Chapter 19: A Little Confusion

The breakfast gathering had ended and the seven had left the dining room; everyone being careful of the ticking time bomb that was RyLynn A. Carter. They headed for the elevator in silence and the awkwardness was unbearable as the elevator slowly climbed to the twenty-eighth floor.

Riley tapped her foot lightly as each number lit up as they passed the floor. They couldn't get back to the rooms fast enough. Her day had been officially ruined and it wasn't even eleven o'clock yet. She just wanted to go to the room, lie down, and sleep away the rest of this God forsaken day.

"This is just some sick horrible dream. What have I done to deserve this?" Riley thought.

She began tapping her fingers against her thigh and let out a loud sigh when they finally reached the top floor. The doors opened allowing the group release from the confining space much to their relief. Riley took off down the hallway with Jeff following in hot pursuit. Chris, Matt and Kaitlyn looked at one another.

"I had no idea that Riley was going to get that mad," Kaitlyn said as she walked between the two men.

Matt shook his head and Chris was trying to hold back his laughter.

"Well she was mad enough to give me a huge bruise on my thigh," Chris said rubbing his thigh once again.

They had finally caught up to the pair and could see a puzzled looking Jeff knocking on Riley's door.

"Ugh, Riley, open the door!" Jeff said knocking on the door several more times.

"It's only a matter of time," Matt thought to himself as he approached his hotel room and withdrew the keycard from his back pocket and opened the door.

He settled himself on the nearest bed and began to read a National Geographic that he had picked up at the newsstand at the airport and began leafing through it at a leisurely pace.

Minutes later, Jeff came into the room with a frustrated look on his face letting the door slam loudly behind him. He winced at the sound but continued to read his article. "Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock" went a little voice inside of his head.

Somehow he felt that he was going to take way too much enjoyment out of this little tiff between his brother and Riley but it's nothing that wouldn't pass in time. "Sadly misery DOES love company," he thought to himself making him smirk. At least he wouldn't be the only miserable Hardy today.

Jeff settled on the bed closest to the window and stared up at the sealing, breathing rather loudly. Matt could see his chest rising and falling with his breathing until he sat up and broke the silence.

"I don't understand how she could not like someone that fast. Is there something I'm missing here? She goes missing for a few hours without telling me, and today she and Shay would have been at each other like nobody's business. What's going on? Why would she act that way?"

Matt maintained a very monotone voice while still gazing at his magazine, "Did you know that generally, females can be very territorial?"

He then switched into an imitation of the Crocodile Hunter, "take the female lion for instance..."

He was cut off when Jeff continued to ramble.

"I mean she could still be grouchy from last night and the fact that I stole her shoes this morning. I mean she's not the most pleasant person to be around when she hasn't had her sleep but she seemed okay when she ran into Tyler in the hall this morning..."

"He really has no clue does he?" Matt thought to himself as he hid his expression behind the magazine.

It was amazing – comical in fact that his brother hadn't realized that he was the only one that could make Riley that defensive, that jealous, and that immature. But far be it for Matt to ruin the fun and spoil the guessing games. Maybe he would get involved if beating him in the head with a baseball bat was involved but otherwise, Jeff was going to just have to figure it out himself. Matt grabbed the remote control and proceeded to turn on the local news. He turned it up slowly as he attempted to drown out his younger brother while drifting to sleep. Jeff finally got the hint that his use of Matt's sympathetic ear had expired and walked to the balcony where he was greeted with the warmth of sunshine.

Riley's levels of suspicion and hatred were overflowing.

Riley sat on one of the beds with her laptop positioned on her lap and her tape recorder at her side. She tried to focus on typing the transcript for her interview that was due in two days but it wasn't as easy as she had thought.

Kaitlyn was on the other side of the room getting ready to go shopping with a few of the girls for Christmas gifts. She had invited Riley to go but of course Riley wanted to stay in. Riley could see Kaitlyn checking her purse from the corner of her eye as she typed and shook her head when Kaitlyn went to ask her whether she wanted to come.

"Way too much work," Riley piped out her phrase glancing quickly from her interview notes to her computer screen and rewinding the tape again.

"Fine, I'll be back in a few hours," Kaitlyn said grabbing her purse and jacket and leaving the hotel room.

Riley groaned again in frustration. The audio was terrible and she couldn't make out some of the words that Brian was saying. She should have turned up the volume on the microphone or at least have had it a little closer. She silently scorned herself while patiently rewinding the tape and listening intently to make out the speech.

