“Why don’t you go back inside and continue ignoring everyone while you text on your phone? I’m not going back in there to stand around by myself.” I turned and kept walking down the street. Feelings suck.
“I don’t know what your damn problem is all of a sudden, Bailey, but snap out of it and get back inside the house. You can’t walk home alone, and I’m not leaving yet.” His words were harsh, but his voice was gentle and soothing. He was such a complicated person.
“You, Ryder. You’re my problem. You’ve barely said five words to me since we left home. You won’t look at me or come near me. I don’t know what I’ve done wrong, and I don’t care now. This was a bad idea,” I shouted.
“What was a bad idea? Coming to the party? Fine. You want to go? Let’s go.” Ryder grabbed my arm, finally touching me, and turned me around, dragging me back toward his car.
“Ryder, let me go.” I shrugged his hand off me. He stopped and kicked the fence in Chace’s front yard.
“What, Bailey? What do you want? Damnit. I’m so confused right now.” What was he confused about? He was the one confusing one.
“You’re confused? What about how confused I am? I have no idea what I did to you to make you ignore me tonight.”
“I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have been ignoring you, but it was just easier than dealing with…” He stopped talking and looked away from me. “Please, Bailey, can we go inside?”
“No. It was easier than dealing with what, Ryder? What don’t you want to deal with?” Can’t deal with me? He wanted to end it. I knew it.
“Nothing. Just forget it.” He shook his head and scuffed his shoes on the ground.
“Okay, well, maybe we should just stop this, Ryder. End it. If you’re finding it too hard to deal with whatever you won’t tell me and I’m falli…I’m, I…Let’s just end it now. Fake break up and whatever.” I closed my eyes and turned away so he couldn’t see me crying because it felt so much like a real breakup, not a fake one.
“What? No, Bailey. Why would you even suggest that?” He grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face him. “I don’t want to fake break up with you.”
“See, Ryder. I’m so confused. I don’t know what you want. You can’t deal with me, so why bother continuing?” I was trying to make a clean break, but he was still trying to hold on. Why wouldn’t he let me go? He could go back to his normal life, and I could go back to…well, I could go back to the bookstore.
“I heard you talking to your mother,” he murmured. “That’s why I’m…I don’t know…”
“What? Ryder, what are you talking—”
“Damnit!” he shouted, pulling his hair before suddenly grabbing my face between his hands and slamming his mouth to mine.
***
When Ryder and I returned to Chace’s house after our fight, we went looking for Indie and Jayden and found them outside by the pool with a few other people from school. Indie was well on the way to trashed. I wasn’t sure how much she’d already had to drink, but she needed to slow down. She seemed in good spirits, though, laughing with the group of friends we used to hang around with—Jayden by her side.
I hadn’t spoken to anyone since Chace and I broke up, and Indie had stopped talking to everyone once she became my friend again, so I didn’t know what to think as we approached the small group sitting with them.
“Hey, Bailey, Ryder. How’s it going?” Greg was the first to speak to us, followed by Tom, Lizzie, and Anna. It was strange. They just included Ryder and me in their conversation like the few months hadn’t happened and like Ryder was always part of their in-group.
I was uncomfortable and didn’t know if it was a plan set up by Christina to do something to me. It wouldn’t have surprised me if it was. She had been glaring at me all night. But Ryder never left my side, always touching me in some way, keeping me calm like he always did. He even made Jayden go in and get us drinks as we sat around talking and laughing.
Unfortunately for Indie, Jayden made his excuses and left early. Something about a family commitment in the morning. I could tell how disappointed she was that he had to leave, but the look of excitement on her face when he asked for her number was priceless.
I finally started to relax when I realised that those guys were not going to bring up my breakup with Chace or mine and Ryder’s relationship. It was not something I wanted to discuss. However, the next thing I knew, a cold, sticky liquid was being poured down my back.
“Oops, sorry. Didn’t see you there.” I turned to see Christina standing behind me with her margarita glass tipped in her hand. She’d poured her drink over me. The stupid bitch.
“What is your problem?” I stood up and faced Christina, knocking her glass out of her hand.
“Ooh, bitch fight.” I heard Indie giggle into her beer. And then, before I knew it, punches were thrown, nails were scratching, and hair was being pulled. We were rolling around on the ground trying to beat the crap out of each other until Ryder had the sense to pull me off her and drag me inside kicking and screaming. All the hurt and anger I had been feeling toward Christina had just exploded out of me.
“That stupid bitch. I’m going to kill her. Let me go, Ryder.” I screamed and struggled out of his arms until he finally got me into the bathroom.
“Calm down, love. It’ll be okay. Relax. Don’t worry about her. She’s not worth it.” Ryder’s voice was soft and slow while he attempted to calm me down. He brushed the hair out of my face and lifted me up so I was sitting on the counter.
“Okay, better?” he asked while pulling out a washcloth and wetting it under the tap.
I nodded and looked in the mirror. “Look at me. I’m a mess. My top is ruined. That stupid fuc—” I stopped talking when Ryder threaded his fingers into my hair and pressed his lips to mine, stepping in between my legs.
“That fight was so freaking hot,” he mumbled against my mouth.
“Yeah?”
“You got in some good hits.” He stepped back and began rubbing the washcloth over my face and kissing me again. His lips followed the trail of the fabric, kissing every inch of skin on my neck and shoulders as he washed away all traces of dirt and margarita. And that was when things got a little out of control.
My legs were wrapped around Ryder’s waist. I made him groan as I brought my lips down to his again. I slid my tongue into his mouth. My hands were roaming everywhere—pulling on his hair, cupping his face, tracing his chest, unbuttoning his shirt—I couldn’t get enough of him, and it seemed he felt the same way. I just wanted him as close as possible. My shirt ended up on the floor in a sticky pile as Ryder wet the cloth again and continued washing my skin, my back, my chest, and my stomach, never once breaking our kiss unless it was to pepper kisses along my chest or down my stomach.
It was the hottest sponge bath I could have ever imagined. So hot, in fact, that neither of us noticed when the bathroom door opened.