Dirty Laundry
9
2012
Waking up later that morning, Riley's eyes needed a minute to adjust to her surroundings. Her eyes were burning after she had fallen asleep two nights in a row with her contacts in. Once she could see clearly, she leaned up on her elbows to check on Alex, who was still out like a light. She frowned at the already darkening bruises that took over his face. She decided to take a quick shower before she woke him up.
It wasn't until she sat up that she realized Alex's arm was laying loosely across her waist. She smiled to herself as she carefully slid out from under him before heading to the bathroom.
She made sure to leave the door open. She hoped if Alex woke up before she was done, he'd hear the shower, or see her stuff still all over the room and know she hadn't just left again. It made Riley feel really bad to hear the disappointment in his voice when he talked about waking up the other morning to find she'd already left.
After her shower, Riley changed back into her dress from the night before, though she was tempted to just put back on Alex's sweats. She borrowed Alex's brush that was sitting on the bathroom counter and pulled her hair into a tight braid. She also borrowed a swig of mouthwash from the bottle that sat on the bathroom counter as well.
When she stepped out of the bathroom she was relived to see Alex was still asleep. Before waking him up, she grabbed the ice bucket, dumping the left over water in the bathroom sink before running down the hall to refill it with fresh ice.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Riley nudged Alex a few times while whispering his name. When she got no response, she nudged him a little harder. Eventually his eyes fluttered opened and he immediately smiled.
"Good Morning," he said with a raspy voice.
"How are you feeling?" Riley asked.
"Like I got my ass kicked," Alex replied, sitting up a little.
"That's fair," she nodded. "I got you some fresh ice," she said, pointing to the bucket on the nightstand.
"Thanks," he said, leaning up a bit and noticing Riley was showered and dressed. "I guess you're getting ready to head out..."he said, reaching forward and tugging lightly at the wet braid that hung over her shoulder.
"I am. I have to meet my friends," Riley nodded slowly. "I pretty much failed this whole girls' weekend since I bailed on them both nights for some guy."
"That might be true," Alex nodded, "however, they basically bailed on you too whenever they went to dance on the dance floor."
"I guess," Riley shrugged. "But at least when they went off to dance, every few songs, one of them would come over to try and get me to join them. I certainly wasn't doing that when I was off with you."
Alex smirked as his eyebrows started to wiggle. "Asking a friend to join may have been the only thing to make the last two nights even better."
Riley rolled her eyes and shoved him gently. "Jerk," she grumbled.
"So, you really have to leave?" Alex pouted. "Can't I treat you to breakfast? We can order room service," he suggested.
"I'm sorry," she frowned. "I'm supposed to meet the girls to go eat."
She felt a pang of guilt in the pit of her stomach even though she wasn't completely lying. She was meeting the girls to eat. They were meeting at Riley's flat so they could end their weekend together and Riley could see Summer, who she was missing like crazy.
"But... Room service," Alex whined.
"All things considered, we had two really great nights; let's not push your luck, okay?" Riley asked with a laugh.
"I guess..." Alex groaned. "But I do have one more request before you go."
"What's that?" Riley asked, tilting her head to the side.
"The guys and I are playing a show tomorrow night at the Hammersmith in London and I want you to come."
Riley shifted uncomfortably and she hoped Alex didn't notice. He did but didn't say anything. "You want me to come see your band play?"
He nodded eagerly. "Yeah. It's been sold out for a while but I will put you on the list. Your friends too. However many you want. It will be fun!"
"I don't know, Alex," she sighed. "It's a Monday night. Weekdays are super busy for me. Especially now with classes wrapping up..."
"You don't have to answer me right now. You can think about it, talk to your friends, whatever you need to do, and let me know later."
"Okay," she nodded. "I'll see if I can make it work."
Riley actually wanted to go. She didn't tell anyone, especially Alex, that on the train ride back from Paris to London, Riley listened to some All Time Low songs. She was surprised how much she liked what she heard. It all reminded her so much of what she grew up listening to in Arizona - which brought about a bunch of mixed emotions.
Life seemed so much simpler when she was seventeen, sharing beers with her friends in an empty parking lot, singing along to Blink-182 songs all night.
"When are your friends coming to get you?" Alex asked, pulling Riley from her random daydream.
