A/N: Wooo, took me a while to get this chapter out. Thanks for waiting patiently, and thanks for the reviews. Please let me know what you think.
After giving his youngest daughter a kiss, Nick left her bedroom and began to walk down the stairs to find Riley. Nick was livid. He couldn't believe that he'd trusted her, even went out of his way to cut her some slack, and she'd been playing him the entire time. She'd forced her little sister to lie for her, and he suspected she was trying to hang out again with that Cody jerk. Nick could feel his heart beating faster, and he knew he shouldn't confront her when he was so angry, but he just couldn't stop himself. He needed answers, and she needed to look him in the eye and explain herself.
Seething, he reached her bedroom door and burst it open, ready to begin his rampage, but Riley wasn't in there. Annoyed, he turned and yelled her name. "Riley!" The curt, don't-cross-me tone of his own voice reminded him of how ticked off he was. If he was Riley, he'd be running and hiding right now. However, moments later, her voice answered him timidly, in confusion.
"I'm in here." She answered him softly, her voice obviously worried. Riley didn't know what she'd done, but she knew it was best to comply with his requests.
Nick stormed in the direction of the kitchen to find his oldest making herself a turkey sandwich at the counter. She pressed the top piece of bread down several times as she saw his face. Normally, she knew exactly what he was pissed with her about, but in this case she had no clue. Had he found out she'd only read the Cliff's Notes for Hamlet instead of the actual play? Did he find that tank top in her closet he'd forbidden her to buy the other week? No, this was more serious.
"I really cannot believe you, Riley Michelle." He began, his voice scary and intimidating. It was a voice he really only used with the hardest criminals, hardly ever with Riley, and the look on her face displayed her dislike and fear of the tone. "You've been planning this whole time to sneak out again tonight? All this good girl stuff was an act?"
He waited for her explanation, his hands perched menacingly on his hips. Riley stumbled, opening her mouth to speak, but didn't quite know how to begin. It was true that she'd been plotting behind his back, but she'd made the right choice and decided not to go through with it. Riley realized he must've somehow gotten Carly to tattle on her. That was the only person who knew what she'd planned on doing, only now she was misinformed.
"I…I was, but I decided not to." She said weakly, knowing she didn't sound that good right now. She sounded like a horrible, distrustful child, and she couldn't blame him for being angry with her.
"You decided not to?" He repeated, crossing his arms over his chest. "And when was that? Just now, when you got busted?"
"Nooo!" She almost yelled, struggling to compose her voice, because it was all so unfair, and she knew how bad everything looked. Riley couldn't believe that she was in trouble again, even though she'd chosen not to sneak out. "This morning. That's what my phone call was! I told Cody I didn't want to anymore! It's the truth, Daddy, I swear!"
Nick nodded and pressed his tongue against his lower cheek in thought. Even if she wasn't planning on sneaking out, she'd still been deceiving him for the better part of a week.
"Alright." He cleared his throat, and calmed his voice so he was talking at a normal level. "So you decided not to sneak out. That's a good thing, because I would've caught you. But you've been lying this whole time, talking to Cody on the phone. Is there anything else I should know about?"
"No. I swear." The look on her face convinced him she was telling the truth. And unlike many times in her life with him, she seemed genuinely sorry and upset that he wasn't happy with her. It hurt her that he didn't trust her right now. Maybe she was coming around after all.
Nick nodded again and studied her face intently. Riley had to look down, and she pushed the bread of her sandwich down again. "You know I don't like you hanging out with that boy."
"I know, and I don't want to anymore because he was a jerk when I told him I didn't want to go out." She explained to him, hoping he was becoming convinced she wasn't an evil child. Riley had never much cared before what Nick thought of her. He hadn't been there when she was a little girl; not there to patch up her skinned knees, to help her study for her spelling tests, or read her bedtime stories. But now, in this stage of her life, he was there to protect her, even when she hadn't wanted to be protected.
Her father seemed more at ease now, which she was thankful for, but sensed she wasn't exactly out of the woods yet. Riley felt awful for deceiving him, and wished she could take it all back.
"You shouldn't have had Carly lie for you." He told her firmly, raising his eyebrows at her. "She's having enough trouble now without you confusing her."
"I know. I'm sorry." She said meekly, which was not something she did often, and fiddled with the bottom of her tank top.
"Alright." He said softly, scratching the back of his neck, thinking she still needed some kind of discipline for all this mess. "Why don't you go to your room. And you can help me with yard work in a little while."
Riley got tears in her eyes and looked at him in confusion. She does the right thing, and tells him the truth, even when he snaps at her and jumps to the wrong conclusion. She'd been an angel the last week, and still he does this?
"I tell you the truth, and I didn't sneak out." She reminded him tearfully, shaking his head. "And still I'm in trouble? This blows! Maybe I should sneak out anyway since I'm still getting yelled at!"
Riley stomped off to her room in frustration, leaving her turkey sandwich behind on the counter. She wasn't hungry anymore. Her door slammed as she became a prisoner in her own room yet again. Nick angrily turned on the kitchen faucet to do the pile of dishes waiting for someone's attention. His blood still felt like it was boiling from his encounter with Riley. It felt awful to trust someone, and then find out they hadn't been trustworthy, especially his own daughter. At least she had chosen to do the right thing, but it didn't feel that way.
These were the times when she really wished she could just live with her grandmother instead of her father. At least she didn't bite her head off when she was trying to do the right thing. It seemed all her dad was concerned with was being right, and catching her on ever single infraction. He didn't even care that she'd fixed what she did wrong! Riley grabbed a pile of books that were sitting on her desk and pushed them over, knocking them noisily to the floor. Sometimes, she hated being a teenager and always being misunderstood. And it especially hurt that her own father, a man that she was learning to trust and love, didn't understand her at all.
