Riley awakened from a deep sleep when a heavy Christmas wreath was dropped directly onto his head.

"Andrew," he heard Mrs. Torres say strictly as she struggled through the front door "don't throw that on the couch, pick it up and hang it on the garage please." It became obvious to Riley that neither of them knew he was there. The back of the couch was facing the door. Drew must've thrown the wreath without looking. Drew rolled his eyes and walked toward the couch. He reached over the back to grab the wreath, but felt a mass of curly hair in his hand instead.

"Shit!" he yelled as he jumped back from the couch out of surprise.

"Andrew! Language. What has gotten into you?" Drew looked back at his mom with his mouth open, as if he were about to explain, however he decided that Riley's presence was explanation enough. Riley sat up from his sleeping position on the couch and smiled awkwardly at Mrs. Torres.

"Merry Christmas." He joked lamely. Mrs. Torres' eyes widened and she looked sideways out of exasperation. She plopped the rest of the bags onto the kitchen counter before rubbing her forehead and finally looking at Riley.

"Okay, can someone tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Ma, language." Drew joked. He received a sympathy laugh from Riley, but Mrs. Torres didn't seem as amused.

"Drew, upstairs. Now." Drew turned down the corners of his mouth and began to follow his mother's orders. Riley grabbed the sleeve of Drew's leather jacket and held him there.

"Please don't leave me." Riley whispered pleadingly up at Drew, who was still blushing from the cold.

"Should've thought this through man," he whispered back as he forcefully pat him on the shoulder. As Riley listened to Drew's footsteps get further and further away, he tried to avoid eye contact with Mrs. Torres.

"Why are you in my house?"

"Let me explain-"

"You have the nerve to just, make yourself comfortable on my couch after what you did to Andrew? He may have forgiven you but you know that it wasn't in good taste to come here especially without me knowing." Riley glanced down at his hands and shrugged. In a way, she was right. But the incident happened months ago. If he and Drew were mature enough to get over it, she should be as well.

"I really had no where else to go." Riley admitted sadly. "I'm sorry."

"I'm pretty sure there are plenty of other places you could go."

"Mrs. Torres, I'm really sorry, I honestly tried-"

"You don't have any relatives?" Riley sighed and shook his head.

"They don't want anything to do with me."

"That comes as no surprise." Riley couldn't help himself, the cruelty that was behind the last comment caused him to tear up. He wiped at his eyes and began to stand up from the couch. He would have to find somewhere else to stay.

Mrs. Torres face softened as Riley walked passed her, his cheeks stained with tears. She glanced outside and saw that it was snowing quite heavily and noted the darkness that had already settled in the sky.

"Jesus," she whispered reluctantly as he made his way to the door "I didn't mean that." She turned toward the living room and rested her hand on her forehead "Sit down." Riley stopped at the front door and turned around, trying to hide his teary eyes. He did as ordered and sat down on the couch. Mrs. Torres sat in a chair across from him.

"Mr. Torres knows I'm here." Riley said timidly. Mrs. Torres shook her head and raised an eyebrow as if Riley's statement was irrelevant.

"Well he didn't tell me." Riley looked nervously at the floor and figured that he had nothing else to lose. He might as well tell Mrs. Torres the truth.

"I…I came out. To my mom." Mrs. Torres' eyes widened for a brief second and then her face relaxed. She then began to furrow her brow at every word Riley spoke and stared at him as if she were seeing him for the first time. "She kicked me out. I had no where to go." Mrs. Torres sighed and rubbed her chin in thought. Although she was strict herself, she would never kick one of her boys out on Christmas Eve. Even to her, his punishment seemed cruel.

She began to think of Adam and all he had gone through. How she refused to accept him for years of his life, to a point where he had to hurt himself to escape. She glanced at Riley and briefly saw the same sadness in his eyes that she had been ignoring in Adam's. She immediately felt tears stinging her eyes and stood up from the chair before Riley could sense her emotion. Riley watched her stand up and sat further back on the couch. He was afraid of what she would do, or say, but she surprised him by mumbling: "you can stay" as she left him alone in the living room.

Moments later, Adam came through the door,drenched and shivering from the snow. He tore off his jacket and threw it onto the coat rack. He didn't seem to notice Riley sitting on the couch. He walked toward the stairs and did a double take when he saw Riley sitting alone, practically in the dark. Riley smiled awkwardly.

"Did you walk home?" he asked as Adam walked into the living room.

"Yep."

"Why didn't you call me? I would've picked you up."

"I did." Riley glanced at his phone and saw that he had five missed calls, all from Adam. He rolled his eyes at himself and looked sympathetically at his friend who continued to shiver.

"Jeez… Adam, I'm sorry. I must have been really tired." Adam shook his head and began to unbutton his shirt. Riley caught a glimpse of Adam's wrapped chest as he pulled off his wet shirt and yanked a sweatshirt over his head. Riley came to realize that Adam was becoming increasingly comfortable in front of him. They had been friends for months at this point, but it was only then that Riley noticed how comfortable he was in front of Adam as well. "So, how'd it go?"

"Great," Adam said with clear sarcasm as he messed up his gelled hair with his fingers and stepped out of his shoes. "she acted like everything was completely normal." Riley's face lit up and he rested his hand on his arms as he watched Adam make himself a sand which in the kitchen. He clearly didn't pick up the anger and regret in Adam's tone.

"Well that's good news."

"No, like she seriously acted like nothing happened. She ignored me." Riley stared at Adam, confused. His puzzlement must've been obvious because Adam immediately began to explain further. "I told her the truth and she just began to talk about the menu." Adam sat down next to Riley and stared straight ahead. "All of the butterflies, the stalling, the planning… the truth was just, anti-climactic." Riley looked at Adam with sympathy and said nothing, he didn't know how to respond. "She's not okay with it." Adam said, clearly admitting that it was what hurt him the most. "If she were she wouldn't have just, thrown the truth away like it was as worthless as a two dollar bill." Riley pressed his lips together and glanced at Adam who had silenced himself when he realized how much he was talking.

"You know, it may seem worthless now, but the two dollar is going to be worth a lot of money some day." Adam squinted at Riley out of judgment and sat back on the couch with his arms folded.

"Thank you, Mya Angelou."

"I'm serious. She'll go to New York and she'll think about things. I bet she'll come back feeling completely different." Adam shook his head and stood to his feet. He had no desire to think about what may or may not happen in the future with Fiona. It was better to pretend that they had no future than to torture himself thinking about it.

"Honestly, I don't care if she does." With that, Adam excused himself from the living room and began to walk upstairs leaving Riley alone. "Night, Riley." He said over his shoulder, almost as if it were an afterthought.

"Night." Riley called back. But Adam had already disappeared up the stairs. "Merry Christmas." He mumbled sadly to himself before hiding his head in the couch pillows and drifting off to sleep.

UNEVENTFUL...i know, i know. I simply posted this so that you guys know that i'm still alive

I've got some major Ziley shiz written that i'll def post tmrw

I feel that we're all deprived cause the new Degrassi promos are pretending that they don't exist.

FUCK THAT.

But anywhore in better news... it seems that our Fiona/Adam dream may be coming trueeeeee