"What?" she asked, shaking her head.
"Your friends? Are they coming to pick you up?" Alex asked slower this time.
"No," Riley said quickly. "They're not. I was planning on walking actually. It'll probably only take twenty-twenty-five minutes to get home from here."
"Absolutely not," Alex shook his head. "You really thought I would let you leave here and walk home?"
Riley laughed. "It's my city. I live here."
"Still, it's not happening," Alex decided, reaching for the phone on the nightstand and pressing the prompt for the concierge desk. "I'm getting you a car."
Riley rolled her eyes but nodded anyway.
Alex told the woman who answered his call that he needed a car as soon as possible. When she asked him where the car would be going, Alex chuckled, realizing he never asked Riley that information. The woman wasn't amused when Alex asked her to hold.
"What's your address?" he asked, placing his hand over the phone's receiver.
"Just tell them Southbank Place. They should know the building."
Alex repeated the name of the building to the woman on the phone. Immediately her attitude changed and she kept calling Alex sir.
"The car will be here in fifteen minutes," Alex said, hanging up the phone.
"Awesome, thanks," Riley smiled.
"So, what's so special about your building?" Alex asked. "As soon as I mentioned it, the lady got super nice and proper on the phone. She called me sir."
Riley groaned. She was certainly in no position to complain about where she lived, especially when she got to live there for free. "It's sort of a highly upscale building," Riley confessed. "Wealthy businessmen, foreign diplomats, sometimes even friends and family of the royals have been known to stay there."
Alex raised his eyebrows as he sat up a little straighter. "Are you saying that I'm in the presence of royalty or something?"
"Oh, heck no," Riley laughed. "It's my uncle's place. He's one of the wealthy businessmen. He never uses the place anymore so my aunt convinced him to let us stay there."
Alex relaxed a bit. "Who's us?"
Riley paused for a second. She could have just told him right there that she had a young daughter. She could find out Alex's reaction to it, and should it be a bad one, she wouldn't waste anymore of her time - not that they really had much more time together anyway, so Riley decided it didn't matter.
"Me and the girls. They all have their own places at the dorms, but they stay with me a lot of the time too," Riley said, again, not feeling too guilty, because that wasn't a complete lie.
"Well, it's a shame I won't have time to play there. I feel like I could get myself into some trouble," Alex said with a smirk. Riley nodded.
"You definitely could and that's why you weren't invited."
Alex stuck his tongue out at Riley which made her laughed.
"Let me get dressed and then I'll walk you downstairs," Alex said, moving to get up from the bed.
"No," Riley said, placing her hand on his leg, over the blankets. "That's not necessary. You should stay in bed and rest. Do you have a show tonight, too?"
"Today is technically a day off. But we have some press to do later on. Thankfully it's radio stuff, so my appearance isn't a total priority," Alex explained. "And I'm still walking you down. My face is going to look jacked up whether I miss ten minutes of rest or not."
"Fine," Riley groaned, quickly turning the other way when Alex flung the blankets over his still completely naked body and stood from the bed.
Alex laughed, searching for his sweatpants on the floor, showing no hustle to cover anything up. "You're going to get bashful about me being naked now? You're aware this is the same dick that was in your mouth last night, right?"
Riley's jaw dropped open as her eyes widened twice their size. She was slightly taken aback by that comment and her face definitely showed it.
Yanking his sweatpants into place, Alex spun around to face Riley. "Shit, I'm sorry. I realize we probably don't know each other long enough at this point for me to make dumb jokes like that. I have a twisted sense of humor."
Riley gave him a small smile. "Don't worry," she said. "I can have a twisted sense of humor, too," she said, standing from the bed. "Plus, you're right. That is the same dick that was in my mouth last night."
Alex rolled his eyes, pulling a shirt over his head and shoving his feet into a pair of sneakers. "Are you ready?"
She laughed at him ignoring her comment as she threw her bag over her shoulder. "I'm ready."
Alex gestured to the door and they headed out into the hall to wait for the elevator. When they reached the lobby, Alex went over to the concierge desk to inquire about the car he ordered and the woman advised him to head outside. She must have realized the car was really for Riley, as she was the one dressed and had a bag while Alex looked like hell. She gave Riley a weird look as she passed.
