Since Alex wasn’t home, things might be a bit easier for me to write about. He was on tour, doing the things he loved, singing his songs, being the hyper guy all his fans knew him for. Riley obviously stayed at home, still walking past Alex’s house every day but feeling a bit weird and stalker-y doing so, trying to text Alex on a daily basis. She tried to follow where he was every day and would send him a text at the time he’d usually wake up when he was at home. On tour, however, he woke up way later, but still loved waking up to a text every morning… well, afternoon, but still.

I know it’s dumb and really pointless, but Riley would secretly go on Youtube late at night when she was all alone in her bedroom and look to see if there were any new videos of the most recent All Time Low concerts. She couldn’t hear what was happening and always triple checked if her sound was completely turned off so that her brother wouldn’t hear, but she liked seeing Alex up on stage. He seemed so happy and content, like he was in his element. And although Riley would never be able to share it all with him, she fell asleep every night with a smile on her face. He was doing what he loved, and she was proud of him for that despite the fact that she only recently joined the adventure and wasn’t there along the way the entire time.

However, that’s not what I want to discuss in this part. Since Alex is gone, I can actually discuss something else! Exciting, isn’t it?

So, how about I give you some information about Riley’s family? It’s just her parents and older brother, but it might still be interesting. The specific day I want to talk about is when Riley and Casper went to visit their parents, like they usually did at least twice a month. It was only a fifteen-minute drive by car. They lived a neighborhood over, but it was very similar to the one Alex lived in. The houses just had slightly larger gardens, but that was all the difference really. It wasn’t like the houses were any larger. Another neighborhood people settled in, as obvious by the fact that their parents still lived in their childhood home.

Right after Casper came home from work on a Friday, Riley let Iggy go into the back of the car before she herself sat in the passenger seat. Casper, of course, was driving (not because Riley couldn’t drive, because she could, but Casper was one of those people who hated not being the one in control of the car and would actually get anxious). As long as he was happy, she didn’t mind. She had him to thank for a place to stay.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea and think that Riley’s parents couldn’t take care of her themselves. Honestly, they would have loved it more than anything. A two-story house with four bedrooms was quite lonely with only two people living there, but Riley immediately took the opportunity to live with her brother instead. You see, after having broken up with that cheating ex-boyfriend of hers, Riley wanted to show that she could live independently, however she didn’t exactly have a job. So, to her, living with her brother seemed like having more freedom.

She couldn’t have been more wrong, though. Her brother was overly protective, as obvious from the previous parts, and she was probably stuck inside the house more than if she had stayed with her parents. But then again, it didn’t really sound good to tell somebody you still lived with your parents at 25. However, let’s be honest, Riley was sort of a special case and people probably wouldn’t be judging her as much for it. But still, she liked to think she had chosen the right option. Her brother was her best friend and was easily able to support both of them with his nine-to-five job.

You see, he was like the perfect son. He got straight A’s throughout high school and did really well in college as well. Although he didn’t go to an Ivy league school, he totally could have. He just didn’t feel like going too far away from home. And yes, that included New York. So, instead he simply went to Towson University, which wasn’t far away at all. He could have chosen to stay and live at home, but he eventually did move out during his last two years of studying. You can most likely see that he didn’t really like being far away from family, so he was more than happy to have Riley move in with him after he had gotten a very good steady job. In case you were wondering, after going to university he already landed himself a nice job at a company and slowly moved his way up. Right at this moment in time of the story, he was a ‘Finance Director’, which was why he easily managed to live in a nice two story house with him being the only source of income.

Riley, however, wasn’t the perfect child. Once again, I’m not talking about her being deaf, it would be absolutely horrible of me to say anything about that. Maybe her being deaf did contribute to her not being as ‘great’ as Casper, but it’s not what I’m directly attacking here. She did ok at her school. She definitely wasn’t a straight A student and was actually rather glad if she ever managed to get a grade that high. B’s were more common, but that was only after she started realizing having only C’s wouldn’t get her anywhere (that doesn't mean the mainly finished schools with only C's). It also wasn’t that she didn’t spend enough time on school, because she tried so hard and it was all she practically did. But she was just one of those kids that couldn’t do it as much as she wanted. Nothing wrong with that, but it did surprise her parents that her brother was a special case. They didn’t think of her any lower than him, though. What she went on to do next was do a Psychology course online. As much as she struggled, she kept it up for the sole fact that she could easily get any job with that degree.

Turns out being deaf, however, made people overlook her qualifications.

But let me go back to Riley and Casper going over to their parents’ house for dinner. Some real shit went down. Like, real shit. Well, not literally, but figuratively. Some news was eventually spread, and it caused some great reactions. Trust me. Maybe you won’t trust me… I’ve said it multiple times now, and I always seem to be wrong. It’s a matter of opinion.

Anywho… where was I? Oh, right. Let’s start with them already sitting at the dining table, Iggy curled up at Riley’s feet despite there being a dog bed for her literally just five feet away. There was already food on the table: some perfectly cooked chicken breasts, broccoli, and anything else you can imagine would fit with a meal like that. So, the food was already scooped onto the plates and was being shoved into mouths. Easy way of saying it: they were already having dinner. That didn’t stop Riley from texting when her phone buzzed in her pocket, however. Quite the opposite, actually.

Alex sent her the usual text he’d send just before going up on stage. They’d be getting ready, putting on their guitars, fine tuning everything, but Alex always found time to tell Riley that he was going to go up in five minutes. Of course, Riley had to answer back to it every time. Not because she was obliged to, but because she wanted to cheer him on despite not being able to stand next to him. Her support just gave him a quick confidence boost. Apparently, her texts were the reason why he’d go up on stage with a smile already planted on his face, believing nothing would be able to ruin the show, or so he said...

