Time Bomb

“How do you like Baltimore so far?” Cassadee asked checking the rear view mirror before turning her signal light on, growing closer to Jack’s house.

Riley shrugged and adjusted her sunglasses. “I don’t know, from what I’ve saw its okay.”

Cassadee chuckled as she turned the car into the familiar drive way. “If Jack would let you out for more than twenty minutes without him, you may actually get to see things.”

It was a joke, yet it held a lot of truth. A week in Baltimore and Jack had hardly let Riley out of his sight; everywhere he went he dragged Riley along with him. Today Cassadee had begged and pleaded to have Riley to herself, actually she had walked into the house and announced she and Riley were going shopping. The duo had spent the day hanging out, Cassadee showing Riley around a few essential places before they decided to call it a day and go home.

Parting ways with Cassadee, Riley collected her things and headed inside. The house was quiet, except for Jack’s voice. From the way his conversation was being carried out, Riley knew he was on the phone. Setting her things down and kicking off her shoes, she walked into the living room finding Jack sprawled out on the couch with the phone in his hand. He had a wide grin on his face, chuckling at whoever was on the other end.

Jack could sense that someone was watching him; his mother was going on about how she wanted him for dinner the next evening when Jack interrupted her to greet Riley.

“Hey, Smiley Riley.” Jack greeted her, glancing over his shoulder and smiling. On the other end of the conversation his mother began asking all kinds of questions about the girl; Jack simply shook his head and let them slide.

Riley smiled back taking a seat at the opposite end of the couch, pulling her feet up under her.

Going back to the person on the phone, Jack continued his conversation, before telling the person he loved them and would see them later.

“That was my mom.” He announced. “She wants us to go over for dinner tomorrow, if you want to.”

“Oh.” Riley replied a little surprised. Eventually she’d have to meet Jack’s parents and siblings, it was silly but she had hoped it wouldn’t be just yet. “That was really nice of her.”

“If you don’t want to go, we really don’t have to.” Jack replied moving so that he was almost sitting on top of Riley.

Shaking her head and forcing as natural looking of a smile as she could, Riley insisted it was a great idea. Earning a kiss on the top of her head from Jack, who had her trapped under one arm he grinned resting his cheek on her head for a second or two. Inhaling a deep breath, he enjoyed the fresh scent that overwhelmed his sense, it was the same scent he’d come to completely identify as being Riley.

“In the mean time, I suggest you let me take you out for dinner tonight.” Jack spoke, lifting his head to glance down at the brunette next to him. “Or are you too tired from your big day with Cassadee?”

Wrinkling her nose, Riley pouted and batted her eye lashes at Jack. “I’m too tired to go back out, maybe order in?”

Several empty pizza boxes and half an eaten carton of ice cream later, Riley and Jack laid sprawled out on the couch aimlessly watching re runs of Boy Meets World. Jack watched as Riley snorted in laughter at something Eric Matthews was ranting on about, the way her eyes crinkled and her nose scrunched up when she laughed was almost fixating. The feeling that somebody, Jack, was watching her Riley pursed her lips and gave him a sideways glance, raising her brow in question.

He had been watching her for almost twenty minutes, she knew this because there was maybe ten minutes of the show left and Jack’s eyes had yet to leave her. Turning his attention to the television, Jack smirked, he’d been caught. Returning her attention back to the show, Riley watched out of the corner of her eye as Jack turned slightly to watch her again. Grinning, she slipped her hand in his and laid her head on his shoulder.

“Creeper perv.” She accused with a hint of a giggle.

“I’m offended.” Jack faked a hurt expression. “Clearly you do not know your creepers.”

“Oh really?” Riley challenged looking up at him, her blue eyes full of question.

“Mmmhmm.” Jack hummed nodding his head. “If I were being a perv, I’d have been imagining you naked.”

“You weren’t?” Riley laughed, poking him in the side causing Jack to squeal and move sideways a bit.

“Nope.” Jack shook his head popping the p in the word. “I was thinking how amazing...”

“Stop.” Riley demanded holding her hand up for emphasis. Jack cocked his head to the side, waiting to hear her out. “If you’re going to finish that with how amazing I am, you can leave your bullshit.”

Jack didn’t push the subject or bother to argue that she was in fact amazing and that she thought way too little of herself. Instead he continued on, not bothering to try and change her mind. It was a losing battle, she’d see what he and others saw when she was ready.

