#briker

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…”

Brittany’s eyes opened blearily and she shifted, taking in her surroundings. Her back was pressed against someone’s chest- Riker’s, obviously, and his voice was the one in her ear singing. That part she figured out quickly; however, where they were lying was what she was confused about.

“Happy birthday dear Brittany, happy birthday to you.” Riker sang quietly and kissed her temple. “Hey, are you awake?”

“Mmm.” Brittany rotated slowly so she was facing him. He adjusted her glasses with a smile,

“Happy birthday.”

“Thanks. What time is it? Where-”

“Midnight, you fell asleep watching a movie.” He interrupted. She glanced up and realized they were curled together on the couch on the bus. Before she could respond, however, Riker spoke again. “You also have about .2 seconds to lie here peacefully.”

“What d’you-”

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRITTANY!”

Brittany jumped as the bus door burst open and several people jumped inside. Riker laughed and sat up, pulling her along with him.

“Were you asleep?! It’s your birthday! Wake up!” Ross pulled her up and practically tossed her into the swarm of people, and Brittany was immediately immersed in a group hug.

“Happy birthday almost twin!” Ellington screamed. Brittany flinched at the noise but smiled anyway,

“Thanks guys.” She backed up slowly, unsure of how she was supposed to respond to them. That only made all of them laugh and pull her back towards them.

“Come on, let’s go party!” Rocky tossed the bus door open and tugged everyone along with him out the door. Brittany looked back at Riker helplessly.

“I don’t know if I’m really in a party mood.”

“They’re definitely going to force you out there if we don’t follow.” He said, knowing his siblings well enough to predict their actions. She sighed,

“But I’m kind of tired?”

In reality, though she was tired, that wasn’t her main reason for not partying. It just felt weird and different; not that she was unappreciative, but she wasn’t used to celebrating as much as the Lynch family expected her to.

Riker, knowing what she was thinking, reached forwards and grabbed Brittany’s hand soothingly. “Hey, don’t worry. We’ll celebrate your birthday better later on, okay? We’re going out to dinner and we’ll walk around New York and it’ll be great.”

“Don’t worry about it, t’s fine, Riker, whatever we do is fine. Come on, I’ll be more awake if I go out there.”  She walked forwards, his words hardly affecting her; after several years of nothing, she had learned to expect little from her birthday. Riker knew this, and it bothered him greatly, so it was with a frown that he followed his girlfriend off the bus.

-

“I’m sorry again, I’m so sorry, we’ll get dinner after okay?” Riker frowned and grabbed Brittany’s hands in his. “I’m sorry.”

Things hadn’t gone as expected for them later that day. They hadn’t gone sightseeing, really, considering they only had a few hours before they had to go back for the concert. The little time they had had was spent with several freak outs over losing their damn guitars in New York. Therefore, they didn’t get to go spend the day in New York, and he felt like a horrible boyfriend even though he had already showered her in gifts. Brittany’s thumbs stroked over the back of his hands; she was clearly calmer than he was.

“For the millionth time, it’s okay. Getting to watch you be a rock star is enough for me. Now go.” She leaned up on her tippy toes and kissed his cheek quickly. Riker grinned down at her weakly.

“You’re the best.” He reminded her, then sped off to join his siblings in their huddle.

Throughout the show, Riker’s weak smile turned into a full blown genuine one. Not just because of his incredible fans (though they certainly contributed) but because he had almost forgotten the little surprise he had planned. He glanced over at side stage to check if his girl was still there, then nodded at Rocky. It was time.

As the last notes of Fallin’ For You died out, Riker stepped closer to his mic and waited for the crowd to calm down a bit. “Alright, we’re gonna do something a little different tonight.”

The fans indeed shut up at this, cocking their heads at Riker with curiosity and glancing back at the other band members for help. None of them spoke, but they were all smiling. Riker chuckled.

“I’m sure a lot of you know I have a girlfriend, right? Well, today is her birthday…” Riker paused here, letting the words sink in. A few fans were already starting to “awww” and cheer. “…So I’m gonna have to invite Brittany onto the stage right now.”

The crowd was cheering. After all, a lot of the fans did ship Briker, and they never really got much hate. Riker laughed, waiting for her to come up on stage. Which, however, she didn’t. He frowned and turned his head to find her rooted to the spot with her eyes widening.

“Come on, Britt, now’s not the time for stage fright!” He said into the mic jokingly. Riker slid his bass off and moved to the side, grabbing her hand and almost dragging her onto the stage.

“What’re you doing, no!” She said in a panicked voice. He only smiled and sat her down on a stool that Rydel had moved to the center of the stage.

