𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒚

Saturdays. The day to finally relax and enjoy life. Doing online school while living in LA and trying to keep up with all the projects her manager found for her was tiring. Especially since she was new to fame and the big city, it took a lot to balance everything and keep her grades up. But of course, she was grateful, knowing it was an honor to be able to have the opportunities and to live in LA. She enjoyed it, but always breathed a sigh of relief during the free weekends.

Today, Vinnie has been at a modeling shoot, so her Saturday morning was being spent thrifting instead. She was alone, since Mia was out with Justin and she was too shy to ask someone else to come with.

The ambiance of the thrift shop was calm and relaxing, with old 70's music playing softly from the speakers and not too many people shopping. Riley hummed lightly to herself, swiping through a rack of vintage sweaters. So far, she'd only found a few pieces she planned to buy.

"Uh, excuse me?"

Riley jumped slightly, turning as a teenage girl tapped her on the shoulder. Behind her were two other girls. "Hey, we noticed you from over there...you're from tiktok, aren't you?"

Today, Riley decided, she wasn't going to let her social anxiety get ahold of her. She smiled, ignoring her rising heart rate. "Yeah, I am."

The girl in the back looked Riley up and down. "You're a lot shorter in person. And less giggly."

Nudging her, the girl next to her nodded. "I mean, it's probably just because she's not with Vinnie. I bet she's just like that with him."

A sight frown formed on Riley's face. It was odd that they spoke to her as though she wasn't a normal human like they. They spoke as though she wasn't even standing there. The girl in the front grinned. "Anyways, so how is Vinnie? I bet he's the best boyfriend ever. He's literally like so perfect. Like too good for almost anyone. I was like, so surprised when I saw about you two. You don't seem like his type, even. No offense of course." She covered up her offensive statement with an ugly laugh.

Forcing a laugh, Riley answered politely, "Oh, we're not dating."

The two girls in the back giggled, exchanging looks. "Okay, that's good."

"Yeah..." At this point, Riley didn't even know what to say. She was both offended by and terrified of them.

"Could we take a picture with you?" The girl in the front finally asked. Of course, Riley obliged, and she ended up making a few tiktoks with them as well, during which they pretended to like her.

As they finished, one of them told her to say hi to Vinnie for them. When they were finally gone, Riley was beyond embarrassed. She felt completely demoralized and insignificant. Feeling on the verge of tears, she texted her sister.

10:28 AM

i just had the weirdest
encounter with these
fans

idk if i should call them
fans even

i'm literally shaking wtf

what happened?? are
you ok?

i'm fine
they were just super rude

what did they say??

do i have to 😡🔪

they're gone now luckily

idk they kept making
comments about me and
vinnie and being really
weird about my looks &
how no ones good enough
for him

wtf
where are you
do you need to be
picked up or something

it's okay i'm leaving now
i don't feel like getting
anything anymore

that's so disgusting i'm
sorry

i'm just not used to any
of this. no one taught me
how to deal with fans

i don't even know how to
reply to hate comments

i don't think i was made
for this LA life mia

stop it rn you got to
LA because you earned
it. it'll take time to get
used to but you'll get
better at it eventually!!!

i guess

are you going to tell
vinnie?

no i can't

girl why not

i don't want him to
feel bad
idk it's not his fault

still i mean he should
know what's happening
to you

he alr sees it in my comments
and he's getting weird comments
on his acct too

he doesn't need that stress rn

okay..
well if you need me to
say something i will

i love you

thanks mia
it'll get better over time

it'd better

this is not fair to you
at all

thanks

_________________

Just when she thought her day couldn't get any worse, it did. As she walked along the sidewalk back to her car, she saw the paparazzi coming. Her heart sank to her feet, but she was trapped. Cursing her bad luck which had made her park farther away from the store, she knew she couldn't run away. She'd have to talk to the Hollywood Fix.

"Hey, Riley, right?" Fletcher called over to her, as he got closer.

She turned around, pulling her lips tight into a smile. "Yeah, that's me." Her fingernails dig into her skin as she unconsciously closed her fists tightly.

"How's it going? You doing alright? How's it going with Vinnie?" He began bombarding her with questions immediately.

"Uh, yeah, I'm doing pretty okay, I think? Yeah, Vinnie's good...I g-guess." She stammered, trying to smile and look confident.

His camera pointed threateningly at her face. "So are you guys official yet? Dating or just friends or what?"

"I-uh, we're not dating right now..."

"Yeah, well I've seen you're getting a lot of backlash in your comments. They're calling you not good enough for him. What do you think of that? How're you handling the hate?"

Riley's face paled. Of all the questions to ask, of course he had to ask that. "It's, uh, it's not great to see the comments, I guess. But like, it's not really their lives and they don't know me, so I don't think they're really the best judges...of me...you know?" Her confidence fell as she continued talking. "I-I don't know, I guess he might be too good for me, but I..I don't know."

"Yeah, they've been saying stuff like that you're just using him for followers or that you're not really his type, have you seen that stuff?" Fletcher went on ruthlessly.

"No, I'm n-ot...I mean, I'm not using him, uh, for followers. I don't know if I'm his type or...whatever..." she swallowed hard, feeling tears spring to her eyes. "You know what? I'm g-gonna go, I have somewhere to be, uh, sorry," she stammered quickly.

"Oh, okay, that's cool," Fletcher beamed at her. "Nice talking to you, have a great day, Riley!"

Oh, she wished she could say the same to him. Practically fleeing back to her car, she slammed the door as she got in and drove as fast as she could back to the house.

Overwhelmed.

She wasn't ready to go back inside the house yet. Riley didn't know how to handle the pressure of people interrogating her. She didn't know how to handle life, at the moment. Wiping a few tears from her eyes, she leaned her head on the steering wheel and tried to calm her breathing. It'd get better, she kept telling herself, but honestly, she didn't know if it would. Everything was too much to handle.

But I'm with the guy who makes me feel happy, she told herself, and if that's what makes me happy, then I can't live for the haters.

As she turned her head to glance at her phone, notifications popped up. More hate comments, as usual.

But was being with Vinnie really making her happy?

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