The Park (girlxgirl)

Chapter 4

"I don't understand what's happening." Lei says. She's currently lounging on her couch, watching Riley get ready to go to the movie theaters. 
The TV is on, but neither of them are watching jeepers creepers. They've seen it about a million times already, they just put it on for background noise. 

"If I'm completely honest, I don't either." Riley admits, as she mentally counts how long her hair is wrapped around her curling wand. 

Riley doesn't usually curl her hair, but when she does, she makes messy waves. Lei is always intrigued watching her work. After all, Riley taught her how to curl her hair to begin with. 
The vibration of Riley's phone catches both the girls' attention. Lei raises an eyebrow at Riley. The older sister just shrugs and picks up the phone as if it's nothing. 

See u in an hour :)

- A

"Yeah this is all really weird." Riley sighs, throwing her phone to Lei so she can read the text. She catches it smoothly and smirks when she reads the text. 

"Uh Riles, I know this is really out of character on Alex's part," Lei says, looking up at Riley, "But maybe you should go with the flow. I mean, maybe she always has felt the same way."

She has a point. Why not milk this for all it's worth? The thing is, it seems way to good to be true. And to add to the list of 'weird things' about this whole situation, it was out of the blue. Even if Alex had the same feelings, why would she ask her on a date out of nowhere? It just makes no sense. But then again, to be fair, Riley has always had feelings for Alex and could never get the courage to tell her until Moose asked Casper out. 
Riley's head is starting to hurt. 

"Riles? You there?" Lei asks, standing up to get her attention. 

"What?" Riley asks, dazed. 

Lei laughs and places her hands on her hips. "I asked you which horror movie you guys are going to see." 

"We haven't picked yet." Riley replies, "The list of movies and times are on my laptop." She points to where her laptop sits on the bed. Lei crosses the room to take a look. 
She's quiet while she's reading and Riley takes advantage, trying to focus on her hair. 

"Saw, Final Destination, The Babadook, The Inkeepers... What were you thinking of seeing with her?" 

Riley turns to look at her sister while keeping the wand firmly in place. "I was thinking she's not a horror movie buff like us. So I want to take it down a notch. Maybe an indie movie?" 

Lei gets a sadistic smile on her face. It's the same smile she uses whenever they talk about horror movies. "Oh sis, sometimes indie movies are even scarier than the major ones. You should know that. Come on."
Shoot, she's right. And she's also right that Riley should know this stuff inside and out. 
"What about paranormal activity?" Riley asks with a smirk. 
Lei makes a disgusted face which makes Riley laugh. "Riles, we've talked about this. We never ever bring up any of the paranormal activity movies. Ever."

"Okay, okay!" Riley sets down her curling wand and holds up her hands in surrender. "What about poltergeist? The original?"

Lei looks up in thought. "You know what? That might work."

Riley smiles at her little sister before she gets back to work. 


Finally, Riley finally finishes her hair. She considers dressing up too, but Lei reels her back in and convinces her to act natural. So Riley chooses to go casual with jeans, her summer camp T-shirt from work, and a baseball cap supporting the San Francisco Giants (of course). 

She heads downstairs to leave and nearly knocks over her Dad. 
"Woah!" He exclaims, chuckling, "Where's the fire?"

Riley sighs. Her Dad is as accepting as they come. But she knows exactly what she's going to get when she tells him. 
"I have a date, Dad." 

It takes him a second to process. And just like the sloth from zootopia, his face breaks out into a smug grin. 
"Oh look at you." He says in a high pitched voice, "My girl's getting all the girls, huh? Like father like daughter."

Riley snickers and stops herself from making a comeback. Sure, her Dad does get hit on a lot. But he somehow never brings a girl over. For anything. 
Of course, that doesn't exactly mean anything. He's a good guy. It's just the things he says sometimes that makes other people look the other way. He can be immature. 

"I have to go." Riley mutters, pushing past him playfully. He just smiles in her direction. 

"Ok, have fun." He calls when she's halfway to the door, "Do you have your phone?"

Riley nods. "I'll see you later." And with that, she closes the front door behind her and pulls out her phone to quickly text Alex. 

On my way. See you soon. 

- Jacks

-

The drive to the theater is anything but enjoyable. The cloudly, gloomy weather has  evolved and it has started to rain. As usual, cars flood the area. Everyone is driving like maniacs to get a parking spot in the mall parking lot.

Luckily, Riley finds a parking spot everyone seems to have missed in their search. 

Once she gets to the front of the theater, she checks her phone to make sure Alex isn't already inside. No texts or calls. So now it's a waiting game. She leans against a pillar and observes the people buying tickets. There are a few couples here and there. Some guys are so excited for the horror movie marathon, they dressed up as killers from famous slasher movies. Right now, Freddy Krueger is buying his ticket while Jason Voorhes patiently waits behind him followed by leatherface. 

Riley chuckles a little at the ridiculous sight. 

"Riley?" 

Riley turns around and finds a girl who is not Alex. She's a girl a bit shorter than her, short sandy hair, and piercing blue eyes. Really familiar eyes. 

"Hi? Do I know you?" Riley asks, confused. She's never met this girl in her life. 

The girl frowns a bit, looking nervous. "Wow ok. I should've figured you wouldn't remember me. I'm Kinsley. Kinsley Murphy."

That's a game changer. Riley raises an eyebrow and stuffs her hands in the pockets of her jeans. "Bryan Murphy's little sister?" 

Kinsley nods with a small smile. "We used to play together at Ben Rodgers when we were smaller." 

Riley shifts her weight back and forth. There's some sort of subtext here that she isn't getting. But she just can't figure out what it is.  "Yeah, I sort of remember. What's up? What are you doing here?" 

"Oh... Um..." She looks down then back to Riley. "Alex didn't tell you." 

Red flag. What? "Didn't tell me what?" 

Kinsley sighs and shakes her head. "Riley, we're supposed to be on a date."