never too late ,,

[riley ann johnson ™]

riley ann johnson
HOPING I CAN RUN TODAY & GET AWAY FASTER, THAN EVER FROM HERE.
ANOTHER NIGHT, & WHO CAN SAY IF LEAVING IS BETTER, THAN LIVING IN FEAR?

[/font]
HERE'S TO ALL THE BROKEN HEARTS TONIGHT;
HERE'S TO ALL THE FALL APARTS TONIGHT:[/center]

Summer. Summer was a time for extreme partying with your friends, cross country road trips, a good few concerts to go to. For Miss Riley Ann, summer was a time for hanging out with all her closest friens, a cross country road trip, and multiple amazing conerts for her to go to. And why was this all possible? Because of Spellbound Records. Riley was part of one of ten bands that were signed to the label that became lucky enough to do the whole tour scene. So it is, after all, pretty obvious what that has amounted to for her. She had just graduated high school a mere week before the tour started, and she was already on her way, rolling around the country in a tour bus, crammed with three other people. Those three other people who came together with herself to for their band, Glam Riot. And dammit, they had to be good to land them their spot on the tour, let alone their record label. To be completely honest, Riley was not even sure if she would be going to college or university. Not now, anyways, seeing as her band has sucked in most of her time. She was one of few that had been blessed with her so called "gifted" abilities, in which her mind worked at such a high capacity that the simplest things seemed to be hard for everyone else. She was an overexaminer, but who cared? The girl had talent. Talent in which her mind could only comprehend. Her parents were upset at her, sure they were. With such a brilliant daughter, you would expect her to be something great, like an open heart surgeon, or something else that is really prestigious like that. But here she was, disregarding her parents hopes and dreams for her, and touring nation wide as the vocalist and keyboardist of a band called Glam Riot, who are world famous, and known for just that. Her parents said she could be world known, too, had she taken the route they had for her. But she knew it would not be the same. She was saving lives, either way, and by doing it in this band, she was doing it the way she wanted to, they way she had fun doing it. It was more heart to heart, this way, because she met her fans, got to know them. And with being in the medical field, she knew her patients by last name and their medical history. She got down to the depths of these kids problems, helped them figure out who they really were, and all by use of a song. How odd was that? Riley knew this was her life, the life she wanted to live.

And so she went on to be this world famous rock star, touring the Enchantment tour, and all the while, she felt a little empty. So on one of the bands days off, she decided to take a walk around the city, get to know the place a bit better. Before she did that, she had to pretty herself up. She took her shower, and then went ahed to get dressed. Riley slid on a beige mini dress that had cap sleeves and buttons down the front. The first few of those same buttons went undone, and a necklace was chained around her neck, fashionably, of course. She blowdried her hair momentarily, for she was too lazy to go about her way to flatiron it today. It dried in waves of the most gorgeous kind, and she was satisfied, to say the least. Simple black eyeliner had always been her feat; that was really the only make up she had ever tended to wear. Over size sunglasses, just to perfect her look and save her eyes from UV beams were situated on her adorable, petite little nose. An oversized tote bag, beige in colour, was slung over her shoulder, after tossing a few necessities in there, like her cell phone, iPod, make up, and chewing gum. Obviously more was in that bag, like her wallet and a few other random items, but most of it had just accumulated so frequently in there that she never bothered emptying out her bag. So there were things in there from other States, other cities, and it was always a memory refresher when she went about to clean out her totes. Anyways. She stepped out of her hotel room, bidding her fair Glam Riot members a good day, and she strut down the hall way to the elevator in her cute beaded flip flops that had bamboo basketweaving on the inner sole of it. Obviously the actual sole was just a piece of white rubber. The beaded thing they had going on there were so cute, that was why she got them. But enough about her flip flops, and onto what she was doing. She slid into the elevator, pressing for the ground level, and soon enoug hshe was making her way out of the hotel after waving to the bell hop, conceirge, and the doormen. She was really such a sweet girl, she said hi and bye to everyone with cheer in her voice and a smile on her face. She was a sweetheart.

