep breath. "You're right. I will be fine."
Vanessa and Katie both nodded.
"Sorry Rile, we were just joking around," Vanessa added.
"Here," Stacey said, digging through her bag and shoving something in Riley's hand.
When she opened her fist, Riley found a handful of condoms and her eyes immediately snapped up to Stacey.
"Are you kidding me?"
"This is one of the last chances you're going to get to act like a dumb college kid. Take advantage of it. Who knows where the night will take you, but just make sure you're prepared. We don't need a little brother or sister for Summer yet."
Riley rolled her eyes, quickly stuffing the condoms in her bag, not expecting to ever have to go looking for them again. "Wait, am I a total dick for ditching you all for some guy?"
All three girls shook their head no.
"Absolutely not," Katie assured her. "When was the last time you even had a conversation with a guy this long? You are totally not a dick."
"She's right. You're not a dick," Stacey nodded. "Now go get one," she encouraged shoving Riley off the dance floor in the direction Alex was standing while he waited for her.
Riley stumbled over her heels slightly as she turned back to glare at her friends. She caught her balance by the time she reached Alex.
"Everything okay?" Alex asked.
"Yeah," Riley nodded. "Just my friends making sure they have enough information on you in case I go missing and they have to track you down."
Alex laughed, placing his hand on the middle of her back as they headed towards the exit. "Why would they have to track me down?"
"Well, you could be an insane, psycho freak..."
Alex looked down at her once they reached the street. "Do you think I'm an insane, psycho freak?"
"Are you?" Riley asked, raising her eyebrows.
"No," Alex laughed. "I am not an insane, psycho freak."
"Promise?" Riley smirked, tilting her head to the side.
Alex smiled, holding up three fingers. "Scout's honor."
***
Graduation was quickly approaching and while Riley was excited to move on to the next chapter of her life, she also needed time to slow down just a bit.
During her time at Brunel University of London, she became quite close with three other girls in her program. Stacey Mendes, Vanessa Cooper and Katie Gardner.
After graduation Vanessa and Katie would be staying in London and Riley didn't know how she was going to function not seeing them every day.
Thankfully, Stacey would be coming back to the States with Riley at least. They had stumbled into an incredible opportunity where they would have the chance to start and run their own art gallery in Los Angeles, California with the help of a friend of one of their favorite professors.
With the end of their college careers speedily approaching, and Katie's birthday, Riley finally let the girls convince her to join them for a weekend away. In the past, Stacey, Vanessa and Katie would always take a weekend at the end of each semester to go away somewhere to just relax and celebrate their successes.
Being a young, single mom juggling college and working whenever she could was not easy, even though she had a lot of help from her Aunt Penelope, who watched Summer almost every time Riley needed her. Aunt Penelope also arranged for Riley and Summer to stay in Uncle Milton's London flat, rent free. Although, it wasn't like he was using it very much these days anyway.
Riley was very grateful for the help and support of her family but some times felt she didn't deserve it. She made the choice to raise Summer in London, while still trying to go to school. She didn't think it needed to be anyone else's responsibility.
Aunt Penelope immediately told her and always reminded her to remember that family is supposed to be there for you whenever you need it. And Riley needed it.
Because of all this, Riley didn't have the typical college experience, obviously. There were no all nighters spent binge drinking at bars and rolling out of bed after an hour of sleep to get to class.
Riley's idea of an all nighter was whenever Summer was up all night screaming and wouldn't go to sleep.
Very rarely Riley would meet the girls for dinner or a quick drink at the pub down the block. Most of their get together happened in the confines of Riley's flat. Even more rarely would she get dressed up real nice for a night at a bar or a club. And absolutely never would she consider going away for the weekend with the girls.
After being a young mother, and being extremely pregnant for a good portion of her first semester, Riley felt like she had a lot to prove of herself in order to be taken seriously. She felt that if her work wasn't always at one-hundred-percent, people would think she couldn't handle it all. And that was the last thing she wanted.
