way to waste a saturday! ;;rileyhitstheAIM}

[theLiZARDQUEEN]

<sub>BANG.[crash] R A W R ; [RiTARD] has signed on.

Missus Riley Addison [better known as Queen Riley to some of her subjects] sat on her watermelon bed and mourned the loss of her social life.

It depressed her, that here on a Saturday, the day reknowned for hangovers, here she was, slouching in her red plaid pyjama pants and white singlet, plopped on her lime green and hot pink watermelon-doona-ed bed, signing onto AIM. Not that there was anything wrong with that. It was a perfectly acceptable way to waste a morning of her summer holidays.

This thought depressed her even more, and she moaned with the lameness of her existence. Even her AIM screenname saddened her. With a solemn fondness she stared at her own name, written in bright pink on the screen. Ritard. Ahhh. It seemed ages since she had heard herself being called that. The sweet insult was music to her ears, emitted by her favourite person on this earth. She remembered their trademark cry.

"Rytards and Ritards forever."

She murmured to herself, screwing her face up thoughtfully. Maybe he had dropped off the planet. That would suck. If that were true, Riley would gladly jump off after him. Just as long as she'd grabbed some comfy clothes first. If she were to die in orbit, it would be nice to be comfortable first. Nahh. He would have left a message on her voicemail if he'd died. Maybe he had fallen in love with one of his fangirls and forgotten about her. This thought too, was painful, and she got up and went determinedly to her wardrobe.

"No. We will NOT think about Mr. Ryan Carson ANY MORE today."

She muttered fiercely, sapphire blue eyes glittering. If he wanted to talk to her, he knew where she was. If thinking about Ryan was going to make her cry because she hadn't seen him in 2340894324 years, then that would not happen.

Her feet were cold so she pulled on a pair of black knee-high socks and crawled back into bed, staring dolefully at the screen of her new laptop. The contraption had cost a fair penny, but Riley used her laptop all the time, for school and such, and it was time for an upgrade, so it was a good investment. Besides, it wasn't like her dad was poor, and buying things for her made him feel less guilty, so she had gratefully dipped into her savings account. It was an awesome 'top, and she loved it. It was black, like her old one, but covered in silver stars. It's carrier case was black with hot pink piping, and stated her name, 'Riley', in bold silver letters. She waited patiently for a name to pop up and talk to her.</sub>

[;EILIDH. ™}]

[Sorreh tis so shit, I need to slowly build back up some Ryan muse. Forgive. =] <3]

[Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend.]

Ahh, the joys of summer holidays. Such fun filled mornings, days, nights, that made you so glad school was free for such a deliciously long number of weeks. No more early mornings. No more nagging teachers. No more stuck up Class A bitches to be forced into staring at during class. Nup. That was gone for at least another 4 weeks. I mean, you could do so much in such a lengthy period of time off. Things that were full of excitement, interest, general good moods related. Do aaaanything you wanted. =] Things like .. AIM. =[

;; { FAME > i n f a m y. ;; [RYTARD.] } has signed on.

Ryan gave a fornlorn sigh as he flopped himself down on his comfy black computer chair, sinking into the squidgy seat. His brown hues were not so alive looking as they usually were this past few weeks, and today was no different. It wasn't rocket science to see why, but everytime someone asked what the hell was up with him recently, they were retaliated back with the same old lame-o excuse. ie, nothing. When quite clearly it certainly wasn't nothing, but most of them thought it was best not to keep instigating conversation. Those that weren't so courteous, well, they would no doubt be given the silent treatment, therefore confirming their fears, that Mister Happy Ryan Carson, was in some mild form of depression. xD Now that was most certainly a first. ;]

Y'see .. it all had something to do with a certain Riley Addison. The reason behind his distant stares, and weak smiles .. and raging thoughts. He missed her. Badly. Each day that went on drove him crazy, as there always seemed to be a Riley shaped hole in his life, that he needed to fill up quick. Or else .. well .. he didn't know. All he did know was, he had never felt so unhappy about a girl before. Compared to when he had never felt more happy. And surprise surprise, both extremes revolved around Riley. Now that sucked, considering she had disappeared from Ryan's life.