An hour and a half later Riley found herself yawning and pressing the save command on her keyboard in victory. She closed the computer and set it to the side taking in her surroundings. She saw the television and remembered that typically there was nothing on the hotel channels except for news, tourist attractions, and cartoons. Although she was all for world news, local events, animation, and the common factor of senseless violence, she just wasn't in the mood.

She looked out at the balcony and saw that the sun was setting. The tapestry of yellow, orange, red, and purple painted behind the scene of snow covered walkways and buildings made an interesting sight. Even though the sun was setting the sky was still bright. It seemed like the perfect time to take a walk, but realizing that she was surrounded by silence, the question was posed of whom she would go with. Kaitlyn had gone shopping with Amy and company, Matt wouldn't want to go with her, and she hadn't heard from Jeff since he stopped pounding at her door.

"There is no way I want to be cooped up in this hotel room all night," Riley thought as she reclined on the bed and glanced at the clock.

There had to be someway she could entertain herself. The only thing to do was to go seek it out.

Matt couldn't stand it anymore. He was most definitely going to strangle his brother if this insanity persisted. He couldn't even remember why Riley was so mad in the first place. Who had said that she was mad at Jeffexactly?

"Melodramatic," Matt thought as he shook his head to himself as he finally put down his magazine and yawned.

He then noted how the somewhat steady silence had been replaced by the sound of somewhat steady breathing. When he realized it most certainly wasn't his own, he took his gaze away from the article and around the room.

Jeff was now sat on the bed at the other end of the room; his reflective gaze was directed out at the sunset. His breathing seemed to be the loudest sound in the room because Matt had turned off the television a while ago. There was nothing good on at this time of night anyway. Hearing his brother emit another sigh he resolved that he either had to get out of the room or get Jeff out of the room. He preferred the latter but anything would work as long as he was able to get some peace. The only thing left was the minor detail of how to get his brother out of the room.

Riley walked down the hallway for the third time past Matt and Jeff's room with hesitation. She had been considering knocking on their door and dragging Jeff along. Technically Jeff hadn't done anything wrong and it was Shay she was incredibly suspicious of after all. However, considering the stress she was under with her new job, it was good to have time alone. But Riley never did the alone thing very well. She decided to take her walk alone to enjoy the scenery and then come back to the hotel to talk with Jeff.

Riley walked toward the elevator adjusting her messenger bag on her shoulder and fixing the collar on her jacket that had found itself in mild disarray. Somehow her thoughts moved back toward Shay as she pressed the elevator call button and waited for its arrival from the bottom floor. It was definitely going to take a while.

Maybe Shay wasn't a threat to Riley after all. Sure she was tall, skinny, blonde, and to some extent beautiful, but Riley could tell that she wasn't very much up there when it came to the brains department. The nagging voice in the back of her head still told her to be vigilant and what she had heard of the conversation replayed in her head like a broken record. And then there was the matter of her experiences the previous night with Brian. The thought of it sent a shock through her body and unpleasant goose bumps to form on her arms.

"Going down?"

Riley turned around to see Tyler standing behind her with a pleasant smile on his face. She tried to erase the look of surprise that had crossed her features but he had caught it and his smile became a little wider and he was unsuccessful at trying to suppress the laughter that escaped from his throat.

"Jumpy are we today Riley?"

Riley narrowed her eyes at the older male and began to look at the flashing numbers again.

Seeing the glance Tyler jokingly stepped away from her and put his hands in a mock surrendering gesture.

"You wouldn't happen to be on the war path still would you?"

Riley shook her head and continued to fix her eyes on the numbers. Though part of her wanted a distraction Tyler wasn't the distraction that she needed. Tyler saw that Riley wasn't in a speaking mood still so he decided to let her stay in her silence as long as she wanted. She'd come out of it eventually. At least he hoped she would. He allowed an uncomfortable silence to pass between the two before he spoke again; the elevator had only gotten to the seventeenth floor and it seemed that the elevator had been stopping at every floor in the hotel on the way up.

"So you're prepared for the late night meeting tonight?" Tyler broke the silence staring at the numbers and not catching the look of confusion on Riley's face right away.

"What meeting?" Riley asked in a low whisper.

"The meeting that our boss and the writers scheduled. They wanted to go over a few things regarding angles and storylines and things, and the boss wants to meet us. You didn't know?"