Out in the living room area, Sara emerged folding one of Riley's shirts with a concerned look on her face. Nick was leaning back against the kitchen counter, touching the bridge of his nose in frustration. He just didn't understand Riley. Didn't she realize that plotting to sneak out was pretty much just as bad as actually doing it? Sure, it counted for something with him that she'd decided not to do it, but how honest was she even being about that? How did he know she hadn't just decided to abort the idea when he'd confronted her with the truth? She'd given him her word, but at times, Nick didn't know if that meant a whole lot to him. Over the two and a half years he'd known her, he'd caught her lying several times about major things, and while she was coming along, he couldn't shake the feeling Riley was lying again.
"Nick?" Sara called him softly, not at all impressed with how his conversation with Riley had gone, if you could even call it that.
"What?" Nick asked, in a slightly annoyed tone, not making eye contact with his wife. Sara finished folding the shirt and let it drop to the arm of the couch, then proceeded towards the kitchen.
"Did you even listen to what she was saying?" She posed, having witnessed in the other room how he'd looked over her apologies and how she'd admitted she was wrong and did the right thing.
"Yes, Sara. I heard what she said." He snapped a little, turning around and placing his hands on the edge of the counter, leaning forward. "I'm just having trouble believing her."
"And why's that?"
Nick let out a surprised, slightly disgusted little noise through his nose, as if the question in itself were preposterous. "Do I need to remind you why she's grounded? She hasn't exactly been trustworthy lately."
"Well, did you listen to the way she said it? And did she look you in the eye?" Sara liked to think that, as a mother, she could tell when one of her children was telling the truth. There had been something in Riley's voice that told her she was being sincere. She could understand where Nick was coming from. She really did. But Sara didn't want him pushing Riley away by not believing her.
"I. I don't know." He shook his head, thinking over what his daughter had said and how she said it. Was he a bad father for not believing her? "The important thing is she's definitely staying here tonight."
Sara let out a little huff, causing Nick to look at her for an explanation. "No, Nick. The important thing is that a girl can count on being trusted by her father."
Sara turned and walked off, and decided she needed to go talk to Riley herself. She'd been around when Riley lied, and could always tell when she was fibbing. There had been a pleading, desperate tone to her voice when Nick had confronted her, as if she were shocked that he didn't believe her. It wasn't like her to sound that way. Usually when Nick yelled at her, she got defensive and brash, but this time she'd kept her cool and tried to present her case. Sara wondered if she was getting too soft, but something in her gut told her she wasn't.
Knocking on her stepdaughter's door, she didn't hear an answer, but proceeded inside anyway. Riley was face down on her bed, crying softly, looking quite pitiful and down. Wordlessly, Sara stepped over the wide array of items splayed across the floor, and sat down next to Riley on the bed. She hadn't snapped or pushed her away yet, so Sara reached out and gently began to rub circles on her back, hoping to calm her.
"He's just worried about you, Ry." Sara began, trying to explain her husband's behavior. She knew his heart was in the right place, but sometimes it seemed like he did more yelling than anything else. Not that Riley always made it easier for him to do much else.
"He doesn't care that I wasn't going to sneak out. All he cares about is catching me every time I mess up even a little." She rattled off in a tearful breath, turning her head to the side slightly to eye Sara.
"Well, you don't have the cleanest track record when it comes to being honest with us." Sara pointed out, speaking the truth. Their relationship with Riley was still a work in progress, going through ups and downs. They didn't have the foundation with her of the early years like they had with Carly and Nolan. Trust was being built, and destroyed sometimes, during her teen years, a turbulent time for anyone, but especially for Riley.
"I know, but this time I'm telling the truth, and he doesn't even care." If Nick thought he was such a mind-reader, bragging that he always knew when she was lying, shouldn't he also be able to decipher when she was telling the truth? Where was the justice in only being recognized when she was lying?
Sara sighed through her nose as she patted the teenager's back. She tried to think back to when she was a teenager when she was having a hard time understanding Riley, but it never helped much because her adolescence had been so screwed up. She didn't have parents to fight with.
"He may have overreacted, but you are still grounded anyway." Sara reminded her of her standing punishment for sneaking out to the party a few weeks ago.
"Like I need to be reminded." Riley growled, burying her face in her pillow once again. The prospect of yard work was certainly not an appealing activity for a weekend. "Can't I be excused? I have to study for the SAT you know."
Riley was scheduled to take the despised, tedious exam in two weeks, and would then anxiously await her results in hopes of getting into Butterfield. And while she had lots of free time on her hands at the moment, cracking the vocabulary and high school math books was hardly how she wanted to spend her days and evenings.
"You have plenty of time to study during the week, but you don't take advantage of it. Your dad needs help outside."
Riley turned over and glared at her stepmother, realizing she would always be on his side in the end. She'd come in acting like she was sensitive to her feelings, but when it came down to her support against her dad, Riley would never come out on top. "Then why don't you help him?"
Sara ran her tongue along her top teeth for a moment and glared, focusing on not snapping at the girl on the spot. "I do enough around here, Riley. You're part of this family, and you need to help out accordingly." Sara stood up and started walking towards the door.
"Doesn't feel much like helping. Feels more like being a slave." Riley retorted under her breath. Sara closed her eyes and shook her head, and decided not to say anything more. On days like this, it was easy to tell where Riley got her headstrong ways from.