The Quirky Tale of April Hale (Quirky Series #1)

11: He Never Learns to Know My Name

Recap, for those who are forgetting the story:

April Hale is a real weird girl. She has a neighbor whom she often eavesdrop to, and her neighbor is none other the school's bad boy, Ryder Black. April and Ryder never really interact, before then an incident brought them to each other's attention, and Ryder asked her to stay in her room when his father threw him out.

Now, the thing is, when Ryder was staying over, he borrowed Quentin's shirt. Quentin is April's twin brother and he's very anal about fashion, and a few weeks later, when Quentin sees Ryder parading around with his shirt, he's infuriated. April decides to save the day by telling Ryder about the situation, but this leads Ryder to kidnap her to the mall.

This story picks up right after Ryder tries to get her to go to the mall with him.

And so far, he only called her with her real name once, when he was drunk.

(I know, I was abysmal at this recapping thing)

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11: He Never Learns to Know My Name

“This is not my bike.”

That was what Ryder said when we got onto the school parking lot. True enough, the bike didn’t look like it belong there. It was huge, black and it looked like it had killed people. By its own.

Ryder started up the bike and got onto it. The big black vehicle roared and I nearly jumped in shock.

“Get on, now.” Ryder commanded.

“C-Can I just stay here and wait until you come back?”

“Can I say ‘no’?”

The question threw me off, and before I knew it, Ryder had taken another steely grip of my wrist and pulled me onto the bike. “This is going to be the first time you’re getting on a bike, isn’t it?”

“Yeah…”

“This is going to be the first time you’re going out at the school hours, isn’t it?”

“Yeah…”

“And this is also going to be the first time you’re going to be in a close vicinity with a guy that’s not your brother isn’t it?”

“There’s my father!”

“Family. Doesn’t count.”

“Holy Sith*,” I sighed.

Ryder laughed at my rendition of ‘Holy shit’. “Anyway, there were three firsts already that I’m going to take away from you, so I won’t be passing this up. Get on, freako.”

“I have a name, you know.”

He rolled his eyes as he watched me getting on the bike. “Yeah, March.”

“It’s April,” I pouted.

“Hold on tight, then, May.”

“It’s April,” I repeated with more enunciation, my fingers gripping on the metal rods on either sides of his bike.

“Not there,” Ryder surprised me by actually taking my hand. Around the time our fingers touched, I was pretty sure I dropped dead and came back to life a second later. It certainly felt so.

“Here,” he put my hands around his sides. “June.”

“Well, at least I’m not a cat anymore,” I said, finally giving up. That, and the fact that Ryder’s back was half an inch away from my chest was making me forget everything that was supposed to keep me alive. Like breathing.