"That lady totally thinks I'm a hooker," Riley whispered to Alex when they got outside.
Alex laughed. "What? No way."
"So way. She knows where the car is taking me. She already got weird when you told her my address. And now that she knows it's me getting in the car, she totally thinks I'm a hooker."
"But why hooker?" Alex laughed again.
"I'm leaving a guy's hotel room in the morning, all dressed up, being taken to a very luxurious building. She probably thinks there's no way I can afford to live there, which I can't..."
Alex shook his head. "I think you're overthinking this, my dear. Maybe she was just jealous when she saw me with you because she thought my phone voice was super sexy."
Now it was Riley's turn to laugh. "Nah, I'd rather go with her thinking I'm a hooker."
Alex nudged her in the side with his elbow, taking careful note that it wasn't her side that was bruised. "You don't look like a hooker."
"I'm choosing to take that as a compliment," Riley said, looking up at him and smiling.
"I think you should," Alex nodded and a sudden and strange wave of sadness came over him. He didn't like that this might be the last time he saw her. "So, tomorrow night..."
Riley groaned. "Dude, I told you I would think about it."
Alex laughed. "Just checking that you didn't forget."
"I didn't forget," she said, looking up at him again as a car pulled up and the driver called out Gaskarth. "I guess that's me," Riley said, raising her hand as she and Alex walked towards the car.
"Hello, Miss. My name is Randy. Can you please verify that this is where I'm taking you?" he asked, showing Riley a sheet of paper.
"Yes, that's it," Riley nodded.
Randy opened the back door and gestured for her to get in.
Riley glanced back at Alex and gave a nervous smile. "Could you give me, like, two minutes?" she asked, looking back at Alex.
Randy observed the two for a second before smiling. "Take all the time you need," he said before heading into the driver's seat.
"So, it's been an interesting weekend," Riley said, standing in front of Alex again and crossing her arms over her chest.
"It definitely was something," Alex shrugged.
"Hey, thanks again for breaking your face so that jerk at the bar would stop hitting on me," Riley said with a smirk.
"And thank you for letting me ruin half your wardrobe," Alex replied with a matching smirk.
"You're welcome," Riley laughed wrapping her arms around his middle when Alex pulled her into a hug.
"Don't lose my number, okay?" Alex said. It was his not so subtle way of letting Riley know that he was set to keep in touch with her past this one weekend.
"I'll try," she smiled, leaning up and pressing a light kiss to his lips.
"And I will see you tomorrow," he said, bending down and pressing an equally as light kiss to her lips.
Riley dropped her arms from around his middle and shook her head. "I said maybe."
"I just don't like that answer," he shrugged.
Riley shoved him, while laughing softly. "Goodbye, Alex."
"Bye, Riley," he smiled.
Riley gave him another kiss, on his cheek this time, before she slid into the back of the car. "Ice your face," she instructed before closing the door.
Smiling, Alex nodded and waved as the car pulled away from the curb and down the street. He silently hoped that this would not be the last time he saw Riley.
When she got back to her place, Riley was not surprised to find Katie, Stacey and Vanessa already there with Aunt Penny starting on the breakfast they'd brought. They had given Penny a brief summary of Riley and her new friend but figured they'd let her fill in the details, especially ones from the night before since the girls didn't even know much yet.
Aunt Penny was more than thrilled to hear Riley had met a guy, even if the chances of it going anywhere were slim, it was a step in the right direction. She was really one of the only people who knew her true history back in Arizona and just how hard it was for her to leave Brian behind. Riley finally giving another guy a chance was a big deal for her.
When Riley told her friends and her aunt about Alex's show the next night, they all immediately encouraged her to go. The girls even promised they'd go with her. Riley put up a good fight, using Summer as a reason she couldn't go. Aunt Penny offered to babysit again, and reminded Riley that she wouldn't have to leave until after she put Summer to bed, so the little girl wouldn't even know she was gone.
"Baby girl, you've worked so damn hard. You deserve this. It's one more night. Tell him that you will go," Aunt Penny encouraged.
Riley put up her fight a little bit longer before she caved and reached for her phone and sent a message to Alex.
