Page 8 of Ryder

Don’t go. Not like this

Ryder

I have to. I’m sorry

Me

Ryder, don’t

Ryder

Goodbye, Crystal

No! I want to plead with him, beg him, tell him it isn’t true. But I don’t. The damage is done.

I throw my phone across the room, my heart feels like it could break through my chest.

The tears flow freely. I still can’t believe my dad punched him. He’s no better than Ryder’s stepdad, not that my parents are even aware of the abuse Ryder has suffered. I doubt they’d care, but I stand by what I said. My dad is a hypocrite. He believes in giving to the poor and the less fortunate, but not people like Ryder. He is prejudice against a boy who didn’t do anything wrong, just because of what his dad did and because helives on the wrong side of town. It makes me sick to my stomach. I vow there and then that I’ll do better.

I won’t be like them. I can be a better person, agoodperson. I try to never judge anyone. Just because Ryder had a tough upbringing, does not make him a bad person.I retrieve my phone, taking a breath.

Me

I’ll keep my promise, Ryder. I’ll do it for you. One day you’ll find me again, and I’ll be waiting. You think I don’t know what I want, but you’re wrong. I do know. I love you. I will always love you. Know that. No matter what happens, press your hand to your heart and when you feel the beat, know that it’s me, thinking about you. Always. ILY.

I hit send, knowing there is no way out of this room to get across town to plead with him. Ryder was never one to be kept down. He’s too good for Greenlark. They’re all wrong. He’ll do great things. He has a heart of gold, and why my parents can’t see that, I’ll never know.

I know he thinks I’m just a kid, but I know myself. I may only be sixteen and I haven’t lived yet, but I know right from wrong. I know how I feel when I’m around him. Nobody can compare to Ryder Cane, and even if I never hear from him again, I’ll never stop reminding him that he’s worthy. He’s somebody. Despite what my parents and everyone else says. They don’t know him. They can’t see past their own noses.

“I’ll wait, Ryder. I’ll wait forever to be with you,” I whisper out loud to nobody. “Nobody can take away your memory. I won’t let them.”

I had no idea that it would be years until I saw my favorite pair of green eyes again.

2

RYDER

5 years later…

I slamthe shot glass down and grin. Nobody’s ever beaten me in a drinking game. I can hold my liquor. Call it a gift, one that I use as often as possible.

“Should’ve known with that patch on your jacket,” says the asshole who just lost, shoving the bills toward me as I laugh.

I can’t hold back my grin.“I tried to warn you.”

“You gotta watch the pretty ones,” Bronco, previously known as Torin, laughs. “They’ll swindle you before you can even blink.”

Asshole mutters something incoherent, stumbling away as I pocket the cash.

“Tell me again why we drink here?” I mutter.

Bronco side eyes me. The Whiskey Straight is owned by Logan, my club brother’s Brew and Haze’s older brother, he isn’t part of the NOLA Rebels like the rest of us, but he’s happy to have us frequent the bar and keep the trash out from time to time.

“Because the booze is cheap.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right.”

A couple of wolf whistles ring out as a couple of girls enter the pub. I’m not in the mood. I’ve had a shit week, and prospecting for the NOLA Rebels may have been the very thing to save me, but some days there just isn’t enough time in the fucking day to get shit done. “We should split.”

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