Chapter 4

The three friends were still on the patio. Jamie walked quickly, hoping his cousin wouldn't follow him, but he was wrong. "Oh hey, you're home." Hailey smiled at the sight of her son and neice. "How was the party?" she asked

"It was great, until someone made me leave." Riley tripped over the door frame as she entered.

"Are you drunk?" Peyton voice was a mixture of confusion and anger, but no one listen to her.

"I made you leave because you were going to go upstairs with that random dude!"

"That's none of your business. You're not my father. You think you are, but you're not! And besides you're the one who went off and left me." The fight between the cousins was escalating despite their parents trying to interject. "I think I'm going to puke." Riley's face was suddenly very pale.

"Oh God. Come with me." Hailey grabbed her and rushed her inside; leaving Jamie to explain to a very angry father, and a very confused Peyton.

"How could you do that?!" Nathan yelled. "You were supposed to watch her? How could you let her go off with some random guy?!"

"I didn't I stopped her." Jamie didn't want to argue with his father.

"Well you should have been with her!"

"Okay, okay." Peyton intervened. "Nathan, Riley is a big girl. She can take care of herself. I'm just hapy that Jamie got them both home safely. But, I would like to know the story… from someone who is sober." Peyton turned toward Jamie.

He told them how he had stopped her from going upstairs, and forced her to come home. Conviently, leaving out the part where he almost pummeled that Tyler dude to the ground. "I was just going to come in and get the keys, but she wouldn't stay in the car." Jamie finished up.

"Thank you for making sure she got home."

"Now get upstairs and get ready for bed. Tomorrow we're going to have a talk about the kinds of partys you're going to." He said goodnight, and then he headed inside.

"I'm really sorry, Peyton." Nathan apologized after Jamie was gone.

"For what? For our kids going to a crazy beach house party? Because we never did anything like that." She laughed. "Nate, they're teenagers. They're going to mess up. We did, oh boy did we."

He laughed remember some of the crazy ass parties they had thrown while in high school. "Yeah I guess, but I would just like to think that our kids our perfect little angels. I don't want to think of them doing the things we did."



"Okay I think she's done puking." Hailey appeared at the door.

"Thanks for taking her." Peyton followed Hailey into the house.

"It's no problem I figured you'd want to talk to Jamie without the two of them arguing." The two friends hugged, and Peyton retrieved her daughter who was now sipping water in the living room.

"Come on." Peyton said as she walked towards the door. Riley reluctantly followed. The drive back home was mostly silent. Riley was busy sobering up, and Peyton was trying to figure out what to say to her drunk daughter. This situation had never come up before. "You know," Peyton sayed as she stopped at the red light, "I'm pretty disappointed in you kid." She looked over at Riley to make sure she understood how upset Peyton was.

Riley stared out her window. She was still drunk, but sober enough to understand her mother's words. "I know." She said quietly. Nothing else was said. Once home Peyton helped Riley upstairs, and into bed.

"Tomorrow we're going to have a nice little chat about your little adventure tonight." Peyton promised as she shut off the light in her daughter's bedroom.

The next day Riley woke up about 10:30. She was dieing of thirst. On the nightstand there was a bottle of water and a couple aspirin. She swallowed the aspirin and downed the water. It was days like this she was happy her mom had a bathroom installed in her room. She could barely recognize herself when she looked in the mirror. She was a mess. She took a relaxing shower, and by the time she was out the aspirin were working their magic. Downstairs she found her mom in the basement.

"Oh, hey." Peyton greeted.

"Hi."

"How you feeling?" Peyton laughed.

"Alright. What are you doing down here?"

"Well," Peyton walked towards the stairs, "I was thinking turning this into like an art studio for you and me."

"That'd be cool."

"Yeah, I think I'll call that designer who worked on your room, and see if she can come over tomorrow." Peyton started walking up the stairs, and Riley followed. "So, we need to talk Missy."

Riley sat at the bar in the kitchen while Peyton started lunch. "Do you want to start? Or should I?" She started boiling a pot of water, and then turned to look at her daughter.

"I'm sorry." Riley said quietly. "It won't happen again." She stared at her hands.



"Oh, I seriously doubt that." Peyton stared at her. "What the hell where you thinking? Drinking that much, and almost going off with some guy you didn't even know?" Riley didn't know how to answer her mother. So she remained quiet. "Riley, I asked you a question." Peyton bent her head so she could see her daughter's eyes.

"I said I was sorry." Riley stood up to leave.

"We're not finished." Riley stood for a moment, contemplating whether she should leave or not. One glance at her mother told her the answer. She sat back down. "Now, I'm not happy about you drinking, but my main concern right now is about the guy."

"I know that was really stupid."

Peyton shook her head. "I really hope you realize what would have happened if your cousin had not of been there." Peyton was quiet for a moment letting her words sink in. "Now, first of all drinking is illegal. It's bad for health, and it makes you do stupid things. But, I was your age once, and I know it's not always easy to have a soda instead. I do not want you drinking, but if you choose to do so be smart about it. Be responsible. Don't ever drink or drive, and never ride with someone who has been drinking. Never put your glass down, or take drinks from someone. Especially someone you don't know. I'm sure there's a ton of other things I'm forgetting, but I think you get the point."

Riley nodded. "I am really sorry. I didn't mean to get that drunk."

"Well, let's not make this a habit." Peyton smiled lightening the mood. "You are ground though," Peyton turned to check on the water, "for two weeks."

Okay guys, so how do you like it? Any ideas for the title? I don't really have ideas yet b/c I'm not really sure where the story is going to lead… The next chapter is about Riley's first day at school, but I'm not going to update again until I have at least 20 reviews. So if you want more… REVIEW!! Please.