The Dark Truth (Riker Lynch)

CHAPTER 10 ~ Here comes forever

"Anyway, are you coming with us after the show? You know, to get pizza?" Riker said, it seemed like he really wanted me to be there.

"Yeah, your mom invited us. I don't know about Zo thou, I haven't seen her for a while." Just at the mentioning of her name I got a text. It was from her as I expected.

FROM ZOE: Go ahead without us, have fun with your lover boy. I'm currently with Ry, don't worry about us, we'll be fine. I'll tell you tomorrow. Oh and I took the car, take a cab home or something. Love you!

"Great..." I sighted. Just what I needed, another complicated arrangement. This day had been too long.

"What's wrong?" Riker's voice pulled me back out of my frustration. He was still standing next to me, casually leaning on the wall. He was softly smiling and watching my every move.

"Zo ditched me, she said not to worry though. I only have to get home without a car. Easy." I said very sarcastically. Riker noticed and started laughing.

"I'll drive you home tonight, if you don't mind of course. I came with my own car so my parents don't have to wait for me." He said while pulling out his car keys to prove his point.

"Really? Are you sure? You would do that for me? I would love that! Yes!" I said all in one breath.

"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't have offered. I..." he was just about to say anything when Mark, um, I mean Mr. Lynch walked towards us.

"Riker, signing is about to start. Go!" He said nodding his head in that direction. Riker hesitated for a minute, not sure to leave me behind. He looked in my direction but I mouthed 'go' so he took off. After his son was out of sight Mr. Lynch turned his attention back towards me.

"Alex, right?" I nodded. I actually got kind of scared, his face showed no intention of harming me but I still was still afraid that he was gonna tell me to get out of their lives because I was worthless. A know-it-all. Someone who only cared for herself. At least that's what my parents always told me.

"So I see you and Riker get along well. I don't know what's going on but I just would like to say, take care of him. Please. He might not be my only son but he's my oldest and he's waited so long to find someone, and I think he finally has." He said smiling. That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. And the person it came from made it even more special. I sort of felt the need to hug him. So I did.

"Thank you Mr. Lynch. You have no idea how much that means to me." I pulled away from the hug. I was softly smiling, tears forming in my eyes.

"No need to thank me. Thank you for making my son happy." Jup, the first tear started rolling down my cheek. I can't remember the last time I cried. 

Maybe it was from all the events that happened today. There's only so much emotional baggage a girl can handle in one day. 

"All right, now Alex, would you like to help me out with some technical stuff since I can't seem to find my youngest one anywhere." He said suggesting to Ryland. I quickly whiped the tears off my cheeks and smiled at him.

"Yeah, sure I'll gladly help, just tell me what to do. Oh and Ryland and Zoella are out together. She told me not to worry and not to wait for them later." I said while walking with him to somewhere behind the stage. 

He didn't seem pleased about the disappearance of his son, but he shook it off. Oh Ryland  would be in trouble when he got back. He and Zo both would.

I helped him with some lights and speakers stuff and before I knew it the signing was over. Everyone was getting back to their dressing rooms to pack up their stuff. I was surprised when I noticed another girl come along with them. She walked towards me and gave me a hug. Wow they handed out a lot of hugs, not that I minded of course.

"Hi! I'm Kelly, Ellington's girlfriend! Who are you?" She was almost as cheerful as Rydel.

"I'm Alex! It's so nice to meet you!" She didn't seem to ask questions as of why I was there, she just continued to ramble about different things. I learned that she was working at the merchandise booth the entire evening.

She kept going on and on about all the fans until Rydel came back over to us. I notice Olivia was walking beside her, chatting about something. They seemed to have a great time. Kelly and I joined their conversation and soon enough we were all laughing at something Olivia said. She was hilarious.

"Girls, we're ready to go." Stormie yelled from somewhere.

"Coming!" We all yelled in union, we burst out in laughter again. I think I finally found some pretty good friends.

We got to the parking lot when I noticed a white van and 3 cars.

The van was full of instruments and had a trailer behind it with probably some more stuff in, so no one could fit into that. Mark and Stormie said they would take the instruments home and  then meet us at the diner.

The other car actually belonged to Stormie but Ross was driving it. He asked Olivia to ride with him but she politely denied. That was weird. Rocky took the opportunity and called shotgun jumping in next to Ross. Ellington and Kelly were already seated in the back seat of the car, and were joyfully chatting to each other. 

Instead of going with Ross, Olivia jumped into another car, next to Rydel. There was no space left in the back of Rydel's car so I couldn't join the girls.

I had no choice but to take the last car and go with Riker. He called me over and obviously told me to go with him since he would be taking me home later anyway, so I crawled onto the passenger seat of his blue Toyota Cruiser. He started the car and started driving right behind after Rydel.

Some more alone time with Riker. Maybe I'll finally get to find out what he was about to say to me earlier.

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A/N: When I was rewriting the part about Mark talking to her and she hugging him I got a little flashback to when I was in LA at one of Riker's first solo gigs. I was standing in the audience next to Mark watching the show and he sorta did this thing where he put his arm around me in a dad way and it was so weird but also kinda nice. Yeah...