Chasing Summer & Stars

Three

Riley walks out of the kitchen and over to the cash register where her mom is standing. Her mom gives her a smile and she smiles back before punching in her employee ID and clicking the option to punch out for the day. It's late in the evening, close to seven or eight at night. Today was no doubt one of the longer days with the movie stars in town. People from out of town have started to catch wind of the celebrities in town and the on set filming for the movie which has magically brought in twice the a amount of business that the café normally gets in the summer time.
Riley waves to her mom and walks out of the café, Aaron had promised that he would stay late to help clean up the kitchen. Something about trying to get back on her mom's good side after being late for work the other day. She didn't get all the details but Riley knows she will some other time. Right now though there's a bath bomb with her name on it and a bottle of vodka hiding under her bed. She may be 17 but she has her resources and today was a stressful day for sure.
She heads down the street like every other day. The sunset casts an orange-yellow glow across the sky and reflects off the small puddles of water on the ground. There's been light rain on and off all day but it's always her favorite weather. Riley loves how the air always smells like wet pavement and worms after the rain. And she never understood why everyone else found it gross, to her it smelt refreshing. She hops on her skate board and sees how long she can ride it for before it gets stuck in a mud puddle. . .apparently it doesn't last long.
The front wheel of the board hits a divot from one of the deeper puddles in the road and the skateboard launches her forward with nowhere to land other than the road. She braces herself for impact as she regrets not wearing gloves or any other protection for that matter. As Riley gets back up she wipes the dirt and mud from her legs. Luckily not much of it got on her shorts or shirt. There's a few small scrapes on one knee and her hands are a little tore up from the landing.
She turns around and back tracks seven or so feet to pick up her board and decides that walking the rest of the way might be better. Riley clears the rocks from the wheels and assess the damage that the puddle's hole did on her board. There's some nicks and scratches and the board is splintered near the nose where it went into the ground. She throws her head back in frustration and looks up at the sky while groaning, there's no doubt she's gonna have to save up for a new one now. She kicks the ground and slowly hauls herself in the direction of her house.

After shooting four scenes and having a very long day on set in general, the director calls it a day thanking everyone for their hard work as he leaves set and saying other stuff in Italian such as "somebody order me some good Italian pizza! White sauce not red!" Mitch and Nicole both laugh at him because they are probably the only two people other than his assistants who knew Italian. That's why the director likes them so much.
Mitch decides to just start walking to his hotel. He's hungry but doesn't want to go anywhere for dinner, making room service or takeout more appealing when he gets to his hotel room. As Mitch is walking he admires the quiet town. Small but it carries so much character in it. The details of the town could leave anyone, not speechless but a mode realistic word that he can't really think of at the moment. The town is common but not common once one really gets to know it. It would seem like any other town driving past it but not to the people who enter it and explore the small place. The people in town aren't like the people in LA or Manhattan. They are full of life and happiness, they look. . .peaceful but so true to themselves and so much family time too.
The girls here are pretty, not that Mitch has landed his eyes on any other pretty girl except Riley. Her house is near his hotel, it's on the way. As he gets near the place that intersects with Riley's street up the path that goes up the hill to her house and the street that leads to his hotel a few blocks away, it's almost as if he can hear her. Mitch looks a little further up the street and it actually is Riley. Mitch sighs to himself thinking that at least he's not going crazy. He sees her stand up from the floor and look down at something and then groans as she throws her head back stressfully. Mitch stifles a laugh at her reaction to whatever it was that happened.
She starts walking again in the direction of the hill and Mitch starts running a little to try to catch up to her. When he gets closer he can see some dirt and what looks to be some scratches up her legs and elbows "Riley! Hey!" He says, catching up to her and pulling on her arm a little with his hand so he can face her. "Woah you look all scratched up." He observes as he analyzes her small figure where all the scratches and dirt are with his eyes. It doesn't seem too bad but that could've hurt. "You look pretty beaten up." Mitch repeats, chuckling and looking down at her broken board "Oh man." He lets out.
"Hey mystery-tourist-guy-who-still-hasn't-told-me-their-name." Riley chuckles a little before adding, "Yeah I ate dirt. My board got stuck in one of the puddles slash potholes in the road. Now I'm going to spend the next month working to replace my board." She explains, bummed about it, it was her favorite one out of the seven or eight boards she has. "It sucks cause All Time Low is my favorite band and it took me forever to save up for this board." She groans as she looks at the sky again. It's starting to drizzle which means that shortly it'll start pouring. Walking in the rain is a favorite pass time of Riley's so to her it doesn't matter much.
