My Number One Fan

“Oh, I uh, didn’t get a chance to mention this to you,” I said, grabbing his hand and playing with his fingers. “I told Vince I wanted to come back to the company, and he wants to start me out in a storyline with Amy Dumas.”
“Really?” Jeff asked, locking our fingers together. I nodded, not even thinking about turning around.
“When do you start?” he asked, shocking me.
“Next week.” I said.
“Great, you know you amazed even me last night?” he said, moving our hands from the air to rest on my stomach.
“Really?”
“Absolutely. You’ve never even attempted to do a senton bomb off the turnbuckle, but you did one last night and it was better than my Swanton.” he said. I paused our hands and turned to stare at him. He laughed. “Sorry, forgot.” He said. “When you climbed the ropes and did the flip in the air, landing on Amy.” he said. I nodded, showing him I was listening. “That flip was called a senton bomb. I altered to be my own, and I called it the Swanton bomb, it’s my finishing move, like the RKO is Randy Orton’s finisher.”
“Oh, cool.” I said. We sat in silence, but it wasn’t awkward. We just sat and ran our hands together, thinking about our own separate things.
“So, what would you like to do Friday?” Jeff asked suddenly.
“No idea.” I said. “Anything’s fine with me.”
“Dinner and a movie then?” he asked. I nodded.
“Sounds nice,” I replied. He wrapped his arms more securely around me.
“What kind of movie? Scarey so you’ll jump and wrap your arms around me?” he asked.
“If you remember, which this is funny me talking about memories, we watched that one movie just two nights ago, and you was the one that screamed like a little girl.”
“I did not scream like a little girl.” Jeff said, sounding a little to defensive. I laughed at how defensive it sounded.
“Okay, so we can go for a romantic comedy.” I said, taking another sip of my hot cocoa.
“Uh, don’t think so.” Jeff said, shifting his weight.
“Why not?” I asked, setting my mug on the table.
“Numerous reasons.” He muttered, shifting his weight again. I thought for a moment.
“Okay, so no horror, no romantic comedy, then what?” I asked, sitting up to turn to face him.
“No idea,” he answered. “We need to decide what we’re going to do the rest of the day as well.”
“We can go out to the Imag-I-Nation.” I suggested.
“I don’t think so,” Jeff said. “It’s to cold out.”
“Well then, I don’t know.” I said. “We could clean house.”
“This place is spotless thanks to you.” Jeff said, looking around the living room.
“Well, what else is there?” I asked. Jeff thought for a moment before sitting up.
“I can think of something.” he said, putting his face close to mine. I smiled as he pressed his lips against mine, the contact sending sparks flying through my veins. I felt his tongue run across my lips, which opened on instinct. We were so engrossed in the kiss, we didn’t hear the front door open.
“My eyes!” someone shouted overdramatically. We broke apart and turned to see it was Matt. I blushed and Jeff laughed.
“Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?” Jeff asked, pulling me back to lean on him again.
“I did, you didn’t hear me.” Matt said, smirking. “So, can I start singing it again?”
“NO!” Jeff shouted at the same time I asked “Sing what?”
“Oh, I have to, she doesn’t know.” Matt said. Jeff groaned and covered his face with his hand.
“You’re gonna regret that.” Jeff muttered to me. I watched Matt as he cleared his throat.
“Jeff and Riley sitting in a tree…” he started singing. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
“Okay I know what you’re singing now!” I said quickly, the blush in my cheeks getting deeper.
“Okay Matt you can stop now!” Jeff shouted when Matt kept singing.
“That’s not all, that’s not all,” Matt was singing.
“Then comes Matt with a boot up is..”
“Jeff,” I said, smacking his arm. “He’s just having a little bit of fun.”
“Thank you Riley,” Matt said, sitting next to me and leaning on my legs.
“So why are you here Matt?” Jeff asked.
“Oh, I was going to go to Raleigh and I wanted to see if you guys wanted to come.”
“We got nothing better to do.” Jeff said, as I stood up. I grabbed the two empty mugs and walked them into the kitchen, rinsing them out along with Jeff’s coffee cup from this morning. I placed them in the dish washer as Jeff and Matt walked into the kitchen.
