-It's been a long time since I've even looked at this fic, and honestly I was never going to come back to it. However I've edited a few things in the current chapters and am officially going to try to contiune this story as much as I can! I'm obviously not a pro writer or anything, so the 'edited' chapters will still have flaws in the style and errors in other ways, but I hope it looks and reads a little better than it used to! Hopefully I'll re-publish the next chapter tomorrow and then I'll try for a new chapter within the next couple of days. Thank you so much for reading!-
Riley looked at her ancient Nokia cell phone for the hundredth time over the past hour for some sort of text or call from her aunt.
Nothing had changed.
Maybe her trusty little phone was finally giving up the ghost; it wasn't like Aria to ignore dozens of calls especially from her young niece who was new to town.
Hitting the sticky keys very hard, she managed to pull up her aunt's number with minimal permanent injury to her fingers and called the number again,
"Aunt Aria, it's me again." she said into her phone when her call went through to voicemail again, "Just wondering where you are… Again. So please call me back, it's getting kind of late and there are strange people staring at me. Bye." She ended the call and put her phone back into the pocket of her cardigan.
Surely it was the careful way her mother dressed her that brought on so many stares. The deeply conservative Juliane Markus bought only the most basic and high collared dressed and blouses for her 17 year old daughter, and braided her unstyled auburn hair every day. Most of the people at her small town school cruelly called her 'the Amish girl' because they didn't understand her parents' values of simple living (nor, did they understand what an actual Amish person was, apparently). Most of Riley's day was spent studying, doing chores, and practicing the violin her parents forced her to play. It worked for her. She knew nothing else. The only reason she was given a cell phone was for this trip, to make sure she could contact Aria if a situation very much like the one she was currently in were to arise.
It was a huge shock when her parents told her that she was going to spend her summer break with her mother's sister in the city of Steelport, whose airport was probably larger than the entire town she grew up in. She was incredibly nervous to be in such a large place, but in saying this, she was completely thrilled on the inside. Her aunt was a business woman and she couldn't wait to ride her first aeroplane to see Aria for the first time in 10 years in a huge city with brilliant lights, and buildings higher than the clouds. One such building belonged to her aunt for business and living.
When a person wrapped their arms around Riley's middle, she squealed loudly and kicked what she hoped was her captors' shins, causing them to swear and drop the flailing girl.
"Riles, it's just me!" The voice of the person told the attacking girl. Riley, who was ready to bolt, turned to see her aunt, as red headed as she and her mother were.
"Aunty Aria!" Riley was so happy to see her aunt at this point she didn't even care that she was over an hour late. "Mom and Dad say hi, and that you have to look after me and not let me get caught up in any of the gang stuff going on at the moment," Riley laughed, but Aria shared a slightly apprehensive look with a man standing beside her.
"Yeah, yeah, we should probably get going. It's getting a little late and I want you to see a little of the city before you fall asleep," Aria tried to manoeuvre the conversation away from gangs and hoped that Riley would never find out Aria's secret.
As they made their way to Aria's Bootlegger, she introduced Riley to the man who was currently carrying the heavy suitcase, much to Riley's chagrin. "Riles, this is Pierce. Pierce, Riley."
Pierce nodded to the girl and smiled, "Hey,"
"Pleased to meet you," Riley replied, helping him lift the bag into the trunk of the car, "I'm so sorry my bag is so heavy." She grunted as it fell into the trunk with a dull clunk.
"What do you have in there, anyway? A whole buncha grenades?" Pierce laughed, not noticing how the joke flew right over the younger girl's head.
Riley's eyes were wide as saucers, "Why would I have grenades?" Aria came back into view to guide the girl to the passenger seat of the car,
"He's kidding, of course," She smiled widely at the confused girl before shutting the door and turning to Pierce, smacking him upside the head. "No more talk of guns, or violence or gangs, alright? She's just a kid, and a really sheltered one at that,"
"Matt's just a kid," Pierce countered quickly,
"Yeah, but he was running a fuckin' gang at, like, 14. Riley's good and innocent. She can't get caught up in my shit,"
"Aw, c'mon, she's gonna find out at some point soon. You can't hide it,"
Aria returned to the driver's side to terminate the conversation before she had to go further into the details of her family's past, most of which she hoped to forget.
She smiled at Riley when she entered the car, "You hungry? We could get some take-out before we head home,"
The girl nodded eagerly, having not eaten all day and feeling her stomach growl at the mention of food. "That'd be really nice, aunty,"
Aria drove them to the closest fast food joint before taking the short trip to the high rise building she lived in, "This is it, kiddo. Your home for the summer,"
Riley was in complete awe. The building stretched up for what seemed like forever, all glass with orange accents, and she was tempted to screech in delight, "It's beautiful!" She opted to say instead.
She rushed inside to the elevator and waited for Aria to tell her which floor she was on. Pierce bet her to it, though, and pressed the penthouse button much to Riley's delight. When they reached the top, Riley was breathless as she looked around at the modern setting so very different from her own home, taking in every detail around her.
"How do you like it?" Aria asked, slightly worried by the silence.
Riley tore her eyes away from a painting and grinned, "It's amazing,"
Aria had asked as nicely as possible (or more likely yelled) for the gang to avoid the penthouse for the evening so not to have to explain too much to Riley pre-emptively. Random purple-clad gangsters with semi-auto's probably would have had the girl asking far more questions than Aria had the energy to answer at the moment.
When it finally got too late for Riley to enjoy any of the sights and meet any more people, Pierce took her down a couple floors to her bedroom. "You can do anything you like to it, y'know. Throw paint on the ceiling, make a complete mess, whatever." Though Riley doubted she'd do anything like that.
It wasn't a 'room' at all, more like an entire apartment complete with two bedrooms, a small kitchen, bathroom, and a wardrobe bigger than her bedroom back home. The other bedroom was locked, making her wonder if she was to share with someone else, not that she minded the company. She was hanging her clothes up when she got her answer.
The door banged open, causing her to jump a mile in the air and when she went to inspect, she saw someone struggling with a massive box, trying to hold it while simultaneously trying to close the door and put a ring of keys back in their pocket. She rushed over to help them before they dropped the box and nudged the door with her hip to close it.
"Are you alright?" she asked, helping them put the box on the floor.
"How did you get into my flat?" They demanded before Riley had even straightened up. She looked up at the mildly annoyed looking face of a young man who couldn't have been much older than herself. He had a strange appearance to her eyes, unlike anything she'd seen in her home town. He was wearing a shade of blue lipstick and thick eyeliner the same colour as his inky hair, as well as what looked like neon blue lights in the collar of his black jacket. In all he reminded her of a Christmas tree, but she found it fascinating all the same.
When she remembered he asked her a question she stumbled with words for a second, not quite knowing what to say, "Oh, well, Pierce brought me here. I guess I'm staying here for the summer, though I didn't know anyone else lived here already…" she trailed off, hoping it was a good enough explanation.
The young man sighed audibly, squeezing his eyes shut for a second. When he opened them he looked a lot less irritated, "I suppose we're flat mates then," he said, sounding none too thrilled with the idea, "Just please stay out of my room. I really dislike people being in there without my permission."
Riley nodded, not wanting to upset the person she'd probably be seeing the most of the entire holiday, "Of course, I assume that was the locked door,"
He nodded, "Speaking of which, I should be getting this in there." He picked up the heavy box again and began to make his way down the hallway to the end room.
Riley stood, unsure if she should help or not, but instead decided to call after him, "My name's Riley, by the way!"
He turned his head only to call back, "I'm Matt,"