Mitch starts to get an idea but then stops himself thinking maybe it's too early for presents but he might as well buy her a new board. A sorry for not telling her my name and being creepy yesterday is his reasoning. But he won't tell her that because he knows she won't want him to buy her one, so if he buys it and gives it to her then she won't be able to say no because she would feel bad for telling him to return it. Mitch internally pats himself on the back. "Oh man, that's awful I'm sorry about your board." He says sympathetically. "I have never really gotten a chance to listen to All Time Low or any other rock or punk bands like that but hey maybe you could help me out with that." He says smiling at Riley trying to lighten up the mood.
Riley picks up on Mitch's not so sly attempt to ask her to help him find good rock bands. She knows it's just him trying to get to know her but the notion is sweet so she smiles. "Yeah, I'd like that. For starters give their new album Future Hearts a listen to. My favorite songs on there are Old Scars, Future Hearts and Kids in the Dark." She says before realizing that's probably a lot to remember. "Well actually, if you don't mind walking with me for a bit I have the album at my house. I could loan it to you?" Riley speaks in more of a question-type manner versus a statement.
The rain starts to come down as a light rain instead of a drizzle now as she waits for his response. Standing in the sunset light she can see his facial features a little better. He has some scruff on his face and chocolate brown hair and piercing brown eyes. His hair is starting to go limp from the rain but his navy blue hoodie helps to shelter the back part of the strands from getting soaked. The front of his hair sticks to his forehead and Riley comes to the conclusion after her once over of him that he is indeed attractive.
Mitch doesn't even think twice before smiling and saying, "That would be perfect." He admires Riley, not to sound cliché but he finds that her eyes are the most beautiful set of blue eyes he has ever seen. How the rain has already soaked up 85% of her hair, how the rain drops on her face make her look even more natural and lively. The way her hair is all messy because of the soft breeze of the wind. Mitch moves a piece of her hair from her face and pushes it gently to the side where her hair then falls naturally gathering with other stands of hair. He smiles and takes in that moment. "Beat you there!!" He blurts seconds afterwards and lightly pushing her arm a little as he starts running up the hill.
He catches Riley off guard when he tucks her hair behind her ear. She knows she didn't blush but zhe is sure she looked startled to him. Within seconds he's running up the hill and she's running after him trying to catch up. Playing soccer in high school came in handy after all. Riley manages to catch up but it looks like it's going to be a tie. She can't help but laugh at the small burst of fun that this stranger has brought to her life in the few days that she has run into him.
Damn she's fast. Mitch thinks to himself. They both end up right next to each other bent over, breathing heavily, and trying to catch their breath right in front of Riley's house. Mitch looks over to her "What did you do? Run track in high school?" He asks, clearly still out of breath from the hill. "I seriously need to start running and doing my own stunts instead of having a stunt-double. I haven't worked out in like weeks because of this m-" He stops, catching himself. He has a mini, internal panic attack knowing he let out too much already and he didn't even realize it.
As Riley's laughing calms down she hear's him ask about track in high school, "No I played left offense in soccer." She replies but his last statement confuses her. Stunt double? Huh? Riley decides to make her thoughts audible as she's sure he sees the confused faces she is making. "What are you talking about? Stunt double?"
"Oh yeah! I uh- I did play acting in high school" Mitch responds while nervously laughing. He knows he probably shouldn't have lied but if he told her now then she probably wouldn't want to see him anymore. Mitch knows that's selfish because she does deserve to know but now that he finally gets a chance to be completely normal with someone else that's completely normal he doesn't want to give that up. It's not like he's never going to tell her, he will. . .soon. "Anyways!! Your music?" He asks nudging his head towards her front door.
"Uh huh" Riley says as she slowly nods her head, not completely buying his story. She lets it slide for now, whatever it is she's confident that he'll tell her if he wants her to know. Riley is not one to snoop or be nosy anyway. "Right, music." She smiles as she puts her key in the door and opens it. "Come on in, my parents are still down at the café." She adds as she heads up the carpeted stairs with no regards to taking her shoes off. Even though on more than one occasion her parents always pester he to do so. To her it's just quicker to take them off in her bedroom.
