Chapter Fourteen – Big Time Break Up
"Hey, why don't you take a break?" Mrs. Knight questioned Ronan as she walked over to the table that he was sitting at in the suite that she shared with Kelly and Brittany, paper spread out all around him. She handed him a mug of coffee and he took it without looking, setting it aside. "What are you doing anyway?" She questioned, sitting across from him.
"Bills," Ronan replied as he continued to look over a few papers. "I didn't think that my food bill would sky rocket so fast, but then again Patrick eats like a horse." He leaned back in his seat and rubbed his eyes. "Sorry for bringing it over, it was the only place that I could get it done in peace. That's why I had to send; actually I had to practically beg, Julius and Brittany to take the others out."
"Well, at least we're alone now." Mrs. Knight replied with a warm smile. "Kelly and Gustavo took the boys to work on some stuff and I'm sure the others are floating around the city, being bored."
"Good point." Ronan replied and leaned across the table, kissing her sweetly. "I have to be honest with you though, it's been driving me insane how little time we'd be able to spend together."
"Well, you were the one that said that they wanted to keep our relationship a secret," Mrs. Knight reminded him as she pulled her red hair up into a ponytail. "So if there's anyone you want to blame then its yourself." She smiled, showing him that he was kidding.
"No shoot," Ronan replied, resting his arms on the table and then leaning forward and resting his chin on them. He didn't like to curse, at least not around his kids, so he adopted that phrase every time he wanted to, and it was now stuck with him. "Remind me next time if we ever go on a tour not to go with so many people that it drives you insane trying to make sure you know where everyone is."
"Yeah, but you know that your kids as well as Kendall, Katie, and the others are happier being on tour with each other." Mrs. Knight pointed out, taking another sip of coffee before putting her mug aside. "I mean, just think about how depressed they would be if they were going on two separate tours."
"Right, you know, 'cause their happiness has nothing to do with the fact that they get to spend so much time with their 'significant other'" Ronan replied sarcastically, using air quotes around the words. "I'm sure that has nothing to do with it at all." He let out a breath of air. "I don't even really know why I'm making a big deal about it. Riley and Rhuben are happier now." He shrugged.
"You have Father-Daughter syndrome that's why," Mrs. Knight laughed in reply. She got up from her chair and walked behind Ronan and started to give him a back rub. "I made up the name,"
"Really? I wouldn't have guessed." Ronan replied and smiled when she lightly hit him on the back of the head. "Sorry. Go on."
"Pretty much what you have is the same thing that any brother, Julius, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney, and any father gets whenever their sister/daughter starts to date." Mrs. Knight pointed out. "You want to make sure that they don't get hurt and you only see them as a little girl that always needs protecting. But you know that Riley and Rhuben are different and have protected so much that it would be weird if the roles were reversed." She explained as she continued to rub Ronan's back.
"Hm," Ronan replied, his eyes closed. "I get what you mean." He opened his eyes and looked at the stacks of papers in front of him again. "Thanks for the backrub," he stated as he stood up and turned around, gently took Mrs. Knight's hands in his. "I know just how to repay you." Smiling, he moved forward and kissed her.
Not two minutes later the two of them heard the door open and Gustavo's and Kelly's voices. Mrs. Knight smiled as Ronan made a sound of annoyance under his breath.
"It's your idea." Mrs. Knight reminded him giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"No shoot," Ronan replied with a forced smile before distancing himself from Mrs. Knight and then turning to face Gustavo and Kelly, who were arguing. "Should I even bother to ask why you guys are yelling at each other this time?" He crossed his arms over his chest. "I could pretend to be Griffin and annoy you if that makes you feel better."
"The last thing that I need is a reminder about Griffin," Gustavo replied loudly.
"So what is it that's annoying you?" Mrs. Knight asked wiggling a finger in her ear to make sure her hearing wasn't damaged.
"Kelly here thinks that I'm pushing the guys too hard!" Gustavo replied, violently gesturing towards his assistant. Kelly slowly rolled her eyes towards him.