She walked until she could not walk anymore. Through the streets that she had never travelled, nor ever dared to. Riley was a bit shy, nervous, and so new things scared her. She was not much of a partier, she did not drink, did not smoke, never did drugs, and never had sex. She was a virgin to all those things, in the most literal of ways, and her mind was keeping it set on it always being that way. She never really wanted to torment herself, get her life taken out of control by all these things. Riley was still coping with the sudden fame she had, how was any of that going to help? There were the avids, the ones who always seemed so hooked on that sort of stuff. Try Robbie Kingston, for instance. He was always drinking something, whether or not he wanted people to know. He was always at all the label parties, made his appearances, and disappeared with some unnamed girl on his arm. Every single time. There was not one time that Riley spotted him without a girl's shoulder that he had his arm slung around. He tried once to make her that girl, he tried twice, and on the third attempt, Riley snapped. He got the picture. He understood perfectly where she was coming from. That is why there will never be a forth, fifth, or even sixth attempt of that. Riley was strong willed for a weak girl, not to mention incredibly short and lightweight. She was pretty much always that way, and nothing stopped her from what she wanted, anyways. Riley normally got her way, but she was not in the least spoiled, even though Trace tries to make it that way. Trace tries to make her see what she can do with this new found glory they had bestowed upon them, but she shrugs it off. Eventually, she will become the next Angelina Jolie, minus all the babies, of course. Riley was too lightweight to carry anything. So this tote? Yeah, it was secretly killing her shoulder and her lower back, but she shrugged it off. Her sunglasses were doing a pretty damn good job at hiding her face from the outer world, but when she realized she was stopped outside a movie theatre, she pushed those huge lensed glasses atop her head and stepped in.

It was refreshingly cool on the inside of the place, and the first spot she made her move to was the washroom. She needed to freshen up. Her face and all were so damp from the minor sweating she had just endeared. Riley fixed her make up, teased her hair from the roots with her fingers tips, smoothed out her dressed, and stepped back out into the movie theatre's lobby. She smiled softly, watching a little boy and his grandparents buying popcorn, a mother and her daughter walking to go into the movie, and an elder father with his son, conversing in the ticket line. It was the simplest things that made her laugh, smile. While everything else in life was so complex, the simplest things made her realize that not everything was hard, difficult. Things could definitely be easy, simplistic, but most of the time it never actually turned out that way. She opted to watch a movie, even though she was alone, and she got into the ticket line. It was a pretty long line, despite how nice it was outside. She thought the perfect all-American family would be sitting in the park, having their luncheon picnic on a red and white checkered picnic blanket with their picnic basket. She imagined them all sitting there, happily, smiling as they sipped their cold iced teas and ate their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Though, they stood there in front of her in the ticket line, the father ruffling his sons hair, the mother tightening the red ribbons tied at the ends of her daughter's pigtails. It was sweet, and Riley smiled again. She sighed softly as she looked around. She was looking from someone from the label, but knew she would not find anyone. No one would be there, she just knew it. That was wishful thinking. Or was it really? Could someone be there, thinking about being there, walking to get there? She was always such an informed child, that this was just completely blowing her mind, that she did not know what everyone else was doing. Well, you cannot always know everything. And even if you think you do, there is always something else to be learned. That was just a life cycle. But for Riley Ann Johnson, that was life.

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[charles roderick konig ®]