Without even hesitating, Riley walks toward her bookcase. Yeah she's a book worm but so what? Music and books are the best form of art out there. Her bookcase is stacked with all kinds of books. From the classics to fantasy fiction, even a few non fiction books are catered here and there. Then there's the bottom two shelves stacked with all kinds of music albums ranging from the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and pink Floyd to today's hit rock bands like All Time Low, Sleeping With Sirens, Yellowcard, and Falling in Reverse.
Her walls are covered in autographed band posters and concert tickets from all her adventures with Aaron over the years. Warped Tour is by far her favorite summer music festival and it shows on her walls. The floor is a little cluttered from not being cleaned in a couple weeks but it's not like there's mountains of a mess everywhere so she doesn't mind someone else seeing it.
Riley sifts through the albums on her bookcase before finding the one she's looking for and pulls it out. She smiles and turns around to hand the album over but first she sits on her full sized bed and takes her converse off.
As soon as Mitch walks into her bedroom his eyes take in all the surroundings. "Woah" is all that escapes his lips as he turns in a circle taking as much of Riley's room as he can. Posters and festival things everywhere. "This is really awesome." He comments smiling in awe with her passion of music and things of that sort. She sits on her bed and takes her shoes off with her album still in her hands. He looks at her before breathing out a little loudly. "This is probably one of the coolest bedrooms I've ever seen."
"Really?" Riley smiles at his comment. The only other person that's ever been in her room was Aaron and her parents. So naturally she doesn't get compliments about how her room looks. "Thanks, it's a work in progress." She stands up from her bed with the album in hand and walks over to the mystery tourist. She wonders if it's weird that she invited him to her house when she doesn't even know his name. Though it's too late to turn back now. She hands over the album to him, "Tracks four and thirteen." She says as she looks at the album as if she's giving away a piece of her own heart. It truly does hold a special place there but she can't explain why. At least not right now.
"You look like your handing over a piece of your heart" Mitch laughs. "Hey, I promise to take care of it as if it really were your heart." He says looking down at the album in his hands then looking back up at her. He really does mean it, he knows how important this is to her. "I think it's cute."
He catches Riley off guard again for the second time tonight. Her face gives her away no doubt. "Those were my thoughts exactly. This album means a lot to me and I think it just might kill me if something happened to it." She smiles nervously and rubs the back of her neck with her hand. No one has ever read Riley's face that precisely other than Aaron. She finds it a little strange. "But I am most definitely not cute, thank you very much" She adds to lighten the mood.
"Oh shut up you are." Mitch says, gently kicking her foot with his own while sitting down next to her on her bed. "Well uh. . .I should get going, it's getting pretty late." He says standing up and keeping the album close to his body with his hand. It takes up 90% of the entire album which has allowed him to come to the final conclusion that he has pretty big hands. "Thank you so much for this and everything else today, it's always amazing seeing you. Riley the cute band loving festival bedroom girl." He says laughing at his own stupid long nickname for her.
Riley laughs at the nickname deciding it's best to let him be. "You're welcome. Oh and definitely let me know what you think of the music." She smiles as she walks him back to the front door. "And am I ever going to get a name? I mean it's pretty tiring calling you mystery tourist guy all the time." Riley asks as she opens the front door. The sun has gone down so a cool breeze blows through the front door and she can smell the fresh air. She smiles from it and takes a quick glance at the stars before looking back at her guest.
Mitch watches her gaze up at the stars and take in the entire night, it is enough for him t give in. . .but not in the right way. He knows he shouldn't have lied but in the moment he does. "Dylan." He smiles up at her "I'll see you tomorrow." And then he turns to walk away.
Dylan. It's a fitting name. She thinks to herself. He definitely looks like a Dylan too. Riley smiles when he finally appeases her need to know his name. "Thank you, I'll see you around Dylan." She lets his name roll off her tongue as he smiles and turns to leave. She closes the front door and leans her back against it. There's something about him that makes her curious. It's no doubt the mystery of it all. She barely knows anything about him. But Riley hopes to get to know him more in the time that he's in town. Aaron is totally going to kill me for not telling him any of this while it was occurring. Riley thinks so she shoots him a text and asks for him to come over