"And Gustavo doesn't believe me when it is evident that the guys are going to pass out from lack of rest." Kelly replied. "They're on a break Gustavo, getting them to keep working isn't going to help them become better. It's just going to make them even more exhausted."
"That's what you think!"
"No, it's what I know!"
"Ok, since you guys are obviously not going to agree on this," Mrs. Knight interrupted, getting the two of them to fall silent. "How about we discuss this over some drinks or something." She then turned away so Kelly and Gustavo couldn't hear her. "I'm definitely going to need it so I can forget about the huge argument that's inevitably going to happen."
"You and I both," Ronan replied and cleared his throat. "Ok," he called loudly and Gustavo and Kelly finally stopped yelling at each other. "Why don't you try that exercise that Griffin made you do before, why don't you try that role playing, reverse thing." He suggested, waving his hands around.
Gustavo stared at him for a second before speaking. "You're starting to become as crazy as Griffin is, and that's saying something."
"Gee, thanks." Ronan replied, rolling his eyes. "It's better than you two, acting like a bunch of two year olds."
"He started it." Kelly replied and stuck her tongue out at Gustavo.
"I don't care who started it!" Ronan snapped back, clearly ticked off. "What I want the both of you to do is to make up, and shake hand and get over it." He then looked at Gustavo sharply. "And I want you to leave the guys alone for a while. It's almost Thanksgiving; they deserve a break, alright?"
"Fine," Kelly replied, holding up her hands defensively.
"You don't have to be so mean about it." Gustavo replied, frowning.
"Ugh, I'm so tired!" Carlos cried, slumping over the arm of the couch that he and his friends were sitting on in the lobby.
"Carlos, you've said that twenty times in the last two hours." James groaned, running his hands through his hair and then moaning and lowering his arms again, in pain. "Would you please stop? I can't take it anymore."
"So why don't you just go to the room or something?" Logan replied, equally as annoyed as James was.
"I've been trying for the past two hours," Kendall replied from where he was sitting on the other couch, his head tilted back towards the ceiling. "But Gustavo has worked us so hard I'm in too much pain to even move an inch."
"I'm bored." Carlos groaned.
"So count the ceiling tiles." Logan replied impatiently, lightly reaching out and shoving his friend on the arm. Carlos braced himself against the couch to make sure that he didn't fall over.
"I already did," he replied, looking up at the ceiling. "There are 1,450 ceiling tiles and about 35 chandeliers in this lobby," he paused for a second. "Which is ridiculous because they're wasting so much energy using so many chandeliers to light the lobby when they could just use sunlight" he added as an afterthought.
"You think that's the ridiculous part?" James questioned, flicking his hair out of his face. "I didn't even know that you could count that high." Kendall and Logan laughed as Carlos pouted, too tired to even retort. "I'm bored." He whined this time.
"Let's play a game of cards," Kendall stated as he slowly bent towards the floor and grabbed his gym bag and unzipped a side pocket, pulling out a blue deck. "We don't have to move much to be able to do that." Logan, Carlos, and James all sat up and moved around the table that was in front of the couches and grabbed the hands of cards that Kendall passed out. "Let's play a game of Poker."
"Sure, but you're going to lose." Logan smiled as he picked up his hand. "Especially since you guys don't know the meaning of counting cards."
"Hey, I know how to count cards," Carlos denied. "I have five of them in my hands right now!" He stuck his tongue out at Logan. "Take that Mr. I'm-Too-Smart-For-My-Own-Good." Logan smiled as Kendall and James laughed.
The boys played game after game of Poker while complaining about how they were on a break and how they should have time off. Plus Carlos went along and explained his theory of how he thinks that Gustavo was trying to kill them so he would be able to take all of their money, resulting in a conversation about how it would be possibly to kill someone without leaving any evidence.