Riley: I'll see you tomorrow. :)
***
Waking up later that morning, Riley's eyes needed a minute to adjust to her surroundings. Her eyes were burning after she had fallen asleep two nights in a row with her contacts in. Once she could see clearly, she leaned up on her elbows to check on Alex, who was still out like a light. She frowned at the already darkening bruises that took over his face. She decided to take a quick shower before she woke him up.
It wasn't until she sat up that she realized Alex's arm was laying loosely across her waist. She smiled to herself as she carefully slid out from under him before heading to the bathroom.
She made sure to leave the door open. She hoped if Alex woke up before she was done, he'd hear the shower, or see her stuff still all over the room and know she hadn't just left again. It made Riley feel really bad to hear the disappointment in his voice when he talked about waking up the other morning to find she'd already left.
After her shower, Riley changed back into her dress from the night before, though she was tempted to just put back on Alex's sweats. She borrowed Alex's brush that was sitting on the bathroom counter and pulled her hair into a tight braid. She also borrowed a swig of mouthwash from the bottle that sat on the bathroom counter as well.
When she stepped out of the bathroom she was relived to see Alex was still asleep. Before waking him up, she grabbed the ice bucket, dumping the left over water in the bathroom sink before running down the hall to refill it with fresh ice.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Riley nudged Alex a few times while whispering his name. When she got no response, she nudged him a little harder. Eventually his eyes fluttered opened and he immediately smiled.
"Good Morning," he said with a raspy voice.
"How are you feeling?" Riley asked.
"Like I got my ass kicked," Alex replied, sitting up a little.
"That's fair," she nodded. "I got you some fresh ice," she said, pointing to the bucket on the nightstand.
"Thanks," he said, leaning up a bit and noticing Riley was showered and dressed. "I guess you're getting ready to head out..."he said, reaching forward and tugging lightly at the wet braid that hung over her shoulder.
"I am. I have to meet my friends," Riley nodded slowly. "I pretty much failed this whole girls' weekend since I bailed on them both nights for some guy."
"That might be true," Alex nodded, "however, they basically bailed on you too whenever they went to dance on the dance floor."
"I guess," Riley shrugged. "But at least when they went off to dance, every few songs, one of them would come over to try and get me to join them. I certainly wasn't doing that when I was off with you."
Alex smirked as his eyebrows started to wiggle. "Asking a friend to join may have been the only thing to make the last two nights even better."
Riley rolled her eyes and shoved him gently. "Jerk," she grumbled.
"So, you really have to leave?" Alex pouted. "Can't I treat you to breakfast? We can order room service," he suggested.
"I'm sorry," she frowned. "I'm supposed to meet the girls to go eat."
She felt a pang of guilt in the pit of her stomach even though she wasn't completely lying. She was meeting the girls to eat. They were meeting at Riley's flat so they could end their weekend together and Riley could see Summer, who she was missing like crazy.
"But... Room service," Alex whined.
"All things considered, we had two really great nights; let's not push your luck, okay?" Riley asked with a laugh.
"I guess..." Alex groaned. "But I do have one more request before you go."
"What's that?" Riley asked, tilting her head to the side.
"The guys and I are playing a show tomorrow night at the Hammersmith in London and I want you to come."
Riley shifted uncomfortably and she hoped Alex didn't notice. He did but didn't say anything. "You want me to come see your band play?"
He nodded eagerly. "Yeah. It's been sold out for a while but I will put you on the list. Your friends too. However many you want. It will be fun!"
"I don't know, Alex," she sighed. "It's a Monday night. Weekdays are super busy for me. Especially now with classes wrapping up..."
"You don't have to answer me right now. You can think about it, talk to your friends, whatever you need to do, and let me know later."
"Okay," she nodded. "I'll see if I can make it work."
Riley actually wanted to go. She didn't tell anyone, especially Alex, that on the train ride back from Paris to London, Riley listened to some All Time Low songs. She was surprised how much she liked what she heard. It all reminded her so much of what she grew up listening to in Arizona - which brought about a bunch of mixed emotions.
Life seemed so much simpler when she was seventeen, sharing beers with her friends in an empty parking lot, singing along to Blink-182 songs all night.
"When are your friends coming to get you?" Alex asked, pulling Riley from her random daydream.
"What?" she asked, shaking her head.
"Your friends? Are they coming to pick you up?" Alex asked slower this time.