Partying, cross country road trips, and concerts was right. That was basically the whole of his summer; that was the whole of half the label's summer. It had been an incredible ride, that was something Chazz would not dream of denying. He really had no idea how he'd even landed the job. Actually, that was a lie. Anita was some kind of angel in disguise, he was sure, and she'd pushed him into it, the way she always encouraged him to do things he was never too sure about. He knew now that she knew what the hell she was talking about, knew him better than he'd really given her credit for. And how could she not, really? She'd been around him since he was four. Maybe she had never been his legal guardian and never would be, but she was the closest thing that he had to a maternal figure. he appreciated her, too, a lot more than most kids appreciated their parents. Funny what not having any parents did to your perception of adults, really. There were some days when he was thankful for the interactions he had with them, some days when he wanted to grab a random woman on the street and ask her if she could imagine what it would be like to give up her child, what it would feel like to back out on the last and only promise you ever made him. Chazz was, of course, far more mild than that, and it was rare to hear him say a whole lot, let alone to someone random on the street. He'd learned a long time ago that it was best to keep to himself, or so he figured. He was actually a rather tormented young adult. Most people took his reserved, softspoken nature for arrogance or shyness; he was really neither. He definitely had nothing to be excessively proud about, and he really wasn't shy or unfriendly. It was simply that he didn't like to talk about himself a whole lot, directly. He liked conversation, real conversation, but that was rare, so he saved his breath. He kept his mouth shut because he had nothing to take up with anyone; he really just wanted to do his job. He had always been very driven and independent and though there were nights he wavered, he was on this tour to do his job and save some money, not much else. It wasn't that he was stupid; he was actually a very gifted and intelligent mind. But being abandoned at age four and kicked out of the orphanage, unadopted, at age eighteen, there was little time to make ad save money. basically, work had to come before school because he refused to let anita pay for his university fees. he'd get there eventually; some things just took you more time when you were in such an unfortunate situation.

chazz was not on this tour as part of a band. he was just a guitar tech, and he liked it that way. the whole idea seemed absurd, granted his quiet nature and the fact he really didnt like large groups of people much. but if there was one thing chazz took pride in, it was his guitar playing and technical skills. he had no desire to perform for a living, but if he could make good money and see the country -- something anita had also encouraged him heavily to do -- it was worth giving it a try for the summer. he actually liked the label quite a bit. there were some good bands signed there, bands he'd heard about when they were getting signed and had followed closely ever since. it was weird eating dinner nightly with the people on your itunes. sure, some of them were characters -- some he didn't particularly care for, some he found rather intriguing. but for the most part he just kept to himself and nobody bothered him much. he had gone to some of the parties when the rest of the crew dragged him; he'd indulged in alcohol but he had not done an drugs, not hooked up with any girls, though the opportunities had presented themselves rather frequently. He really disliked drugs, though growing up on the streets of new york, he was no stranger to them. and girls? well, girls were fine to look at, but he wasn't looking for much. it wasn't that he wasn't interested, but mostly that his priorities were set differently. he wasn't looking to sleep with random girls who would forget his name in the morning. he was just wanting to do his job and do it well. he'd spend a night alone gladly; he did not mind solitude. after all, that was one of the defining characteristics of his life. it was sad, but it was the truth. loneliness was something that chazz was used to.

that would explain his plans, or lack thereof, perhaps, to go to the movies. he had nobody to go with. he wasn't taking one of the guys from he crew, or some other acquaintance he'd made. he wasn't taking a girl. he was just going alone. he was okay with that, mostly because he didn't know anything much different. he'd slid on his white tee and dark skinny jeans, combed his hair over his forehead, and just decided he was in the mood for a movie. get lost in someone else's tragedy for a while, right? he guessed he liked movies because they often ended a lot better than his own story. he didn't have to concentrate on all the stress he was putting on his eighteen year old shoulders for a few hours if he just got lost in the dark, sunk into the plush seats of some cinema downtown. so he walked down from the hotel, the tour tag hanging habitually off his back belt loop. he usually tried to take it off before he went anywhere because it seemed like the teenage age group could identify a spellbound all access pass from ten miles away. he'd forgotten today, though, and luckily, it wasn't posing an issue just yet. he picked out the movie he wanted to see and got in line behind a short girl in a beige dress; he looked down a bit, something oddly familar just about the way she was standing struck him. and then he realized who it was; it was easy to pick out, having indirectly spent weeks with her. it was riley johnson, co lead of glam riot. she was a cute little thing, even chazz would (inwardly) admit. he stood quietly, didn't say hi until he caught her eye. a brief and barely there smile curved his lips as some kind of friendly guesture. "hey," he said softly, an attempt at being polite, though he immediately felt idiotic for it. First of all, she was going to think he was picking up on her. Second of all, she would not have any clue who he was, no matter how easily he recognized her. One thing Chazz had always been slightly lacking: people skills.. and tact.