“This is an older song, I think a few of you might recognize it. I’d like to dedicate it to Brittany. Love you, babe. Happy birthday.”

The first few notes of the piano had could barely be heard when the entire place erupted in screams of joy. Clearly everyone was happy with the song choice, and Riker could see in Brittany’s eyes that she was, too.

I don’t know what you’re up to, but baby I see me and you…

Riker circled the stool she was sat upon throughout the entire song, serenading her shamelessly and with an extreme amount of joy and pride. He did, occasionally, drift back to the audience to grab a few fans’ hands, but he found himself constantly hovering back to his girlfriend and singing his heart out to her.

I’ll be your guy, and you’ll be my girl

We’ll fly away to our perfect world…

Riker handed Brittany a pink balloon that Ross had pulled from out of nowhere, leaving the crowd to sing directly in front of her. He didn’t care in that moment, didn’t care that he was stood on a stage with hundreds of fans watching and not in the privacy of his house. It didn’t matter to him. What mattered was the fact that his beautiful girlfriend was sat before him with tears in her eyes. Happy tears, presumably, but tears nonetheless. Riker pulled Brittany to her feet and close to him, his free arm encircling around her waist as he sang the last line to her.

I’ll always hold you close, always.

The audience burst into loud applause, but Riker was entirely too busy with gently kissing her to really pay attention to them. Brittany pulled away first; she evidently remembered where they were and was looking a bit bashful. He only shrugged carelessly and turned to face the crowd again.

“Alright one, two three- HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRITTANY!”

The whole place screamed the last three words and the VIP section all moved simultaneously. Every single one of them had released a colorful balloon into the air, balloons that Brittany hadn’t even noticed earlier. The venue was alight with the balloons and cheering and the band’s laughter and mostly an overall feeling of love. She felt completely overwhelmed by it, but it was a good type of overwhelmed.

Noticing her happily shocked expression, Riker chuckled quietly and leaned down to speak in her ear where no one else could hear.

Andre <[email protected]>                                                                   9:44am (9 hours ago)

Dear Brittany

            To get straight to the point, I’ve noticed lately that you haven’t been the best R5 fan. No offense intended, but you have been a bit disrespectful and unsupportive. I’m sure you know you’re pretty well-known within the #R5Family, therefore many fans see the things you say about the band. I’d really appreciate it if you calmed down a bit with these rude tweets. Thank you!

            This was probably Brittany’s 20th time rereading the email. Her eyes scanned it hopelessly, each time willing the text to change into different words. However, it obviously read the same thing every time, and it wasn’t making her feel much better.

            R5’s manager was telling her to shut up.

            Their fucking manager.

            Brittany slammed her laptop shut, throwing herself back to lie on her bed. Thoughts were flooding into her brain. Her thought process, which was currently a jumbled mess, went something along the lines of:

            ‘calmed down a bit with these rude tweets’

            Andre reads my tweets.

            Andre is R5’s manager.

            R5’s manager hates me.

            R5 might read my tweets.

            No, R5 DOES read my tweets; Riker has replied to ones I don’t tag him in.

            They read my tweets. They see all the shit I say.

            Andre reads my tweets and he hates me. R5 reads my tweets.

            R5 hates me.

            R5, the band who saved her by leading her to her best friends in the world, hated her. Whenever Brittany hated someone, she wanted them to stay away from her. R5 wanted her to stay away from them. She swallowed, a lump forming in her throat making it difficult to do so. But no, she wouldn’t cry. R5 hated her? R5 didn’t want to see her? Fine. That would be exactly what they’d get.

            Brittany rubbed at her eyes harshly and grabbed her laptop again, opening it and pulling up a tab for Twitter, and another for Tumblr. She glared at the screen angrily as a tweet of Andre’s popped up. She started replying to it, typing “You got what you wanted”, before deciding that she was above doing so. Brittany intended on cutting off full contact with them. Before she could convince herself not to, she deactivated both her Twitter and her Tumblr.

            Brittany sat back and looked at her now blank screen. She thought she’d feel a little lighter after deleting the social networking sites, but her heart instead felt heavier, and there were tears in her eyes again. She forced herself to remember her reasons as to why she had done this. R5 wanted this. She felt almost sure that they’d look up her Twitter later and smile when they noticed it was gone. This thought pierced her heart painfully, but Brittany still managed a wobbly smile as she blinked back the tears and turned off her laptop. It was painful, but she had to do this. She was giving them what they wanted.

