Act 2 | Chapter 19

I changed into a clean hoodie and a pair of jeans. My hair was still a bit damp, but that didn't really bother me. I stood in front of my full body mirror and sighed, looking at my figure. My leg's where still twitching a bit. It felt weird, but good at the same time. Before going out to meet Riley at the front door, I pulled my phone out to see if my parents at all tried contacting me. Once my mom sees what I did in the basement, she would surely try yelling at me, but not to my surprise, there were no voicemails or texts from them or anyone for that matter. I shook my head and sighed, putting my phone back into my pocket and marching out to meet Riley. She was standing by the door in a leather jacket, with her ripped jeans.

"You ready?" She asked, looking up from her phone.

"Yup, I'm all good."

Riley gave me a nod and took my hand. She started pulling me along, leading me out to her mom's car.

"So where are we going?"

"Not sure. I was thinking between some restaurant and the pizzeria, but a restaurant sounds better."

"Restaurant it is!" Riley yelled with some enthusiasm, hitting the gas and pulling out of the parking lot. I let Riley pick the place again since she has probably been to more restaurants than me. When we got there, I could see just what she had in mind. It was this one fancy restaurant made on the Bate's City beach. The lake was frozen over in a layer of thick ice, and snow-covered sand. The restaurant was a two-story complex, with the second floor being more of a heated balcony. The parking lot was completely full, and the two of us were lucky enough to even find a parking spot.

"Gonna be hard to get a table here," I commented, stepping out.

"Yeah, I made a reservation before we left though, so we should be good."

"You made a reservation before we even decided where we were going?" I tilted my head in confusion.

"I was going to take you here either way." Riley giggled and took my hand again.

"Great." I rolled my eyes sarcastically and followed her in. The restaurant inside looked a lot fancier than I was expecting. In fact, everyone was dressed up in some way. Ironed clothes, nicely dressed. This seemed like the kind of place adults went to celebrate something.

"Hello." A woman said, standing behind the front counter. She drew my attention and I gave her a small wave.

"Hey there." Riley greeted her back, "Two people under Ms. Blackmar?"

The woman nodded and directed us over to her coworker. The waited gestured for us to follow him, and he led us up to the second floor. We were right by the railing and sitting under a heater vent on the roof.

"Nice table," I smirked, taking a seat.

"Thought the view would be nice from here."

"A view of the dark snowy beach?" I chuckled. Riley looked out and realized what she had done.

"Oh, that's right." She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Didn't think that through."

"It's fine." I smiled," Still looks nice. A big frozen lake."

Riley smiled a bit more and sighed, passing me one of the menus placed on the tables. I started to skim down the menu and soon realized just how expensive it would really be to eat here. In fact, I hadn't even heard of half the foods on this lost. The only recognizable things on here were burgers, and lobsters, only one of which I have eaten.

"I... might try the lobster. Never tried it before." I said, looking up to Riley.

"I think it has really soft meat. It's pretty expensive though."

"You know, I can cover my part of the meal."

"Or we could share it. I haven't eaten lobster before anyways." Riley replied.

"Alright. So we're sharing the meal." We waited for the waitress to return and gave her our order. She gave us a warm smile before turning to leave and go give our orders to the cooks.

"So, now that I'm living with you, and your mom, am I going to have to start paying rent?" I asked.

"Well, you could. Or you could pay us in presents." Riley joked.

"Presents?"

"Yeah, whatever you think is good." She giggled.

"So it could be anything? Anything at all?"

Riley gave me a nod and took a long sip from her coke she ordered.

"So, let's say the painting I'm remaking?"

"That could work for the first month."

"First month!" I giggled, "Alright, what them? Perhaps another painting? Maybe a friend for Dovasheep?"

"Stuffed animals?" Riley laughed a bit, "Please stop teasing me about Dovasheep."

"Aww, you don't want your little Dovasheep to have a friend?" I giggled.

"H- He already has one." Riley quickly said, probably referring to the onion knight Got her for Christmas.

"Alright fine." I rolled my eyes, "I'll stop teasing you about him."

Riley stared at me and sighed, bursting out into a small laugh. And blushing, her cheeks turning a bright red.

"Go, your so cute when you're embarrassed."

"Please stop." She blushed more, trying to hide her face from me, even though she knew I was staring right at her.

"Alright. How about this. You can ask me any embarrassing question, and I have to give you an honest answer. Then you have something to tease me with."

Riley's expression changed from embarrassed too mischievous. I knew I had screwed up by suggesting the idea, but there was no way of backing out now.

"Alright then." She said with a smirk, "What's the most embarrassing thing you did as a kid?"

I sat there and thought about a response. It was hard because I hardly did anything embarrassing as a kid, but then again, everything a kid does is embarrassing.

"I guess.... I didn't wear underwear to school one day?"

"That's it!?" Riley sighed.

"I don't know? Probably not, but my mom wouldn't let me do a lot of things as a kid."

"Hm, okay, how about this. Did you have any toys you consider embarrassing?"

"Toys..." I stopped, my face going a bit red. "Not... toys... no."

"Hey, you promised," Riley said, leaning forward.

"I know, I know." I went quiet and tried thinking of a good response. "I never actually had any of those kinds of 'toys'. My mom never bothered teaching me about any of that stuff, so I had to learn about that on my own... I used... other things." I replied, blushing a bit.

"Wait." Riley held both her hands up to stop me from talking anymore, "You thought..." She laughed a bit, "I meant stuffed toys or something." There was a hint of shock in the voice. My face flushed of all color and I quickly tried to explain myself

"OOh, f- forget all that then." I said quickly, "Uhh, I once had a stuffed bear. I still have him. It's the oldest stuffed animal I have!"

"Nope! I'm keeping that safe in my mind."

"Damn it." I sighed blushing more.

"Thanks for the information, Zoey." Riley giggled.

"Yeah, no problem," I replied with sarcasm.