Ryan absent mindedly spun on the computer chair, his eyes staring dreamily into space as he waited on the AIM boxes to load. Signing in wasn't the problem .. it was the Online list that Ryan was more interested in. Every time he had been on recently, Riley was nowhere to be found. Of course, there were many, many people on, sending him countless IM's of many different genres. And fair enough .. he replied. But he was always left so disappointed by the time he logged off. All those people so interested in conversation with him .. yet Riley was the only one he longed to talk to. When he had eventually refrained from the distracting chair spinning, he gave it one last swivel round to face his laptop, and let his weary eyes scan the list of contacts. Down .. down .. down .. but no. It didn't appear like tonight would be any different. Riley wasn't on the scene. Not that he had expected much anyhow. She was probably waaay too busy with her own life to bother about AIM. Ryan frowned slightly, and sighed in an irked manner, near the edge of signing off totally and just doing f**k all. Then, came all the IM's, 3 at once, then 4, 5. But he couldn't be assed tonight. He had given up with small talk, and small talk was all it would ever be with half these people. He slowly moved the mouse up to the red box in the top right corner .. but suddenly halted, as a distantly familiar AIM name flashed on his screen in the bottom right .. Ritard.

Okay, so even if it had been a million gazillion plus infinity years since he saw Riley, he did expect her name to show up on his AIM screen at some point in his life. Deep down. Unless of course, she had died. And even though Ryan was the definition of dorkish dumbassness, he was smart enough to know that was highly unlikely to be the case. Yet, he still had that dreadful feeling in the pit of his stomach, that he had perhaps lost Riley forever due to confusing, unnecessary circumstances. And that wasn't going down too well with him right now. He really didn't have a clue how it had all happened. It was like the structure of a newly built, homely house. The relationship was warm and sweet, and fresh as ever. Then .. kaboom. The house went down like a ton of bricks, without any remains or clues as to how the hell it happened.

;; { FAME > i n f a m y. ;; [RYTARD.] } says ;;
Hey There Stranger.

Stranger. Stranger. Hmm. Now this got his brain whirring alright. He wasn't one to worry about much .. but he was one to jump to conclusions when the feeling suited. And now, he was back to his usual ways. Back to the 'what ifs' of things. In this case .. what if Riley really was like a stranger ? What if she really wasn't how he remembered her all those weeks ago ? No longer the hyper, bubbly, happy girl that made him like her so much. Maybe she was serious, snappy, unhappy, a complete opposite of her former self. That would be seriously crap. Riley wasn't Riley, without that slight madness and random fun she seemed to add. Yet .. why did Ryan feel so many different things when he saw that name pop up ? Why did he feel so happy, yet so sad ? So awesome, yet so angry ? So confused, it was doing his head in. And this may well have been taken out in his frantic tapping, slowly stabbing at the keys as his eyes refused to move from the screen. Ding ding, round 1, you could say.

[theLiZARDQUEEN]

[*whines* EiLiDH!! You made my post look stoo-pid!! Now I'm going to have to copy you and make mine look impressive. You brought this on yourself, you know.]

[You were the only face I'd ever known]
[I was the light from the lamp on the floor]
[And only as bright as you wanted me to be]

Dolefully she checked the Online list, searching for that familiar name. She felt like screaming when it didn't apear. Ignoring the IMs of some other bored students popping up, she flopped back on her bed and gazed at the ceiling. It was then that she remembered lying here with Ryan so many times, not doing anything, just talking. It amazed her how much random shit they could talk, and never get tired of hearing each others' voice. She lay still, inhaling deeply, trying to get a whiff of that familiar male scent that had long since faded.

Emitting a low growl, Riley sat up and flounced off her bed, annoyed and angry and sad and confused and downright pissed off with herself. She was pining after her best friend! This wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to be missing MICHAEL, to be pining for MICHAEL. Her boyfriend. Though, technically, can you really call someone your boyfriend after cutting off complete contact with them? She hadn't talked to Michael in way longer than she'd spoken to Ryan, and yet here she was, a sad replica of her former self, keeping AIM on almost 24/7, waiting for him to come online. She didn't even know if she was WITH Michael any more. Their relationship had almost fallen to bits, and all the love [well... extreme LIKE] was gone, vanished, POOF.