                                           -----------------------

            Curt and Dom’s second holiday show, which Brittany had tickets to, was being held a few days after the incident had occurred. She had spent the past days avoiding the internet, instead spending more time on her schoolwork and socializing with her friends and family. Her fandom friends, however, didn’t just take her deleting of her favorite social networking sites lying down. Most of them texted her and bombarded her Facebook, worried as to what had happened to the girl. Brittany’s heart, still aching, stopped her from telling them what happened. Instead, she simply said she didn’t want to talk about it but she was okay. Her friends respected that, but she had a faint feeling that they were going to ask questions at the show tonight.

            The show tonight was going to be overwhelming for Brittany. While she knew she wasn’t seeing Riker tonight, as he wasn’t a guest, this was still going to be incredibly close to that world. Her old world. The world that hated her. She wasn’t sure if she was really ready to get into that.

            However, seeing her Warbler boys and best friends mattered more to her, so it was with dignity that she walked into the Coterie. Brittany walked for a bit and it was within seconds that she located her friends, who looked thrilled to see her. Though, she couldn’t help but notice they seemed a bit weary of her.

             “Let’s go inside.”

            “Wait. Is that okay? Do you want to go inside Britt?” Her friends spoke, turning towards her to see if this was okay. Normally they would’ve have bothered, knowing she wouldn’t mind if they entered.

            “Uh, yeah, you don’t have to ask me?” She appreciated the concern, but she wasn’t in any condition to be pitied. Brittany led the way inside, sitting near the bar. Her friends followed hesitantly, but said nothing as they sat down with her.

            As they sat waiting for the show to begin, several of the boys walked past them, as well as their friends and parents. She felt completely happy for the first time since the email. It felt amazing to sit with her friends that she’d missed so much, and seeing her favorite boys.

            And just as Brittany was thinking this, a tall boy walked by.

            A certain tall blonde boy.

            “Oh hi Riker!” One of her friends, Melissa, called out cheerfully.

            The boy paused, shooting a grin at them and waving excitedly, “Hey guys! How’re we doing?”

            Brittany choked on her drink.

            Her friends called out various answers, most of them being, “Good!”

            “Awesome!”  Riker replied, smiling once more at them. Brittany couldn’t help but notice the way his eyes lingered on hers curiously when she failed to speak. She tore her eyes away, staring at the floor as he called out a goodbye and his footsteps grew distant.

            “I didn’t think he was coming.” Natanya said.

            “Me either. It’s good that he’s here though… Brittany? Are you okay?” Megan spoke. Brittany’s head jerked up.

            “What? Yeah, I’m fine. I just.. yeah, I didn’t think he was coming either.” I’ll ignore him. I won’t talk to him, that’s what he wants. I’m doing what he wants.

                                             -----------------------

            The show went well. Curt, Dom, Lauren, and Kim did as incredibly as usual, and Brittany was able to block out thoughts of the tall blonde boy fairly easily. It was after the show that she was dreading, when they all came out to meet everyone and Riker was going to be wandering around. Though she was still set on refusing to talk to him as usual, she was still bound to see him and she really did not want to.

            “Nolan’s here.” Britni said, spotting the brunet through the crowd of people. Brittany turned away from Curt, whom she had been speaking to, and smiled at the statement; she had always found Nolan to be incredibly attractive, and finally meeting him was going to be a perfect distraction from her thoughts.

            “Hi Nolan!” Before she could even think, Brittany had walked over to the new Warbler. He grinned,

            “Hey there, nice to meet you! What’s your name?”

            “Brittany.” She automatically held out her hand, causing the boy to chuckle.

            “Nah, I don’t do that.” Instead, Nolan used her hand to pull her forwards and into a hug. She couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped her lips as she pulled away.

            “Can I get a picture with you?”

            Riker watched at a distance, a frown tugging on his lips as Nolan said something charmingly. Brittany  laughed, before he pulled her again so she was nestled into his side. Nolan took her phone from her, hands slipping against hers as he did so, to take a photo. She looked happy and bubbly and Riker did not like the fact that he wasn’t the one causing it. He was causing it, that new Warbler that Riker actually had thought was cool. Evidently he was wrong.

            “Riker! Can you sign this please?” A fan said, interrupting Riker from his dark thoughts. He threw a smile on his face, nodding and signing her CD. “Thanks so much!”

            “No thank you, you’re awesome!” Riker said, but not with as much enthusiasm as he usually would have. As soon as the CD was back in the girl’s hand, his gaze was fixed again on the pair across the room, without really caring if the fan wanted anything else from him.

