The Final Year, The Final Show

Disclaimer - See ch. 1 dammit! Oh, and I only own Riley's letter. My sister owns Melanie's. They were actually pieces of writing for our English class. (dies) Oh, well!

A/N - this one will be fun. You wanna know what happens? Sorry, not telling. But I WILL say this: Oh, my Goood. Poor Travis! hugs him It'll be ok in the end, Smog...don't worry. pats him on head evil grin Get your attention? LOL!

Renjview! You know what it means, just do it!

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Ch 16 - Embarrassment and Finding A Few Things Out

8/23/07 - Saturday - 11:59am

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Riley was sitting downstairs on the couch with Ray and the two were completely bored out of their minds. This was kind of sad, considering they had only just gotten up about twenty minutes ago, but still, it's not like you aren't allowed to be bored on a Saturday, right? Well, being bored didn't last too much longer. Melanie came bounding down the stairs and jumped over the couch to land sitting between the two cousins. "What's up, people?"

"Oh, not much. We're just being completely bored out of our minds is all!" Riley said.

"Really? Sorry I didn't get up sooner." Melanie grinned.

"Oh, yeah, you really made us un-bored." Riley rolled her eyes.

"Yay!"

"So, I figure we should, uh, do something." Ray finally spoke.

"Oh! He didn't loose the ability of speech!" Riley shouted, receiving a confused look from Melanie, "He didn't say anything this morning. I was afraid."

"Ooooohhhh. So, where are all those people that were over here last night? And...wait...who's he?" She pointed over her shoulder.

Riley sighed, "That's Ray. My cousin. And the other two, beside Travis, that were here last night were Robbie and Kim. Wonder if you can figure out who was who without me tellin' ya." She said with a laugh.

"I bet Kim...was the dude!"

"Yeah...that's right, Mel, thaaaat's right."

"Cool!" Melanie shouted, grinning.

"She's not...serious...is she?" Ray asked, hoping she wasn't, but at the same time hoping there might be someone else that would make stupid remarks. Maybe Lily wouldn't slug him so damn much for the next few days.

"No!" Melanie shouted, "I'm not stupid!"

"I thought you said that you were failing all your classes, though?"

Melanie turned to her fellow California-native. "That, my dear friend, is because I'm skipping class and school a lot of the time."

"Crazy ass..."

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8/23/07 - Saturday - 3:00pm

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Melanie had gotten bored, Ray was already there, and Riley had decided to talk to the voices in her head. This was all quite sad, so Ray decided to call the gang over. It wasn't that long until everyone was in the living room of the Brennan household having a conversation of sorts. Suddenly, Riley decided to declare something. "You know, we should stop this. We're always over here! Why don't we ever go to anyone elses house?"

"Because...yours and Ray's is kind of the central of everyone's house. And plus...three of you are already here now. Why go somewhere where only one of us is going to be and make everyone else go somewhere when you could go where three people are already going to be." Lily said.

Riley and Melanie blinked at the girl, "OK!"

And then Melanie started a conversation with Riley that everyone wanted to listen to--even Ray, even if her choice of conversation had been the same thing that made him avoid Riley and Travis for two weeks. "So, Riles, how long have you been dating Mister Blondie over there?"

"December fifteenth, two thousand and six. The first date from hell started around six o'clock. However, this only happened after I had gotten into a freak-mood and totally forgotten our first originally scheduled date the week before. I'm an idiot sometimes." Riley grinned.

"Surprised you remembered that." Travis said.

"What? When we started dating? How could I forget. We went to that little place I'd found, Stormy Nights, with Tony...oh, jeez...He's not as gay as Mitchelle, though."

"Hello! Focus here! I was grilling you..."

"Right. Sorry. Next question on the inquiry?"

Melanie cast a glance at Travis, then back to Riley, "Have you..." At Travis, then back to Riley, "Had sex yet?"

Travis' eyes widened, but Riley just barreled on through the question as if this were normal conversation. "Yeah, actually, we have."

"He any good?" Melanie winked.

"I'd have to give a thumbs up for that one."

"Too much in-for-mation!" Ray shouted.

"Oh, shut up, Ray!" Riley and Melanie said as one.

"Ok, the final sex-related question for now: Has he ever...done anything wrong?"

Travis choked on the water he had just taken a sip of and proceeded to lean into the couch as far as possible--which was definitely not far enough--and closed his eyes. Please, just this once, let Ray be right. Let me be able to send her a message through telepathy! He thought frantically, Please...Riley. Don't. Don't say it! However, in the case that he couldn't really talk to people through telepathy, Travis braced himself for what Riley might say.

"Weelll...there was...one thing."

Please....Riley....don't do this! Travis probably would have actually said something if:

a.) He could find a way to actually speak

OR

b.) It wouldn't make it look obvious...