Riley shook her head and sighed. "Yes my day can always get worse," she thought to herself looking back the other direction down the hallway. It would hardly be appropriate for Riley to go to a meeting in her blue sweat pants and matching sweater. She went to turn around and make her way down the hall when Tyler grabbed her wrist gently and signaled to the flashing numbers above the elevator door. The elevator was now on the twenty-second floor.

"The elevator's almost here and it would take forever for you to catch it again," he said stating it as fact.

"I'll take the stairs, I could use the exercise," Riley said giving a sarcastic smile and separating from Tyler and toward her hotel room.

Tyler watched her retreat and shrugged his shoulders as the elevator doors opened to reveal a man that he did not recognize who was clean cut and well groomed in a gray suit. He had an authorization badge around his neck and nodded politely to Tyler as he got off the elevator and Tyler got on. As the doors closed, Tyler saw the stranger walk down the hallway and past where Riley stood in front of her door and disappear behind a corner.

Matt scanned the room for an excuse for him to leave the room but as if God had answered an unsaid prayer, he saw his brother get up from his reclining position on the bed and grab his jacket that was lying across the back of a chair.

Matt furrowed his brow and didn't want to question his good fortune but he was too intrigued to ask.

"Where are you going?"

"For a walk and then wherever depending on my mood. You want anything?" Jeff said hunching over his suitcase to find a pair of sneakers to wear.

Matt shook his head and returned to reading, and Jeff shrugged his shoulders as if saying, "Whatever you say" and putting his arms through the jacket sleeves he made his way to the door, his ears perking up at the sound of a familiar voice. Jeff opened the door and peeked out into the hallway to confirm his suspicion and was careful to close the door carefully behind him as he stepped completely out into the hallway and walked towards the young brunette. She seemed preoccupied with trying to open the door to her room and wasn't having very much success.

"Need any help?" Jeff offered coming closer to Riley and gently taking the key out of her hand. He studied the card for a moment and reinserted it into the slot. Surprisingly, he had success with one attempt and held the door open.

Riley however didn't throw him an angry glance or a look of gratitude, but walked past by him without so much as a word. Jeff sighed aloud and closed the door behind him, watching Riley as she grabbed a pair of jeans from her suitcase and went into the bathroom to change.

"Where were you going anyway? You've been locked in here for quite a bit," he said loud enough that she could hear him – if she wasn't trying to block him out completely. He received no answer at first but then RyLynn exited the bathroom now changed and scanning the room for something.

"Riley?" Jeff asked still standing by the door.

"Well, I was going to take a nice peaceful walk after I finished writing up my article but I ran into Tyler in the hall and he informed me that the writers and our boss had called a meeting for tonight and I had to come back here and change," Riley said still searching through the hotel room for something unmentioned.

Jeff's gaze still followed her as she traveled from one end of the room to the other, searching her bags again and again.

"What are you looking for? Maybe I could help," he offered. Riley continued to search under the bed.

"The disc with the article saved on it. I could have sworn I put it next to my computer."

Jeff walked over to her computer that was now sitting on the table by the balcony. The flag on her inbox was raised and he clicked it. Apparently Stephanie had e-mailed about a meeting, and Jeff's e-mail was also listed as one of the recipients. So the meeting involved him as well?

"I can't find it," Riley announced walking over to where Jeff was sitting in front of her computer.

"We'll find it eventually. It's not due until Monday right?" Jeff said putting a hand on her shoulder trying to reassure her.

Riley only sighed and nodded and gave him a suspicious look as she saw him reading the e-mail.

"Couldn't you read your own e-mail?" she asked closing the screen to the computer.

"Well I don't check mine and besides, you had yours up already. I was just curious," Jeff said in self-defense.

"Sure Mr. Hardy, come on we have a meeting to go to?" Riley said grabbing her room key and computer and heading for the door.

"Of course, duty calls" he said and followed Riley out the door.

As they walked to the elevator Riley remembered how long it had taken the elevator to get to the top floor and suggested that they take the stairs.

Jeff shook his head, "we can wait, not that much of a hurry to sit in a boring staff room for three hours in the middle of the night."

Riley stopped insisting and figured that she would let him take the elevator if he wanted to and she had to agree about the sitting in the staff room; there were other ways she would prefer to spend tonight, sleeping before getting up at four the next morning ranked pretty high on the list.

AN:/ Well I was going to put several super climactic event this chapter but I'm saving it for next chapter! I don't think anyone knows what it is besides A.J. Well she knows maybe one out of two and no I'm not telling the other one! You'll just have to wait till chapter 20.

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