I slowly cracked open the door to sneak a quick peek to see who was standing on the other side.

I should have known I would be Aiden. Riley couldn't do anything without him sticking his pointy nose into the air to sniff her.  Even in the darkness of the hall, I could see him twitching and pumping himself up in case he had to come in swinging.

I held the door for a few seconds longer as he tried to muscle it open from the other side just because I felt like being a dick. He started shoving at the door as hard as he could and I let go of the knob at the same time.  I wanted to see him come tumbling in the room ass over face.

Unfortunately for me, Aiden caught himself smoothly like it never happened.

Aiden glared at me the second he passed by. It felt strange having him barge in right in the middle of our argument. His eyes went searching for Riley immediately. His stance grew rigid the second he laid his eyes on the beautiful little thing on the bed with her legs buried under the covers.

Riley's eyes were puffy and red.  There were still some tear trails staining her cheeks.  But it didn't matter to me; seeing her like this made me want her that much more.

"What the hell is going on in here? What did you do to her?" Aiden tried to use his shrill man voice like it would scare me.

He was extremely fortunate she was in the room with us right now or he might not have had any limbs by the time I was done with him. The searing burn of my temper rising up was pooling in the base of my skull.  The combination of Riley turning me down and Aiden's intrusion was testing every ounce of patience I had right now, which wasn't much.

"I didn't fucking do anything to her. I told her what happened last night." I hollered at him.  I felt the need to defend myself before Riley could interject and say something to make it worse. Aiden looked at me like he couldn't believe I told her.

The switch flipped inside his head and he backed down immediately. If it wasn't from understanding, then it was from fear. He didn't give a clear indication of the reason, but I was hoping it was fear.

Intimidation tactics were my only shot at breaking him away from her.

Aiden walked over to the bed and sat down next to Riley. He moved his hand over to touch her like he always did. Riley recoiled just enough to make Aiden's cheeks turn a pale shade of pink.

It might have made me smile a bit knowing that she let me lean over top of her and whisper filthy things in her ear, but she wouldn't let him even touch her to comfort her.

Currently, I was winning if we were keeping score.  Not that I had given her much of a chance to run from me. 

"Sorry, sorry." He mumbled as he looked down at his feet. I had never seen Aiden look so small before.  Riley was breaking his confidence without even realizing it. 

It fucking thrilled me.

"I'm just a bit jumpy after last night." She looked at Aiden with a small smile trying to reassure him she was fine. He exhaled a big sigh of relief that there was not more behind her reaction than that. Extraterrestrials on Mars could have felt the wind he blew out of his mouth.

"I didn't tell JD what happened. He left a little bit ago to take Anna home. He knows there was a fight in the kitchen over a girl. That part went around the party fast. He was upstairs with Anna before it all happened. Mark doesn't even know it was you since he was hooking up with that girl with the purple hair from the bar. It can stay between the three of us unless you want to tell JD yourself." Aiden explained to her.

Riley shook her head and gave me a little surprised look when she heard about Cookie and Mark spending the night together. If I would have slept with that troll last night, I would have said it. There was no reason to hide it.

Riley removed the blanket off her legs and started to stand up. Her body began swaying like it was going to fall over into the nightstand.  I bolted over to her side to catch her before she hurt herself. 

Aiden had the same idea. He was on the other side of her and holding her other arm while staring at me with hate-filled eyes.  

Riley raised her hands up to push us both off. I was happy she didn't want him near her, but I was pissed because she apparently didn't want me either.   

We both stepped back simultaneously to give her some space. There was a challenge in Aiden's eyes as he started piecing things together in his head. If he had any doubt about my intentions with Riley, he had none now. 

He knew I wanted her too.

"I'll be fine. Will you both quit hovering? I just need to find my clothes so I can go home." Riley started looking around my room for her things.

Aiden checked out her outfit and glared at me.

"Riley, why are you in his clothes?" Aiden gritted his teeth when he asked her.

"Come on, man. She couldn't just run around my room in her underwear."  I raised my hand and pointed towards her.

"Aiden, he just let me borrow some stuff until we could figure out where I put mine." Riley had a lot going on in her head.  She looked like she was lost as she thought about how she ended up this way.

My feet began creeping towards her again to get her to sit down.  If she refused, then I would wrap my arms around her and hold her down on my lap until she got herself together.  

"I need to get home." She mouthed almost too softly for me to hear.  It sounded like she was trying to instruct her brain on what it needed to do next.

"You can't drive like this. Let me take you home." Aiden jumped in before I could.

"Thanks, Aiden, but I'll be fine. I can manage."

I started laughing; poor little Aiden wasn't going to get a treat today. It was fucking hilarious to watch her turn him down.

It was comical until I realized she had turned me down too.

Riley reached out and placed her hand on Aiden's arm and began rubbing it.

I was pissed. I wanted to break his face.

"Text me when you get home, so I know you made it," Aiden said as she walked by me. She turned her head to look at me one last time. I didn't want her to go and I sure as hell didn't want her texting him.

"I will." She said as she left the room.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Aiden turned around angrily towards me.

"What was hell was that?" Aiden snapped.

"What was what?" I said, staring at the door.

"Stay away from her, Ezra."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I played dumb and shook my head at him.

"Riley is not one of your little sluts you can use up and throw away. She is JD's little sister."

"You sound a little jealous there, Aiden." I accused back.

"Find some other girl to mess with. You have plenty, you don't need her and she's way too good for you. Leave Riley alone." Aiden hissed as he stormed out of the room.

A few seconds later, I heard his door slam across the hall. 

Aiden might have been a little right, even if I hated to admit it. Riley was too good spend time with a fuckup like me.  As much as I wanted to pretend I was better, I still had the same demons poking holes in my skin, trying to escape.

They never went away and they had been growing stronger everyday.

The pills hiding in my closet began singing sweetly to me.  They were using their song to tempt me into taking them to prove Aiden right and show everyone around me how worthless I was. If I let myself get high enough, then maybe I could find a way out of whatever the hell was happening with me lately.

No, that wasn't the answer. It never was.

I took off towards the stairs and ran down them two at a time to get away before I did something I would regret. Finding my sobriety had been extremely difficult and I'm not sure if I could do it again if I screwed up. I had to get out of this house and away before they seduced me back under. Everything around me was spinning as I felt like I was fighting against the current trying to pull me back.

A soft bump into my body, no stronger than the flittering wings of a butterfly, cemented my feet to the floor. 

Riley was standing in front of me, looking like she was barely holding on too.

"Everything ok?" I rubbed the skin on her arms, probably more for my own selfish need than hers.

"I'm fine." She looked away from me like she was about to come crashing down.

"You're lying. You can talk to me." I told her.

I would have given her anything she wanted right now as long as she stayed here in this moment with me. She was the only thing keeping me from giving in to my addiction.

Or maybe she was the only reason I wanted to.

At this point, I wasn't sure.

"I have to go."  Her eyes were a deep, haunting shade of emerald as she craned her head up to look at me.

I needed to feel something. I needed her to help me forget.

I started to bend down to brush my lips against hers when I heard Aiden's words replaying in my head. I couldn't get them to go away. Deep down, I knew it was the truth. It wasn't right to do this to her when I had no idea what I was even doing.

Damnit.

I released her arms and crossed mine over my chest to lock them in place so they wouldn't find her again. If I did, I would never be able to let her walk out the front door.

"Goodbye, Riley."