Chapter 13: Revenge Best Served
Riley opened the door to the dressing room to find Matt and Rachel sleeping on the couch while Jeff was sitting in a chair reading the book Riley had left in the room. He looked up to see Riley covered in chocolate and whipped cream.
"Has anyone ever told you that you look cute as a desert?" Jeff said laughing.
"You WILL PAY. Maybe not today, but soon," Riley said stopping in front of him.
Jeff got up, took his index finger and took the whipped cream off of the tip of her nose.
"Sure, whatever you say. Just get ready we have a show in Phoenix tomorrow."
"I hope you know this means war Jeffery Hardy," Riley snatched her clothes from his grasp.
"They put me up to it by threatening me with a lifetime of unpleasant dye-jobs. I don't want to be traumatized like Shane.
"Oh, it won't be LIKE Shane's, it will be ten times worse." Riley walked into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.
"Will it help if I said they made me do it and I'm sorry?" He received no reply. That was usually wasn't a good sign.
They reached the house around midnight. Chris, John, and Paul had agreed to meet them there in the morning so that they could all go to the airport together. Riley had been quiet the whole ride and when they arrived at the house she hurried up to her room without a word.
"Do you think she's planning something?" Jeff asked as he sat across from Matt in the green room.
Matt just stared. "Jeff, WHAT are you talking about? You know her better than anyone and she's probably just tired and you're paranoid. I don't know about you but I'm going to sleep."
"True. I'll race you?" Jeff said walking over to the stairs.
"No, can you be any more immature?"
"Maybe."
"Forget I asked."
"Goodnight" The brothers parted ways and Jeff went to sleep hoping for the best.
Riley woke up shivering as she sat up in bed. She looked at the clock and it was 5 a.m. It was so cold in her room regardless of the mound of blankets that covered her bed. A draft whisked through the room sending a chill up her spine. She turned her attention to her window that was open.
'Strange,' Riley thought to herself. 'I could have sworn I closed the window last night.'
Riley got up and closed the window. She turned back to her bed and that's when for the first time she noticed a white rose. It was like the ones that she had received at the arena. She smiled to herself once again.
"I wonder who's been sending me flowers suddenly." Her curiosity was short lived when she heard a small meow coming from under her bed. She leaned down and picked up the Tabby.
"Why are you hiding under my bed huh?"
Riley opened her door and let Sutton down slowly. She noticed that all the lights were on downstairs.
"Looks like there's no point in going back to sleep then," she said sighing and heading into the bathroom to take a shower.
Riley headed downstairs at 5:30 in blue jeans, white sneakers, and a NC State sweatshirt with her hair in a bun. She was shocked to see Chris, John, Paul, Matt, and A.J. sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast and talking. She was even more surprised to see Rachel in the kitchen cooking.
"Good morning everyone, I have a question, am I asleep or has the world come to an end?" The five guys looked at her strangely.
"I would HOPE you were awake or we'd be late for our flight," Chris said taking another spoonful of eggs.
"Rachel is cooking? You've been practicing?"
Rachel laughed, "Can you tell?"
"Only by the fact that the house hasn't burned down and no one's died – yet."
"Very funny Lynn, do you want any breakfast?" Rachel asked holding out the plate of bacon.
Riley waved it away with her hand, "no thanks. Any blueberry muffins?" Rachel just shook her head. "Okay I'll drive and get one. Where's Jeff?"
They notice that the water's running and suddenly they hear Jeff scream 'COLD!'
A.J. whistled to himself, 'sounds like the water heater is out.'
Riley grabbed her brother's keys and went to the car. She had noticed the snow began to fall harder than it had since the previous night coating the landscape with thick white powder, turning the ponds into sheets of ice, decorating the trees with a natural frosting like on a cake. It was truly a winter wonderland.
Riley returned home 20 minutes later with a blueberry muffin from Township Bakery and a coffee from Starbucks. The snow had gotten heavier and the roads were already half an inch deep in snow. She saw everyone in the same place she had left them, at the table drinking coffee and still no Jeff in sight.
"What time does our flight leave?" Riley asked taking a sip of her coffee.
Paul looked at his watch, "7:00 on the dot. We have 45 minutes to get there."