[riley ann johnson ™]

riley ann johnson
YOUR LOVE IS LIKE A ROLLER COASTER, BABY, BABY. I WANT TO RIDE

[/font]
YOUR LOVE IS LIKE A ROLLER COASTER, BABY, BABY. I WANT TO RIDE.
ROLLER COASTER, OF LOVE.[/center]

riley paid no mind to the dozens of people who also began lining up behind her, and didn't care much for the three dozen ahead of her. today she had no where to be, nothing to do, but to enjoy the day and whatever she decided to put forth with it. it was her day, whether anyone else chose to see it or not. so she waited in line, patiently too. i mean, she could have shouted along with the older gentleman a few people ahead of her, asking the people working the ticket sales booth to hurry it up, but she just chose to stand there and wait.

as she waited, she chose to busy herself with things that would make her wait seem a little less long. she dug around in her tote, and pulled out a stick of gum, and began chewing it. riley found her cell phone, and actually checked her voice mails, and her text messages, for once. she had a voicemail from her mom, and so she even went ahead and called the lady, and chatted for a few minutes with her. after all it was her mom and she needed to give her the time of day. and then she shoved her cell phone deep within a pocket, inside her tote bag. and just as she was about to turn on her iPod that she had in her hand, over the noise of everything else in the lobby, she heard a voice from behind her, directed to her. a welcoming word in a deep voice, a male saying hey.

she lightly moved sideways, still maintaining her rather delicate standing position, with her heavy tote bag hanging off her forearm, and in the hand that was attached to that arm, her iPod. her other hand was brushing her side bangs out of her large brown eyes, as she skeptically stared up at the guy. her dark eyebrows furrowed in the middle, a confused sort of expression on her face. even if she didn't know him, she had a pretty good idea he knew her. her free hand soon posed on her aligned hip as she peered up at him still, her eyes a bit squinted as she was trying to see if she recognized the face. but to no avail, she didn't. "hell-o

[/color]..." she said slowly, blinking her elongated eyelashes a few times before moving up with the line, still looking up at the guy.

she felt horrible, and she always did when she was put in this sort of a position. either she made herself look incredibly stupid, or made him look incredibly stupid for saying anything to begin with. and sensing his insecurities, her face beamed up with a bright smile as she said, "i'm riley, and you[/color]?" though the introduction on her behalf most likely wasn't needed. but, he seemed to be here by herself, and she was definitely here by herself, and it wouldn't hurt having a movie parter.[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[charles roderick konig ®]

Chazz had stood quietly behind her as she dug around in her bag, chatted on the phone to whom he could easily tell was her mother. It gave him the strangest feeling; he wished he had someone to call, someone whose number he could dial during the middle of any random day and would answer his call. He figured Anita would, but he'd talked to her yesterday - he hated to bug her too much. He called every few days to tell her he was alive and that was about it. Even the smallest things like this -- watching some girl he didn't even know -- talk on the phone to her mother, hurt him. Even if he wanted to, he could not pick up the phone and call his mom. He did not know her phone number, he did not know her name. He did not know if she was in the US; he did not know if she was alive. You can see where this easily became a sore subject, though he'd never show it to nearly anyone. That wasn't his style; very few people knew there was much abnormal in his life, let alone his full story. In fact, he wasn't sure anyone really knew; he wasn't sure he ever wanted anyone to.

as stated, the moment it was out of his mouth, he felt stupid. she didn't have to feel stupid because he definitely felt dumb enough for the both of them. this, he reminded himself, was exactly why he never said anything. he went out of his way to be friendly and dumb stuff like this happened. it wasn't worth it. nobody stuck around anyway; what was the point in even trying? he had no idea but here he was, looking like an idiot either way. he had to follow through now, despite the completely taken aback, confused, and slightly embarrassed look on her face. she probably got this all the time. of course she had no idea who he was; she was probably totally annoyed. leave it to chazz to mess something as simple as saying hello to somebody up. if anyone could do it, it was obviously him. he'd never been highly social. especially with girls. what had he even been thinking, opening his mouth?