"I don't want to know how you know that," Kendall stated as he, James, and Carlos moved over to the far side of the table, away from him. "But I'm warning you, I'm sleeping with my eyes open tonight."
"Guys, you're going crazy over nothing," Logan replied, shaking his head. "Anybody would know how to do that if they watched as much CSI, Cold Case, and the many other ID shows." He shrugged. "There's no reason to be afraid of me."
"Right," James replied with a nod. "Just stay over there and keep your hands where we can see them.
Logan rolled his eyes.
"Hey," Riley greeted Kendall as she walked up to the guys, her mouth set in a line; she ignored James, Carlos, and Logan, who were sitting with him playing cards, as they had greeted her. When they saw how mad she looked they quietly moved their hand of cards over their faces. "I need to talk to you." Her eyes flicked over to the others and flashed a little. "Alone."
"Ok," Kendall replied, looking a little confused. He looked at the ceiling for a few seconds as he thought. "Uh, we can go to my room then."
"Uh Landy," Logan spoke up quietly and tentatively. "Maybe you should calm down a little bi-"
"Shut up, Logie!" Riley snapped back at him.
"Ok," he replied obediently and put the hand of cards back over his head. Kendall pushed back his chair and got up, shrugging towards his friends as he followed Riley to his hotel room. James waited until they were out of sight before speaking.
"What's that all about?" James questioned after a second of silence.
"I don't know," Carlos replied, his eyes wide. "But she scared me."
Once Kendall and Riley reached the hotel room, he pulled out his card key and swiped it through the slot, pushing open the door quickly. He closed it behind them and then led her over to the room that he and Logan shared.
"So it's obvious that you're mad at me about something," Kendall stated as soon as he closed the door behind Riley. He placed his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. "I'm not sure about what thought, you've been avoiding me like the plague for a long time and I don't know what I'm doing wrong." Riley stayed silent, her chest heaving up and down as she glared back at him. Kendall pulled his hands from his pockets and held his arms out and shrugged. "So if you could explain it to me, I'd be grateful."
"Please don't make a joke of this," Riley finally spoke, brushing her hair out of her face. She was clearly pissed off, the most angry that Kendall had ever seen her before. Her eyes were flashing and her hands were clenched into fists.
"What am I making a joke about?" Kendall questioned, running his hands over his face, leaning against the door, staring back at her. Riley took a couple of deep breaths as she reached a hand into her pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. "What's that?" He immediately recognized it as she unfolded it and read it; he saw a flash of his father's handwriting and held his breath, knowing that he was going to get yelled at for lying to her. "Where'd you get that?" he breathed, his hand flying to his back pocket. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back before looking at her.
"Does it matter where I got it?" Riley snapped back. Kendall looked at her and she rubbed her nose. "A couple of days ago when us girls were having that sleepover and you guys came back covered in tomato sauce," she paused for a second. "Which I still don't want to know how that happened, it fell out of your pocket."
"And you read it." Kendall replied, more of a statement than a question.
"Seeing your dad's name on it, I couldn't help but be a little curious," Riley replied, feeling guilty for a second. But then it went away. "So when were you going to tell me about it?" Riley questioned folding up the letter, tossing it at Kendall's face. It hit his chest and fell to the floor.
"Why didn't you say anything until now?"
"I wanted to wait and see if you were going to tell me first, which obviously you weren't going to."
He tilted his head down again. "Sorry," he whispered and looked at her through the fringe that fell over his face. "I was going to tell you," he shrugged and I just didn't know how."
"Well it's a good thing you didn't or I would have said that it was a bad idea." Riley remarked and continued at Kendall's confused look. "It's not going to end well if you see your dad. You can trust me on that. It's never a good thing if he leaves for a long time and then all of a sudden shows up again."
"What?" Kendall questioned, lifting his head and looking at her sharply.
"Don't go see your dad." Riley reiterated. "It's not going to end well."
Kendall blinked once. "What the hell?" he questioned. Riley shot him a confused look and he continued. "Why would you want to ruin something for me that could possibly bring our family back together?"