His stupid sappy comments somehow also caused Riley to show a small smile of her own, one she tried to desperately hide from her parents along with the phone that was in her lap. But when she looked back up, she saw her entire family staring her down. Maybe they had been trying to get her attention, but none of them had poked her and grabbing her attentions through visuals also didn’t work since she was looking elsewhere.

‘What?’ She looked around at her family, her mom sitting across from her, her brother and dad on either end of the short four-person table.

“I thought we left texting at the dinner table back in the teenage years?!” Her mother scolded, signing the sentences along with every word she said.

Everybody in the small family knew sign language and automatically started using it when Riley was around along with their normal speech. Only occasionally, the ‘automatically’ didn’t just happen when she was there to see it, but also during everyday things without her. Casper had his fair share of meetings where he started using ASL as well as his speech until he realized he must have looked like a crazy person making gestures that weren’t like any usual hand gestures people made when talking. It was quite a well-known fact around the office that he knew sign language… and it wasn’t just spread through rumors.

“She’s probably texting her boyfriend,” Casper snorted, sloppily translating to ASL with a fork in his hand as he stuffed some more chicken in his mouth.

“Boyfriend?” Their father spoke up, looking at Riley for answers. He was half expecting her to get mad at her brother for making something up like that. It wasn’t that they didn’t believe their daughter couldn’t find love, but after her last relationship, things were bound to go slow. They didn’t really think it was possible.

But Riley’s glare that pierced through Casper said otherwise.

“A rockstar,” Casper nodded with wide eyes, showing sarcastic enthusiasm in not just his tone but also his body language, “he plays in a band and is on tour right now. A match made in heaven!”

“A rockstar?” Their mother looked frightened, staring at Riley as if she had just heard her announce a teenage pregnancy. “With tattoos, alcohol, drugs, and strippers? Are you out of your mind?”

‘He has two dogs that get along with Iggy very well and he’s very nice.’ Riley instead decided to answer with all the good things about Alex, ignoring the stupid questions her mom had asked her. ‘He’s even trying to learn sign language for me.’

“You know how those guys work…”

‘No, I don’t, please inform me.’

“Riley, he’s a rockstar. He’s no good for you.” Her mother stressed, not showing any signs of possibly wanting to listen to anything good there was to say about Alex.

‘How do you know? You’ve never met him.’ If Riley could have spoken, she would have said it in the most smart-ass tone she could muster.

“I don’t really like him,” Casper decided to contribute once again, acting as if he was making an understatement. “I can tell he’s no good. He’s obviously not serious about it at all and would drop it in no time for another girl. He’s only out for one thing, and you can all guess what that is. Honestly, he’s one of those guys to do anything just to get in a girl’s pants and then never speak to them again.”

Their mother immediately turned to their dad and started to try to convince him that the relationship wasn’t a good thing at all. But there wasn’t any convincing needed. Mr. Pierce already agreed full heartedly. He only agreed to everything his wife said, neither of them bothering to make their conversation legible to Riley. They were already planning how to get their daughter out of the godforsaken relationship.

All Riley could do was turn to her brother for what felt like the millionth time that dinner. She couldn’t speak up for herself, nobody was bothered to ‘listen’ to her arguments. And that smug smile Casper had on didn’t help either. He looked so satisfied with what was going on, seeing that his parents agreed with him and were going to do anything in their power to make Riley realize the mistakes she had made.

‘Fuck you,’ she signed at him, not even feeling the satisfaction of using a swear word in front of him, and got up from her chair. Although she couldn’t hear it, her chair scraped loudly over the hardwood floor, probably leaving scratch marks. Iggy woke up from the noise and started following Riley even though she was still practically asleep.

Riley bolted straight for the front door and aggressively grabbed the leash from the coat hanger. Managing to easily attach it to Iggy’s collar, she went for the door handle next and let them both outside. She slammed the door shut behind her, the walls shaking from the harsh impact, the conversation between the parents coming to an abrupt end. They hadn’t even realized that their daughter was making a dramatic exit even though they heard her chair squeak loudly.

Although dogs generally weren’t allowed in the park close to the house, it was dark and there wasn’t anybody outside to tell her off (even though Service Dogs were practically allowed anywhere). So, Riley opened the small gate and sat on the swing, Iggy standing next to her with her tongue out and panting. Leaving the table might have seemed like the wrong thing to do, especially so early on in the argument, but Riley knew her family. They would continue to bicker until they got her to send Alex a supervised text message that broke off the whole thing. It was better to leave before everything escalated.

She wished she could text Alex and find comfort in him, but he was on stage oblivious to any of the events that occurred back in his hometown. To him, it was just another perfect evening where he got to perform in front of his fans, knowing that Riley was out there waiting for him. But, he couldn’t be any more wrong.

Oh, how great. I’m loving how this is going. A long distance relationship, a brother that isn't supportive at all, parents that already hated the guy without even knowing him. It’s all just a mess. This isn’t something that will improve overnight, if ever. Prejudices exist no matter what. Nothing will change.

Turn around if you can’t handle the truth.

Notes

Anybody else up for suggesting anything? It can be a continuation of where this chapter ended off or a completely new subject!

Here's some stuff you guys could maybe base your suggestions on (I'm fine with anything):

• Riley telling her parents/brother she broke up with Alex, but actually seeing him behind their backs
• Alex meeting the parents (coincidental or formal)
• Alex coming back from tour
• Riley going out to find work (come up with a possible job here too)
• Anything else along those lines
• Anything I haven't mentioned yet
• Something I was completely oblivious about
• Something you want to know
• Other (I'm up for writing anything... A N Y T H I N G)