A/N: So welcome back to Love Does Not Exist. Hope you guys are enjoying it so far. This chapter is four and a have pages long, so I really hope you guys like it. :3

Chapter 2: Meeting Him Again.

It had been four weeks since I'd scored my two part time jobs, which left me another 8 weeks until I was done with my probation period. Life was great. My dingy motel room had a bit of a makeover (a new lick of paint the same light purple shade as my hair; I loved it and was surprised that the motel owner let me chose the colour and a kitchenette had been installed), I'd nearly saved up enough for a little two car. That saving part itself seemed like a miracle because I could never save while I was at school. The feeling of making my own money had me glowing like an expectant mother, I loved my two jobs and was subconsciously petrified id so something to mess it all up.
Since it had been a month since I'd started working, it also meant it had been a month since I'd seen Riley because I stopped drinking and going clubbing.
Call me crazy but I kind of wish I'd at least given him the chance to hang.
He seemed interesting and straight away I put walls up just because that was something I had become use to doing these last two years; pushing people away.
Needless to say, I knew exactly why I did it. It was easier to push people away than it was to get involved and getting hurt like I did with Dimitri.
Dimitri, my heart stung at the thought of him. I still thought of him sometimes and I'm not even going to deny the pain I still felt at how things between us went down.
Apparently things happened for a reason so I stopped dwelling on it.

I'd been awake a little while, but my alarm clock chiming informed me that it was now time to wake up and get ready for work. Today's shift was at the bar and grill. With no further thought of my past, I headed into the bathroom to shower.

It wasn't long until I'd and dressed and was at work, setting up the dining area for the day.
I hadn't been setting up long before I realized a couple of the napkin dispensers were nearly empty so I made my way to the storage room and took hold of a new package and made my way back to the dining area. I scanned the room when I walked back in, partially force of habit from being a Guardian and partially my wanting to serve customers.

In the corner of the medium sized room, I noticed a couple sitting across from each other in a booth, the lady, who looked about forty, seemed to be scolding the guy sitting across from her; who had his head resting against the table. I smirked; I knew the signs of a hangover when I saw them.
Quickly placing the napkin package down, I withdrew my note pad and pen from my apron and made my way over to the customer.
'Hi there, welcome to Big Bec's Bar. Are you guys ready to order?' I asked politely. The woman's scolding ceased straight away and a smiled took hold of her face as she looked up at me.

'Aren't you lovely?' she asked. I smiled back at her and waited while she opened her menu. She hummed a little as she scanned its contents.
"I think I'll get a coffee, black and one sugar, with two hash browns and sausage,' she told me after a minute.
'Rile, what are you getting?' she asked the guy cradling his head. He groaned something about a strong coffee and bacon. My attention lingered on the guy, he seemed familiar. Since I had a job to do, I shook my head and wrote down the couples order before I could forget and told them it wouldn't take long.
It was only a matter of seconds before I was hanging in the kitchen window, informing the cook slash owner, Big Bec of the new order. She shouted (her way of talking) that it would be up soon and I made my way back to the napkin dispensers and restocked them.
A loud 'Holy shit,' soon snapped me out of my auto pilot filling of the sauce bottles and I turned into the direction I'd heard it. My mouth formed a small 'O' as I realized what was going on.

'You work here?' Riley, the guy from the club asked me. He was standing by his table, gawking at me like some kind of seed. The fuck?
'Are you stalking me?' I responded quickly. He frowned a little as he took in what I was asking.
'What? No, I don't stalk. Mum wanted me to come here for breakfast with her. I had no idea you worked here. Can we hang later?' He asked in a flustered rush. I made a bit of a Un-Rose-like squeak. This couldn't be real? I pinched myself in the arm, because clearly I was dreaming. There is no way that this is happening, right? I mean, I was only thinking about him this morning and now he was here. I sighed, would be chilling with this guy for a few hours be such a terrible idea? I mean, I could turn out to want to knock his teeth in.