“You up to going with Matt?” Jeff asked me.
“Heck yeah!” I said. “I just need to go brush my hair out and put some shoes on.” I ran from the kitchen up to my bedroom. I walked into the room, and realized I forgot to make my bed. I quickly did that, and went to the closet to grab out a pair of high heeled boots. I quickly ran a brush through my hair and examined myself in the mirror. I grabbed a sweater and walked back down the stairs to find the guys waiting for me by the door. Jeff had his coat on and was holding mine. When I walked down he held the coat open so I could slid my arms through.
“Thank you,” I said, zipping the coat closed and pulling my hair free. I jumped into the backseat of Matt’s car while Jeff and Matt got in the front.
“I’m actually meeting someone there as well.” Matt informed us as we pulled out of the driveway.
“Oh really?” Jeff asked. “Who?”
“Just a girl I met.” Matt said, but I seen right through it.
“Aww, Matty’s got a crush!” I said, sitting forward to look between the two.
“It’s more than that Ri,” Matt said. “I’ve been seeing her for about 3 months now, and I really like this girl.”
“That’s good man,” Jeff said. “You haven’t been with anyone since Amy. Speaking of which, you know Vince is gonna put Riley in a storyline with her?”
“Really, when did this happen?” Matt asked, glancing toward us.
“Last night. I told Vince I wanted to come back because I wasn’t going to let what happened last night go.” I said, sitting back.
“Yeah that was way too out of hand.” Matt muttered, his jaw going tight.
“What were they thinking doing that?” Jeff asked out loud. None of us had an answer.
“Oh, how’s your head doing?” Matt asked, glancing at Jeff.
“Fine, it was nothing, it just caught me off guard.” Jeff replied. “I was more shocked than anything.”
“Yeah probably.” Matt said. I didn’t say anything.
“You’re quiet back there,” Jeff said.
“I don’t have anything to say that I won’t regret later.” I said, staring out the window. I noticed the glance between Matt and Jeff, but ignored it.
“So where are we meeting this girl at?” Jeff asked Matt, changing the subject.
“The mall,” Matt replied casually. “Figured if you guys came it would be a laid back place where you can get to know each other.”
“Smart thinking bro!” Jeff said. Everyone was quiet for a long time. The only sound was the occasional woosh of a car passing us and the radio. A song came from the radio that I recognized. I started singing along with it, but stopped when Jeff whipped his head around.
“You remember that song?” he asked, amazed.
“Kinda,” I replied, uncertainly.
“You don’t actually remember the song do you?” Matt asked, smirking.
“I know the song, but I don’t remember where it was from.” I said. Jeff and Matt glanced at each other and smirked even more.
“It’s a good thing you don’t remember then.” Jeff muttered, turning back around.
“What?” I asked, curious now.
“It’s nothing Riley.” Matt said, smiling back at me. “Jeff’s just pulling your leg. It’s just a song that you two used to listen to all the time when you were younger.”
“Yeah,” Jeff agreed. “The look on your face Riley.” he said, laughing. I couldn’t help but smile.
“Be nice Jeffrey,” Matt said, also smiling. I looked back out the window to see a sign that read “Welcome to Raleigh.”
“We’re here?” I asked, turning back to the guys. They both nodded just as businesses started appearing around the trees. After another 5 minutes, we pulled up to a huge building. The mall.
“Let’s go,” Jeff said, opening my door. I followed him into the huge place, staring around at it.
“You know I keep forgetting this is the first time she’s been in a mall since the incident,” I heard Matt mutter to Jeff. I didn’t hear Jeff’s reply because we were fully inside now. I stared at the stores on top of stores, truly amazed and overwhelmed.
“So where’s this girl?” Jeff asked Matt.
“Food Court,” Matt replied. Jeff grabbed my hand and started leading me toward the food court. When we got there, it was like a mini mall for food. There were so many places to get food from, it didn’t seem real.
“There she is,” Matt said, walking to a table. I felt Jeff lead me toward the table as well.
“Shut your mouth, your drooling all over yourself,” he teased into my ear. I quickly shut my mouth, but my eyes ended up bulging out of my head. Jeff chuckled and stopped the both of us.

