Chapter Text
Riley sat in the Dino Bite Cafe sucking listlessly at a drink in his hands. His eyes hovered on Chase and Kaylee. They laughed together as they looked at some pictures on Chase's cell phone, stopping to briefly kiss each other.
"Riley...?" Shelby said as she tried to catch his attention. "Riiiillleeeyyy?" She said again frustrated. Shelby looked over her shoulder, curious to see what had Riley so distracted. She saw Chase and Kaylee chuckling, and then looked back at Riley. "Riley!" she exclaimed one last time.
Riley jumped up, squeezing his drink, popping off the lid, and splashing himself with soda. Shelby gasped and then put a hand to her mouth, covering a smile. Riley's mouth gaped open from the shock of soaking himself in the soft drink.
"Umm, let's go get you washed off," Shelby restrained a laugh as she helped Riley up and into the kitchen where she found a towel in the utility closet. Riley tried futily to dry himself, but he had completely drenched his shirt.
"I have to go change my shirt," he said pitifully.
"Aww," Shelby said half way between a laugh and kindly concern.
"It's alright I keep a change of clothes in case I want to go to the track after work," Riley started for his locker, and Shelby gave chase.
"So what was that all about?" Shelby said walking alongside Riley.
"What was what about?" Riley said with a clever smirk, attempting to throw off Shelby.
"The whole ogling at Kaylee and Chase thing?"
"I wasn't 'ogling'," Riley said rolling his eyes, and whipping his neck.
"Oh yes you were, I said your name like three times."
"I was lost in thought." Riley sighed with a dead pan expression on his face.
Shelby placed her hands on her hips, jutted out her lower lip slightly, and vaguely craned her neck. Riley didn't have to study her too long. He knew exactly what that pose meant. It was Shelby's way of acting insulted whenever he held onto a secret.
"Okay fine, it's Chase," Riley said budging as if Shelby had urged him at knife point.
"It's always Chase," Shelby returned, her eyes rolling.
"Yeah okay fine," Riley dismissed the eye roll and turned away from Shelby, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's not even Chase, it's just... Kaylee..."
Shelby turned to Riley with a mischievous smile. "What about her?"
"I don't know, I guess they kind of get on my nerves."
"Are you serious? They are kind of-" Shelby looked around then leaned forward and whispered, "Gross aren't they?"
Riley smiled, his eyes shrinking into upside down crescents. "Yeah."
"I mean sure it's cute for the first 15 minutes, but she was feeding him his food the other day and she was like 'here comes the train, choo-choo!" Riley laughed out loud and Shelby chuckled along.
"No wait, the other day I caught him singing her some song, he was like 'fly me to the moooooon!" Riley said with a laugh, "And Chase can't sing, so she was just smiling and nodding along because she must've thought it was clever or something."
"Oh because she's-"
"Yeeeeaaah," Riley finished her sentence for her and they both started laughing.
"That's so cheeeeeesy!"
"I know right!" Riley exclaimed enthusiastically. They both laughed again, but then after the laughter subsided, Riley's expression grew flat.
"Doesn't really matter how cheesy he is does it?" Shelby started as she scanned Riley's face.
"No," Riley looked at the floor, his eyes tearing. "Why can't he see, I'm the guy that would die for him! You know, like in actual combat! I'm the one who fights by his side. I'm the one who makes sure that he can go back and sing those cheesy songs to Kaylee."
Shelby pouted her lower lip and rubbed one of Riley's shoulders as he wiped his eyes.
"I just wish I wasn't so invisible to him. They don't even like the same things, he's a big dumb jerk, he doesn't even understand half that star stuff she's talking about. She started talking about the singularity of a black hole and he said 'oh I've heard that band'," Riley finished with a caustic pop of his neck and another frustrated eye roll.
Shelby covered her mouth and started chuckling. "If he's so dumb, then why do you like him so much?"
Riley walked over to the swinging doors of the kitchen and looked on at Kaylee and Chase as they laughed together. Chase put his arm around her and looked into her eyes, and then leaned in for a kiss; however, after they broke their lock, he looked up (almost as if he was alerted) and looked over at Riley. He smiled at Riley, that clever smile, those fox-like eyes, and then started waving at him. Kaylee noticed, looked over at Riley, and merrily started waving as well. Riley smiled brightly and waved back.
"Because Chase always does the right thing, even if the right thing hurts him, he'll risk anything to protect the ones he loves. Whether its his friends or his girl friend or his sister. He's so sweet,uh, innocent. Like a kid, or a big dog!" Riley said as he turned around to face Shelby who was walking up beside him. "Because when he looks at me, I know he sees me looking into him..."
"Into him?"
"Into his heart."
"Oh boy!" Shelby guffawed.
"I'm not kidding!" Riley rolled his eyes and started to stomp away. "She doesn't see any of that, all she sees is what he shows her. She was about to dump him because he was trying so hard to impress her. I wouldn't have done that!"
"Maybe not," Shelby walked up alongside Riley, "so what do you want to do?"
"What do you mean?" Riley looked down at Shelby.
"Well what do you want to do about the whole thing?"
"I don't know what you mean," Riley continued.
"Look, I can't stand to see you get dragged around, and I've seen how much Chase flirts with you when you guys are alone."
"He does?" Riley retorted furrowing his eyebrows.
"Of course, c'mon, he's got a lot of game, but you can tell when he turns it on, and he turns it on when he talks to you."
"Why?"
"I don't know, but maybe this whole thing makes him nervous. Maybe his mom wants him to get married and all that, or maybe he really likes Kaylee, I don't know-"
"So?"
"So I say we give it a little nudge when we can, I mean like you said, she'll drop him at the drop of a hat, she doesn't feel the same way about him like he does her, eventually he's going to see that."
"Or he won't." Riley said sliding his eyes to the side in defeat.
"Or he won't, that's not something we can control. But what we can control is the circumstances."
"What's that mean?"
"I think at the end of all this, Chase is going to see just how much you mean to him."
"You mean you want to?"
"Yup: break them up."
Riley jerked his neck back in shock. "Really?"
"Look Ri, sometimes if you just wait around, you might miss something important, maybe the only way to know for sure is if we give the situation a little nudge."
"But how will we know when?"
"Oh we'll know," Shelby confirmed with a mischievous grin. "So what do you say, are you in?" Shelby extended her hand. Riley froze for a moment, looked back out at Chase and Kaylee, and then looked back at Shelby. He placed his hand on top of hers.
"Operation destroy Kaylee is on," he said playfully. "One more thing," Riley continued as they started back out into the dining room, "can we... avoid them, they're still pretty annoying."
"Duh!"