NIGHT CHANGES !
𝖥𝖮𝖴𝖱 ━━━ 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖻𝖾𝖺𝖼𝗁 𝗁𝗈𝗎𝗌𝖾 𝗉𝖺𝗋𝗍𝗒

The car screeched to a stop just as Peyton Sawyer pulled up outside the Scott's beach house, for the party that Nathan was hosting. Riley lifted her head off the car window in the back that she had just been leaning on, and groaned. "Peyton," She prolonged the end of her name. "I was sleeping."

Peyton chuckled, when Brooke turned to her with a complaint. "Every time we ride with you, I swear I'm never going to do it again."

"Same here." Riley chimed in, stepping out of the car, when she looked at Peyton. "Keys?"

Peyton directed her eyes over to her, shutting the door behind her. "Tempt fate." She answered her, and went to step away from her car, when Tim approached her.

"Peyton. You've got to talk to him." Tim spoke in a desperate-tone. It seemed as though the raven-haired Scott was still pissed at him, just because he passed the ball to Lucas during the game earlier that night, instead of him. "Lucas had the better shot. You saw it, right?"

"Tim?" Brooke called, as the boy turned his head to look her way. "Are you being pathetic?"

Riley walked around the front of the car, hanging her head back with a groan. "Why is it such a big deal? You still won the game." Before she passed by Nathan, Riley looked at him pointedly. "Get over it."

Tim had turned around, following Riley with his eyes. "Thank you." He threw his hand forward in the blonde's direction, seeing her go past Nathan to get to Brayden. Something else then caught his attention, when a deep red truck that had Keith Scott Body Shop printed on the sides, had pulled up, making Tim furrow his brows. "What's he doing here?"

With his arms crossed over his chest, Nathan had a smirk on his face when he spoke, not hesitating to throw a remark in Tim's face. "I invited him. I mean, since you guys are such great friends now."

"What are you trying to pull?" Peyton, who stood beside her boyfriend, nodded over to the car that Lucas and Haley was stepping out of.

"Nothing." Nathan merely said, trying to disguise the smirk on his face, before he flickered his eyes over to the truck, watching Riley run over to hug Haley.

"I wasn't sure you'd come." Nathan said as Lucas walked up to him, narrowing his eyes at his half-brother.

"That makes two of us." He retorted. He brushed straight past Nathan, and greeted Brayden with a polite nod. He stayed behind Nathan, as soon as he heard him stop Haley to speak to her.

"Hi. It's Haley, right? I'm—" He got cut off, at the same Haley went to respond with a remark, only she couldn't, when Riley pulled her away, linking her arms with hers.

"Ignore him, he smells." Riley mumbled, waving Nathan off to look over at Brayden. The corner of her lips stretched into a smile. "But, you can talk to him, though. He's alright. I guess."

Haley chuckled at her teasing words, nudging her friend on the shoulder when they approached the bottom of the stairs, and walked up them to enter the beach house along with everybody else.

As she took in her surroundings, Haley whistled, spinning around to face Lucas. "Well, I bet their plumbing works." The James girl quickly teased the Scott, and Riley giggled, knowing the girl was referring to what happened to him that morning, how the water in Lucas' house had stopped in the middle of his shower. Lucas, however, scoffed out an unamused chuckle. "I'm just saying."

When Theresa walked up to Brooke with a comic strip in her hand, Lucas decided to stay, watching as Brooke grew furious over the insults obviously thrown at cheerleaders, that the comic strip was displaying. As Haley and Riley had departed from the group before, they strolled around the ground floor of the beach house, when the latter grabbed Haley's hand. "Come on, let's go find Brayden. I have a sudden interest of wanting to annoy him."

"Don't you, always?" Haley chuckled.

Riley pulled a face. "Well, duh. It's like one of my favourite things to do in my free time."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Riley found herself stood in the hallway of the beach house, after hearing Brooke call Lucas over to join her and everyone else at the table, to play the game; I never. She hid herself from their view, sipping from her cup of lemonade while she listened to them talk.

"All right. So the game is, we all take turns saying things that we've never done, and anybody at the table who has..." Nathan was explaining the rules of the game, before raising his cup in the air, and Lucas nodded.

"Bam. Drinks." He interjected.

"All right, Theresa, you're up." Brayden said first, to start the game, but also attempting to cut the tension between Lucas and Nathan.