~POV: Jeff~
I sat Riley down as she continued to look over the mall. It amazed me how fascinated she was.
“Jeff, Riley,” Matt said. Riley’s head snapped to face him, but it was more than apparent she wanted to keep looking around. “This is Amanda, or Mandy.”
“Hello,” the both of us said. Riley couldn’t keep her attention any longer. She began looking around more, her eyes bulging out of their sockets.
“Mandy, this is my younger brother Jeff.” Matt said. I shook her hand. “And the goofball over there is Riley. I would call her my un-biological sister, but I think future sister in law will have to due.” I knew if Riley was paying attention, she’d be blushing right about now.
“Nice to meet the both of you,” Mandy said, even though it was more for me than Riley.
“You’ll have to excuse her,” I said, indicating to Riley.
“Don’t worry, Matt explained to me about the incident and her memory.” Mandy said.
“Wish I could say Matt’s told us about you, but as you can see we’ve been kind of distracted.”
“Oh my goodness Jeff look!” Riley exclaimed suddenly, pointing something out. I turned around to try to see what she was pointing to.
“What?” I asked, looking around. I didn’t see anything that would catch her attention.
“Come on,” she said, standing up and grabbing my hand.
“Ri-” I started saying, but I was cut off by Mandy.
“Come on, I need to walk anyway.” she said. Matt and I glanced at each other as Mandy and Riley made their way out of the food court.
“I’m scared about this,” I admitted to Matt. “She’s never gotten that excited over anything.”
“Let’s just wait it out,” Matt muttered, thought I could tell he was as uneasy as I was. We walked up to the girls and looked at the store in front of us. I groaned, and turned away from the place.
“Are you serious Riley?” Matt asked, staring at the store as well.
“We have a dog Riley.” I said, turning back around.
“But look at that one, he’s just so cute!” Riley exclaimed, pointing out a dog that looked more like a rodent.
“Uh, I don’t think so Riley.” I said, grabbing her hand.
“Can we just go in and look?” she asked, disappointment in her eyes. My heart wrenched at the look.
“Okay, we’ll go look.” I said, leading her into the store. She jumped up and down and ran off, looking at all the different animals in the store. I couldn’t help but swell with the love I felt for her.
“Looks like you have a hellfire on your hands.” Mandy said. I looked down at her. Matt was standing with Riley by the Guinea pig case.
“Yeah, she’s one of a kind.” I said, crossing my arms over my chest and watching as she picked up a huge brown and white Guinea Pig. She ran her hand over its head.
“A keeper if I’ve ever seen one.” Mandy said.
“You have no idea what we’ve been through,” I said, looking back down at her. “How long it took us to get where we are today.”
“Oh, no I have an idea.” she said. “Matt tells me a lot, and I think it takes a strong connection for two people to stay as close as you and Riley have, even if there was a few setbacks.”
“I love that girl over there with everything I have.” I said, surprised I finally admitted it to someone, let alone my brother’s girlfriend that I just met not even a half hour ago.
“I can see that, and I know she loves you just the same.” Mandy said, smiling. I was about to say something when a sudden commotion sounded from the back of the store.
“Pickles!” I heard Riley’s voice shout. Cursing, I ran to the back of the store to see Matt kneeling beside Riley. Riley had her head in her knees, her body sobbing so hard it was shaking.
“Riley,” I muttered, running up to her. “What happened?” I asked Matt.
“I don’t know we just came back here and we looked at the…” his voice trailed off. “Cats.” he finished. I looked up and into the cat case. There right in the middle of the case was a grey and black tabby. It looked just like the one Riley found years ago, the one that was killed by Ron and hung in the hallway.
“Riley,” I muttered, rubbing her back. “I’m sorry sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”
“P-Pickles, my cat.” she said, fat tears rolling out of her eyes.
“Excuse me,” an employee said walking up to us. Matt quickly took the guy away from Riley.
“C’mon babe, we’re leaving.” I said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and one under her legs. I picked her up and carried her from the store. Matt and Mandy followed us to a bench, where I sat her down.
