No Easy Way Out

By: Riley

Summary – -Companion piece to 'Guess Who's Back-. Dougie and Riley shed some light on the way they feel about each other after so many years apart. No one ever said re-kindling a friendship was easy.

Dougie Poynter had always been nervous. When he was a kid he would hide from people as much as possible, being shy, being nervous, and being one of the smaller kids didn't do much to help his self-esteem. Not even when he was passionate about things that really interested him, such as skateboarding, helped him from being nervous. He was different and as his classmates understood that he was different and one of the quieter kids in class, he was the one that was the most picked on. There were many times he would find himself running out the backdoor of school as fast as he could to avoid those that had a vendetta against him.

Unfortunately, his nervousness spread to the rest of his life, even when he had gone on to join one of the biggest pop-rock bands in the UK. He was nervous on the red carpet, in interviews, with his friends, nervous in his own skin. He hated confrontation and had a habit of keeping things bottled up until it needed to be released and even then, he felt badly about it afterwards. It was one of his worst faults and something he had been working on, unfortunately it caused him to miss out on a lot and to ruin things that were good for him before he realized how good it was.

That's what he was thinking as he sat at the dinner table that hadn't been that full for the past five years. Being in Sydney, Australia was already a different world to him, but he and his mates had been thrusted into it with great friends and great company, especially with their first night in Australia. The Jacksons had showed them the house that they were going to be staying in for their time while they worked on their newest album—they got into a nerf gun fight, which seemed inevitable when the DarkElements and McFly were around each other—went down to the beach to walk along a little bit, and after Tom's begging, Danny's self-esteem increasing comments, and Harry's nagging, Riley finally said that she would treat the guys to their first home cooked meal while they were out there, knowing they were more likely to settle for eating fast food when they were by themselves.

Now that the dinner was over and the conversation had died down a little, Tom suggested that they go watch TV in the living room and just chill out and unwind before they got to work. Ronan, the Jacksons' music producer, and Fletch had gone out to a dinner meeting with company execs to get ideas of what they wanted the new music to sound like as well as how much the DarkElements were going to be helping them out with setting things up. Quiet as ever, Dougie watched as his friends all passed their plates down to the end of the table, chattering as they went, and Riley gathered them all, heading towards the kitchen.

Harry poked his head into the kitchen. "Riles, c'mon and watch with us. You can do the dishes later."

Riley made a snorting sound. "In this family it's either do the dishes now or wait until it piles up so much that someone is forced to do it. And at that point, we'd have Ronan breathing down our necks and trust me, mate, you don't want Ronan breathing down your neck."

Harry laughed.

"I'll be out as soon as I'm done," Riley promised.

Balancing the plates on her arms, she disappeared around the corner and into the kitchen. For the special occasion of having their friends over, the Jacksons had situated everyone in the dining room. That alone made Dougie nervous, he didn't want to spill any wine on the floor or any of his food into the seat cushions. It took all of his strength to keep his hand from shaking mashed potatoes into the nice carpet. And while they were some of his best friends, he didn't know what to say while the conversation went on during dinner; the topics changed so fast, and they hadn't had a real honest-to-god conversation in a long time as both bands' careers had taken off and they had become so busy. The spark was still there though, they quickly fell back into the familiar antics that they had before, though there were still slight differences.

He could see that the Jacksons were more open and confident with the way they carried themselves, which was a drastic difference from the closed off and cold family they had met five or six years before. That relaxed him a little, enough so that he quietly cleared his throat and followed Riley into the kitchen. She was standing at the sink, hands already plunged into the soapy water as he approached. Halfway to her, he stopped and chewed his lower lip, wondering if it was really a good idea. She hadn't particularly gone out of her way to talk to him that day, but she had been friendly. Was that a good thing?

"Take a picture, Dougie, it'll last longer," Riley said, without turning around.

Dougie continued towards her. "How'd you know it was me?'

"You're the only one I know that can slink in and out of a room like a ninja, but has, like, monster breathing," Riley explained. She flicked her hair over her shoulders and glanced at him. "Did you want something?"

Dougie blinked, easily recognizing the cool edge to her tone. He had been on the receiving end of it numerous times, other times having watched her give it to Tom, Harry, or Danny. It was only slightly better than when she got angry, when she would yell at the top of her lungs and berate you so badly you were practically in tears or as angry yourself in the end. He had never particularly been angry with her, now that he thought about it. The times when they had met when they fought, he had fun fighting along with her. He never really understood what it was that set her off about him, as it was, but it was fun pushing her buttons all the same. Even when they had dated he still tried to push her buttons and do little things that would eventually cause her to snap which would make her pissed and him laugh his head off. She was never mad at him for too long knowing he was doing it on purpose.