For this trip, they took the two hour train ride to Paris where they planned to have a nice dinner before heading to some super trendy club Riley had certainly never heard of. The following day they would take the train back to London and hit up another trendy club Riley had also never heard of.
Riley figured a normal weekend would have consisted of more time away from London, but she has to figure the girls made the small adjustment to make Riley feel more comfortable. She hated being away from her daughter.
---
"Guys! No!" Riley groaned as her three friends continued to attempt to get her out on the dance floor. "I am not dancing!"
They'd been in the club for a while now. Riley had a few drinks and since she wasn't much of a drinker already, it didn't take her very long to feel the effects.
She was content, leaning against the bar with her drink, watching her friends dance in a circle around each other. Being slightly drunk, in a club, in Paris was out of Riley's comfort zone enough, she didn't needed to add dancing in front of people to that list.
What Riley didn't know, was that while her attention was on her friends, someone else had their attention on her.
The moment Alex spotted Riley across the bar he was intrigued by her. She was undoubtedly beautiful but there was something else about her that was drawing him to her. It was the strangest thing. He'd been instantly attracted to girls before, but it was usually in some kind of shallow way, because the girl was hot. And while yes, by his, and probably many others' standards, Riley was hot. But that wasn't what was drawing him to her.
That strange feeling was a bit intimidating for Alex. He knew he needed to talk to her. He just wasn't exactly sure how to play it. After he watched her push her friends away and deny their requests to join them on the dance floor, Alex decided it was time.
"I Love It" by Icona Pop began to blare from the speakers as he downed the rest of his Jack and Coke and went to make his move.
"Excuse me. Do you know how much a polar bear weighs?" Alex asked, tapping Riley's shoulder.
Alex knew his pick up line was cheesy as hell but on the right girl it would work.
Riley rolled her eyes before she even turned around. She wasn't in the mood to be hit on by someone willing to use a line as lame as that one.
"Enough to break the-"
Riley started to finish the punchline for him but just as she turned around, someone passed by, bumping into Alex, causing him to bump into Riley, sending her drink splashing down the front of her shirt.
"Ice!" She squealed as the cold liquid (and ice) hit her skin through the thin fabric of her now ruined top.
Alex stared at her, frozen to the spot, as he realized how absolutely terrible this was already going.
"Shit!" he exclaimed when he finally came back to life. "Fuck. I'm so sorry."
Riley shot him a smile that made that strange feeling Alex had towards her increase significantly, leaving Alex sort of frozen again.
"It's fine," she shrugged. "It's an old shirt anyway."
"Really?" Alex asked while trying to flag down the bartender to get some napkins.
Riley laughed. "Actually no. I only just bought it recently for tonight."
"I'll pay you back. And I'll buy you another drink," Alex insisted, successfully getting the napkins and passing them to Riley.
"That's not necessary. I got the shirt on sale," Riley explained, carefully dabbing the napkins against her shirt to soak up some of the cranberry juice (and vodka).
"Really?" Alex asked, hopeful.
"No," Riley giggled. "It was actually the first shirt I bought in a long time that wasn't on sale."
"Dammit," Alex cursed under his breath, reaching into his back pocket to pull out his wallet. "Please. How much was it?"
Riley shook her head and pushed his hand with the wallet in it away. "Stop. Don't be silly. You don't have to give me money. Plus, it wasn't your fault."
"It was kind of my fault..."
"Nah," Riley shrugged. "I saw that guy push by you in a huff. It was his fault. You have no reason to feel guilty."
"Yeah?" Alex smiled slightly, slipping his wallet back into his pocket.
"Scout's honor," Riley smiled, holding up three fingers. "However, I'm starting to think the whole thing was just bad karma."
"Bad karma for who?" Alex asked.
"You," Riley answered, pointing a finger in his direction.