Luckily; Big Bec's bell chimed signaling that their order was ready. I walked over and smiled at my boss as I took hold of the plates. I was at work which generally meant I didn't have time to stand around and debate whether or not I should hang with someone.
'What time do you get off?' Riley asked me as soon as i set his plate in front of him. I paused at looked at his mother. She didn't seem to phased that her son wanted to associate himself with a waitress. She smiled at me and took a little sip of her coffee.
'Five,' I breathed and turned back to finish doing my sauce bottles.
From the time Riley and his mum left, I felt like the day was going really fast, like in a dream or something. I think it was excitement. It was definitely something I hadn't felt in a really long time.

At quarter to five, Riley walked back into the dining area and took a seat right at the counter, which is what I was standing behind. I felt myself lose my breath at the sight of him. What on earth was going on with me? I frowned. You don't know this guy! I scolded myself. He could be a killer or have a weird torture fetish. I groaned internally. Of course I would think of something like that. I shook all torture thoughts from my mind and smiled at him.
'You're early,' I noted. He glanced at the clock and shrugged.
'I guess I am,' he responded lightly. I smiled, something else I hadn't done in a long time as I contributed to wipe the counter tops down.
'Piper?' I heard Big Bec call. I turned toward her.
'Yeah, boss?' I asked, slightly scared she would rip me for socializing on the job. Shit, how could I have been so silly? I took a steady breath. Relax, I told myself.
'You can finish up for today,' she smiled politely. I'd known since I met her that Big Bec was a pretty chilled boss, as she'd told me on my very first shift that my modified appearance didn't bother her as long as I did my job, but letting me finding early was a nicety I wasn't expecting. I was still on my probation so I doubted I should be jumping at chances to go home sooner than I should be.

'Are you sure?' I asked her, wanted to be positively sure. She smiled at me again and nodded her head yes.
'Okay, is there anything else that needs doing before I take off?' Can't be too eager to help; besides I wanted this to work.
'I wouldn't mind it if you tipped out the bucked in the storeroom before you headed off. The floors in there should be dry by now,' she answered as she hung one of her pangs up on the wall. I nodded and headed back to the store room.

Before long, I had my apron hung up and the two of us were walking through a park I didn't know I was here. That fact alone was pretty sad because I'd been living here nearly two years. Guess that sort of thing was likely when you'd spent every waking moment drunk or nursing a hangover.
"Where do you want to hang?" Riley asked me, pulling me from my not so sober memories.
"Oh, um. I really don't know," I answered. The question had caught me semi off guard because I thought walking through the park was fine.
"Spencer's?" he asked. I had no idea what that meant.
"What?" He smiled and pointed to the clearing. A sign for a homely looking little bar was now visible through the trees. I shrugged, not really caring what we did. I had thought he wouldn't be too keen to see the inside of a bar considering the hangover he'd been suffering that same morning. At the same time, that didn't usually stop me, either.
"Sure, I don't mind," I nodded.

Five minutes later we were seated at a table for two with drinks and a packet of Doritos at the back of the bar. I was still sure I hadn't been here, which was a tad surprising since I was like a raging alco. I took sips of an energy drink through as I looked around the bar. It was nice. Quiet but still popular. This place reminded me of the bar off True Blood.
"So, Piper. What's your story?" Riley asked me, taking a sip of his own drink. I took a chip and bit into it, contemplating what I should tell him. I didn't want to get in too deep with this guy; I knew that much for sure. Another breakup like the one with Dimitri would kill me, which is something I was sure of.
"Depends on what you want to know, I guess," I shrugged, trying to buy myself some more time. Should I tell him what really happened? Should I make something up? God, I was confused.
"What made you want purple hair and tones of metal in your face?" he asked. Phew, for now I was good. Not that I had a 'tone of metal' in my face. That part of his question kind of annoyed me.
"I wanted to stand out, I guess. I didn't want to stay Plain Jane like everyone else. What is the point of having this body canvas if you don't decorate it?" I responded, which was half the truth. I'd actually dyed my hair, pierced and inked my skin so I wouldn't look like the old Rose. I did as much to change my appearance as I possibly could so I wouldn't be recognized if anyone come looking for me. I looked into his face and saw him turning my words over in his head.
"I see your point," he said at last. I smiled and took another chip from the packet.