“Riley, we talked about what happened that night.” I said, kneeling in front of her.
“I know, but the image came back, and it was worse than I thought it was.” Riley admitted. “Especially the bedroom.”
“I know, it was terrible.” I said, wrapping my arms around her head. She buried her face into my shoulder, tears staining my shirt, but I didn’t care. I just cared about comforting her. When she pulled away from me and wiped her eyes with her hand, I grabbed her head and swiped my thumbs over her cheeks.
“Better now?” Matt asked her. Riley nodded, wiping at her eyes some more.
“I’m sorry,” She said to Mandy.
“It’s fine. I understand.” she said, wrapping her arm around Matt’s waist. I turned back to Riley and she was staring at me.
“I love you,” She said, wrapping her arms around my neck. I pressed my lips into her hair, taking in the smell of her shampoo as well.
“Let’s go explore some more.” Mandy said.
“No more pet stores though,” Riley said, smiling.
“That was the only one in this whole place.” Matt assured her.
“Hey, let’s take her to our old store,” I suggested to Matt. His eyes brightened as he lead the way.
“What store?” Riley asked, turning to face me.
“You’ll see.” I replied, grabbing her hand and swinging it back and forward. We followed Matt and Mandy to a set of elevators. Mandy started laughing, as did Matt.
“They’re sweet together,” Riley’s commented.
“They are.” I agreed with her. “We’re not to shabby together either are we?”
“Not at all,” she replied, leaning toward me, resting her head on my arm. I smiled and wrapped my arm around her shoulders, stepping into the elevator.
“So, how long have you two been back together?” Mandy asked.
“Uhm, two hours.” I replied. “We’ve been separated for 8 years though.”
“Misunderstanding.” Matt said. Mandy nodded, understandingly.
“Major one,” Riley spoke up. The elevator dinged, signaling we reached our floor. Matt lead the way out. I watched Riley’s face as she read the store names, but particularly her reaction for one store.
“Hot Topic,” she read out loud as Matt and Mandy walked into the store. She turned to face me, confusion in her eyes.
“This has always been our favorite store.” I replied, walking her into the store. A rock band was playing over the speakers, and Riley started banging her head to the beat.
“I love this band,” She said.
“Who is it?” I asked. She knew more about newer rock bands than I did.
“My Chemical Romance,” she replied, singing along with the lyrics. She started walking around the store, and found the make up case. I noticed her eyes go wide, as thought she remembered something.
“Rainbow eye shadow,” she said, her eyes glimmering with laughter.
“First Christmas present I ever actually bought you,” I said, nodding.
“Wasn’t there a T-Shirt with it?” Riley asked, setting the make up back on the counter.
“I think so,” I said. “That was the year we got the trampoline though.”
“Yeah it was wasn’t it?” Matt said, walking up behind us. The song in the speakers changed, and Matt and I recognized it right away. Riley, surprisingly, did as well. We were in the store a good hour before we left.
“Where do we want to go now?” I asked, looking at everyone.
Movie?” Mandy asked.
“Sounds good to me.” I said, looking down at Riley. She nodded, but suddenly jumped. We watched as she pulled out her cell phone.
“Darn it,” she groaned looking at the screen. “It’s a text from Dad. We have to go, they want us for Smackdown.”
“Are you serious?” I groaned. “Okay fine, tell him we’ll be there.”
“Come with us,” Matt said to Mandy. “We’ll follow you home and you can come with us down to Cameron and then go to the arena with us.”
“Yeah let’s go.” Riley said. Mandy nodded and Riley grabbed her hand, dragging her toward the elevators.
“They’re already acting like best friends.” Matt muttered.
“Well, how many women does Riley get to hang out with that’s her own age?” I asked, standing a little behind the girls so we could talk.
“Yeah that’s true,” Matt muttered as the elevators opened. We walked out of the mall and to the parking lot. We got into the cars and drove to Mandy’s house. When we got there, I got out of the front seat and sat in the back with Riley.
“Ready to see what we really do for a living?” Matt asked as Mandy slid into the car.
“Absolutely.” she replied. I glanced at Riley who looked at me, smiling.