"Me?" he gasped. "Why me?"
Riley laughed. "For using that incredibly lame pick up line."
Alex was grateful for the dark club lighting so Riley didn't see his cheeks turn red with embarrassment.
"Okay," he nodded. "I earned that one."
Riley smiled, dumping the wet napkins on the bar and extended her hand to Alex. "Riley Hastings."
Alex immediately shook her hand and smiled. "Alex Gaskarth."
"Nice to meet you, Alex," Riley said once she dropped his hand.
"You as well," he replied. "Now, I hate to be rude but I can't help but notice that you speak English and don't have a French accent. So what brings you to Paris?"
Riley leaned against the bar and paused for a second while her eyes scanned the dance floor for her friends. When she spotted them again she turned back to Alex.
"I'm here from London with a few friends. We're kind of celebrating," Riley answered.
"Oh, cool. What are you guys celebrating?" Alex asked.
"Graduation is coming up soon. And it's Katie's birthday," Riley explained, pointing towards her friends. "She's the blonde one in the middle."
Immediately Riley cursed herself for pointing out Katie. She was drop dead gorgeous and pretty much any guy that laid eyes on her instantly fell in love. Most girls would hate her for it, but on top of being beautiful, she was the sweetest.
"Well, happy birthday, Katie," Alex nodded, glancing in the direction she pointed out but quickly gave his attention back to Riley. "So, again, I don't mean to be rude, but you don't have an English accent either so..."
"I'm from the US. I've been in London for the last three and a half years for school. I'm an art major at Brunel University." Riley explained. "But don't think you're getting off the hook so easily. You don't sound French. Or English for that matter."
Alex laughed. "Well, you're right. I'm not French. And while I don't sound it, I actually am English. I was born in England but moved away when I was six."
"Oh," Riley nodded. "So are you back over here visiting family?"
Alex shook his head. "I'm here for work..." he said carefully.
The whole "I'm in a band" thing didn't always go over so well if the girl didn't immediately recognize him.
"That doesn't sound suspicious..." Riley pointed out, her eyebrows raising.
Alex laughed, leaning in a bit closer as he was struggling to hear her over the loud music. "I'm here on tour with my band. We played a show down the street tonight."
Riley nodded slowly, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. Of course he was a musician. She apparently hadn't grown out of her attraction to them.
"A band, huh?" she nodded. "Would I have heard of you?"
"Um," Alex shrugged uncomfortably. "I'm not sure. We're called All Time Low. We're from Baltimore, Maryland."
"Baltimore," Riley frowned. "I'm from Arizona, so I'm a west coast kid."
Alex laughed. "Arizona's great. We've been there a ton of times over the years."
Riley nodded slowly. "I've been to Maryland once. It was brief though. My family drove from Florida to New York once."
"That's a brutal drive," Alex laughed. "So, I take it this pivot to talking about geography is your polite way of saying you've never heard of my band..."
"Sorry," she winced. "I've kind of been living under a rock the last few years. What do you guys sound like?"
"Hmm," Alex paused to think for a second. "I guess the comparison that we get the most is to Blink 182. But we get inspiration from all sorts of bands we grew up listening to. New Found Glory, Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard...Do any of these bands ring any bells?"
"Yes. I haven't been under the rock for that long," Riley laughed. "I guess you're one of those emo kids from the early 2000s that never grew out of that phase, huh?"
"Wow," Alex laughed. "But I guess you're right. Did you ever go through that phase?"
"Yeah..." she admitted. "There was a period of time in my life where I thought I was going to marry Brendon Urie."
"But didn't we all?" Alex laughed. "So, now that you've taken a dump all over my career, let's talk about you. What exactly does one do with a degree in art?"
"I'm sorry," Riley leaned in a little closer. "I feel like it's getting louder in here. What was that?"
Alex laughed, realizing they had basically been yelling at each other while trying to have something of a normal conversation.
