Lover Dearest [3]

9.) Personal Space

“You’re so weird.” I mumbled, standing up out of the bed and moving to sit in the other white chair across from Ryder. I tucked my knees under my chin and wrapped my arms around my shins as I looked at Ryder.

“Yes, that’s probably true, but you can’t change the subject.”

“Why not?” I whined. “Since when do you care about girl drama?”

“Oh, I don’t.” He said quickly. “But I do care about you, and I care about Holly, and I care about this vacation. And if you keep all of your tension built up inside for much longer, you won’t be a happy camper, eventually, this will cause a fight with Holly and then she won’t be a happy camper, and then when you guys are fighting, it will put all of us in the middle of it, which won’t make me a happy camper.”

“We’re not even camping.” I mumbled.

“It’s an analogy.” He rolled his eyes. “I did go to school, you know.”

“You went to homeschool, superstar.” I reminded him. “You were homeschooled. You didn’t go to school, school came to you.”

“So? I still learned stuff.” He defended. “Anyway, that’s not the point. I think you should just talk to Holly.”

“Well, thank you for your input.” I chirped dryly.

“I’m serious, Libby.” He told me. “Just tell her that she’s being too pushy and that you need your personal space.”

“We’re best friends- we don’t have personal space.” I told him, rolling my eyes.

“That’s absolutely not what being best friends means.” Ryder laughed.

“To you.”

“Okay, to me.” He appeased me. “But being best friends, doesn’t that mean that you should be able to talk about shit?”

“Yeah.” I sighed.

“Well, then talk to her about shit.” He said in a ‘duh’ voice as if it was that easy. “I swear, girls complicate things way too much.”

“For someone who doesn’t get girls, you sure do… get girls.” I mumbled.

“Jealous?” Ryder asked with raised eyebrows.

I laughed and shook my head. “Nope, just making a sarcastic remark.”

“Right, well if girls didn’t make it so easy to, as you say, ‘get’ them, then it wouldn’t happen, so it’s not really my fault.”

“Really?” I snorted.

“Yes.” He defended. “They come up to me and ask for it, I just say yes.”

“Oh, the joys of being a celebrity.” I mumbled sarcastically.

“Exactly.” He smirked. “I just take advantage of the privilege.”

“Well, for the record I would never hook up with you, no matter how creepily obsessed with you I was in my earlier days.” I told him.

This made Ryder laugh. “I know that. I didn’t know that you were obsessed with me, but the other part I knew. I would never hook up with you either, Libby. For one, Holly would kill me, slowly and painfully.”

“Obsessed is putting it lightly.” I muttered under my breath. I mean, I had our wedding planned out back in Minnesota. Our. Wedding.

“What?” He asked.

“Nothing.” I said quickly- he wasn’t supposed to hear that. “Anyway, now that this is all cleared up, we’re the only ones here so what do you want to do?” I asked him.