Good Morning Heartache

by Audrey Dacey

  When the credits started to roll, Alexis quickly jumped out of her seat and headed to the exit without him. He stood up and grabbed his trash, but she was out of the dark theater before he could catch up with her. Ryan was pretty sure that she was running away from him.

  He knew he should back off. This couldn't go anywhere after he was done with the wedding gift and he went back to New York. He wasn't sure he was ready for a relationship, but he damn sure wasn't ready for a long distance relationship, which carried none of the benefits of being in a relationship.

  As he walked out of the theater, Ryan noticed that Alexis was talking to a lanky guy with spiky brown hair and who was dressed in worn jeans and an embarrassingly inappropriate graphic t-shirt having to do with drunken debauchery. Ryan's chest tightened. He clenched his jaw and marched over to the couple.

  It wasn’t Richard, though Ryan expected him to pop up again soon. It was probably another one of her lovers. He was sure that Alexis was seeing other men. She didn't have any reason to sleep only with him, but the thought made him feel kind of sick and crazy. He hated the feeling. This guy in particular made him crazy. Maybe it was his complete lack of effort or his obvious distastefulness. While Ryan’s face still ached from the day before, he was ready to try to punch this guy too, even though he didn’t have a reason.

  When he moved closer, he saw that the color in Alexis's face had drained, and she wasn't looking this guy in the face. From what he knew of Alexis, this was not how she picked up guys or treated old lovers. Something was wrong.

  Jesus, maybe she did have another stalker. This was ridiculous. Richard was enough stalker for one person. Where did she find these psychos?

  Ryan stopped next to Alexis's left side. “What's going on here?”

  Alexis looked up at him, her eyes pleading for help. She gulped hard and then wrapped her arms around Ryan's waist gripping him tightly. He looked over at spiky hair and watched his face twist as Ryan wrapped his arm around Alexis's shoulder.

  “Nothing. Ryan, this is Frank. We used to date.”

  Ryan knew about Frank. He knew that he was likely the biggest jerk on the planet. Willing to play along with Alexis's game, Ryan held out his hand to shake Frank's. “Oh yeah. I think that she's mentioned you. High school, right?”

  “College,” Frank corrected him with a look of disgust on his face.

  Alexis rose on her toes and kissed Ryan's neck. A shot of need ran to the tip of his penis. He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the mouth. He could play the game, but someone was going to pay for it later. He hated to think that it would be him—alone in the shower—but he doubted she’d be grateful enough to give him the pleasure. Of course, after Saturday night, he had no idea what to expect from her.

  “Didn't you move away somewhere, Frank?” Ryan asked.

  Frank stood a little taller, but he still didn't reach Ryan's eye level. He could tell the guy was distressed by Ryan’s presence and obviously annoyed.

  “Italy, but I was transferred back here last winter.”

  Alexis ran her hand across Ryan's stomach, gently, like she cared. She didn't say anything, and he knew that she was uncomfortable because the nails of her other hand were digging into his back, almost painfully.

  “Do you do Mixed Martial Arts?” Ryan asked. This guy didn’t look like a physical threat, but neither had Richard. Alexis shot him a look and shook her head almost imperceptibly.

  Frank fumbled with his popcorn. “Ahh…no.”

  Ryan smiled at him. “That’s fantastic news. What about…”

  Alexis stopped him, going as far as to place her body in front of his a little bit. “Well, it was nice to see you, Frank, but we need to get home and let the dog out. Maybe we'll see you around.”

  Frank grabbed Alexis’s arm, and she stiffened against Ryan’s body before Frank pulled her close and whispered something in her ear. She shot her other hand out behind her and grabbed Ryan’s hand, squeezing it tightly. He was ready to take care of this guy as soon as she let him know he could. Alexis whispered something back and then pulled her arm out of Frank’s grasp.

  “Email me so that I can send you an invitation,” she finished and then wrapped her arms around Ryan again.

  Frank pushed past them down the hallway of theater entrances and said something that sounded like “yeah, whatever.”