“...it would be if you’d got get me the rest of that ice cream you ate and didn’t offer me earlier.” Jack finished.

“Get your own ice cream.” Riley retorted playfully.

“I would, but you’re closer to the kitchen by two feet and you’re the one laying on me.” Jack pointed out with a shrug. Gently shoving Riley, he managed to held her softly land on the floor with a thud. “Up ya get, go get me my ice cream.”

Mumbling about how lazy Jack truly was, Riley hauled herself off of the floor and scooted into the kitchen leaving Jack on the couch. Pulling the half eaten raspberry ice cream out of the freezer she grabbed a spoon and went back to Jack who was lying full out on the couch. Sitting on top of him, so that she sat across his hips, Riley shoved the spoon into the ice cream, taking a bite and watching Jack as he pouted.

“Bitch.” Jack joked poking her side.

Digging the spoon back into the container, Riley pulled out another spoonful, this time aiming it at Jack’s face. Lifting his head to meet her half way, Jack accepted the ice cream before yanking the spoon out of her hand to finish feeding himself. Sitting up so that Riley was now on his lap, Jack had managed a rather nice routine of taking a spoonful of ice cream for himself and offering the next spoonful to Riley. Feeding her another bit of ice cream, Jack winked leaning forward and giving her a quick kiss.

The kiss lasted mere seconds, before Jack sat back ready for another bite when he realized the container was empty. Groaning, he dropped the spoon into the empty container and set it on the coffee table where it would likely sit with the empty pizza boxes for the rest of the night, unless Riley got sick of them and cleaned up. Jack didn’t really care whether they got trashed tonight or in the morning, Riley on the other hand could be a bit picky when it came to cleaning.

“All gone?” Riley asked with a frown.

“All gone.” Jack confirmed wrinkling his nose.

“You’re cute.” Riley giggled kissing his cheek. “I like it when you do that.”

“Well, you’re cute all the time.” Jack countered kissing her cheek this time.

Riley shook her head. “You just don’t stop, do you Barakat?” Jack gave his head a quick shake. “I’m not cute.”

“No, you’re not. You are one of the most stunning girls I have met.” Jack replied with a soft smile.

It was Riley’s turn to shake her head. Jack sure was full of shit.

“Yes, you are. You are smart and funny. You’re caring and you’re very punctual, which gains big points with Flyzik.” They both chuckled at that comment. “You are even cute when you’re taking up my entire bed and snoring in my ear.”

“I’m not stunning. I am not smart or funny. You are crazy.” Riley replied biting her bottom lip.

“Why? Why do you see yourself that way? You are always down on yourself.” Jack’s voice was barely a whisper as he pushed a dark piece of hair out of her eyes and held it gently, his hands moving through her long hair.

“Jack, I’m here because my mother couldn’t deal with me. My cousin let me come here, because he thinks you can do something he couldn’t. Deep down I’m still that fucked up, completely screwed in the head girl who drinks too much and does too many drugs. Did you forget that I have sex with guys to get those things?” Riley waited, letting her words sink in.

“Yeah, but you haven’t done any of that in weeks. We’ve had sex, but...” Jack trailed off.

“And you want me to meet your mom and dad.” Riley sighed, her hands playing with the hair on the back of Jack’s neck. “You keep telling me things will be fine and I want to believe you, Jack. I know how things go for me.”

Seeing the disappointed look that had come across Jack’s face was crushing Riley. He was right, absolutely right, she hadn’t done any of those things in a while but it didn’t mean she wouldn’t if the chance came along. Jack had been one of the best things to happen in her life in a while, Riley absolutely adored him and she wanted to believe him.

“You might not believe me, but I promise you things are going to turn out. You’ll see.” Jack smiled sweetly at her. “Now, no more of this dragging yourself down, you have got to believe me when I say it will get better it always does.”

“I doubt that.” Riley scoffed.

“Hey, none of that, if I can get better you can too. I agreed to help you because I know you can get through this. There is just something about you, Riley. I don’t know what it is, but I know we’ll get through this and you need to believe it too.” Jack encouraged.

As great and easy as Jack made this sound, Riley knew it was going to be a lot harder than that. She had habits and issues that had been with her a long time, if Josh couldn’t get her to stop then who was to say Jack could?