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

8. My Room Looks Worse from His Room

I had to fight a smile to hear him say that. He might get into arguments with his father daily, but deep down, he still loved his old man. 

“You know,” I could feel Ryder’s hand rested on top of my shoulder. “This is the first time you talk to me and don’t look scared.”

I backed away from him, because his hand was heavy on my shoulder, and because the feel of his skin against mine made me feel weird. Like there was a whirlpool that suddenly originated from the place where our skin joined. “I find it easier to talk to you when you’re drunk.”

“You don’t even talk all Yoda.”

I actually smiled proudly because of that. “I know. It’s an accomplishment. Maybe if you don’t look so intimidating in real life, I could talk to you like this all the time.”

“I can be intimidating now,” Ryder tried to get up and put on his ‘intense stare’, but then he failed miserably as he only managed to narrow his eyes slightly. “This is me. The outcast everyone’s scared of! This is Ryder Black! The guy who makes a girl faint by talking to her!”

I never laughed so much in my life. Ryder laughed too, before he flopped onto the floor. I showed him Quentin’s shirt, and that was when Ryder’s whole face changed.

“Ew! No, it’s cocksucker’s!”

I didn’t have any idea how Ryder knew about this.

“You have to put on a shirt, Ryder! My room’s air conditioning is cold, and it’s going to be morning in four hours and it’s going to be extra cold!”

“I sleep naked all the time,” he said.

“No, you sleep with matched pajamas,” I said automatically. “Unless you bring a girl home.”

“Stalker.”

My cheeks heated as I realized how much of a creep I come across as.

Ryder looked straight to me as he continued. “It’s actually cute. You’re cute.”

This time, my whole body was on fire.

“So is this how it needs to be?” Ryder asked.

“What?”

“I tried flirting with you like, for million of times today. You reacted to nothing. Even my best moves. And now I’m drunk and I say the cheesiest things ever and you’re blushing mad.”

“I-I’m not blushing!”

“You are.”

“No! It’s just the AC.”

“Is it?” Ryder looked around, before then he realized that he was still shirtless and started to hug himself. 

I stretched the shirt and slid the hole inside his head, but before I could push it further to his body, he’d caught my hands in a death grip. “No!”

“Why not?”

“It’s cocksucker’s.”

Against my characteristic, my temper tantrum broke. “You imbecile! You need clothes or you’re going to freeze to death!”

After hearing that, Ryder’s whole movement halted. I almost felt that all the problems were all solved when- “What’s imbecile?”

I sighed. Even his vocabulary level had dropped into what a six year old would have. “It’s a fancy way to say ‘stupid’.”

He pulled down the shirt to his shoulder so that his face was exposed to me. It was undeniably cute and again, I was overwhelmed with maternal instinct to pinch his cheeks. “But I genius!”

Yeah, right. A genius who couldn’t even form a decent sentence structure and acted like a five year old.

Wait, I think I know how to handle this.

“But Ryder…” I talked sweetly. “You’re not a genius unless you wear Quentin’s shirt.”

Like any five year old would do, he quickly put on the shirt. And then he looked at me expectantly, hoping for a praise. I grinned at him and then led him to the bed. Despite his childish demeanor, he looked exasperated. My predictions was true, because as soon as his body reached the mattress, he closed his eyes and took a sleeping position.

Looking at him now, I couldn’t remember why I was afraid of him. Yes, he might be capable of breaking my bones, and there were hard proofs that he’d done that to people, but I wasn’t sure that he’d do anything bad to anyone without any provocation.

And besides, I heard that when a man was drunk, his true self is revealed.

And Ryder’s true self is a five year old who longed for appraisals.

But still, I found it hard to believe that the stoic, out-of-control bad boy whom the whole school feared was a five year old at heart. I almost had the urge to kiss him on the forehead and sing him lullabies so that he wouldn’t have any nightmares about boogeyman.

“April,” Ryder’s voice almost went on unnoticed as he only whispered it quietly.

I leant closer to him, actually surprised that for the first time he got my name right.

“The room’s better than it looks from my room.”

It took me quite a lot of time to digest that perfectly structured words properly. I thought I had heard it wrong, but I couldn’t ask for confirmations, because Ryder had already started snoring softly. 

So, all this time, he had also watched me from his room?

Geez, that made both of us stalkers.

Against all odds, I smiled.

Actually, it didn’t sound so bad at all.

The problem is, where am I going to sleep now?!

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Okay, so I'm sorry for the delay. I've just finished my other story and it drained me to the boot. I hope that you like this chapter, though. :) Things are getting juicer!

p.s: I know that the guy on the gif has light hair. but that kinda expression, them eyebrows. that's how I imagine Ryder would look like. :)