"Okay. Let's see. I've never..." She thought about it for a moment, before looking over at Brooke as she directed her next words to her. "had sex with anything made out of plastic."

Brooke chuckled to herself, before taking a sip of her drink. "Ok, my turn. I've never..." The brown-haired girl racked her mind about something she has never done before. "No I did that, um..." She giggled amusingly.

"All right. My turn." Nathan turned the attention onto him, and Brayden narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously. "Oh, let's see. Um... I've never..." He looked up at Lucas, almost smirking to himself as he finished his sentence. "I've never had a dad who wished I was a stain on the bed sheets."

His words earned a laugh from Tim, who seemed to have found it entertaining for some reason, as the majority of the other people at the table, were speechless. "Dude..." Brayden muttered, shaking his head at Tim. Everybody watched in silence as Lucas walked around the table, stopping behind his half-brother, before placing his cup in front of him. "Then you're welcome to mine." The blonde whispered.

Once Lucas left the area, Brayden shook his head, looking disappointed at his friend. "Why do you need to be such a dick, man?" He scoffed, leaving his cup at the table and walked away to find Riley who had disappeared from the hallway moments prior. But, he did find Haley heading towards the door to leave, so he called out. "Hey! Haley!"

The James girl spun around at hearing her name, and smiled slightly to see Brayden coming up to her. "Hey, Brayden."

"What's up? Are you leaving already?" He wore a teasing smile on his face. "Come on, I don't think the party is that boring." Brayden chuckled softly, and shook his head. "I'm kidding. Are you okay?"

"Yeah... it's just not really my—"

"Scene?" Brayden raised a brow. "Yeah, I get you. I'm not a fan of parties most of the time either. I only go to them mainly for Nathan or Riley. Also, is Lucas coming with you? Because I can give you a ride home if he's staying?"

"No, no, I don't wanna—" She went to decline his offer, but Brayden shook his head.

"Don't be silly." He didn't mind leaving the party anyway. "I'm taking you home." Brayden quickly pulled the car keys out of his pocket and opened the door. "Come on."

"Thank you." Haley responded with a kind smile, walking out the door when Brayden let her go out first before following her out, leading her towards the car.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

"Hang on a minute." Riley called to whoever just knocked on the door, before walking out the bathroom, when she saw Peyton leaning against the wall. "Hey, P. Sawyer. Sorry, it's all yours."

Riley stepped aside, but Peyton shook her head at her. "How's the tutoring going?" She tensed up at that, but couldn't respond as she continued. "It's okay. You know, he tells me everything."

Riley sighed. "Yeah. You know, he said he needed some help."

"Maybe you could teach him to stop being such a jackass." Peyton suggested.

"Trust me, I've been trying." Riley muttered. She exhaled deeply, before plastering a smile on her face. "But, I'll keep putting it in the lesson plan."

"Just be careful, okay." Peyton warned her friend who nodded. "By the way, were you ever going to tell me about this?"

"Of course. It's just— Lucas still doesn't know yet, so, I wanted to keep it as quiet as possible—" The Davis girl explained.

"Ah okay." Peyton nodded, understanding how it must be hard for her already, especially because Lucas still doesn't know. The curly-haired blonde went to walk towards the toilet, but stopped and turned to look at Riley again. "Hey, Riles. Again, just remember to be careful, okay? I mean... you know what he's like."

Riley simply sent her a thumbs up before walking away so the girl could go to the bathroom. Just as Peyton disappeared from her view, the Davis girl turned around in a huff, pulling her phone out to see a message from Haley; letting her know that she had left minutes ago with Brayden giving her a lift home.

The blonde sighed in relief, making her way over to the door, but with her eyes glued to her phone, she didn't notice Nathan as she walked past him, which instantly got his attention.

He pushed himself off the wall to approach Riley and asked. "Are you leaving?" The blonde turned on her heel at his voice, and quickly grabbed his ear before dragging him towards the front door of the house. "Ow, ow, ow!"

"We had a deal, Nathan." She stated coldly. "You promised you were going to be nice."

"I am nice." Nathan contradicted through a shrug of his shoulders. "I invited him to this stinking party, didn't I?"

Riley crossed her arms over her chest. "What for? So you could pick on him in public?" The blonde-haired girl scoffed. "Nathan, what you said to him was out of line."

