The bad boy lives next door

-Chapter 10-

Athena 

The next day as I was about to walk into the class Ryder and I was isolating in, when Ryder suddenly comes in front of me.  "So apparently we kissed yesterday" He looks at me and I scoff with my back against the wall and him right in front of me. "As if I would wanna kiss you" and he puts his hands on his heart as if to act hurt. "I've deeply wounded Athena but I know you would have loved a kiss from me." He states and I roll my eyes "And how would you know that Mr genius?" I ask. "Because you still haven't answered my question yet." He says and I laugh slightly. "Or maybe I just don't want to kiss you?" I suggest and he leans closer to me once again "Are you sure about that?" our eyes don't move from one another like we are stuck in a trance neither of us could pull away from. I finally break it after a while and walk into the classroom to continue today.

Every day came like the next, throughout the week me and Ryder were stuck together for a whole eight hours at a time. It was a strange experience, to say the least, one minute I was screaming my throat off because I wanted to kill him, the next we were having a normal and genuinely good conversation and then a short moment would come where we found ourselves in a sexual tension that was hard to get out from. One thing was clear, this weird friendship we had going on would have to be the strangest I and anyone had ever witnessed. It sure made my emotions feel weird too, they had never been so all over the place.  

Olivia had been hanging with Mason and Michael these last few days, maybe that whole toe situation had created a spark. I laugh thinking about it making Ryder turn to me weirdly. It was already Friday and we had come back from grabbing lunch from the cafeteria. 

"Why are you laughing to yourself?" He says with a small smile that had somehow formed. "Why are you smiling to yourself?" I ask and he shakes his head at me, although the smile didn't disappear. "Are you always so challenging or do I just bring out the best in you?" He questions me, making me laugh. "I definitely wouldn't say the best in me comes out when I'm with you, but the frustrated side does. That's for sure. How about you, are you always so annoying or do I just bring that side out of you?" I raise my eyebrow and he stops to think. "Well, I wouldn't call myself annoying personally" He starts and I let out a pfft which makes him snap his head towards me. "I'm not!" He defends with a frown. "Sure... Sure." I nod sarcastically. "Well, at least I'm not a masochist" He whispers loud enough for me to hear. "Ryder!!"I yell, slapping him and he laughs until the teacher interferes. "Ryder! Athena! Silence!" 

We both look down at our work and carry on doing questions for our classes until I hear a whisper from my left, it was Ryder. "So what was your life like before moving here?" He asks me and I think of how to answer that question, I hadn't ever really been asked about my life before, in a way that was regarding the past. 

"It was alright. Indiana is a nice place to live but I prefer it here" I say and he shakes his head, "That may be the worst answer to a question I've ever heard". "Well maybe don't make such a broad question that's hard to answer!" I complain even though I may actually be the problem, in this case, I was never great at talking about myself. 

"Okay then, let's start over. Did you have friends over there that you were sad to leave behind or that you still contact to this day?" He asks and my mind goes to two people and I cringe, having not thought of my past properly since I moved here. "I actually had a best friend but instead of leaving them, they left in sophomore and it all happened so fast so we couldn't keep in contact. I don't know if I'll ever find them again but I do miss them and did when they first left. I didn't really have friends I bonded with after that-just people I hung around. Now fast forward a few months later and my dad gets a promotion and our family moves to Iowa" I finish and I could see he was listening well to what I was saying, I appreciated more than he'll probably know.