Crush Me

Summary – James talks to Riley and Rhuben about his dating habits. Short one-shot

"Hey, Beautiful," James smiled as he walked into the costume closet at Rocque Records. "And Beautiful."

"Hey, Handsome," Rhuben greeted from where she was sitting on the floor sorting through a stack of belts.

"Hey!" Riley pushed apart a pile of clothes that were sitting on a clothes rack and smiled at him in return. "What are you doing here?" She looked at her watch. "It's your day off, isn't it?"

"I could ask you the same thing," James noted as he walked into the closet and closed the door behind him. "You guys don't really work here anymore."

"Yeah, but Gustavo demanded that I come in today to clean up the closet," Riley remarked, stepping through the empty space of the clothes rack and pushed the clothes back together behind her. "And Pat, No, and Syd were driving Rhu up the wall, so he offered to come help." She shook her hair out of her face as she looked around. "Though I don't think it would be much help, you guys really destroyed this place."

"Sorry about that," James apologized, dropping down into an armchair. "We were in a rush the last time you weren't around and we needed something to wear."

"Her phone was dead," Rhuben commented, kicking a pile of belts away from her. "But you can only blame her for that; she never remembers to charge it." Riley stuck her tongue out at her sister and Rhuben mimicked the gesture. "So what are you doing here?" She tilted her head back to look at him.

"Oh, Ronan said you were over here," James sat up straight before looking over at Riley. "I need you to style me for a date that I have tonight."

Riley placed her hands on her hips. "I told you guys before; I'll only style you for events, your own clothes and dates in general…you're on your own. Though I will give my two cents about it."

"That's my point," James crossed his leg at the knee. "My date is for an event. Have you ever heard of the Friends 'N' Family event?" When the twin girls nodded, he continued. "That's what it's for. And I really need you to style me for it." He got up from the armchair and moved to the stool that was in the center of the room when Riley nodded.

"Who are you going with?" Rhuben asked. She gave a teasing smile. "Aubrey Stewart?"

"Not after what happened at prom," James denied. He shook his head, flipping his hair out of his face. "Anyway, I don't think you know her. It's some girl that Gustavo is setting me up with, probably to help boost his PR or something." He frowned. "I don't even really want to go."

Riley paused from where she was rummaging through a pile of pants and looked over at her sister. She had the same worried expression on her face. James, who had been waiting for some clothes to be thrown his way, stopped and looked back and forth between the two of them. He knew that they were having a silent conversation about him. He sighed loudly.

"What?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well, it's just that…" Rhuben stood up and crossed the room to stand next to James. "We couldn't help but notice that you always talk big…always talking about getting girls and helping the other guys before they had girlfriends." She raised a hand and scratched the back of her neck. "But we've never really seen you actually date anyone."

"What are you talking about?" James snorted. "I go on dates all the time!"

"Yeah, but they're not 'honest-to-god' dates," Riley pointed out. She picked up a jacket and tossed it over to him. "They're usually set up by Gustavo or you just don't seem into it."

"We're kind of worried," Rhuben added.

James shrugged as he unzipped the front of the jacket and turned it around so he could pull it on. So what if the other guys seemed to have better luck than he did when it came to getting dates? So what if it seemed like the other guys were having more fun? It's not like he's never had fun on a date before. Just not recently. There was no problem with it. He found making music more entertaining anyway.

"Yeah, well…" James trailed off, trying to figure out what to say so they wouldn't worry more.

"Ok," Rhuben rubbed her temples for a moment. "James," she said gently, getting his attention. "Does this have to do with your Mom and Dad?"

James snorted loudly, making it a sound between a cough and a scoff. He gave the same sort of a smile, slightly condescending. "What do they have to do with anything?"

"We know about your parents' situation," Riley said slowly. "It's not that we wanted to know about it," She added quickly, messing with a tag on a nearby pair of shorts. "It was something that we had found out when we were doing research on you guys at the beginning. "And, we know that your parents haven't really set up a good example for you so, are they the reason that you always go after so many girls, but never really go out with them or stay in a relationship, because you're afraid that you're going to end up like them?"

James stared at her.

"Or like your Dad?" Rhuben added. "Getting bored and dropping one of the girls for someone else?"

James sighed and stepped down from the stool, sitting on the edge of it, resting his arms on his knees. "I hate it when you guys do that." He muttered, talking about how perceptive they were. There were many times that they knew something that he or one of the other guys were going to do before they did it and it scared him how they knew. But having been best friends with them for two years at that point, he stopped being surprised.

"Yeah, well," James shrugged again. "I don't want to risk it. I don't want to hurt anyone. Besides, being in a relationship is overrated. Have you seen how Logan and Camille act when they see each other talking to someone else? They get freakishly jealous."

"Just because she cares," Riley defended her friend.

"Yeah, but I don't know if I want that," James said. "Not right now. I don't even know how I could tell if she was using me or not. And then going back to her friends and laughing at me because I fell for it."

"You don't know that that's going to happen, Handsome," Rhuben said gently, reaching out a hand and running her fingers through his hair. "Though, we can vouch for it that it's not a good feeling." Riley nodded in agreement. "But you won't know until you try." She gave a hollow laugh. "It took us a while, but now we can spot people like that from a mile away."

"Even more depending on the way they hold themselves," Riley agreed. "But you shouldn't have to beat yourself up over something that your parents decided." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Yes, it's your decision, but it should be a decision based off of you and not off of your ill feelings for your parents, mate."

James was silent for a moment. "I don't really care; I don't want to end up like my parents. And if it takes a while for me to find that girl, then I don't want to bother."

"So what's all the extra attention on us for?" Rhuben laughed, lightly swatting him on the shoulder. "How are we different?"

James gave a charming smile. "Because you're Beautiful, that's why," He replied.

"Mhm." Riley made a sound that she didn't believe him. "You only decided to call us that since you didn't know our names." She motioned for James to stand up as she grabbed a measuring tape and measured his wingspan, having to stand on another stool herself, or else she wouldn't be high enough.

"Well, I was going to nickname you Beautiful and Gorgeous," James said, holding his arms out. He lowered his gaze and grinned at Rhuben. "What do you think of that one?"

"That depends." Rhuben tilted her head to the side. "Who would be 'Beautiful' and who would be 'Gorgeous'?"Riley laughed loudly at the stricken look on James's face. "I'm guessing that why you decided to just go with calling us both Beautiful." She teased."

That and because I knew that if I got your names mixed up, you would be really pissed off," James said. "And I know that pissing you two off would probably be the end of the world." He shook his hair from his face again. "Besides, it boosts your self esteem and it makes me look better in your eyes." He smiled proudly.

"Trust me Handsome, in our eyes, there's no way that you could look any better than you already do." Riley and Rhuben said in unison.

THE END

A/N: I hope you guys liked this one-shot! It was an idea that Rhu and I had after talking about why James doesn't have a gf on the show. We wanted to give him a good reason for it, and thought that this would be adequate enough. Plus, I like writing one-shots about the guys and Riley and Rhuben. I might do a sequel with Riley and Rhuben talking to James about their exes because I feel that he would be the first one they finally tell, but idk.

*Sigh* I can't stay away from you guys. Haha. ;)

Cheers

-Riles