"Oh, man. Is that what..." Nathan trailed off once he realised what she was talking about. The Scott boy walked around to stand on the other side of her. "I made a lame joke. I mean, look, the guys, sometimes we get kind of raw with each other. I was just trying to include him. He took it the wrong way."

"Well, maybe you need to rethink your approach, then hun." Riley snapped.

"Well, you're his friend, too." Nathan said with a sigh. "How do I handle this?"

"Oh, well that's easy." Riley stepped closer to him before looking up at the boy. "Stop being such a dick." A moment later, she started backing away towards the door. "And now... I leave. Goodbye."

"Wait. Come on, don't leave." Nathan tried to tell her. "I've got your favourite ice cream stacked in the freezer. You can have some of that if you want to." He made an offer that had more chance of her not refusing it.

Riley contemplated for a moment. "No, thanks. I can get it tomorrow. Bye bye, Nath." And without another word, Riley opened the door, exiting the beach house.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Unfortunately for Riley, she had not been able to leave, considering that the cab she called for, had not arrived yet. So, instead of going back inside, she situated herself at the dock behind the house and sat on the fence as she watched the ocean, taking in the peace and quiet.

"I thought you left." A voice called out, which cut the silence short. Nathan was walking up towards her as Riley kept her eyes on the ocean.

"Yeah, I tried to." She sighed. "If the freaking cab would ever get here."

"Well, I'm glad you stayed." Nathan stood on the other side of the dock, leaning against the fence as he looked at the blonde. "I want to thank you for holding back."

"What do you mean?" Riley asked.

He scoffed under his breath. "Dick is pretty tame. You could've called me a lot worse. I probably deserved it."

"You could say that." Riley hummed, turning her head to look back out at the ocean, while Nathan watched, almost as if he was admiring her. Riley dug her tongue against her cheek, hesitating until she decided to tell him. "Look, I've been thinking a lot about this tutoring thing. I just don't think it's a good idea, I'm sorry."

"Because of Lucas?" Nathan guessed as he moved over to stand beside Riley this time, and looked down at the blonde who sighed.

"Well, obviously, yeah." Riley replied. "Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking, like what good could possibly come from this?"

"Why do you ask that?"

The Davis girl gave him a look at that. "You know damn well, why." She reminded. "Look, you may be my friend, but so is Lucas, and I'm not going to do that to him."

"Maybe you're doing me a favour then."

Riley's brows pinched together. "What does that mean?" She wondered.

Nathan glanced down at the blonde. "Sometimes I think it would be easier if I got kicked off the team. Especially with my dad."

Riley's face softened, before Nathan looked down at her with a frown. Though, before the potential heart-to-heart conversation could continue, Riley looked away from him and interjected. "I should go find Lucas, maybe he could give me a ride home."

Riley had jumped down from the fence and went to move past Nathan, but he grabbed her hand to stop her movements. "He left a while ago." As he told her that, she groaned.

"Great. Well, I guess I'm walking." She started to walk off, with Nathan following in tow.

"You're not walking home, Riles. Let me give you a ride." He immediately protested to her walking home alone at this time a night.

Riley ran her hand through her hair. "It's not that far." She lied, even though it was pointless to, as he already knew where she lived.

Point proven. "Well, I know that's a lie, as I know
where you live." He reminded her. "Come on, Ry, it will be fine. Plus, Brooke and Peyton would kill me if I left you to walk alone at night. We'll take Peyton's car." He walked ahead so he could open the door for her.

"I really am fine." Riley told him. "You don't need to worry about me."

"You're a little high on yourself, aren't you?" The Scott boy scoffed. "Going around telling people you're all fine. Look, please, just take the ride. I am not going to move until you say yes."

"Fine." Riley gave in, before stepping into the car and sat on the passenger seat as Nathan shut the door behind her, before walking around the car to get into the driver's seat. And since Peyton had left her keys in the car, Nathan easily turned the engine on before driving off and started heading towards her house.

"Ah the Davis residence," Riley looked out of the window of the car when Nathan finally pulled up to her house. "with the signature red door. Sorry, it's just the one."

Nathan scoffed out a chuckle. "It's not like I was trying to show off."

"Isn't that your default setting?" Riley was quick with her words, causing Nathan to scoff, but with no heat behind it. "Sorry." She apologised.