Dougie ventured another step forward. Riley didn't whip around and yell for him to get out, that was a good sign. "I just wanted to talk," Dougie said. "To see how you were doing."

"Isn't that what dinner was for?" Riley blew her red strand of hair out of her face and leaned over. Sponge in hand, her hand rocketed back and forth over a tough spot on the plate. Though where Dougie was concerned, he imagined her thinking the spot was his face and she was trying to get rid of it as violently as possible.

He always did have an active imagination.

Dougie tried a false bravado. "Well, I don't know if you noticed, but I didn't talk much. Then again, I was too busy trying to think of ways to drive Tom into a mental breakdown by the time we go to sleep and I didn't want my evil giggles to tip him off."

She didn't laugh.

"Come on, torturing Tom was our favorite thing to do back then," Dougie pressed.

Now Riley stood up straight and turned to face him. Though her arms were kept in the water, he could see her muscles tighten, letting him know that her hands were clenched. "Yeah, well, I grew up a little, Dougie. Did you?"

Now he knew what she was referring to. He should have guessed from the way that she was too friendly with him throughout the day. She liked to keep things on the down low, to be laid back, and to downplay whatever it was that was bothering her until her emotions took over. She didn't want everyone else to know that while she was happy to see her friends after so long she wasn't particularly fond of him. He thought after six years she would have let her anger go and focus on what they were out there for, to make some good music. To be completely honest, he didn't blame her. They had such a good thing going, then he ruined it.

"Listen…" He trailed off. This had been what he really thought about throughout dinner, wanting to apologize. The tension he could feel had kept him quiet, in case she would snap at him or something. Great, now his hands were starting to flood with sweat. How did things get this bad? They used to spend a lot of time together just goofing off and now she didn't want to be around him. "I just wanted to say-"

Riley slapped a dishtowel into his chest, leaving a wet handprint. "If you're going to talk, then you have time to dry."

Dougie took the towel and grabbed a dripping wet plate she had left sitting on the left side of the sink. He started to dry it off, his lips pressing into a thin line as he thought of the times that his sister, Jazzie, had accused him of not doing anything worthwhile. She had been teasing and he had ended up helping around the house more, but it was his own insecurities that had him sticking as far away from things that would put him on display as he could. Dougie sighed.

And there came the newest flood of sweat.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what happened between us," he said quietly, refusing to look at Riley in case it wasn't going well. "I'm sorry for the way I acted and the way I treated you. I'm sorry for pushing you away like I did. There was just…a lot of stuff that I had trouble going through and I didn't know how to deal with it." Riley opened her mouth. "I know that's not an excuse, I know that there isn't any excuse for any of it, I just wanted you to know."

He expected her to rant and rave and bitch him out, he didn't expect her face to soften. "Thanks," she said after a long moment of silence.

"You're welcome," Dougie replied.

The tension had lifted a little, he could breathe easier, but there was still silence between the two of them. Dougie didn't do well with silence, it made his skin crawl. Someone always had to do something to break it and he usually ended up doing or saying something stupid. That used to make her laugh, her eyes lighting up and sparkling as it so seldom did, he wasn't sure how she would react to it this time. Dougie took the chance to look her over. Last he had seen her, her black hair rolled in waves down her back, now it was cut to her shoulders, with more streaks of red in her hair. She used to have smokey eye make-up that easily set off her blue eyes, now the makeup was more refined, though she still used eyeliner and red strand of hair to accentuate her eyes. Her lips which usually defaulted into a frown when she wasn't smirking, was relaxed in a way that she could easily smile.

"So…how're things with you and James?"

To the untrained eye, that would have been a dumb question. Who brought up who their ex was currently dating? But there were more than meets the eye with Dougie, he was trying to get a gauge on how she felt about him with the simple question, moving to be supportive if he needed to be, judging by the expression on her face. However it backfired, as most of his plans did, as her facial expression remained blank.

"We broke up, actually," she said with a slight sigh. Dougie made a noise of sympathy, though inside he was cheering. He continued to take the plates from Riley, drying them off, moving his hand closer to hers, little by little with each dish he was handed. "A little after Busted broke up." He was surprised when she continued to explain, not having asked, but he continued to listen. "James and I fought," Riley said dully. She rolled her eyes, her upper lip curling. "He was always saying that he had finished another song and had a meeting with these people to start up this band or to get this song released. I thought he was losing his passion for music and was only working so hard to get back at Charlie. Matt and I were caught in the middle and we didn't know what to do, so I tried to stay out of it the best I could, but he kept going and going and I couldn't take it after a while. James accused me of trying to protect Charlie, of taking his side, and I accused him of trying to get back at him. He called me a bitch, I called him a dick, and we broke up." She shrugged carelessly. "We're ok now, but for a while, it was a bit dodgy."

