Chapter 23

(Immediately following last scene of Chapter 22)

Riley slid out from underneath Deven's arm and sank to the floor by her bed. Oh God...what had she done? Hoe could she have been so stupid? She had just slept with Deven...Deven. The man who broke her heart, Deven...the man who caused her so much pain, Deven...her rebound, Deven.

The feeling of all the blood rushing from her head let Riley experience the first effects of her slight hangover. She must have drunk a lot to experience a hangover after last night...any other night she would have woken feeling perfectly fine. Ah, the joy of being young.

She stood up and tried to walk to the bathroom and immediately felt the pain in her hips and thighs. "Fuck." She cursed softly.

No...no more of that...that's what got me into this damn mess. Geez, how many rounds did we go last night? Oh yeah...four...four hard rounds...

She chuckled despite her current state of panic and painfully made it into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She took in her appearance in the mirror, pale, shaky, sweaty, tired...

Eh, I actually don't look that bad...I wonder if that's what Deven thought?

"Oh God..." She mumbled and dropped to her knees next to the toilet and threw up everything she'd eaten within the last day. Once she was done wrenching, she leaned back against the tub and sighed. She had an immediate flashback of sitting naked on the floor in this very spot after Nick had vomited just over a month ago...only difference was Nick had been sitting next to her, admitting something horrible. Now she was the one purging her stomach and admitting regret to something horrible she'd done.

The thought of that sent her back to the toilet's side. Now she was merely dry heaving, and that really hurt. She moaned and settled against the tub and thanked God that Deven was a heavy sleeper. She sighed and pulled herself up off the ground and flushed the toilet and all her stomach contents away.

She turned and switched on the hot water in the shower and leaned against the cool bathroom wall. A few moments later she stepped into the shower, and winced as the hot liquid made contact with her sensitive skin. She felt along her neck and found hickeys all over it, on her thighs, stomach, and breasts.

Damn...we are animals.

The reference to her and Deven being a 'we' made the bile rise in her throat once again, but she fought it down and tried to scrub him off of her.

--Nick's House—Nick's Room—6:33 a.m.--

Nick sighed and rolled over to face the ceiling, gazing up at the green wall above him, he had a flashback of he and Riley painting the ceiling almost four months ago. He had chosen an original color of Olive Green, or what she had referred to as baby poop green. Nick smirked at the memory of how she had pretended like it wasn't a hideous color just to make him happy...he had ended up choosing to the color paint she had picked...he had to admit it was nicer anyway.

He moaned as he realized he had caught himself thinking about her again. That was all he had done last night. Anything he looked at, or heard, or smelled all reminded him of her. He groaned and threw his pillow over his eyes, but her scent still lingered on it.

Casablanca Lilies, her favorite. And Dove shampoo with a hint of Natori perfume...I need to wash my sheets.

He told himself and stood up immediately and yanked the covers off the bed and threw them in a heap on the floor. He pulled the cases of the pillows and tossed them into the pile also. He had reached for the mattress cover (I have no idea what that's called...is there even a name for it...?), when he spotted something small and gold near the upper right corner of the headboard. The thin gold chain was caught on the metal frame and wooden post of the head board, and the small gold cross shimmered as the silver and gold star in the center of it reflected the light from different angles.

He recognized it immediately as Riley's necklace; he had asked her about it a few months ago as she had lain in his arms. The necklace had gone missing the next day, and she'd been on the hunt for it ever since.

Figures this would be the last place we'd look...

Nick chuckled dryly and set the gold jewelry on his nightstand, next to a bra and pair of shoes he had found last night while cleaning. He didn't dare start cleaning her things out of one of the drawers in his bathroom quite yet...he wasn't ready for that...

Damn, I'm so fuckin pathetic I can't even clean out a friggin drawer in my bathroom because it belonged to her...

He sighed and grabbed up the pile of dirty sheets and carried them to the end of the hallway and set them in the basket by the washer and dryer. He sighed and grabbed a different set of sheets from the closet, and caught a whiff of the fabric softener he had used on his sheets.

Daisies...Riley...Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!

"Why the Hell can't I stop thinking about her!" Nick screamed and slammed the closet door shut, that being the alternative to putting his fist through the wall. He growled agitatedly and tried to take his mind off Riley by erasing all traces of her from his apartment.

--The Universal House—Riley's Room—6:53 a.m.--

Riley stood under the spray of the shower, not cleaning herself, simply standing there as the memories of last night flooded over her.

/-/ Flashback /-/

The rain beat down hard on the window behind Riley's chair in the den of the house. Lighting flashed brightly behind the white frosted curtains, and the thunder soon following shook the house. The reverberations on the house created a humming noise from the air conditioner.

Riley sighed and hit the print button on her computer while stretching like a cat. She had been sitting in that position in the leather, Victorian style chair for nearly five hours finishing up the research for work. She sighed and reclined in the chair while waiting for the paper to finish printing. A small knock on the door drew her attention and she brought her head up and opened her eyes to see Deven standing in the doorway.

"Hey..." He furred his brows. "Are they not back yet?"