Nathan sighed, looking unsure on whether or not he should speak up about it, before asking. "Can I be honest with you?"

"Umm... sure." Riley replied.

"What I said at the beach, that was a lie." Nathan started off, and Riley listened. "I'm really lucky to have basketball. It's pretty much my shell to everything from here on out. If I lose it, it's over for me."

"So, don't lose it." Well, that was easier said than done.

"Well, that's just the thing." The raven-haired boy sighed, continuing to explain. "With my grades, I'm close to being ineligible to do the one thing that I'm actually good at. It's not my life, either. It's my dad's, too. It's like he's still got something to prove to Whitey. And if I screw it up, it's gonna destroy him, and it will destroy me. Look, I know you have no reason to do this, and I know it's just going to complicate things more with Lucas, but... I really need your help."

Riley nodded. "And I will find you someone else. I promise." She said, trying to stick to the choice she made since Nathan broke the deal — but he wasn't going to let her leave.

"No." Nathan interrupted. "I came to you because you're my friend and the best tutor at the school. Plus, you're not going to tear me down. It's not exactly easy having everybody know you're failing." The Scott sighed, before choosing to give her an ultimatum. "It's you or nobody else."

"I..." The blonde debated on it. "Ok. I will... I will get you through the semester. And then you've got to be on your own. I'm serious."

"That's totally fine with me." Nathan agreed with her condition.

"Okay, great. So, we'll start on Monday." She said before opening the door. Just before she stepped out of the car, she stopped herself to look back at Nathan. "Lay off Lucas."

Nathan looked at Riley when he finally nodded in reply, whether it would be true or not, the blonde hoped it would be the former. She finally stepped out the car and shut the door behind her, walking up to her house, unaware that Nathan had waited until she was fully inside the house before driving away.

Speaking of not seeing things, Riley didn't realise that she had left her bright blue beanie in the car, and unluckily would put her in a difficult position for when she next saw Lucas.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

For the past few days, apart from chatting with Haley and Brayden, and of course Brooke, from time to time, she mostly kept to herself. During her time with Haley, the Davis girl was happy to find out what had gone on between Haley and Brayden when he gave her a lift home that night.

"So what did you and Brayden talk about when he took you home from the party?" Riley looked at Haley with an innocent smile as they shared conversation during their shift at the cafe.

"Nothing really." Haley started off and squinted her eyes at the blonde as if she was hesitating to say the truth, knowing how she'd react. "Apart from all the Scott drama, we just kind of talked about our interests and what we don't like, etcetera."

"So... you were getting to know each other?" The Davis girl raised a brow, practically grinning in excitement as Haley slowly nodded, making her practically bounce off her feet. "Ah! I ship it! I wonder what your ship name would be?"

"Ah, Ah, don't get excited." Haley told her friend who put down the table cloth before pouting at her. "It was just a friendly conversation. That's all."

"If you say so... Braley." Riley teased and moved towards the back, laughing as Haley tried to whack her with the tea towel.

Once again, Riley was at the Karen's cafe working while Haley was in the back when the front door opened, making the blonde look up and sigh in relief when she saw Lucas. "Hey, I was beginning to think I would never see you again. You're avoiding me, right?"

"A little." Lucas replied, making Riley look at him confused, sensing his cold demeanour. "Are you okay? Did I do something to upset you? Because if I did, I'm sorry—" The Davis girl straight away tried to apologise. "but if it's something else, you can tell me. We've always been able to talk about stuff, you know."

"Yeah." Lucas smiled slightly at her kindness. "At least we can still be honest with each other."

Riley nodded. "Yeah, at least."

"So, if anything were going on with you..." Lucas slowly brought the subject back, seeing if Riley would tell him herself. "anything important or weird, or confusing... I mean, you could still be honest with me about that, right?"

"Yeah, of course."

A disappointed Lucas reached into his pocket and placed her blue beanie on the counter. As soon as Riley looked down, she realised the outcome to this conversation as Lucas informed her on what she already knew. "You left that in Peyton's car."

The problem was — he knew that she was friends with Nathan, or just tolerated him. But to be fair, it's mainly through Brayden. It still hurt him to know how real their friendship was, since the girl never really made it known around him.

With that, he walked out the cafe without another word, leaving Riley alone with her thoughts.