Walking to her little bathroom connected to her dorm, Riley stared at herself in the mirror. Her choppy bangs hung limp on her forehead. Her eyes, usually so bright and chirpy, had lost their famous sapphire hue and now were a boring denim blue color. She had lost all care for make-up - simply getting up in the mornings was hard enough. Is this was love was like? If so, it was SHIT. This couldn't be it. Of course not! They were only seventeen. Love came later in life. Yet, Riley knew that she had never felt so happy, so damn on top of the world when she was with Ryan. It was like that time when she was six, and she'd sucked the helium out of one of her birthday balloons. Although it had worn off after only a few seconds, she had felt so light, so capable of anything. And now, she got that whenever she was with him.

Reflecting on this in her bathroom, Riley failed to hear the 'blip' of a new IM from her computer.

She sunk onto the toilet and sighed. Putting her head in her hands, she though about what had happened only three days ago. She had been at the shops, in a department store, when she caught sight of the perfume counter. Going up, she spotted her mother's scent and picked it up, talking a whiff of the delicate odour. Immediately, thousands of memories came flooding back to her. Picnics, trips to the beach, movies on the couch, and their endless cuddling sessions. Then the dark years. Empty bottles of vodka strewn everywhere, her mom's lifeless body collapsed on the kitchen floor. The good, the bad and the horrible. Setting the bottle down, Riley then saw a bottle of her own favourite strawberry scent. But instead of taking a sniff of the loved aroma, she turned and walked quickly away, fearing that if she did smell the perfume, nothing would come to mind.

This was what she'd been scared of her whole life. Losing herself. Forgetting who she was. And she wasn't this mopey, sad, depressive, oh-woe-is-me person who wore her pyjamas all day. Riley Addison, the real Riley Addison, was hyper, bouncy, bubbly, attentive, fun, happy, wild, eccentric. And lately she hadn't been that. And she knew why. Because she had let Ryan seep into her. She had let him control her thoughts, her world. Her LIFE. And she had liked that. She loved it. But now that he was gone, Riley was alone. They had become almost Siamese twins. And now that her twin was gone, Riley Addison didn't know who she was anymore.

She heaved herself off the toilet and trudged back to her bed, intending to turn off her laptop and go down to the cafeteria to get something to eat. She hadn't eaten for a few days now, and she was hungry. Plopping down, she pulled the laptop toward her and flicked the mouse to bring it back alive. Reaching for the Off switch, she saw a flashing sign on her screen. A new IM. Heart pounding, and not wanting to get her hopes up, she clicked on it.

The dormmates three doors down from Riley's dorm jumped suddenly as a loud, high-pitched, piercing scream rang throughout the hallway.

Riley didn't know what to do. For weeks she had been waiting for him to come online, not knowing what else to wait for. She was afraid to go to his apartment, because if she arrived and there was some other girl with him, she would be taking the same path as her mom. Death. Though this time it would be suicide. She stared at the screen, her inner girlish emotions taking over, frantically analysing those three words. Stranger. Stranger. Was that sarcastic? Was it meant to dig at me? And his name. It says Rytard. That's a good sign, right? Or is it just like that because he can't be bothered changing it? Hey there. Does he ever say hey there? Is it casual? What do I say? I can't say 'hi'. Too lame. And I don't want him to think I'm lame.

Suddenly she shook herself. This was stupid. Pushing down her inner high-maintenance girl, she brought up her inner monkey and replied in true Riley style.

BANG.[crash] R A W R ; [RiTARD] says:
Hello Yourself, Mister I-Haven't-Called-My-Supposed-Best-Friend-Riley-In-A-Million-Years-And-Now-She-Thinks-I'm-Dead-Or-I've-Run-Off-With-The-Evil-Brunette-And-Forgotten-About-Her-And-Now-I-Have-To-Give-Her-A-Really-Good-Explanation-Or-She'll-Blow-My-Face-Off-Which-She-Doesn't-Want-To-Have-To-Do-Because-She-Likes-My-Face Ryan Carson.

BANG.[crash] R A W R ; [RiTARD] says:
Oops, I forgot I-Have-To-Stay-Right-There-Because-Riley-Is-Coming-Right-Over-Because-She's-Really-Really-Really-Really-Missed-Me.

BANG.[crash] R A W R ; [RiTARD] says:
>:[

[Everything we had, everything we had]
[Everything we had, everything we had]
[Is no longer there]

[OOC: WHOOOO!!! 915 words, baby!!]

[theLiZARDQUEEN]

*PROD!*