  Ryan and Alexis began walking casually out to the lobby, still wrapped in each other’s arms.

  “You did good, thank you,” she said.

  “Sure thing.” He kissed the top of her hair and inhaled her mint shampoo.

  Ryan turned just in time to see Frank, glaring back at him. Ryan gave him a smile and waved. “What did he say to you?”

  “He called you an asshole and offered me a ride on his ‘Good Ship Lollipop.’”

  Ryan clenched his teeth at the comment. “He doesn’t do any form of organized fighting, right?” He didn’t have a problem dragging Frank out of the theater by the collar of his shirt. Despite his failure to best Richard, Ryan was a pretty good fighter. Not fitting in during high school will do that.

  “No more fighting for you.” She ran a finger along his bruised chin line and up to his lip. “I took care of it. I told him that your ship was significantly longer and had better on-board entertainment. I also may have mentioned that I was committed to sailing your friendly seas.”

  “Really?” he paused. “I’m a little nervous to ask, but what did you invite him to? ‘Cause while I am all for a threesome, I don’t think I like that particular male-to-female ratio.”

  Alexis smiled and hesitated and stood straighter to look at him. She took a quick shallow breath in through her teeth, making a hissing sound. With the exhalation she said apprehensively, “Our wedding.”

  Ryan chuckled, “So you do lie.”

  “Only to him.” Alexis nuzzled back up against his side. “Lie for a lie.”

  Ryan glanced back over his shoulder one more time, but Frank was gone. He liked to think that she was doing it because she wanted to, but Alexis probably didn't know that she didn’t have an audience to perform for.

  Opening the door into the damp night air, Ryan commented aloud, “I'm glad you didn't marry him.” He could feel Alexis stiffen against him, but she relaxed when he added, “He doesn't come close to deserving a woman like you. Where do you find these guys?”

  Alexis shrugged, “I’m as careful as I can be, but it doesn’t mean my judgment is always great.”

  On the ride home, Ryan managed to keep his hands to himself, but it was a struggle to keep his hand off her thigh while she sat looking out the passenger side door.

  After they got back to Alexis's house, Ryan left almost immediately. As much as he would have liked to have stayed and seen the other rooms of her house, particularly her bedroom, he knew that he had to back off a little bit. At least until she was a little less defensive and a little less scared that at any moment he was going to drop to a knee and declare his undying love for her. While he wasn’t going to do that, he realized that he certainly felt more than lust for her. A guy doesn’t go toe-to-toe with a girl’s ex-lovers if he’s just screwing her when it’s convenient.

  Alexis was right: friends or lovers. And he liked her too much to just be her lover.

  Luckily, work on the house would continue in the morning, so he had a good reason to stay away from her for a while. It would give him a cooling off period so he could figure out...

  He wasn’t even sure what he had to figure out.

  He knew he liked her more than he should, as a person as well as a lover. He was afraid that if he wasn't more careful he could very easily fall in love with her.

  Chapter 13

  Riley paced her bedroom. She had just gotten off the phone with Jimmy, and it was really happening. They were going away together. Alexis didn't want her around; that wasn’t hard to see, so she figured that she would easily be convinced that this was best for everyone involved.

  It was a little before
noon, and Alexis would be in her work room, doing whatever it was she did down there in that boring pit of nothingness. Riley didn't see why she bothered trying to work. They had more money than God. School. Work. They weren't for people like them. They were for the people who needed money.

  Sick of hanging out in her room, Riley went downstairs. She looked around and saw her clothes lying around the great room. Riley figured that if she was going to even get a word in with her sister, she better not give her anything to complain about. Besides that, leaving her shit around the house was a good way to annoy Alexis, but not a good way to get her in an amicable mood. She began picking up the various pieces of clothing.

  Riley hadn’t meant to make a mess. It’s just what happened with her. The first time she realized that she was a slob was when she was sent away to school. Before that, things always made it back to their homes. She didn’t know how, but she didn’t take the time to think about it either. But within two hours of living in the dorm, it was obvious. She had changed her clothes and gone to the orientation meeting. When she returned she had a livid roommate, unpacked boxes, and clothes all over the floor.

