A Bad Boy's Worst Nightmare (Book 1)

3. Pictures

Corey's P.O.V

I watched Ryder leave, her golden brown hair swaying lightly against her back. She looked really...really good in my sweatshirt. Shaking myself, I glared at the ground for a moment. She wasn't special. Traditionally good looking, very rude, not even thankful for me letting her use my sweatshirt so that she wouldn't freeze to death when she realized how windy it was outside, very good looking, seemingly smart, extremely good looking, probably very kind underneath whatever she was trying to be...

I shook myself again to clear my head. Knock it off, Corey. Hold yourself together, dipshit.

"This happens a lot."

I looked down at the tiny girl that Ryder seemed to spend most of her time with. She wasn't particularly interesting to me. "What does that mean?"

"Ryder," she said quietly, looking off toward where she had walked away. "She gets bullied a lot. She's too proud to recognize it for what it is though, and she never talks about it. Sometimes I think she's so mean because she's just tired of people pushing her around so much whenever they get the opportunity to."

Anger built up in my chest, causing me to clench my fists in my hoodie pockets.

"She's not like this when we're alone," the girl, Kelsey I think, continued. "She's really nice when there's no one else around. I don't know. I think it's because my brother and I are the closest things she has to a real family." She looked at me with bright blue eyes. Her eyes were very large; most men would find that attractive, because of how innocent it made them look, but I preferred Ryder's. "Um...don't...mention that to her, alright? She's nice but she's actually really strong and I think she might kill me for saying that about her."

I nodded silently.

"Um...we should go to the Astronomy room," she said awkwardly. God her voice was high pitched. It was annoying, but for whatever reason, it didn't actually bother me as much as I thought it should have.

I nodded again and waited for her to stand up.

Her eyes, which were focused on her lap, never moved.

I lifted an eyebrow, and opened my mouth to speak.

Suddenly, her arm flashed across her cheeks and she sniffled a little bit. Was she crying? When she looked at me again, her eyes were brimmed with red. "I just really wish people would give Ryder a chance, you know?" she asked quietly when she saw my confused expression. "It's...really...not fair what happens to her." Then, she stood her five foot self up as if to size up to me. "You had better not hurt her," she growled at me. Wow. She was small, but she had a pair.

As if she could intimidate me in any way. "I don't have plans on doing that," I found myself saying eventually.

"Good. Don't." Kelsey straightened herself and started walking confidently toward the Astronomy room. When we reached the room, Kelsey looked at her phone and paled. "Uh...she's not coming back today."

Why? Just because some dipshit poured soda on her? I had thought she was a little tougher than that. "What's up with that expression?"

Her eyes were guarded suddenly, and very careful. "It's just...uh...she...doesn't miss school. For...well, anything. For her not to come back today..." She looked at her phone again and typed quickly. "I'm going over there tonight," she informed me needlessly. "I don't think Ryder should spend tonight alone. I think she's sad."

I nodded. "I'm coming with."

"Uh...no, you're not."

"Did I ask a question?"

Kelsey paled again and she sighed finally. She muttered under her breath, saying something about boys and competitions and hormones. "Okay. You can come over. But I'm not going to wait for you for more than five minutes after school, so if you're late--"

"I want to go right now."

"What? No. We're not skipping school."

"I didn't say you were."

She gave me a long look of consideration.

I waited.

"I'll write down her address."

* * * * *

When I rode up to the house, I checked the address three times before getting off of my motorcycle. I reached up in to the gutter and felt around for a key, and when I found it, I pulled it down and unlocked the house.

I opened the door and was hit with the scent of cinnamon and rain. Not exactly my two favorite things, but it was a strangely sweet scent and for whatever reason, I liked it. It was...comfortable. The house was dark, all of the curtains closed, and the walls were mostly a cream color. It seemed to be decently sized, two stories, and to the best of my knowledge it seemed to have a few extra rooms, unless she had a few siblings.

I stopped.

Did she have siblings?

I really knew nothing about her, now that I thought about it. I didn't know if she had pets, or siblings, or what her hobbies were. Did someone like her even have hobbies?

I walked to one of the rooms and turned the doorknob carefully, pushing the door open. The room was simple. Clean, very comfortable looking, but there were no decorations. I didn't think anyone lived in that room. I worked my way through all of the downstairs rooms before I started up the stairs. Finally, at the end of the hall, there was a door cracked open a little bit. I walked to it and pushed it open carefully.

The room was entirely black, except for the many drawings pinned to the walls. Most of them were either creepy or sad, but they were all beautiful. I touched one of them, brushing it to the side a little bit to see the one beneath it.

It was simple, just a cherry willow, but it was so elegantly drawn that I stared at it in awe. She was talented. Every one of her drawings except for this one were drawn in greyscale; this one had shades of pink and what was almost purple throughout it, and petals seemed to be floating off in the wind toward a puddle, where the cherry tree was reflected in the water. The moon was high above it, as well as in the puddle, but the color of the moon in the reflection was black, rather than the white. I realized that the cherry willow in the reflection of the water was dead, bearing no leaves, and it was actually rather heartbreaking to see something so beautiful so barren and...broken.

I let down the picture so that the drawing of what looked like a demon fell on top of it. I wanted nothing more than to leave the willow uncovered.

I continued looking around the room, surprised that there was no bed. I came to a dresser and looked at a picture frame. It was face down, and when I picked it up, shards of glass fell to the dresser. It was shattered. In the picture was a happy, smiling Ryder with her arms thrown around something that was very aggressively scratched out. Something next to her was scratched out as well. I wondered what could have possibly been in the picture once.

I left the room, its atmosphere bothering me suddenly, and went to the one across the hall.

Finally, I found Ryder.

Ryder was lying across the bed, and her head seemed to be resting on my sweatshirt. She looked truly exhausted. I walked up to her and knelt by the bed, looking at her face closely. Her eyes, normally full of sarcasm and irritation, were shut and peaceful. The frown she wore was smoothed, her lips partially parted, and she was breathing lightly. Hair fell in to her face, and I reached forward a little bit to brush it away.

As I did, I heard a low growl behind me.

I turned slowly and stood up, facing a very old looking German Shepherd. His fur was greying, and it was mostly silver around his muzzle. His fur had patches of matted fur, and he looked rather skinny. The dog looked almost like a stray except for the faded red collar around its neck. His muzzle was pulled back in to a snarl as he growled at me, and I stepped toward him a little. "Easy," I muttered.

It started barking.