"Ruin it for you?" Riley repeated, her eyes flying open.
"Yeah," Kendall wiped sweat off of his forehead. He was starting to get worked up.
"If anyone is ruining anything, it's you!" Riley spat, looking like she wanted to kill him. "I had asked you about twenty times what has been bothering you, and you kept saying," she rolled her shoulders back, trying to imitate Kendall's stance. She lowered her voice a little. "'It's nothing, Ruby.' 'I'm fine.' 'Don't worry about me.'" She snorted and went back to her normal pitch. "You know that I can't help but worry about other people. But the worst part was that you lied to me, to my face, every time I asked you."
"Ok, I admit that was a bad idea," Kendall shot back quickly. "But," he licked his lips and looked away. "I mean, this is the first time that my mom, dad, sister, and I can all be a family again. Something that I've wanted so badly for a long time and you're trying to talk me out of it." He crossed the room and grabbed onto her shoulders. "Why? Why would you do that?"
"I'm not trying to ruin anything, Kendall." Riley shoved his hands off of her shoulders, silently warning him not to touch her. "I'm not having this whole conversation to tell you how much I'm trying to break apart your family. Get over yourself!" She set her jaw and looked away from him. "If that's what you think I'm doing then you obviously don't know me very well."
"I do know you," Kendall insisted, not sure what that had anything to do with the conversation. "I know you so well it's not even funny."
"Oh yeah?" Riley angrily shoved her hair out of her face. "You think you know me?" She glared. "If you know me so well, did you know that whenever I'm in emotional or physical pain I clench my hands into fists? Did you know that when I first met you guys I had a huge crush on James but didn't want to do anything about it because I was too afraid? Then I saw how Jo felt about him and backed off." Her eyes narrowed even further. "Did you know that the first time that I met WayneWayne I had a crush on him too? Did you know that the only reason that I keep to myself is because I don't like it when I'm vulnerable to others? There's so many things that you don't know about me so don't pretend that you do."
"So what if you had a crush on James or WayneWayne?" Kendall demanded, getting hysterical, his voice cracking horribly. "So what? I don't care! All I knew is that when I first met you, I thought you were a different kind of girl, not like all the others ones that practically throw themselves at anything that moves. I liked that you spoke your mind and that you cared about others." He looked down at the letter that was in between them. "And right now that's beginning to be a total drag." He looked up at her again and licked his lips.
"I'm sorry I lied to you, but I didn't really have a choice." He whispered.
"You didn't have a choice?" Riley repeated, raising an eyebrow. She actually started laughing, which just caused Kendall to become even angrier.
"No!" Kendall snapped. "I didn't have a choice. Because I knew that you going to go waving around that and acting like you knew everything that was going to happen with my dad." He clenched his hands into fists. "You don't know everything."
Riley held her breath as she counted backwards from ten, to calm herself down. She let out a huff of air; her shoulders holding so much tension that they were practically at her ears. When she finished letting out her breath, her shoulders fell, but her hands were still clenched into fists. "Listen, just because I know what it's like to have a dad that's a jerk-"
"Would you stop turning everything back to you?" Kendall cried emotionally. "Every time we talk seriously it's always 'my dad hit me' or 'my dad's a jerk' or 'I can't trust people because of my dad'. I get it ok? I get it! Your dad was a jerk! But he's not here anymore. He's in fucking jail! Not everything is about you. Newsflash, the world doesn't revolve around you, stop acting like it!" He grinded his teeth back and forth. "So why don't we talk about what's really bothering you."
"What do you mean?" Riley suddenly felt tired, rubbing the back of her neck.