  From that point on, she used the bulk of her allowance to pay her roommate to keep things tidy. Riley didn’t see the purpose in learning the skills to do it on her own because once she benefitted from her trust she wouldn’t clean anything ever again.

  Riley guessed that she should wash her wardrobe before leaving for Boston. Since she didn't know where they were going, she also didn't know the next time a private washer would be available. Of course, a lot of that depended on Alexis.

  It didn't matter. Either way she was getting out of the house and out of that school. If she set foot in another one of those classrooms, she would start throwing chairs. When she ran out of chairs, she would move on to desks. God help them if they didn’t kick her out by the time she ran out of desks.

  Arms full of jeans and shirts, she trotted up the stairs to the laundry room. She threw the clothes into the barrel of the front-loading washer, added detergent to the compartment, and ran everything on cold. To hell with sorting, there wasn’t really a point. If anything was ruined, she’d just buy new stuff. Though the clothes were fairly new, she wouldn’t mind a whole new wardrobe.

  Riley moved back to the staircase and saw Alexis ascending the stairs toward her. Riley painted on a big smile when Alexis looked up at her, and she could see her sister's face drop in disappointment and concern. Not concern for Riley, but concern that she would have to talk to her, which was why Riley was sure that Alexis was going to love her plan.

  “What's up, Riley?” she asked, grumpily. Alexis was always grumpy. Riley hated to think about such things, but she wished her sister would just get laid already and stop taking it out on her. Sex with Jimmy always put Riley in a good mood. It made her feel wanted, and that went a long way toward making her happy.

  “Can we talk?” She posed the question in her sweet voice. She didn't want to lay it on too thick, but she had to try to lower Alexis's defenses.

  “I was just about to take Sam out for a run. Can it wait?”

  “I don't know if I'll be here when you get back. I'm going to the mall and lunch with Jimmy. I need to get a few things.”

  “Don't you have enough?”

  Riley hated when Alexis concentrated on the least important part of the point she was trying to make. “I won't take much of your time. I just need to ask you a question.”

  Alexis started moving to her bedroom. “Fine, but I'm going to change while you're talking. Make it fast.”

  “I want control of my trust fund.”

  Alexis disappeared into her closet. Riley was optimistic about the silence. It meant that Alexis was actually considering it. She returned to the bedroom and threw a pair of running shorts and a tank top on her bed. “No.”

  Riley was sure that she felt her heart shatter. A piece ached in her sternum and another in her throat. Her eyes stung, but she fought off the tears.

  “What? Why not?”

  “Can't do it. You'll have to wait until you’re eighteen.”

  Riley took a deep breath. Okay, she thought, this wasn’t supposed to be easy. There were a few other things she could try before this was over. There was still a good chance she could change Alexis’s mind. “If you give it to me, I'll go away and you won't have to deal with me anymore.” She was going to leave either way, but this fact might help her sister say yes.

  “Don't be ridiculous, Riley.”

  Riley could feel her pulse begin to quicken, and the pain she felt transformed into anger. This is why she hated her sister. She didn't listen to a damn thing she said, and she dismissed her like she was still eleven. Riley was basically an adult. In just a few months it would be official. Why couldn't Alexis see that?

  “Jimmy and I need that money. It belongs to me. You have to give it to me.”

  “Ahh…there it is. You and Jimmy. Does he know about the money?” Alexis waved her hand dismissively at Riley. “Never mind. Of course he knows. Don't you know that is sensitive information? You can't just tell anybody that you have millions of dollars lying around.”

  “Why wouldn't I tell him? He loves me. He knows me better than anyone.” Riley hated it when Alexis tried to lecture her. She was terrible at it and didn't know what she was talking about. And again, they had strayed from what she really wanted. “Just give me access to my trust fund, and you won't ever have to see me again.”

  “Why can't you just stay here? What are you planning on doing with the money that you can't do with your allowance?”

