Paint You Wings.

⊱⊱ Alex Gaskarth ⊰⊰

"Riley, huh?" Jack smirked, nudging me in the side as soon as I'd dropped her off at the café and was left alone with my brother from another mother.

I rolled my eyes, "whatever." I mumbled, keeping my eyes on the road while biting down on my bottom lip so as to contain the smile that threatened to burst. Bet I sounded like a whipped pussy right now, but I really couldn't care less. Just being with her made me happy.

Jack snickered loudly, angling his body towards me. We still had a ten minute drive since Jack insisted that he needed some Taco Bell before I dropped him home. I wanted Riley to tag along but I'm assuming she felt rather awkward while with us both, so she opted to go to the café, instead; using her hands to tell us that she had studying to do.

I didn't even know she was in college. I just assumed that she worked at the café full-time.

"So... When'd you get the guts to actually talk to her?" He asked, a stupidly proud smirk on his lips. I groaned, trying to get him to shut up but he brought his finger to my neck, poking it as I squirmed away. "Come on." He whined, "you owe me some of the dirty details."

Laughing, I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. "You're worse than a teenage girl."

"Surprise: I am a teenage girl." He deadpanned before letting out a short laugh. "Seriously though. You've been telling me about her since you walked into that damn coffee place. She's so pretty, she's so kind, she looks so sweet, she has such an adorable smile." Jack mocked in a falsetto, making me gasp in offence.

"I do not sound like that."

Jack snorted, "uh, yeah, you do."

My jaw dropped as I glanced at him before shutting my mouth and opting to blindly smack his head as best as I could without getting us into an accident.

He laughed, pushing my hand away, then he sighed. "She makes you happy, though, right?"

"Yeah," I replied softly. "Yeah, she does."

"Good." He stated in a firm tone.

Pulling into an open parking space and killing the engine, I turned to him with a confused expression on my face. "Good?" I repeated in a questioning tone.

He nodded. "You've never been properly happy when you were with Lis. I mean, don't get me wrong: she's a cool chick, but she never made you, like, really happy. With Riley... Your eyes light up like a kid waking up on fucking Christmas morning, or something."

I stared at him for a moment. For someone as immature and... 'Jack Barakat'-like as the man himself, he really did have his moments. I'm surprised he even noticed that. I didn't even figure out that I was never really happy being with Lisa till we finally broke up and here he was: telling me it like he'd known all along.

"We're just friends," I decided on replying, locking the doors as I started for the entrance of the mall.

Jack chuckled from a few feet behind me before his hastened footsteps made it to beside me, slinging an arm around my shoulder. "For now." He shrugged. "Till then, you've always got me." He wiggled his eyebrows in my direction before leaning down to give me a wet, sloppy kiss on the cheek just as I'd pushed open the doors.

With a loud laugh that attracted quite a bit of attention, I shoved him off of me, wiping his leftover saliva from my cheek. And to think, I still wondered why the kids thought 'Jalex' was a thing.



I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't really care. I stood across the street, but I could see inside the café. Since I'd already dropped Jack off at his house and he kept moaning about how he needed sleep, I figured I'd come by and hang with Riley.

We'd been hanging out for quite a while and I'd often just drop by the café, just to hang out with her, and she knew that. She never once said - or wrote - that she didn't want me around so I assumed that I'd grown on her as much as she'd grown on me.

Even though I'd just seen her that morning when I'd gone to pick my partner-in-crime from the airport, it was only for a short while. I picked her up and then we drove to the airport, me telling her about some song ideas that I had - she was actually really good at song writing - and some other random anecdotes that came to my head. Just because she didn't talk, it didn't mean that she didn't listen to me talk. She'd nod and smile, sometimes even trace replies on the back of my hand with her soft, gentle fingers. I got on so well with her that I sometimes forget that we'd barely met about two weeks ago.

Although the café was currently rather empty, there were two other people besides Riley and Linc. One of them looked like a teenager and the other looked older than him.

Linc and the other not-the-teenager dude were shouting at each other, while Riley just stood by with a hard glare on her pretty features. I could see her fists clenched so tightly that I was surprised her hand hadn't broke from self-infliction yet, if that was even possible. Linc said something that made the dude take a small step back, as though the impact of his words physically hit him. The dude took a step forward towards Riley, hand reaching up, as though he wanted to stroke her face but she took a step back, shaking her head as she pointed to the door.

'Leave.' I saw Linc mouth, probably saying that one word so viciously, seeing as how his glare, even though not directed at me, made me want to cower under a pillow, or run home and never come out ever again.

The dude looked from Linc, to Riley, then he shook his head. He pulled open the café door, giving her one last look through the glass windows before running his fingers through his hair and walking off.

Turning my attention back to the trio like the absolute stalker I currently felt like, I watched as Riley collapsed to the ground, back against the counter while hugging her knees to her chest, ducking her head between her knees. Linc dropped down next to her, as did the other guy, and she looked up for a brief moment, revealing her tear-streaked face. I could've sworn I felt my heart shrivel up and break into a million tiny pieces.

I wanted to go to her, to comfort her. But I couldn't bring myself to do so. Because I knew that if I did, I'd end up asking her about what the whole thing with the other dude was, even though I told myself to respect her privacy and not ask her about things she didn't tell me. I knew that if I asked, and if I'd found out that the dude had hurt her in some way, I'd be out for his blood.

So I walked away, feeling like a complete asshole who's heart was still in a million fragmented pieces. No matter how much I wanted to know her better, to actually be with her in a committed, long-term relationship, or to just be one of her best friends; I knew that it'd take time.

Everything took time.

It took me awhile to stop being mad at my parents for wanting me to up and leave my life back in Essex. My riveting eight-year-old social life that I apparently had, anyway.

Heck, Jack and I took ages before we actually became best friends - him assuming I was competing with him in terms of who had bigger eyebrows and all. Weird kid.

So yeah, Riley and I may not be the closest of friends right now and she may not even like me the way that I'm starting to like her as, but it'll happen.

I know it will. Over time, it will.

Then we'll be, like, Rilex or something. And I can't fucking wait for that day.