Life really could suck sometimes.

"What was it? I mean...he wasn't trying to do something he read from the Karma Sutra and then turn out and not be able to do it right, did he? Cause you know that Ryan guy I told you about? Well, he was going to try and--"

"Melanie!"

"Oh. Right. We're talking about your sexual adventures. Sorry."

"Anyway...we were...at it and...I did something. Didn't really pay attention to what it was, but I did something and he muttered something. I didn't know what it was so...naturally, human curiosity took over and I asked him what he said. Simple, right?" She shook her head, "No. Not simple. Quite the opposite, actually. He wouldn't tell me. So...our, as you've been calling them, Mel," Riley used her infamous air quotes, " 'Sexual adventures' stopped for awhile. Didn't take long and...well...he told me what he said that night."

"What was it?" Melanie was practically bouncing on her knees.

"Thor Aspen."

"What the fuck?"

"Exactly. Couple days later, I found out what it was through a pop-up on the internet. Guess what it was?"

"Uh...a God of some sort that decided to live in a place called Aspen?" Melanie asked half-heartedly.

"Nope. Porn star. Yaaay."

Melanie laughed, "Thor Aspen? God, that's my porn star name!"

Everyone, except for Riley who happened to be used to Melanie's oddness, gave her weird looks.

"What? I take quizzes. I'm also a S&M type." She grinned.

"Sooo did not need to know that." Ray muttered.

Riley glanced over her shoulder at a very, very crimson-cheeked Travis (though she didn't actually see that part at the moment), "She look familiar, Travis? Was it Mel here in that video?"

There were a few strange and slightly strangled-sounding noises from him before he got up and barely managed to mutter that he had to go home because...something about his mom. No one really caught his ful excuse...

"Well...that was weird." Melanie said into the silence.

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8/23/07 - Sunday - 1:18am

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Riley had been feeling bad about what she had done earlier. Everyone had been there and she had actually told Melanie--and everyone that was around--what had happened that night. That wasn't exactly the nicest thing to do to anyone, and especially not Travis since he was so great to her. She was starting to wonder if she was going to loose him. He hadn't picked up the phone when she called his cell or his personal line and when she called the main one, Cheyanne had told her that she just had to get Travis, and then she heard Travis say that he wasn't home, so, his mother's quick response was, "I'm sorry, you've got the wrong number." Riley had felt that was kind of lame, but it didn't matter.

The eighteen year old had been laying in her bed for the past several hours--ok, she'd only been in her bed for about an hour, but she'd been thinking about it ever since Travis had left--thinking about what she had done. It was really starting to bug her. So, she decided that she would do the only thing she could do.

It didn't take Riley long to walk to the Strong house. What took her time was climbing the side of the house and going up to the top story of the house. Not only that, but shimming around one of the corners of the house. Then there was the ordeal of picking the window of his room out of his, his parents', and the three guest rooms, and the bathroom that were all on the second floor of the house. Dammit all to hell! She thought, as she randomly picked a window and tapped on it with her fingertips. Thankfully enough, she was on the right window, which was opened after a few moments.

"Riley, what are you doing?" Travis asked, his voice laden with drowsiness.

"I'm really sorry, but...I...I needed to talk to you."

"All right..." Travis was confused, but he removed the screen from the window and allowed his girlfriend to climb through his window. He took her hand and helped her through. "Riley...what is this all about?"

"Er...Earlier. I...I'm really sorry, Travis. I...I don't know why I said it. I really don't. It's just," And suddenly, she starting talking a million miles an hour, "When I'm around Melanie, I loose brain cells, and therefore, my brain all together and I...I wasn't thinking and..." She was on the verge of tears, "And...Travis...I...I'm really sorry, I just--"

Travis put a finger to her lips in hope to stop her. He was shocked when it really did, but he went on to speak softly to her. "Riley...it's ok. It was..." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "It was definitely embarrasing, but...Riley, it's that big of a deal...I-it's nothing to get so worked up about." He looked at her eyes, faint moonlight his only source of light. "Something else is wrong..." He said, "What is it?"

"Nothing...nothing's wrong, Travis..." She was choking the tears back, and it was obvious. "Really....Tr-Travis, there's...there's nothing wrong. " She collapsed into him and allowed him to wrap his arms around her.

Travis had no clue what was going on, but something was seriosuly wrong here. He slowly guided her to his bed to sit down. "Riley..."

"It's...my mom." She choked out.

This didn't set well with Travis and it was definitely not going down too well with Riley, either. "What....what happened?"

"She...She's gone....She was killed by some guys my dad associates with...he did something...something they didn't like. Killed seven of them...my mom included...and...I don't understand why...why I'm crying....it doesn't maatter why, I don't guess, but...I don't understand. I don't know why....she didn't care about me....and I shouldn't care about here either! She wouldn't cry...why am I? Why am I crying, Travis? I don't understand!" She continued to sob into his shoulder when she was done with her explanation.