  “I don't want to be here. I hate being here, and you hate me being here. We're going to get a place together, where we can live and Jimmy can rehearse with his band. The band has a few gigs lined up, and I want to be there with him instead of in this stupid house with you.”

  “What about school in the fall? Is Jimmy going to stay at the place you bought while you finish your senior year?”

  Riley looked down. She was hoping this part wasn't going to come up, but she figured nice and reasonable wasn’t working anyway. Maybe if she pissed her sister off enough, she would kick her out with a bank book in hand. “I'm not going back to school.”

  Alexis put her hands on her hips and took a step toward Riley. “Then the answer is a hell no,” she yelled. “In fact, if you don't go back to school, you're not getting your allowance either.”

  “What? Are you kidding me? You can't do that. It's not allowed.” Riley clenched her teeth and pulled her fingers into little fists.

  Alexis gave her a self-satisfied smile. “I absolutely can and will. We're done. Close my door on the way out.”

  Riley stepped closer to her sister, and they were within a foot of each other. “Give me the money.”

  Alexis, in turn, stepped backward. “Riley, back off. You're not getting the money.”

  Riley wanted to hit her, but she couldn't. Alexis would call the police. She'd rather see her little sister leaving in a squad car than willingly with what was rightfully hers. Riley wasn’t about to give her that satisfaction.

  Stomping out of the room, Riley knew that she would have to figure something else out. She was leaving and needed money. She'd do what she had to in order to get it. Riley charged into her bedroom and slammed the door behind her then punched the wall next to the door frame.

  Alexis always had to do things the hard way.

  §

  Alexis’s chest tightened as she pounded down the stairs to the kitchen. “Sam!” she yelled down the hallway. “Let’s get out of here.” She had changed quickly after her sister stormed out of her room and decided to do some storming of her own, right out the front door with Sam.

  Knowing what was about to transpire, Sam was waiting for her at the front door, tail wagging and tongue dripping with saliva. Apparently no one could wait to get out of her house.

  It was funny. Alexis always wanted her sister out of her house, but it stung a little bit when Riley was so w
illing to throw in her face that she was miserable around her. Alexis knew that she was failing as a surrogate parent, but she hadn’t noticed that she was also failing as a sister. She thought that she was trying, that she was giving it her best, but that wasn’t the case—at least according to Riley.

  She stepped out into the hot midday sun. Even a tank top and a pair of running shorts would be too much clothing to run in on a day like this, but she’d have to deal. She’d surely be driven out of the small town with torches and pitchforks if she jogged down Main Street in nothing but a pair of tennis shoes.

  Alexis knew that Riley struggled with making friends at Franklin. The place was piled high with snobs, and while from Alexis’s point-of-view Riley should fit right in, that was never the case. The quarterly report she got from Riley’s teachers and dorm mothers painted her as a loner: “Doesn’t interact with peers…” “Spends time off campus without schoolmates…” The school always assured her that they had a plan to get her more involved, and to “integrate her with the Franklin community” so that she would have “friendships that lasted a lifetime.” But that was a bunch of crap, and Alexis knew it.

  Alexis figured that Riley would do as she had. Put her head down, complete the classes, and graduate so she could move on to whatever was more acceptable to her.

  Alexis picked up her pace, and she could feel the frustration and anger begin to melt in the summer afternoon. Sam matched her pace, and they both were panting after a few minutes.

  Two things that Alexis couldn’t stop thinking about, no matter how hard she pushed herself, were that Riley was ready to ditch school and was “in love.” Alexis was sure Riley had no concept of the consequences of either.

  The first was simple: people would perceive her as an idiot when she wasn’t. It wasn’t hard to finish high school these days, even at elite “college prep” schools. Anyone that wanted to do it could. While it seemed pointless, it was a stepping stone and without it there wasn’t much hope for anything better. After high school, Riley could sit around and live off her trust, but that much money plus nothing good to do with one’s life leads to self-destruction. Many of Alexis’s fellow Franklin alumni had that problem. And unfortunately for them it wasn’t difficult to have “friendships that lasted a lifetime.”