"This, letter, couldn't have been the only reason that you're mad at me," Kendall replied. "I know that lying to you was probably the dumbest thing I could have ever done," he moved away from her and walked over to the window, looking out of it before turning back to her. "So why don't you explain to me why you've been avoiding me." He looked her in the eye. "Because that hurts more than you screaming at me." Silence. "You don't let me kiss you anymore, and every time I want to hang out with you or spend some time alone with you, you freak out. It's not like I'm going to hit you or anything." He shook his head. "So just tell me what's up"
Riley looked taken aback, and then her cheeks flushed. She turned and mumbled something under her breath, rubbing the back of her neck. Kendall sat there for a few seconds, waiting for her to speak; finally she muttered something under her breath that Kendall strained to hear. He asked her what she said and she lifted her head to reply.
"I said that you're suffocating me," she replied heatedly. "It's like, I can't go anywhere without you having to be around. The girls and I were talking at our sleepover recently and they were saying all these things about how we're like, exactly the same person, and then you went and said that we're soul mates and everything and it freaked me out."
"Do you," Kendall hesitated. "Do you not think that we're soul mates?" Riley pulled her hair behind her ears. "Do you love me?" he asked and sat down on the window frame. He took a breath as Riley continued to stay quiet, looking down at her feet. "I want you to answer honestly."
"I don't believe in love," Riley muttered in reply. "Not really. I don't believe that anyone can truly be in love with someone just because I don't really know what love is."
"Well that doesn't surprise me," Kendall laughed a little. "It would explain why you lead me on for so long. You know, I actually thought that I could change you, that I could help you realize that not everybody in the world is out to make you miserable, but I guess I was wrong." He scratched his forehead. All of a sudden he was angry again. "I never said this out loud but I often wondered what caused you to get abused so badly, but now I realize that sometimes you deserved it!"
There was a stunned silence between the two of them. Neither of them could believe that Kendall had just said that, let alone yelled it at her. But there was something else that the two of them had in common, they were too proud to admit when they were wrong about something, and they were both wrong when it came to this argument. He didn't mean it at all, it just popped out, and he knew that he couldn't take it back.
Riley saw red and said the first thing that popped into her head.
And like Kendall she didn't mean it what so ever.
"You know what," she raised her hands to her hair and then slapped them down to her side. "You're the worst boyfriend ever." She took a breath. "You're such a hoon...such a..." She smirked when she found what she wanted to say. "Big Time Loser!"
Kendall glared back at her. "And you're a Big Time Bitch!" Riley glared fiercely and turned on her heel to leave, but not before ripping off the necklace that he had given her for her birthday and throwing it at him. "You're a heartless bitch that doesn't care about anyone but yourself!" he hurled after her. He watched as she stopped abruptly, listening. "Go ahead and run! Run away like you always do when you're scared!" As he watched, Riley slowly shook her head and continued walking.
Kendall turned and punched the wall next to him before cursing loudly and shaking off his hand.
The loud sound of the hotel door slamming shut alerted Ronan that something was wrong with whoever had just come into the suite. He looked around the small kitchen area and quickly counted; using the process of elimination to tell that it was Riley who wasn't there. Everyone else was helping him make dinner; he hadn't even noticed when she slipped out earlier.
"What's wrong?" Julius called as she started to walk by the kitchen.
"What makes you think that something's wrong?" she questioned sharply as she stopped walking.
"Because you slammed the door hard enough that I'm sure it's going to fall off its hinges the next time someone touches it." Ronan replied, motioning to the door. He peered at his daughter. "What's up?"
"Nothing," Riley replied with a slight growl. "I'm fine!" She ignored the look that Patrick and Noah gave each other. Ronan didn't believe her for a second, as she generally told him the truth the first time he asked her something. "Hey guys," she got her siblings' attention. "You know that song that we've been working on the past couple of days?"
"Yeah," Patrick asked, taking the chance that no one was watching him and grabbing a deviled egg, shoving it into his mouth. "What of it?" he asked with his mouth full. Sydney reached out and slapped him on the arm.
"Rip it up." Riley instructed and started to walk away. "It's not worth it."
"Whoa," Rhuben held up her hands, looking at her sister as if she was crazy. "It's a great song, sure there are a few things we have to tune here and there, but it's still great." She placed her hands on her hips. "Why would you want to rip it up?"
