Holding Out For a Hero

[Riley Hart]

Riley lie awake in bed, lost in thought.

She thought about Gary. Gary was a lot of things to her. Her first sexual partner. Her first husband. The father of her first child. On paper, he seemed like a great guy. He was good looking, sweet, and originally a very dedicated father and husband. Unfortunately, he couldn't handle the stress of being a father. He took a liking to alcohol, and Riley had to get her son out of that house.

And then there was Chris. He was the man of her dreams. She almost got him killed due to her stupidity. At that time, Chris saw her as nothing but an immature fangirl. But over time, Chris decided that maybe Riley was the right woman for him. He kissed her and told her that he loved her. Riley told him that she was married, and then he ran off. He was always running from his problems. Somewhere inside of her, Riley deeply wanted Chris to be her hero. The guy to step up, sweep her off her feet and be the perfect step-dad. But she knew he wasn't
a step up kind of guy.

Riley wished that there was such thing as a perfect guy. But men were liars and no man wants to be with an 18 year old who has a son.

Riley began to doze off. She had nightmares about Alec being taken or hurt. She was too weak to do anything about it. There was no heroic guy there to save her son. She woke up with her heart pounding. She went over to Alec to make sure he was okay.

She heard a knock at the door and went to answer it, holding Alec.

[Fred Coltys]

Fred was in town to visit his little cousin Jill. Jill always looked up to him. Being 6 years older than her (21) they were always close. When they were neighors Fred was always Jill's shoulder to cry on. Jill talks to him on the phone every night and things haven't been going well for her. He thought it would be a kind gesture to go to her ampartment and surprise her.

As he was driving he was also testing his friend Adam from Chicago. They were talking about Adam's new girlfriend. All of a sudden his car made a tooting noise. The noise finally stopped along with his car. "F*ck!!!!!" he yelled. "I'll never get to Jill's place."

Fred managed to get the car parked at the side of the road. He opened the door to his convertible and slammed it against the side of the car. In college everyone always told him he was the strongest on campus. He could bench the hightest out of everyone and had a 6-pack. Annoyed he quietly walked to the first place he saw. He stepped up to the door and knocked twice. As he waited he examined the house. It wasn't the biggest place and he knew girls would be living there. He had this sixth sense, he knew where girls were at all times. He was always the ladies man.

A pretty girl opened the door. She was beautiful. He automatically had am urge to kiss her. She was holding a child so he assumes she was married. He did have morals and he would never make a woman cheat. He finlly decided to explain himself and why he's there. There was a minute of silence and she began to look confused.

"Hi, my name is Free Coltys. I live in Chicago. I'm gonna cut right to the chase, my car broke down and my cell phone just died. Can I borrow your phone?" He smiled to show off his nice smile and dimples. In his high school year book he got nicest smile, most atheletic, friendliest, and best all around.

[Riley Hart]

Riley opened the door to see a man. He was an extremely attractive, well built, and well groomed guy. His car broke down and he wanted to borrow her phone.

"Yeah, sure," Riley said, with a yawn on her voice.

She went to her bedroom to get her cell-phone. It was almost dead, and she looked for her charger but couldn't find it. She didn't have a landline because she found it more efficient to just use one phone number.

She walked back to Fred. From her phone she heard the "shutting off music".

"Sugar! My phone just died," she said.

"Well, if you want you can sleep on the couch..."

[Fred Coltys]

Riley told Fred he could sleep on the couch. Fred was shocked, but please. Spending the night with that gorgeous girl would be a dream come true.

"Yes! I need to tell her how beautiful she is," he thought. "No! That's embarassing! Let's just give her that famous dimply smile and sleep on the couch." All this went through his head during a long two minutes of silence.

"Wow, really?" He asked. "Thanks! You're so kind. By the way my name is Fred Coltys. Even though it's pronnounced Coltis it's spelt with a y. I'm single," he said

"Wait, what did you just say?" Fred oftens has fights with himself in his mind. "Just laugh it off and sound charming!"

"Wow that was so stupid," Fred laughed. "Well I'm pretty tired so I think I'm going to sleep on the couch. Good night," Fred said as he stripped down to his boxers and jumped on the couch.

[Riley Hart]

Alec started crying. Riley put him in his rocking seat and made him a bottle. She noticed that Fred couldn't sleep.

"Sorry about that," she said.

She made a pot of coffee. She poured two cups. She gave a cup to Fred.

"Here, have some coffee,"

"So, do you live here in Larkton? Or are you just passing through?"

Riley examined his face. Even though he was very good looking, there was an undertone that made his face appear to be hardened not by time, but by experience. It was the same quality that the heroes in movies have. And she had seen this same face before after she examined it. There was something so familiar about his face.

Was it from some distant dream, or was it from a different lifetime?

[Fred Coltys]

She looked gorgeous even though it was the middle of the night. There's nothing that could possibly make her look ugly.

"That's okay. I really love babies. I'm an uncle and my nephew is probably around the same age as your son. What's his name?" he asked.

They just met. This girl could be a sleeper for all he knows! He had to take a chance." She's probably not a prostitute. Probably wanted to have the baby." he kept thinking to himself.

"I live in Chicago, but I'm really close to my little cousin Jill Irasen who lives here. I doubt you know her," he said. He sipped his coffee then put it back down.

"So does your husband work late?" he asked trying to find out how the father and her are related.

[Riley Hart]

"His name is Alec. His father is an alcoholic, so he isn't really around," she said.

"Jill Irasen... that name sounds familiar. Oh yeah, she is my cousin's girlfriend's friend's ex-girlfriend," Riley said.

"I live alone here actually. My cousin is on tour right now. Maybe you've heard of Rori Hart?" she said.

"I'm Riley by the way. I'm 18, I was married to Alec's dad for a short period, but I got it enolled," she said.

Here she was, telling a bunch of personal information to a stranger. She had no idea who this guy was, yet she felt comfortable with him. Although she wouldn't let her mind think it, she was hoping that maybe this guy could be the guy to be her hero.'

Talking about Gary again was not something she liked to do. It reminded her that Alec did not have a real father and may never have a real father. She did all she could to hold back tears, but it wasn't enough.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed, "It's just been really tough for me since I left my husband, and I'm starting to realize that guys don't want to be with an 18 year old single mother,"

[Fred Coltys]

Fred just got hit with a bunch of personal information about her. He was just speechless. He didn't have a clue about what to say.

"Umm..." Fred said. He sounded like an idiot he didn't know what to do. He just got up and hugged her. He didn't care if she thought he was a creeper he wanted to cheer her up.

"Calm down it's okay," he said holding her tightly. "In times like these I like to remember everything happens for a reason. I've had to deal with alcohol also. I lost my dad when I was 8. He was stabbed, but the man was aiming for me because his son was bullying me, but his son lied and said I was bullying him. My step-dad killed my mom and blamed my aunt who's now in jail. Every day he was drunk and used to beat me room- to-room. I almost died once and he didn't shed a tear. During those times I never went up to my room and cried because I knew this was all in God's plan and everything happens for a reason.'

What was he doing? And he thought she was getting personal. He just told her his life story. She must think he's insane.

"I'm sorry," he laughed. "You must think I'm insane!"

[Riley Hart]

"Don't worry," she said, "I think you'll find that we are all a bit screwed up in this city,"

Riley was a bit surprised that he poured all this information on her, but she knew that it was better than she knew now before she ever got involved with him or anything.

"Okay, I'm just going to ask. Do you want to do something sometime?"