"Well, the snow is piling up we should get going."
"The Rainbow-Prince isn't awake yet," Matt said drumming his fingers on the table.
Riley was simply thrown by this. "You mean he took a freezing cold shower and he fell asleep again? No wait, you'll throw me into a freezing shower while I'm still in my pajamas and you won't wake him up? I can't believe you. Be ready to throw him into the van." Riley got up and headed upstairs to wake Jeff.
She noticed his door was opened and there was Jeff with his headphones on fast asleep. Riley assumed that he had gone to sleep after his encounter of the cold kind in the shower. His bags were packed and he was in his sleeping-bag. This of course gave Riley a truly brilliant idea. That's when Matt came upstairs and knocked on the door.
"Lynn we got to go," Matt said rather loudly causing Jeff to stir. Riley hushed him.
"You grab Jeff's bags and have one of the guys help me lift Jeff" Riley said walking over to the bed and zipping Jeff into the sleeping bag. Not wanting to argue Matt took Jeff's suitcases and loaded them into the car sending up Chris and Paul to take Jeff to the car in his sleeping bag.
After surprisingly getting Jeff into the car without waking him, they all drove to the airport. A.J. was driving, Matt was in the front seat, and Chris was behind A.J. with Paul and John next to him respectively. Riley however was in the last row of seats with Jeff in his sleeping bag. There was absolute silence.
"100 bottles of beer on the wall 100 bottles of beer!"Chris began to shreak at the top of his lungs.
He was abruptly cut off by Paul giving a growl from behind him and reaching for a fistfull of his hair.
"Is that REALLY necessary?" he asked a little agitated. Chris looks like he is actually pondering this however everyone shoots him a glare to tell him to shut up.
"We COULD listen to the radio but I don't have the stations figured out quite yet." AJ said growing quite bored with the silence.
Chris hands AJ a CD. "Play this."
AJ put the CD in and soon Fozzy's "Eat the Rich" was blaring from the speakers. Everyone screamed. Riley couldn't help but cover her ears.
'Wouldn't you know their album is called Headhunter and the sing about cannibalism' she thought to herself as she carefully slid the headphones off of Jeff.
'He won't mind if I borrow these'
She deeply immersed herself in the CD of which she couldn't remember the name, drowning out everyone's complaining.
Jeff woke up to feel himself moving. He tried to sit up but only found that he couldn't move. He spotted Riley sitting next to him and laughed.
'Revenge best served while sleeping huh?' Jeff noticed that she was wearing his headphones and for the first time he noticed why. Some awful music had invaded his ears and his brain so he couldn't think.
"TURN IT OFF!" he yelled without even noticing.
Everyone minus Riley heard him scream and turned around. Jeff just smiled. "Untie me."
"Jeff we could except you're not tied up. You're just zipped into your sleeping bag," John pointed out.
"No kidding genius. You know what I meant."
"Sorry little bro, Riley's orders that we keep you in there until we get to the airport. We would have voted for longer but I don't think they'd let people ride in the luggage area."
Jeff groaned to himself and found a foolproof plan to get himself out. Be annoying.
"Are we there yet?" he asked with a smile on his face.
All the guys rolled their eyes, "no."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"NO!"
Five minutes passed and everyone was getting bored of the game including Jeff. "Are we anywhere close to stopping?" he asked staring at the ceiling.
The guys who could see yelled in delight,
"AIRPORT!"
Jeff tried to turn and sit but he only succeeded in falling on the car floor. The noise woke up Riley and she was surprised to see that they were at the airport. She removed Jeff's headphones and looked next to her to find her friend wasn't there.
"Looking for me?" Jeff inquired. She looked down and saw Jeff lying on the floor. She smiled and unzipped the offensive sleeping bag.
Paul climbed out first, "okay guys let's get our stuff out and head to the boarding bridge."
Jeff got out and helped Riley down. As she looked back into the car to get her carry-on she noticed a little squished paper bag, which once contained her blueberry muffin. Riley groaned, picked up her carry-on and the muffin, and handed the muffin bag to Jeff. Jeff just stared at her strangely as she headed into the airport as their flight was being called to board.