"Have you got any mods?" I asked him, I hadn't seen any on him but that didn't always mean he didn't have any. He shook his head no.
"My mother would skin me alive if I tainted my skin like that. Not that I think it's tainting it. She's just old school." Well shit, she's that sort of parent. I groaned internally. She'd probably have a heart attack if he took me home and announced that we were dating. I bit my lip. I was jumping the gun, like a lot. One thing I knew for sure was that I was going to support my kid, if I ever had one, if they wanted to dye their hair weird colours and get tattoos.
"I'm not too keen on close minded parents," I told him finally.
"No me, neither. They're really hard to live with." I didn't doubt that in the slightest, I thought as I twirled my straw around the opening of the can.
"I'm assuming you have tattoos as well?" he asked. I smiled and nodded. The only one that's visible at the moment was on my wrist; even then hardly anyone noticed it. I held my hand up to show him the Yin Yang symbol.
"This is my most first one," I told him. It was the first tattoo I'd paid for with money I'd got from stealing and selling any phones I could get my hands on. I bit my lip. That isn't your life anymore, I reminded myself as Riley traced the circle lightly with his finger. It felt a tad weird that he was doing that, because it was normal skin after all, just with a bit of colour.

"What does it mean to you?" I took a breath. Here comes the personal stuff.
"I'd been though a lot of depression so I guess it kind of resembles my struggle with it. It's hard to be positive or light, as its Yin Yang," I explained, telling the truth. He nodded and took another sip of his drink, which I guessed was getting hot. I knew my drink was.
"What other tattoos have you got?" I smiled. Of course, I knew that question was coming. I guess I'd show him in the order of first to last, since I started with the Yin Yang symbol.
"I also have a dove," I told him, moving my hair so he could see the bird behind my ear, "and that one represents me flying away from my problems." I pushed my hair back into place and lifted my shirt a little, showing him the medium-sized diamond on my hip.
"The word diamond is Greek in origin and symbolizes 'invincible'. The meaning is associated with the diamond because it is an indestructible earth metal. No matter what you do to a diamond; it can't be destroyed, which is kind of like me. I'm not easy to destroy." I really didn't want him to ask me any questions about it, so I quickly moved onto the next one, the moon with a face on my shoulder blade.

"Since I'm a night owl, it made sense," I laughed lightly, "and it was once of the apprentice's first tattoos so I got it discounted." He laughed at that.
"What a better reason to get a tattoo?" he asked. I wasn't sure if he was having a dig at me so I continued on. I pulled up the hem of my shorts to show him my only text tattoo. In script, inked into my leg were the words 'The pain you feel today is the strength you feel tomorrow.'
"That one is pretty self-explanatory. And the last one is my dream catcher. No need to buy one if you've always got one with you," I told him, showing him the dream catcher complete with a feather and beads on the inside of my bicep.

"Wow, some of them are pretty deep," he commented. I nodded. My tattoos meant a heap to me and there wasn't one I regretted.
"Yeah, I probably won't get anything that doesn't mean something to me. I'm sentimental like that," I answered, gulping the last of my hot Red Bull. Not my first choice of energy drink, but it's all the bar had.

"Riley!" I heard someone yell. Riley looked up his face spread into a grin straight away. There was something really alluring the way his face lit up like that. I finally adverted my gaze to the new person. He was young; I'd say about 25, dressed up in a smart black suit, complete with a blue and silver stripped tie.
"Man, I haven't seen you in forever," Riley told the newcomer as he stood up and shook his hand firmly. The stranger nodded.
"Yeah, I know. Work has been crazy lately. The bosses have me on a wild goose chase trying to find this girl who has run off," he explained. I swallowed. This guy was a Private Investigator.

"That does sound pretty crazy, man. Anyway, this is Piper," Riley announced, pointing at me. I smiled tightly. I didn't care who this guy was, I just wanted to know who this girl he was looking for was. I was really on edge. The guy who's name I still didn't know pulled a photo from his brief case.
"Pleasure. While I'm here though, I may as well ask. Have either of you seen this girl? Her name is Rosemarie Hathaway." I could have fainted. Just my fucking luck!

Questions:
What are your thoughts on Rose's tattoos/hair? (I'll probably go into the piercings later).
What do you think of Riley?
Who do you think sent the PI?

Please review with your thoughts and comments, I'm aiming for 5 for this chapter.