"No," Riley said quickly. "They're not. I was planning on walking actually. It'll probably only take twenty-twenty-five minutes to get home from here."
"Absolutely not," Alex shook his head. "You really thought I would let you leave here and walk home?"
Riley laughed. "It's my city. I live here."
"Still, it's not happening," Alex decided, reaching for the phone on the nightstand and pressing the prompt for the concierge desk. "I'm getting you a car."
Riley rolled her eyes but nodded anyway.
Alex told the woman who answered his call that he needed a car as soon as possible. When she asked him where the car would be going, Alex chuckled, realizing he never asked Riley that information. The woman wasn't amused when Alex asked her to hold.
"What's your address?" he asked, placing his hand over the phone's receiver.
"Just tell them Southbank Place. They should know the building."
Alex repeated the name of the building to the woman on the phone. Immediately her attitude changed and she kept calling Alex sir.
"The car will be here in fifteen minutes," Alex said, hanging up the phone.
"Awesome, thanks," Riley smiled.
"So, what's so special about your building?" Alex asked. "As soon as I mentioned it, the lady got super nice and proper on the phone. She called me sir."
Riley groaned. She was certainly in no position to complain about where she lived, especially when she got to live there for free. "It's sort of a highly upscale building," Riley confessed. "Wealthy businessmen, foreign diplomats, sometimes even friends and family of the royals have been known to stay there."
Alex raised his eyebrows as he sat up a little straighter. "Are you saying that I'm in the presence of royalty or something?"
"Oh, heck no," Riley laughed. "It's my uncle's place. He's one of the wealthy businessmen. He never uses the place anymore so my aunt convinced him to let us stay there."
Alex relaxed a bit. "Who's us?"
Riley paused for a second. She could have just told him right there that she had a young daughter. She could find out Alex's reaction to it, and should it be a bad one, she wouldn't waste anymore of her time - not that they really had much more time together anyway, so Riley decided it didn't matter.
"Me and the girls. They all have their own places at the dorms, but they stay with me a lot of the time too," Riley said, again, not feeling too guilty, because that wasn't a complete lie.
"Well, it's a shame I won't have time to play there. I feel like I could get myself into some trouble," Alex said with a smirk. Riley nodded.
"You definitely could and that's why you weren't invited."
Alex stuck his tongue out at Riley which made her laughed.
"Let me get dressed and then I'll walk you downstairs," Alex said, moving to get up from the bed.
"No," Riley said, placing her hand on his leg, over the blankets. "That's not necessary. You should stay in bed and rest. Do you have a show tonight, too?"
"Today is technically a day off. But we have some press to do later on. Thankfully it's radio stuff, so my appearance isn't a total priority," Alex explained. "And I'm still walking you down. My face is going to look jacked up whether I miss ten minutes of rest or not."
"Fine," Riley groaned, quickly turning the other way when Alex flung the blankets over his still completely naked body and stood from the bed.
Alex laughed, searching for his sweatpants on the floor, showing no hustle to cover anything up. "You're going to get bashful about me being naked now? You're aware this is the same dick that was in your mouth last night, right?"
Riley's jaw dropped open as her eyes widened twice their size. She was slightly taken aback by that comment and her face definitely showed it.
Yanking his sweatpants into place, Alex spun around to face Riley. "Shit, I'm sorry. I realize we probably don't know each other long enough at this point for me to make dumb jokes like that. I have a twisted sense of humor."
Riley gave him a small smile. "Don't worry," she said. "I can have a twisted sense of humor, too," she said, standing from the bed. "Plus, you're right. That is the same dick that was in my mouth last night."
Alex rolled his eyes, pulling a shirt over his head and shoving his feet into a pair of sneakers. "Are you ready?"
She laughed at him ignoring her comment as she threw her bag over her shoulder. "I'm ready."
Alex gestured to the door and they headed out into the hall to wait for the elevator. When they reached the lobby, Alex went over to the concierge desk to inquire about the car he ordered and the woman advised him to head outside. She must have realized the car was really for Riley, as she was the one dressed and had a bag while Alex looked like hell. She gave Riley a weird look as she passed.
"That lady totally thinks I'm a hooker," Riley whispered to Alex when they got outside.
Alex laughed. "What? No way."