            Brittany still hadn’t moved on from Nolan, smiling and talking to him animatedly. Riker’s frown deepened. He had watched her earlier and she had literally gone and talked to every single person in this room except for him. He ran a hand through his locks, frustrated as to why exactly she was ignoring him. Riker knew it had something to do with an email Andre had sent her; earlier that day, Riker had overheard his father and Andre discussing an email sent to ‘briyellexo’. Before he could hear what was said in the email, however, he had been caught and sent away from the room, the manner ‘not being his business’.

            Brittany laughed again; a bright happy laugh, alive and enchanting, that spread all the way across the room to Riker’s ears. Nolan seemed extremely satisfied at her laughter, leaning against the wall behind him with a proud smirk on his face and his eyes boring into her in a flirty manner. Riker’s fists clenched. This was too far, no way in hell was he going to let this new guy flirt with her. She didn’t even know him for God’s sake.

             Within seconds, Riker had marched across the room and stopped right next to the pair, “Hey guys.”

            “Hi?” Nolan said, his gaze drifting to him unconcernedly, eyebrows raised in question. Riker’s heart stung a bit when Brittany glanced at him with absolutely no emotion in her eyes before looking back at Nolan.

            “I need to borrow Brittany for a second.” Riker’s hand drifted up and landed on the girl’s shoulder in a manner that appeared almost casually. In reality, his fingers were tight on her in a way that basically told her she wasn’t allowed to say no.

            “Borrow her? You need to borrow a fan?” Nolan looked at him curiously. Riker had to stop himself from glaring, forcing a smile on his face. She’s not just a fan.

            “Yes Nolan, I need to borrow her. Excuse us.” Before the other boy could answer, Riker steered them away from the crowded area, grabbing her arm and pulling her into an empty room.

            “What the fuck is going on?” Riker asked as soon as the door shut. Her eyes widened, whether in surprise at the curse or at the question he did not know, or, frankly, care.

            “Riker, I – No, I shouldn’t be talking to you!” Brittany lowered her voice to a fierce whisper. No way was she breaking the promise she made to herself. Before she could try to leave, however, Riker stepped in front of the door.

            “Why can’t you talk to me? You ALWAYS talk to me!” He threw his hands up in confusion, staring at her.

            “No- I can’t, please don’t do this Riker, I have to go-” Brittany rushed towards the door, attempting to open it. Riker blocked her easily.

            “No, you didn’t have to go five minutes ago when you were talking to Nolan!” Riker pointed out angrily. She stared at him in surprise, overwhelmed that this was even happening.

            “Stop, Riker I have to go.” Brittany spoke urgently. He ignored the tone,

            “Okay what the HELL did Andre say to you?” Riker ran a hand through his hair in frustration, wanting to tear it out.

            “Don’t even act like you don’t know!” She replied harshly. Brittany needed to get out of this room as soon as possible.

            “I DON’T know- Jesus Brittany I don’t monitor Andre’s emails, why are you acting like this? Who do you think I even am?!”

            “I know who you are. You’re Riker Lynch, you’re in R5, you’re managed by Mark and Andre, that’s the fucking point!” She snapped icily, again moving towards the door. He grabbed her wrist, effectively stopping her and pulling her back in front of him.

            “What is that even supposed to mean- Brittany stop, LOOK at ME.” He commanded, struggling with her moving hand.

            “No, I can’t! I’m not supposed to be talking to you- STOP, this is what YOU want!” She almost screamed the words at him.

            “This is NOT what I want?!” Riker exclaimed almost furiously. He had no clue how she could possibly she think he wanted to be ignored.

            “Fine, then what DO  you want?” She demanded. Riker paused here, looking down at the shorter girl while chewing his lip. He took a step closer, his face barely centimeters from hers.

            Even as her heartbeat sped up, she stopped him, not willing to have her heart ripped in half again by kidding herself into thinking this band didn’t hate her, “Stop messing around. Tell me, what do you want.”

            “You.” He said simply. His eyes bored into hers, full of emotion and absolute honesty. Brittany’s heartbeat increased rapidly as she replied,

            “I think it’s pretty damn obvious I’ve wanted you since the beginning.”

            “Well,  I don’t care what Andre or my dad or management wants. For once, this is about me.”

            Before she could get the chance to react, Riker stepped forwards and pulled her face into his. Their lips finally met and Brittany felt an explosion of feelings such as love, safety, and the overall feeling of finally being home. Here, with Riker’s arms around her waist and lips pressed against hers sweetly, was home.

            As they pulled back, Brittany felt completely overwhelmed and looked down at the floor, breathing in deeply. Long fingers slowly brushed against the skin of her face lovingly and gently pushed up her chin, forcing her to make eye contact with the taller boy.