Hard As Rock by Olivia Thorne

nodded.
    “Because I’m right here,” I said as I pulled my chair next to Ryan’s.
    The expression on Riley’s face was absolutely priceless. First there was shock, then confusion, then glee.
    “HOLY SHIT! Blondie, what the fuck’re YOU doing there?!”
    There was a young woman sitting next to Riley, and the contrast between them couldn’t have been more striking. Whereas Riley was outrageous – even just hanging out and doing nothing, she had a full-on spiked mohawk going, now dyed shocking pink – her sister was absolutely normal. Megan had a full head of reddish-brown hair with bangs, clunky plastic-rimmed glasses, and a flowery shirt conservative enough to wear to a hospital internship. She was more plain than cute, but there was real kindness in her features and intelligence in her eyes. There wasn’t any physical resemblance between them, but that made sense, since Megan was Riley’s foster sister. They hadn’t actually met until Riley was a teenager.
    “Hey, Riley. Is that your sister?”
    “Oh, yeah – hey, Megan, this is that journalist chick for Rolling Stone I was telling you about!”
    Wow! I thought. I was very pleasantly surprised to be introduced like that. After all, it was Riley we were talking about. I was expecting something a lot less respectful and a lot more salacious, like –
    “She’s the one banging Derek on the side,” Riley continued. “Or WAS, anyway.”
    There it was.
    “Riley!” Megan scolded.
    “Well, it’s the truth!” Riley said, again like a five-year-old justifying herself.
    “Hi, Megan. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
    “Hi, Kaitlyn – a pleasure to meet you, too. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
    I groaned. “From her last comment, I can only imagine what.”
    She laughed. “Don’t worry, most of it was good. The rest of it I probably shouldn’t repeat – although I’m sure you know by now that my sister has a huge crush on you.”
    “MEGAAAAAN!” Riley yelled – and then, wonder of wonders, she blushed.
    I never thought I would live to see the day when Riley Wojtalik – hard-drinking, skirt-chasing, ‘I don’t give a fuck about nothin’,’ punk-rock drummer – actually blushed.
    And on my account.
    I joined Megan in laughing. “I wouldn’t call it a crush, but that’s good to know.”
    Riley was totally abashed and not saying anything. Megan elbowed her good-naturedly, to which Riley reacted by grumpily pushing her away.
    “Well, I hate to say ‘hi’ and then ‘bye,’ but I have to run to the hospital,” Megan said. “It was a pleasure to meet you.”
    “Same here.”
    “Bye, Ryan!”
    “Bye, Megan. Talk to you later.”
    “Gimme a kiss,” Megan said to Riley, who was pouting with her arms crossed. “C’mere, gimme a kiss – ”
    Megan planted a kiss on Riley’s cheek, and the little drummer girl went blech! like a kindergarten boy getting touched by a girl. “Ugh! Go on, get out of here! Tryin’ to embarrass my ass all over the internet…”
    Megan laughed and ruffled Riley’s hair affectionately.
    “Watch the hair, watch the hair!” Riley complained, and shooed her off. But she watched her go with a grin on her face. When a door closed in the distance, Riley turned back to the camera. “She’s great, isn’t she?”
    “She’s awesome,” I agreed.
    “Oh, and Blondie – fuck that whole ‘crush’ thing. You know I just wanted to tap dat ass.”
    “Thank you for clearing that up, Riley,” I said with mock appreciation.
    “Why the fuck are you there with Ry?”
    I paused. “How much do you know about Derek’s and my fight?”
    She shrugged. “Not much. He came to the penthouse lookin’ for you, said you flipped out and he couldn’t find you. That was about it. Then I left and caught my flight.”
    I grimaced. “I caught him cheating on me.”
    “OHHHHH SHIT,” she said, and I appreciated the look of shock that played across her face. “Fuck.”
    “Yeah.”
    Then she grew angry. “Fucker didn’t tell