"So way. She knows where the car is taking me. She already got weird when you told her my address. And now that she knows it's me getting in the car, she totally thinks I'm a hooker."
"But why hooker?" Alex laughed again.
"I'm leaving a guy's hotel room in the morning, all dressed up, being taken to a very luxurious building. She probably thinks there's no way I can afford to live there, which I can't..."
Alex shook his head. "I think you're overthinking this, my dear. Maybe she was just jealous when she saw me with you because she thought my phone voice was super sexy."
Now it was Riley's turn to laugh. "Nah, I'd rather go with her thinking I'm a hooker."
Alex nudged her in the side with his elbow, taking careful note that it wasn't her side that was bruised. "You don't look like a hooker."
"I'm choosing to take that as a compliment," Riley said, looking up at him and smiling.
"I think you should," Alex nodded and a sudden and strange wave of sadness came over him. He didn't like that this might be the last time he saw her. "So, tomorrow night..."
Riley groaned. "Dude, I told you I would think about it."
Alex laughed. "Just checking that you didn't forget."
"I didn't forget," she said, looking up at him again as a car pulled up and the driver called out Gaskarth. "I guess that's me," Riley said, raising her hand as she and Alex walked towards the car.
"Hello, Miss. My name is Randy. Can you please verify that this is where I'm taking you?" he asked, showing Riley a sheet of paper.
"Yes, that's it," Riley nodded.
Randy opened the back door and gestured for her to get in.
Riley glanced back at Alex and gave a nervous smile. "Could you give me, like, two minutes?" she asked, looking back at Alex.
Randy observed the two for a second before smiling. "Take all the time you need," he said before heading into the driver's seat.
"So, it's been an interesting weekend," Riley said, standing in front of Alex again and crossing her arms over her chest.
"It definitely was something," Alex shrugged.
"Hey, thanks again for breaking your face so that jerk at the bar would stop hitting on me," Riley said with a smirk.
"And thank you for letting me ruin half your wardrobe," Alex replied with a matching smirk.
"You're welcome," Riley laughed wrapping her arms around his middle when Alex pulled her into a hug.
"Don't lose my number, okay?" Alex said. It was his not so subtle way of letting Riley know that he was set to keep in touch with her past this one weekend.
"I'll try," she smiled, leaning up and pressing a light kiss to his lips.
"And I will see you tomorrow," he said, bending down and pressing an equally as light kiss to her lips.
Riley dropped her arms from around his middle and shook her head. "I said maybe."
"I just don't like that answer," he shrugged.
Riley shoved him, while laughing softly. "Goodbye, Alex."
"Bye, Riley," he smiled.
Riley gave him another kiss, on his cheek this time, before she slid into the back of the car. "Ice your face," she instructed before closing the door.
Smiling, Alex nodded and waved as the car pulled away from the curb and down the street. He silently hoped that this would not be the last time he saw Riley.
When she got back to her place, Riley was not surprised to find Katie, Stacey and Vanessa already there with Aunt Penny starting on the breakfast they'd brought. They had given Penny a brief summary of Riley and her new friend but figured they'd let her fill in the details, especially ones from the night before since the girls didn't even know much yet.
Aunt Penny was more than thrilled to hear Riley had met a guy, even if the chances of it going anywhere were slim, it was a step in the right direction. She was really one of the only people who knew her true history back in Arizona and just how hard it was for her to leave Brian behind. Riley finally giving another guy a chance was a big deal for her.
When Riley told her friends and her aunt about Alex's show the next night, they all immediately encouraged her to go. The girls even promised they'd go with her. Riley put up a good fight, using Summer as a reason she couldn't go. Aunt Penny offered to babysit again, and reminded Riley that she wouldn't have to leave until after she put Summer to bed, so the little girl wouldn't even know she was gone.
"Baby girl, you've worked so damn hard. You deserve this. It's one more night. Tell him that you will go," Aunt Penny encouraged.
Riley put up her fight a little bit longer before she caved and reached for her phone and sent a message to Alex.
Riley: I'll see you tomorrow. :)
***
Notes
Story Title: All Time Low - Dirty Laundry
I decided not to make this chapter as long so the next one will be the last before we get back to present time and ishh starts going down. :D Enjoy!
If you could come back and update, that'd be great <3
1/23/19