The same night, at the Matthews' apartment…

The Matthews walked into their apartment after the party at the Harts'. Topanga was carrying Serenity and Cory was helping Auggie stumble in tiredness to his room. Riley plopped down on the couch, still thinking about what her parents were talking about at the party. The thoughts hadn't left her mind since she heard their conversation.

Cory and Topanga returned from putting the two kids to bed and walked into the living room.

"Honey, aren't you going to bed?" Topanga asked Riley.

"Yeah, I will," Riley said, her mind elsewhere.

Topanga and Cory looked at each other, wondering what was up with Riley.

Cory walked carefully around the couch, his face scrunched up as he tried to figure out what was going on.

Riley didn't notice her dad staring at her, and Cory turned to look back at Topanga. She shrugged.

"Riley?" Cory asked.

"Yeah?" Riley answered, finally turning to her dad, her trance broken.

"Are you alright?" Cory asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Riley said. "I was just thinking."

"About what?" Cory asked carefully.

Riley turned to look at both of her parents and took a breath. She didn't know where to start.

"I heard your conversation today about Shawn," Riley said.

Topanga walked over to the couch and stood next to Cory.

"Sweetie, can't we talk about this in the morning?" Topanga asked. "It's really late and you need to be getting to sleep."

"It'll only take a second, Mom," Riley said. "It's important."

"Okay, fine," Topanga said. "You have five minutes."

"Thank you," Riley said. "So tell me about what you were talking about."

"What exactly?" Cory asked.

"About Shawn. You said that he doesn't drink. What happened?" Riley asked, eyes wide with innocence.

Cory and Topanga looked at each other, as if having a telepathic conversation on whether to talk about it.

Finally Topanga sat next to her daughter on the couch and said, "Bad things happened, Riley."

Cory sat next to Topanga and nodded in agreement.

"What kinds of things?" Riley asked.

"Well, Shawn drank, and he was a bad person when he did. He did it to take stress away when he was upset," Cory said.

"Oh," Riley said, deep in thought. "But why doesn't he drink now? I mean, he's older now."

"Yeah, he's older," Cory said. "But he hasn't drank in years. The truth is, I don't really know exactly why, but at one point, everything just clicked. He just kind of had enough of himself drinking I think. There's been a lot of alcohol in his life and it's never led to anything good. So, for whatever reason, he doesn't drink."

"What do you mean 'it's never led to anything good?'" Riley asked. "Did something really bad happen?"

Cory looked at Topanga again, questioning if he should tell his daughter.

Topanga looked at Riley and said, "Well, sometimes drinking brings out the worst in people. And it does for Shawn. And he doesn't like it, and we don't like it. It hurts a lot of people. Every time he drank, something bad happened. It was never good for anyone."

Riley nodded in understanding. "Is that why you guys don't drink?"

"Part of the reason," Topanga said. "Personally, I decided not to drink a long time ago. I just don't feel that there's any purpose to it. I am perfectly happy and able to have a good time without drinking- and I still remember it the next day. There's just so many pluses to not drinking that I don't feel it's worth it."

"So have you ever drank?" Riley asked.

"The only drink I have ever had is fancy wine. And the only reason I drank that is because of weddings and other big things like that. But I just drank it for the tradition. Then I had a soda on the side," Topanga said with a smirk.

"What about you, Dad?" Riley asked.

"Well, I had a bad experience with it," Cory said. "And I just couldn't anymore after that. And then I saw everything that happened with Shawn when he drank. Then I really couldn't."

"What was your bad experience?"

Cory took a deep breath and looked at Topanga.

She smiled a small smile and nodded slightly.

He turned back to his daughter.

"When your mom and I were broken up, I drank. I thought it would make things better- but it didn't. It only made things worse. I won't go into details, but it ended badly. Nobody liked who I was when I drank, including me. Then imagine if I had been stupid enough to get into a car and drive home. Maybe we were lucky that the cops found us."

"You were picked up by the cops?!" Riley said, astonished.

"I'm not proud of it," Cory said, looking down. "But maybe it saved me from making an even dumber mistake. That was apparently the time of dumb mistakes for me," he added.

A small smirk came across Topanga's face and she rubbed his back.

"We're not saying that alcohol is bad," Topanga said.

"No, we're not," Cory said. "I mean, it's in the Bible for goodness sakes. Grandpa drinks every once in a while because he is responsible and he can handle it. It's a choice he has made. But it's never gotten out of hand for him. And he's old enough to drink," he said, pointing his finger at Riley.

"What?"

"Riley, I made some dumb mistakes when I was young. They all escalated until I made the mistake of drinking underage. It wasn't my worst mistake, but it was probably number two. And I'm telling you this as a warning. I don't want the same thing to happen to you. So please listen to what we're telling you and take it into consideration before you ever make a decision about it, okay?"

Riley nodded. "What was your worst mistake?"

Cory looked at his wife. "My worst mistake was not realizing how amazing and special my life was until I screwed it up. I was just lucky enough to get that back, even though I didn't deserve it."

Topanga smiled at him and kissed him softly.

Cory turned to his daughter.

"You're talking about Mom, aren't you?" Riley asked.

Cory nodded and smiled his crooked smile at his wife. She smiled back in adoration.

"When you find something as amazing and special as I did, you have to hold onto it. You can never risk it for anything because nothing is worth the risk of losing that. Nothing. If drinking ever creates a risk, it's not worth it."

Riley nodded. "Now I see where that was going. A lot of stuff happened to you guys, didn't it?"

Her parents nodded.

"I guess I need to remember that sometimes. It's just hard to picture you guys not being my parents and having your own individual lives."

Cory and Topanga chucked.

"Yes, well, believe it or not, we have lived on this earth for a while, and quite a bit has happened to us. We've only just begun to tell you about it," Topanga said.

Riley's eyes grew wide.

Topanga stood up and held her hand out for Cory. He took her hand and stood up.

"Good night, sweetheart," Topanga said with a smile. She walked over and kissed her daughter's forehead.

"Good night, Mom."

"Good night, honey," Cory said.

"Good night, Dad."

Topanga put her arm around Cory's waist and they walked to their room.

Riley was left alone in the living room.

"The past," Riley said in bewilderment. "Woah."