Riker’s hands navigated to Elodie’s hips, turning her around, and pulling her closer against him - a playful smile among his features as he moved his lips to her own, not caring that the two of them were in the middle of a nightclub and should have been dancing. While Riker didn’t exactly have his own college experiences, one could say he still had his fair share after joining Elodie in on her adventures. And… well, with Elodie rushing a Sorority, that meant parties, on top of parties, on top of parties… especially during these first few weeks as Elodie started college.
Yes… okay fine MAYBE Riker was vicariously living through his girlfriend’s adventures (and even non-vicariously because he was just joining in eeevveeen though he wasn’t always invited), but he was going on tour with Jordan in a month and a half and he wanted to spend as much time as he possibly could with his girl 
. So YES, yes, he joined her when he could. That meant coming to frat parties while Elodie did rush stuff and he hung out by himself (usually finding one way or another to entertain himself - yes, yes he did win his fair share of beer pong). It also included looking at Elodie’s homework and thanking the UNIVERSE that he wasn’t taking Intro to Statistics - like what the hell were all those numbers about? Don’t ask Riker - because he had absolutely no flipping idea.
Anyways, back to the point - club. Yes; yet another last-minute Sorority rushing thing. Apparently, all the girls had to “find a way into the hottest club” as a “hazing” technique, and anyone who didn’t get in, wouldn’t get into the Sorority. Kind of… messed up if you asked him but what did Riker know about Sororities? All he knew was he had walked into the club an hour earlier with Elodie on his arm (after making a few calls to get them on the list). Lucky dude, isn’t he? No seriously - have you met Elodie? She was gorgeous inside and out. He is probably the luckiest dude in the world. Screw that. Not even probably - Riker totally was.
“Riker… not here,”
Riker’s smile remained as she moved away, his eyes navigating from her own, down to her lips, and back again. Damn you public place - there were so many other things Riker would have rather been doing.
“Elodie, glad to see you made it. We need you… Sorority stuff”
A pout met Riker’s lips as he moved away from Elo to look over at Aria who was the … captain… the president… something like that of one of the sororities Elo was rushing.
“Hey Riker, you don’t mind if we steal our favorite little freshie right?”
Well… Riker didn’t exactly get a chance to respond before the girl winked, waved, and dragged Elo off… much like many of the other times Riker had joined Elo at an event. Yay. Ironically, that was usually always followed by another sorority girl coming over to talk to him - but this time, Riker walked away from the dance floor once Elo left. Lets’ just say he wasn’t feeling like having a random girl come over to him and dance with him okay 
. Riker just wanted to dance with Elo.
Two hours, that’s how long it had been since Elo was pulled away. She had found a second to send him a text about an hour ago to tell him she was doing something with the other recruits - though she hadn’t gone into the details of exactly what that was or how long it would take. In either case, Riker just ended up spending that time… well… cough bartending. How Riker ended up on the other side of the bar… don’t ask. No seriously… don’t ask… but maybe the other bartender was currently icing a head injury that RIKER DIDN’T PURPOSEFULLY CAUSE OKAY.
But it was truly so much fun making drinks. GUESS WHAT? HE LEARNED A NEW TRICK TOO. He now knew how to throw a bottle up, catch it, and then pour. Let’s just say, it was a fun hour and a half. Don’t get him wrong, there was that 4 months when he was 16 where he bartended before getting into music seriously - so he was just a little rusty. Honestly, he kind of forgot how fun it was to be bartending.
“Sorry we’ve been a little backed up. What can I get yo… oh Hey Elodie,”
Riker grinned, seeing his girlfriend now standing in front of him with a 
confused look. “Riker? How… why are you…”
“Well some of us aren’t going to be genius business owners one day so we all have to make a living somehow, don’t we?,” Riker laughed, answering her question…ish before she even got it all out. With that, he leaned over the bar and kissed her, bringing his hand to her cheek. “Rightttttttttt…”
Okay… that was weird. Pulling away from the kiss, Riker looked at Elo who seemed… off. The girl tasted like rum, but that wasn’t exactly surprising since they were in a club. But… she just seemed… off. She was stumbling after their kiss and almost seemed… drunk? “Hey beautiful, you didn’t have to come all the way to the bar, here’s another drink,”
Riker watched as a man put his arm around Elo’s waist as he handed her the drink. Alright… Riker didn’t like that. There was a flash of annoyance on his own features as he looked at the man, but before he could say anything - he found Elo pushing him off. “I’mmmm fineeeeee Taylorrrrr.”
“Come on Elodie, it’s a fcking party. Don’t be a buzz kill.”
“nooo…I’m not feelinnnng that great”
“Hey, maybe if a girl tells you to stop, then you stop mate,” Riker stepped in, his eyes still on Elodie with his hand navigating on top of hers.
“I wasn’t talking to the help, so maybe mind your fcking business? yeah?”
Anger flashed in Riker’s eyes’ for a second, before he calmed himself down. With a quick move, Riker jumped over the bar, standing between Elo and whoever this assh0le was. “Walk the fck away, yeah?” Riker stated, repeating the man’s tone before feeling Elodie tightly holding on to him.
Turning towards her, Riker instantly noticed Elodie’s eyes moving up and her losing balance. Instantly, his arm went around her and his other hand went to her cheek. She just… looked pale.
“Hey babe… you don’t look so good. Why don’t I take you home?”
Was this dude still here? Seriously. Riker wasn’t paying attention to him… or at least he was trying when he saw this Tyler dude try to grab Elo’s hand. Fck off dude. Thanks.
“Elo, are you okay? What happened?” Riker whispered, his hand going to move a piece of hair out of her eyes. Hearing her mumble something incoherently as she stumbled again, Riker mentally said fck it, and picked his girl up before walking out of the club. Elodie didn’t ever drink this much - so clearly something else was the issue and there was something… ticking him off about the way Tyler was following him outside.
“Why the fck do you even care? I can take her home. Just let me take her home, I know her.”
Riker had gotten to the curb, his hand on Elo’s waist to steady as she drunkenly wrapped her arms around his neck. Her reactions right now were starkly different from a few minutes ago, and there was truly a sickening feeling in Riker’s chest as he realized what was going on. “Elo, how much did you drink?” Riker questioned, ignoring the idiot behind him as he looked towards Elo who put one finger up. Sht. Putting his hand out to hail a cab, Riker let the man beside him keep urging him to let him take Elo home. Only when the cab was hailed and Elo was sitting inside did Riker turn towards the man and punch him square in the jaw. “Wait just a second,” Riker told the cab driver as he walked towards the assh-le again and gave him another punch - this time enough to knock the idiot out. Grabbing his wallet, Riker pulled out the man’s ID, found more than a few pills, and after grabbing both, he threw the wallet at the ground again before picking the dude up and bringing him towards the bouncer who was watching. “This fcking btch is roofying girls inside, put him in fcking jail,” with that, he handed the bouncer the ID, and the drugs before walking back towards the cab, and getting in the other side where Elo was already passed out.
Wrapping his arms around her, Riker whispered I love you before telling the cab where to go, simply holding his girl tightly against him - something he did for the rest of the night until she woke up in the morning and he had to tell her what happened.