"Because it's pure crap, that's why!" Riley snapped back, whirling back around, her hair hitting her in the face.
"Excuse me." Rhuben muttered under her breath with a hint of attitude. She had a feeling what was wrong, but didn't want to guess just yet. She glanced down and noticed that Riley's hands were in fists and she raised an eyebrow, noticing the familiar gesture.
"Riles," Ronan stated slowly, taking off the gloves that he was wearing and folded his arms across his chest. "This attitude that you have has got to stop."
"What's really going on, Rilandon?" Julius questioned firmly.
"Nothing!" Riley repeated, now in complete annoyance. "I'm fine!" She made a huffing sound and turned on her heel to walk to hers and Rhuben's room. Halfway there, she suddenly stopped walking and crouched towards the ground, her arms around her stomach.
Sydney frowned and wiggled down from the counter that he was sitting on and hurried over to his oldest sister. He brushed her hair out of her face and looked sad himself when he noticed that tears were falling down her cheeks. Using his small hands, he brushed the tears away from her cheeks.
"Ri-Ri, why are you crying?" he asked, immediately causing Rhuben, Patrick, and Noah to hurry over to the three of them and crouch around too. Julius rubbed his hands over his face and Ronan just stood back quietly.
"Kendall and I got into a fight," Riley managed to say through her tears. "We broke up." She sniffed loudly. Ronan let out a groan and ran a hand over his face warily. "Usually I wouldn't care if I broke up with someone, but I didn't mean anything of what I said to him."
"Does he know that?" Noah asked gently. "If not, you could always go back and apologize." He grabbed her hand and gently patted it with his own.
"I can't do that, he's way too mad at me." Riley replied, shaking her head.
"Besides, we all know that Riley would rather chew off her own arm than apologize to anyone besides us and Logan." Patrick added, earning another slap on the arm from Sydney. "Those hurt you know."
"That's the idea." Sydney shot back.
"Well, what did you fight about?" Rhuben questioned, slightly confused.
"I found a letter that his dad had sent him, asking if they could meet up." Riley replied as a fresh wave of tears rolled down her cheeks. "I confronted him about it because I knew that something had been bothering him for a while and he wouldn't tell me, and we got into an argument about it." She gave a hint of a smile. "I called him a loser and he called me a bitch."
"Well then it's obvious that he doesn't deserve you," Patrick replied as blunt and loyal as always. "Because you're not a bitch."
"I know that," Riley replied. "But it doesn't matter anymore; he said it and he can never take it back. But do you want to know the worst part?" she didn't wait for an answer. "I told him that I didn't believe in love, but I think I actually do love him."
Ronan stood silently back in the kitchen, watching as they sat huddled on the ground, comforting their older sister. He knew eventually that everything that she had been holding back would come out eventually, but he didn't think that it would cause something this bad to make it finally happen.
"Whoah, Riley Jackson capable of loving someone else?" Patrick questioned and was met with a wave of glares. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I was trying to make you laugh."
Patrick sighed and rested his chin in his hands as he continued to gaze at his oldest sister, the one that always put him and his brothers and Rhuben before herself, the one that refused any help of any kind, the one that had a short-temper but was the only one that could turn it around and make it endearing. He hated to see her this way, especially since he and his family were probably the only people in the world that knew that Riley's confidence levels were just as high as her insecurity levels. She is an extremely sensitive person, but you wouldn't know that because she always puts on a tough façade. Sometimes he wished that she would show the side that he knew, a teenage girl that acted crazy and random at times to everyone else. That way she wouldn't always be hiding everything.
"Thanks for trying." Riley mumbled miserably.
A/N: Here's the next chapter for you guys. It was hard for me to write, but I had to put it in here. So I hope you don't have it too much. Thanks to those that reviewed the last chapter, it means a lot. I hope you review this chapter as well. I'll update again soon.
-Riley