"Oh...my God...Riley, I...Lo--Look at me. Look at me." He tilted her head up a little, "Baby...it's ok. You may think that she hated you...and that you did her...but you loved each other. You may not have either shown it, but you did. It's just...you didn't know how to, and...no matter what, a parent and a child have unconditional love for each other."

Riley sat up, tears stopping already, pointing at him. "No, Travis! I hated that woman to hell! She was a fucking bitch! I hated her...so much. All my parents ever did was...was fuck around with drugs, and alcohol and other people...people they shouldn't be dealing with..." The tears and broken sound of her voice was coming back, "And...I don't know, Travis...I just...I fucking hated her and here I am...crying over her!"

Travis shook his head. He didn't like seeing her like this, but he also wasn't sure how to get her out of it. He figured that the only way to do that was let her just cry it all out and...be there. He pulled her closer and rubbed her back gently.

"Travis..." Riley sounded like she might be trying to stop the tears.

"Yeah?"

"I'm stopping this...now."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa...that's awfully quick Riley."

"I shed my tears last night...I don't think she deserves any more."

"Riley--"

"I'm not going to let that bitch ruin my life and I'm most certainly not going to let her ruin the only visit from amyone I knew back in Cali that I've had in almost the last two years. I'm sorry if you think it was too quick or something, Travis, but I'm over it. "

"Oh--Ok...I guess...uh..." He shrugged, "Ok," He sighed, not sure what to say and not wanting to contradict her and get into an argument right now.

There was one thing that still bugged him though. As much as she was declaring that she was 'over it', she sure looked sad. Not necisarrily extremely sad or depressed, and the usual shine in her eyes was sort of there...but Travis wanted it all there. And he wanted to see her smile. Sure, it had only technically been about nine or ten hours since he had seen it happen, but he needed that as confirmation that she really was ok with it. How was he going to do that? A almost sly smile spread across his face and he was desprately glad that Riley wasn't looking at him at the moment. Ray had told him something the other day, and he knew it would work. She better not scream, though.. He thought. Actually...I can prevent that. And so he set his plan into action.

This special plan that Travis had, started with him pulling Riley over to actually lay on his bed. This had obviously shocked her, but there was no complaint from her so far. He trapped his lips over hers and did what he would soon find to be the stupidest thing he had ever done. He started tickling her.

Riley's eyes, which had slid closed when Travis kissed her as they usually did, immediately flew open. She separated from him and shoved on his chest. Hard. She sent him flying to the floor, right on his ass. "Oh my God! You...are so dead!" She said harshly, glaring at him. The half-glare Riley was giving her boyfriend was totally contradicted by the slight smile, and soon enough, light giggling that she collapsed in. "Don't do that!"

Travis laughed lightly, "And why not?" He asked being playfully defiant. He got up and sat next to her.

"Because it tickles, stupid!" She said, slapping him lightly on the head. "I swear....you better be so glad you were kissing me. If you hadn't thought things through...you would have had one extremely high pitched squeal in your ear...and your parents would be here right now."

"Yeah...but..." Travis nodded a little, "I'm not Ray. I think before I act." Almost as an afterthought, he added, "And...my parents aren't here right now..."

"Well, you know..." Riley smiled teasingly, "Sometimes...acting before you really think...it can get you something you like..."

"Oh, really?" Travis asked as if his interest were peaked--which, he would have to admit, it was slightly. "And...you would know because..."

"I'm the expert..." She leaned over and kissed him in a slightly deep, passionate kiss. She pulled back right when she should have stayed and grinned. "You should try it some time."

"Well...is...now a good time?"

"It is for me..." And with that, Riley practically ripped his shirt off of him, however, she was pouting afterwards. "You have to make things difficult, don't you? Uck! A wife beater...under your shirt! Stupid! It's called, easy access!" She rolled her eyes and ripped that off too. "Oh....that such a nice sight."

"Riley...you've--"

"I know! I know! I've been...there...and back, but this...." She motioned to his bare chest, "I should see this more often!"

Travis chuckled at her antics, but before he could get a word in, Riley continued.

"I mean, really! I see my cousin's chest more than my own boyfriends'." She gave him a 'you are such a loser!' look. "This....annoys me greatly!"

"Shut up..." Travis muttered, kissing her, forcing her to lean back onto the bed.

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End Ch 16

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Notes - All right, I know. I should REALLY stop ending all my chapters in ways that lead to sex, but I have been promising a friend of mine for a shirtless Travis and this just came out. It was fun to write and...well...she gets her shirtless Travis, too! It's a win-win sitch-ia-ation.

Give me a buzz!

Later days,

-PFB-