Dougie gave an exaggerated pout, smiling internally when he saw the corners of Riley's lips twitch upwards. "And you leave little Dougie out in the cold? Out there in the backyard, tied to the proverbial dog house?" Riley started to chuckle. "And you let him in first? I don't see how he's your favorite."

The rapport that he had created with Riley immediately crashed and burned as quickly as her expression changed. It went from what was close to a full blown smile to a deep frown, her lower jaw jutting out, and her face starting to redden.

Bollocks.

Riley slapped her hands down on the side of the sink, the clang causing him to jump. "Oh really?"

"Is everything ok in there?" Tom called, his voice laden with concern.

"Shh, you might be ruining a hot moment!" Danny hissed back.

There was laughter in the living room after that. Riley lowered her voice, taking her hands from the water and flicking them before drying them off. She heaved the towel onto the stove top before turning to face him, her eyes flashing. "You can't fucking see it?" She jabbed herself in the chest. "My life was getting better, I was becoming happier and more comfortable with myself and finally getting through everything." Crossing her arms over her chest, she jutted out her hip, keeping her gaze on Dougie's.

As usual, her intensity and intense stare made him pull his blue eyes—lighter in comparison to hers—away and focus on the floor.

"Then you become so fucking depressed and quiet," she spat. "You started to push me away and the longer you did it, the more it hurt. You became a shell of yourself, you went back to the guy that would only give me one or two word answers when I tried to talk. Or if that wasn't the case, you only shrugged at me. You were bored on our dates, you stopped trying. Whenever I would move to give you a kiss or a hug, you would turn your head away or step away from me. Like you were embarrassed to be with me. How did you think that was going to make me feel?"

"I'm sorry," Dougie repeated.

That was all he could find himself to say. He knew what she wanted to hear, why he had started to pull himself away from everyone, why he had become so difficult. Why he was throwing something good away, but he couldn't. He hadn't even properly talked to the boys about it. How was he supposed to explain that everything that she had been feeling before, what she and her siblings had been able to work through, the darkness that loomed over their heads, he couldn't deal with himself?

"Do you think that we could be friends again?" Dougie ventured.

Riley gave him a funny look. "We are friends, Dougie. And that was the most frustrating thing. Even though I was mad at you, you were still my friend. I mean…" she raked her fingers through her hair. He remembered that he always loved it when she did that, one of his favorite things about her—apart from her whole body, he was a guy, so what?-was her hair. He liked to play with it whenever he got the chance. She thought it was creepy the first time he admitted it, giving him a critical look, wondering if he was on drugs, but let it go. "Yeah, I was pissed about us breaking up, but I've had six years to get over it. My excruciating anger has turned down to a minor irritation now that I was finally able get it off my chest." She rolled her eyes. "Think it'd be pathetic if I still held a grudge, mate."

"No." Dougie licked his lips. "Like, the way we were before."

Riley slowly nodded, but didn't answer. He wanted to go back to the time right before they stared dating, when they were able to make each other laugh so hard they would cry. Where Dougie was so crazy and wacky that Riley couldn't help but join in at times. Where she would be the serious one and he would be the silly one and she would get frustrated when he wouldn't talk seriously with her and he would calm her down by playing her something on the bass or the two would gang up on Tom. The times where he would get jealous when she would talk to Harry about her problems even though he knew that he couldn't be an emotional help.

Back when things were better.

And maybe they could progress from there.

"Maybe," she finally replied, giving him a shadow of her trademark smirk.

Dougie smiled.

A/N: And I'm back to the point where I would write McFly stories and one-shots that all have titles of their songs. Haha. I don't know why I did that so much, but I still like the idea. Ahem, anyway, I hope you guys liked this one-shot. I got the idea after Rhu and I finished reading the McFly: Unsaid Things…Our Story memoir and that's given us a lot of ideas for one-shots and stories for the Just My Luck/McFly fandom. So keep a lookout on our stuff. God, I looked back at my old stories and they were terrible, the chapters were short and not much happened and if stuff did happen, it moved really quickly.

And for those that were wondering, I have an idea for a one-shot including Jacqui and Gen that I'm working on and will be up soon.

Let me know what you think.

-Riles