"Do you want to get out of here?" Alex asked, not realizing the implications until it was too late. "I don't mean anything weird by that. I just would like to continue this conversation, but it really is so loud in here," he said quickly.
"Yeah. We can just go take a walk or something," Riley smiled at him. She was surprised but she wanted to go. "I'll meet you back over here. Let me just go tell my friends I'm leaving."
"Yeah, same," Alex nodded. "See you in five minutes," he said as they walked in opposite directions.
"Are you going to dance with us?!" Katie squealed with excitement when she spotted Riley making her way across the dance floor towards them.
"No, but listen," Riley spoke quickly. "You see that guy over there," she subtly gestured towards where Alex was standing with his friends. "His name is Alex Gaskarth. He's in some band called All Time Low. They're from Baltimore, Maryland. He's really nice and really cute and we've been talking for a little while and it's really loud so he suggested we get out of here so we can keep talking without having to scream at each other. I agreed because I really want to go so I need you guys to tell me that I'm not crazy for going off with a guy that I just met."
The three girls stared at Riley for a few seconds as they tried to comprehend all the information she had just given them.
Stacey was the first to spring into action, pulling out her phone and immediately googling Alex's name so she could find a recent picture of him. She then grabbed Riley's phone.
"What are you doing?" Riley asked.
"I'm making sure the "find my phone" feature is turned on on your phone," Stacey explained, tapping at the phone's screen a few times before handing it back to Riley.
She quickly shoved the phone in her pocket and stared at her friends now. "Why did you have to do that?"
"That way if we can't get in touch with you, we can track you by your phone and hope that when we find you, you're not dead in a ditch somewhere," Vanessa explained.
Riley rolled her eyes. "That's not helping to convince me to do this."
"Go," Katie encouraged. "You deserve it. Plus, the odds that this guy really is some kind of insane, psycho freak are pretty low."
Riley groaned. "Forget it. I'm not drunk enough to make a dumb decision like this."
"Stop it," Stacey yelled. "You're going. And you'll be fine."
Riley took a deep breath. "You're right. I will be fine."
Vanessa and Katie both nodded.
"Sorry Rile, we were just joking around," Vanessa added.
"Here," Stacey said, digging through her bag and shoving something in Riley's hand.
When she opened her fist, Riley found a handful of condoms and her eyes immediately snapped up to Stacey.
"Are you kidding me?"
"This is one of the last chances you're going to get to act like a dumb college kid. Take advantage of it. Who knows where the night will take you, but just make sure you're prepared. We don't need a little brother or sister for Summer yet."
Riley rolled her eyes, quickly stuffing the condoms in her bag, not expecting to ever have to go looking for them again. "Wait, am I a total dick for ditching you all for some guy?"
All three girls shook their head no.
"Absolutely not," Katie assured her. "When was the last time you even had a conversation with a guy this long? You are totally not a dick."
"She's right. You're not a dick," Stacey nodded. "Now go get one," she encouraged shoving Riley off the dance floor in the direction Alex was standing while he waited for her.
Riley stumbled over her heels slightly as she turned back to glare at her friends. She caught her balance by the time she reached Alex.
"Everything okay?" Alex asked.
"Yeah," Riley nodded. "Just my friends making sure they have enough information on you in case I go missing and they have to track you down."
Alex laughed, placing his hand on the middle of her back as they headed towards the exit. "Why would they have to track me down?"
"Well, you could be an insane, psycho freak..."
Alex looked down at her once they reached the street. "Do you think I'm an insane, psycho freak?"
"Are you?" Riley asked, raising her eyebrows.
"No," Alex laughed. "I am not an insane, psycho freak."
"Promise?" Riley smirked, tilting her head to the side.
Alex smiled, holding up three fingers. "Scout's honor."
***
Notes
Story Title: All Time Low - Dirty Laundry
And there you have their initial meeting... <3
If you could come back and update, that'd be great <3
1/23/19