Riley was cuddled up on the couch with a warm blanket, staring lamely at the TV in front of her. Just like most people, she liked to spend her time there when she was sick. The only problem was that she was too dazed to read the subtitles, so she had literally no idea what was going on. It was some show she had never seen before, but she couldn’t even make out what it was supposed to be about. She would have put on some movie she really wanted to watch if it weren't for the fact that she felt like she was going to fall asleep soon.

Riley had caught the flu over the weekend, meaning she had to cancel any plans she had and instead stay at home while her brother took care of her. Now, it was the start of the week again, she had called in sick, and Casper had to go back to work again. At first, it seemed like Riley was going to have to survive it all by herself, but then Alex stepped in.

Such a hero, huh?

He woke up early to go straight over to Riley so she wouldn’t have to spend a minute alone. He considered it his duty, so there was nothing that was going to make him do otherwise. So, before Casper left the house, he came over with his own two dogs so that he could take care of all three animals while also looking after Riley. It was quite a job, but he was willing to take the challenge.

While Riley was nearly falling asleep on the couch all by herself, occasionally coughing way too loud--so loud that even the dogs were awoken--Alex was in the kitchen trying to make her some food she could easily eat in the state that she was. He decided to not make any comments about how she sometimes accidentally was being too loud. Usually he would, to save his ears and to save her some embarrassment, but this time he decided that it was best not to make her feel even worse. Plus, he wasn’t exactly sure if she was one of those people that would get mad at everything when sick. So, it was a win-win situation.

Alex poured the homemade chicken noodle soup into two bowls and put the pan back down to cool down before washing it. He took two spoons from the drawer that held the cutlery and put them in the bowls so it was easier for him to carry them back to the living room. As he started walking, he concentrated greatly on trying to make sure he didn’t spill anything while also not burning his hand on the now hot bowls.

Once he was close enough to put them down on the coffee table, he let out a sigh of relief and wiped his hands on his jeans. To catch Riley attention, he stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. He knew better than to properly kiss her. Riley had already made clear that she wasn’t going to get him sick as well. She was already afraid enough that she was going to get her brother sick since he was around her a lot on the weekend, Alex was bound to get it if he got too close.

She slowly looked up and gave him a sloppy smile when she saw what he had brought her. Carefully, she sat up to make sure her head wouldn’t start spinning and moved over a little so that Alex could join her. He did as he guessed she was telling him to do and gave her one of the bowls so she wouldn’t have to reach far. Together, they ate the soup in silence.

When they had just started dating, Alex had to be honest and said that he wasn’t exactly sure what to do during the deafening silence whenever they ate or really did anything that normal people would casually talk through. By now, however, he had gotten used to it completely. It had actually turned into a bad habit that he would also do while in the company of other people. People constantly asked him if he was ok since he was always oddly silent. A quick mention of Riley cleared it all up, though.

Right after finishing their food, Alex gave her some cough syrup to try and help her get some more sleep without waking herself up. Now with him there, rather than holding onto the blanket, she curled up against him. There went Alex’s plan of cleaning up the kitchen. He could hardly move and risk waking her. He was just going to have to either try to sneak away when she was sleeping deeply or leave it for later.

He decided on the latter. Well, that was until the doorbell rang. Iggy immediately starting barking loudly, running up to the two to signal that somebody was at the door. Alex was about to scold her for being loud before remembering that wouldn’t disrupt Riley at all. What would, however, disrupt her sleep was if Iggy started tugging. So, he quickly sent Iggy away and went to the door himself.

He didn’t know what to expect, but he definitely didn’t expect Riley’s parents.

Both parties were equally as surprised and happy to see each other. So, that means they were all very shocked, which then turned into hatred. Well, technically Alex didn’t hate them, but you get where I’m coming from. That whole relationship wasn’t great. Let’s just generalize it, ok? Ok, good.

“I thought we told you to stay away.” Was the first thing Riley’s mother said, not beating around the bush and going right for another heated discussion that would end with her getting the last word.

Alex nodded, really badly wanting to snap back and defend himself, but he didn’t need to fuel the fire. Of course, not doing anything also wasn’t going to work. He just had to stand up for himself while being careful with his word choice. “Yeah, but Riley’s sick. I can’t just leave her be.”

“That’s why we’re here. To take care of her.” Riley’s mother replied with a scowl on her face. “So, you can leave now.”

“No, I can’t. She just fell asleep. I can’t just leave.”

“Oh, what difference does it make! You’re going to leave in the end anyway, so it doesn’t matter if you do it now. All guys in a band are trouble.”

And that was when Alex snapped. This was not just against his personality, this was against his career choice. If he had been anything but a singer in a band, they wouldn’t even care. “Excuse me, I would never do that to your daughter. I would never hurt her! Once I’m in a relationship, I’m serious about it, especially with her. So, you can tell me to leave, you can threaten me, but you’ll be the ones hurting her, not me.”

“I think we know what’s best for our daughter, thank you very much,” she retorted, trying to push past Alex and into the house.

But he wouldn’t have it. He was not just going to let it happen this time. He was done always being the one who had to leave in the end. They were going to have to accept the fact that he was in love with their daughter and they could do nothing about it. “You said yourself you wished she found somebody like me back before you knew who I was. Something’s telling me that I’m not the problem here, but something else is.”

“No, I’m pretty sure it’s you. You need to get out.”