She shook her head. "Nah, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't make it home at all...any of them." She replied while chuckling softly and shaking her head. She opened her mouth to say something else but the odd noises coming from the printer prevented her from doing so and she looked at it worriedly. Soon the blasted machine died down, lights turning off, noises finally stopping, and printing of Riley's six page report halted halfway through the first page.

She dropped her jaw and moaned at the thought of her printer dieing, but thanking God that she had a floppy disk and could copy the papers onto that. She sighed and inserted the disk, but just as she did so her screen blacked out, followed by all the lights, air conditioning, and the radio she had going on in the background.

She released a gasp and stared at the computer in shock. "Oh...no. Oh. My. God...no, no, no." She pleaded and tried desperately to turn her lap top back on.

"What's wrong Ry?"

She looked at Deven's blacked out form in shock. "What's wrong—the power just went out Deven!"

"Not the first time it's happened..." He sucked in a breath as he realized what was wrong. "Oh...was that your paper for work?"

He was answered by a groan of complaint and Riley's whimper. "No, no, no! God! I've been working on this for hours!" She exclaimed and ran her hands through her red hair in worry. "Oh God this can't be happening!"

"Relax Riley, the minute the power comes back on we can upload the paper then print it okay...? Just relax Ry."

She whimpered again and sighed. "God hates me."

"Yeah, he does. So give into the dark side and drink your worries away." Deven replied, remembering the game they had started back when they had been 'just friends'.

"And we have cookies and cake and endless re-runs of 'The Golden Girls'." The droned in unison and eventually Riley broke out into a chuckle.

"Actually...a glass of Merlot sounds pretty damn good." Riley deduced and Deven chuckled.

"There ya go."

A flash of lighting illuminated the room, giving Riley a quick sense of where she could step throughout the room to make it into the dinning room. She and Deven walked silently into the kitchen and grabbed a flashlight from out of the drawer and began searching for candles to light the house. They hit the jackpot and found two whole boxes of unopened Plumeria scented candle sticks. Deven sniffed one of them and smiled. "Ooh, this smells good."

"Yeah...that'd be why I bought 'em." She replied and they began placing them around the kitchen, living room, and around the house. After they were finished they brought the bottle of Merlot into the living room and Riley sighed in boredom. "What do we do until the power comes back on?"

Deven smiled. "I have an idea..."

---------

"Deven...this isn't what I had in mind."

"Aw c'mon Ry, give it a try...give into the dark side..."

"And make shadow puppets?" She finished and Deven chuckled.

"Alright, let me try once more. I promise this one will be easy." Deven replied and placed his hands in front of the flame to create a shadow on the wall. He formed his hands into an ambiguous create and Riley looked at it in complete and utter confusion.

"What the Hell is that?" She asked as he began making the foreign object move.

"Guess."

She sighed and shook her head. "I-I...I don't know...a crab leg?"

He looked at her as if she just told him that façade was pronounced 'fakade' and shook his head. "It's a Velociraptor Ry..."

"...With scoliosis?"

He dropped his hands and sighed in frustration and she giggled and sipped her wine. "That was bad...that was really bad."

"Well, it's the best I can do." He pouted and she chuckled.

"...It still sucked..."

"Well let's see your shadow puppets." Deven challenged.

--------------

One hour and a bottle of Merlot later, the shadow puppets continued...and became more and more senseless. "What the Hell is that! Oh! I know! A television!" Deven asked while laughing and shaking his head.

"It's a refrigerator!" Riley replied and Deven laughed.

"Close enough..."

"Nu uh! It's completely opposite."

"Hey! You guessed duck on air plane and I gave you the point!"

"That's cause I'm adorable when I'm dumb."

"Glad I could finally get you to admit that you're always adorable..."

She huffed. "I'm taking that as a compliment..." Deven chuckled and poured a little more wine into his glass, even though they'd both had plenty.

"Well good...cause it's true." Deven replied seriously and she furred her brow.

"That I'm adorable or dumb?" Riley asked, his intention of complimenting her having gone over her head...Deven gave her a look as her answer and she ducked her head and sipped her wine. "How long has the power been out?" She asked randomly, desperate for a change of conversation.

Deven shrugged. "I dunno...long enough for us to get wasted."

She chuckled and nodded. "Eh, 'member the days when we could get shit faced and not feel anythin in the mornin?" She drawled.

"You mean yesterday?" Deven joked and she laughed. "Yeah...damn we're gettin old." Deven replied sarcastically and she smirked.

"Yeah...24 and 26...we're old farts. I don't think my geriatrics doctor would appreciate me drinking all this wine." She countered and Deven laughed hysterically, Riley soon joining in...both were two drunk to notice that the comment wasn't that funny. Riley had laughed herself back into a laying position, head on her pillow with her legs tucked underneath her as she laid. The laughter subsided and Riley reached behind her to peel the wax that had dripped onto the hardwood floor of the walkway between the carpeted dinning room and living room.

Deven watched her do so, and then let his gaze travel down to the skin that was exposed on her stomach, her shirt having ridden up because of her arms stretched above her head. She finished her small amusement and looked around absently before her eyes settled on Deven as he watched her.