either way, he'd done it, and now she'd asked a question, so he had to get with the program to avoid looking like more of a dumbass. "I know. I'm sorry, I just --" he grabbed a hold of the pass that was hanging off his belt loop, moving it slightly so she'd get the idea to look down at it. "I'm from tour -- guitar tech for Temper. M'name's Chazz," he told her, a tiny embarrassed smile turning up the corners of his lips. It was not overly obvious, but his voice was covered lightly by a German accent, something he would never grow out of from being taught German as his first language. "Just not often you see someone from Spellbound anywhere but a club.." he trailed off, sensing he was starting to ramble -- unattractive. He slayed himself sometimes with these habits.

[riley ann johnson ™]

riley ann johnson
YOUR LOVE IS LIKE A ROLLER COASTER, BABY, BABY. I WANT TO RIDE

[/font]
YOUR LOVE IS LIKE A ROLLER COASTER, BABY, BABY. I WANT TO RIDE.
ROLLER COASTER, OF LOVE.[/center]

riley giggled softly as he began apologizing, at first. "sorry? oh no, please don't be sorry. please, i beg of you. if you're sorry, so am i

[/color]," she blurted out before he could even say another word, before she could even give a listen to everything else he had to say. she was just afraid now that she had done something wrong, and if he was sorry for saying hi to her, she felt like it was because she had talked to him before, shared a conversation or a moment with him that she could not seem to remember. and truly, she felt horrible. and you could tell because sorrow was written all over her face. her eyes seemed droopy, her eyebrows didn't have their natural perk to them. there was no smile on her delicate face, no rosy pink in her cheeks. deary me, the poor girl feels like she was at fault, when neither of them were.

her eyes darted to his ever so seemingly fidgeting hands. and once her eyes properly adjusted, she saw he was from the spellbound records label. well that's why he would've said hi! he recognized her, it made so much more sense now! "oh! i feel like sure a fool[/color]!" she exclaimed, smacking her hand against her forehead dramatically, shuffling her sandaled feet along with the line. "i feel really bad, now. it's just that i see dozen of faces every day, you know[/color]?" she said in her defense, shrugging lightly, hoping he didn't take any offense to this encounter at all.

"chazz, was it? is that short for something[/color]?" riley asked, obviously intrigued by the idea that she was finally talking to someone out of her little group of friends; her band mates, and aaron schiff. oh - and the occasional flirtatious slur thrown at her by mister kingston in all his glory. but that was another story all on its own. that guy had to watch himself around riley, now. she was not taking his shit anymore, as she already told him, and she was getting the feeling he was finally sensing she was serious.

riley laughed lightly at his next string of words, a bright smile on her face. "actually, i think i'm the only one on the label who doesn't like to party and drink and all that stuff. i'm relatively straightedge, you can say. though i'm not a vegan anymore, and i can not even be considered a vegetarian on most nights... or ever, really[/color]." now she stopped abruptly, feeling that she was the rambler. god, she was notorious for rambling when nervous. but why was she nervous? "so you know chris pike, then[/color]?" she randomly threw out. after all, he was the crew for temper, chris was the lead in temper... it made sense.

riley turned her attention to the movie listings above the box office, checking out titles, looking at times. and she was waiting for chazz's response, too. this was sort of buying her time. she supposed since they were both here alone - this was still all under the assumption that he was in fact, here alone - they could at least see the movie together. "well, i was going to see saw five... if that interests you, you know... you could join me? that's if you're here by yourself, anyways. i don't want you to ditch anyone for me. i'm not that cool anyways. sure, famous, but not cool. trust me, i'm kinda on the lame side[/color]," she cutely babbled as she realized they were nearing the front of the line. she hoped she wasn't putting him in any sort of predicament.[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]