Alex softened up, trying to take a more emotional approach and seeing if that worked. “Are you afraid of losing her? Is that why you want me gone? Because I can promise you that I will not take her away from you. I know how important family is. But I also can’t afford losing her.”

Riley’s father, who had been oddly quiet, spoke up just before his wife could shout more things at Alex. “Mora…”

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re doubting our decision.” Mrs. Pierce growled back, her eyes now also drilling holes into him.

“Look, I’ve been trying to support you for so long now, but this is going too far. I can’t keep doing this.” He looked defeated, nearly forgetting he was doing this in front of Alex.

And Alex also wasn’t very happy that this was happening. He never intended to start a fight between Riley’s parents. He didn’t want to be at fault for that happening. All he wanted was for them to understand where he was coming from, not that they were going to start a conflict between them as well.

“You know I have every right to be mad!” She continued to roar, trying to go back to attacking Alex verbally.

“No, no you don’t,” Riley’s dad sighed.

“You know what? You can figure this out yourself. This isn’t worth my energy.” She made her last point and went back to her car, leaving Mr. Pierce here all by himself with a very confused Alex.

As she zoomed away, Alex was left to try and think of how to act next. Subconsciously he muttered, “well, now I definitely don’t feel horrible…”

Mr. Pierce shook his head lightly, having heard what Alex was saying under his breath. “It was a long time coming. I guess you can’t bury things forever.”

“I-- umm…” Alex scratched the back of his head, unsure of the unfamiliar situation. “Would you like to come in?”

A little while later, Alex found himself in yet another awkward position. Riley’s father had come inside and had woken up Riley, his reason being that he had to tell her something. The three were sat in the living room, Riley still curled up inside her blanket, her eyes showing that she had just been awoken from a deep slumber. Apparently, her dad was going to explain where the hatred from his wife was coming from. Alex wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be there as well or not, but it felt too rude to just up and leave.

But it didn’t really matter. Alex wasn’t going to be included in the conversation anyway. The story was completely directed towards Riley. Mr. Pierce didn’t utter a spoken word and Alex wasn’t good enough at sign language to follow along. Riley didn’t even sign anything back, she was just sat there taking everything in. When her dad was done, she still didn’t reply. Eventually, when she realized he had finished, she did have a reaction, though.

She stood up, throwing the blanket off her, and ignored the two men as she ran off to her bedroom which was on the same floor. The dogs immediately stood up and followed her, but it was unsure if they were able to join her. It wasn’t much longer until she slammed her door shut, making the walls tremble and the sound travel throughout the entire house.

There was only one thing going through Alex’s mind: what the hell was going on?

Mr. Pierce once again breathed out loudly and put his head in his hands. Something told Alex that this had not gone as planned… or it had… It really depended. Either Riley’s father was upset about Riley getting mad, or he knew this was going to happen yet still wasn’t happy about the outcome. So, basically there was nothing that could tell Alex what had happened.

“Now she’ll probably never want to see or talk to me ever again.” Mr. Pierce shook his head and leaned into the recliner he was sat on. “But I had it coming…”

“Should I go talk to her?” Alex suggested, ready to run and check on the girl he loved, not wanting to push the subject.

“You can, but I believe that’s fairly difficult without knowing what is going on.”

“Right…” Alex took this as a sign that not going after Riley was probably a better idea if he didn’t want to get into more shit.

But then the unexpected happened. Riley’s dad actually started explaining. “Riley has an older sister.”

“What? She never told me.”

“She couldn’t have.” Mr. Pierce shrugged nonchalantly. “She didn’t know.”

Alex decided to take the route Riley had taken and not say anything. He wanted to hear everything without asking questions and interrupting. This didn’t seem like a story that one could even try to interrupt. There were conversations you simply couldn’t do it to.

So, the explanation continued. “It’s my fault. Long story short, I had a child, who I did not know about for a while, with another woman, who I had had a history with before, after Casper was born and before Riley was born. Mora, my wife, didn’t take it lightly and refuses to accept anything that even makes her think of it. So, that means either their names, anybody that looks like them, sounds, whatever you can think of. More specifically, the woman’s career choice… Mora has been trying to steer me away from it as well.”

“Well, damn.” Alex stuttered. The situation hadn’t gotten any easier on him. This was the ultimate test. “So I’m guessing Riley’s upset about not knowing she has a half-sister?”

“Probably. Or maybe she’s mad at me for having an affair, or she doesn’t like that I faked my hatred because my wife made me do so. Maybe all of them.”

Alex stood up, now taking this as a sign that he had to go to Riley and see if she was okay and to try and get her to reason. “Just to clear up before I try to talk to her… so this whole hating-me thing isn’t because of me?”

“No,” Riley’s dad shook his head with a smile on his face, “you seem like a good guy. This is all on me.”

Alex wanted to say that it wasn’t his fault, that it was his wife’s fault for being so manipulative, but he decided to leave that be. He had already caused this entire fight, he didn’t need to be the reason that they split up. That would only ruin his relationship with Riley. He wouldn’t be able to live with that burden. So, all he did was give a nod and made his way to Riley’s room where he found her with tears streaming down her face and Sebastian on her lap.

A difficult situation.

Notes

I'm back!!! I feel like this is written poorly. I had no idea where I wanted to go with this other than knowing why the parents were so mad. If this sucks too much, I invite you to make up your own chapter around it, cause I don't feel like I can rewrite this again.

Anywho. There might be another author joining me on here ;) So look out for that!