She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it when she realized her vocabulary had escaped her. Deven set down his wine glass and crawled over to Riley's legs, then slowly up towards her face. His motions were slow, and seductive, making Riley's mind race in protests.

Oh God...no. Don't do it Riley. Pull away. Don't do it...no...STOP!

Her mind demanded, but the wine and need of familiarity kept her still, and allowed Deven's soft, memorable lips to brush over hers. Her breath quickened, whether it was from the panic or excitement of what was about to happen, she didn't know...all she knew was that when his perfect, silk lips pressed harder into hers...she let go...

...and gave into the dark side.

/-/ Present /-/

The sudden switch from hot to cold water snapped Riley out of her reminiscence and she gasped and turned off the water, and brushed away the tears she didn't know were there.

She felt like she had done something horrible...which she had.

She felt as though she had a dirty little secret...which she did.

She felt as though she had just betrayed and cheated on Nick...which technically she didn't...but it sure as Hell felt that way. And when you're a woman your feelings and gut instincts are all you have...so it was understandable why Riley was confused as Hell. In principle, she shouldn't have been feeling that way, she had no reason to. She and Nick had broken up horribly. Deven was simply a rebound, at least in her mind. The lasting question was...was that what this was to Deven?

She stepped out of the bath tub and wrapped the towel around her body and sat down on the toilet seat lid. She wasn't ready to leave the safety her bathroom provided, and enter into the horror that was her bedroom. She sighed and ran her hands through her tangled hair, until the knock at the bathroom door made her bolt off her seat. She opened her mouth to reply, but quickly shut it, fearing that if it was anyone besides Deven she'd have to kill herself.

"Riley?" Deven whispered through the door and she released a breath and opened the door enough to stick her head out.

"Yeah?" The steam from her shower filtered out around her and Deven swiped it away.

"I just...I woke up and you weren't there...I wanted to make sure you were okay...did you scald yourself?" He asked, noticing the skin on her arms was almost raw.

She gasped and looked down, comprehending that she had rubbed it virtually red when she had been remembering the 'sin' she had committed last night. "Yeah...I uh...I zoned out in the shower." She lied and Deven eyed her suspiciously, but nodded after a moment. He looked behind him for no particular reason, then back at Riley nervously.

"Are you okay...? Was it...it...was too much wasn't it?" He said and sighed softly and bit her lip and looked down, not confirming or denying the accusation. She sighed and dragged her gaze back up to Deven.

"We need to talk." She replied and Deven sighed and nodded.

She opened the door and stepped into the room and went to her closet for her robe. She turned to face the closet, and Deven turned away to give her privacy. She slid off the towel and threw the Olive green (ha ha ha...irony is a bitch) cotton bathrobe over her shoulders and tied the knot to seal it. She turned back around and coughed so Deven would know he could turn around and he ran a hand nervously threw his hair. She nodded towards the bed and sighed as they sat down.

"Look...I uh...I know you know about Nick and I so...you know that this is..."

"Casual." Deven finished and she waved her hand slightly.

"For lack of a better word." She sighed and turned to face him, tucking one leg underneath her. "Dev, I want you to know that...even though this was casual...it wasn't random, and it wasn't about opportunity. If it had happened with anyone else...well it wouldn't have. I didn't...I didn't plan that, this, but I didn't just jump into it. Like I said, this wouldn't have happened with anyone else because I was...craving familiarity. I wanted someone who...who knew me. Who...knew what they were doing." She rolled her eyes. "I know that makes me sound like a proverbial slut but...I just-"

"I know Ry...I get it..." He said softly, a little regretful, yet understanding. Riley sighed and dropped her head, but Deven lifted it back up and placed it on his shoulder so he could hug her. She sighed and wrapped her arms around him and sighed into his shoulder.

"...You're naked." She stated.

"I just realized that." She could hear the smug smile in his voice and she rolled her eyes and puresed her lips to hide the smirk as she pushed him away.

"Maybe you should go get your pants."

"I'll do that." He stood up quickly and walked out the door, only to turn back around to her. "...Any idea where those would be?"

She laughed and tossed him his boxers from the side of her bed as he blushed and held them up in a gesture of approval. "Thanks." And with a smirk on his lips he hurried into the bathroom shared by the guys of the house.

--Um...so...yeah...this is the end of the chapter...so...yeah--

So...awkward much! Yeah, and it's only gonna get worse...stay tuned! XD Anyone who was dyin of anticipation for this chapter should thank to 'unknown reviewers' who threatened me with until I posted it...(chuckles and shrugs) I know, I know, I'm an evil person for torturing Riley and Nick like this...but its what I do best...just ask the 'unknown reviewers'...they'll justify my innate evilness.

(FYI, that scoliosis velociraptor/ crab leg was for you Kit!) XD

Next chapter will be up hopefully sometime tomorrow! Please review...I have no life (other than chemistry and Chinese babies--ps, don't ask) and they brighten my day! XD

I know...I'm insane. (shrugs)

-Incredibly Insane Futuremisscsi60