Never the Same

Twenty-five

"Ryder. What are you doing here," I hiss and pull my arm from his grasp, I told him I was leaving, how'd he even find me? Oh yeah I put my flight time on the note. Daily tip with Aspen: don't put flight time on go away letter.

"To come let you stay here. At your house. With your mom. You don't have to go on that plane for another two months Aspen. Why leave now," he says and his eye brows knit in confusion. Here I am, in the pouring rain with my lazy day clothes getting soaked, along with the bun on top of my head. I looked like a train wreak but Ryder stood there with his white v-neck and jeans, his shirt was soaked and you could see his well defined abs through his shirt.

"Because what we did was a mistake and I need space, I need an adventure. I need to get out of here Ryder. This place is boring and I wanna be somewhere and get somewhere in life. That's not happening in this town, I'd finish my senior year in Cali and rent an apartment. I'll be fine." I break my gaze from his abs to his eyes, those emerald eyes that get me every time.

"Then go. I'm not gonna stop you." He broke our gaze and scooted out of my way but I didn't move a muscle. He's letting me go, after all this, he's letting me go. I wipe my tears with the back of my hand and walk past him, bumping his shoulder when I do. After that I rush to the plane and start sobbing in my seat. The flight took off and I was sitting alone, crying my feelings out.

It's been a month since then and I've slowly started piecing my life back together, I made a couple new friends and I've been to a ton of parties. LA has thrown me many adventures and I've accepted them all.

I've gotten tanner and I show off my legs more often, I wore a mint green and black long sleeved baseball tee, jean shorts, mint green vans and threw my hair into a ponytail before getting into the elevator to go to work. I'm stuck in the elevator with some excited boy, a little overly excited, if you ask me. The elevator doors open and I hear the desk person talking to someone, the teenage boy was talking, "She's hear I know she is. Aspen is here, and you're lying." Someone was looking for me?

"I never said she wasn't here, she's here but she doesn't want anyone to come up unless I've seen you before," the desk person, Austin said. He took his job seriously, a bit to serious if you ask me.

"But. Ugh." The boy seemed urgent to talk to me, I decided to walk over there and talk to them. Austin nodded his head at me and I smiled my signature smile to him.

"What's the problem over here Austin? I heard my name on the way out and I have some time to kill before going to Seaside. I don't take this boy treating you like shit very lightly," I say while looking at Austin the whole time, Austin is about 22 and has a major crush on me.

"This boy was looking for you," Austin says and smiles back before pointing to the boy tugging at his hair. I look the boy straight in the eyes and there were the emerald eyes I fell in love with and am still in love with them.

"Ryder!" I wrap my arms around his neck and examine his face, it's really Ryder, Ryder is really here. For me, he came back for me! He's gotten hotter, he's matured and I can see it. He looks grown up.

"Aspen," he yells and wraps his arms around my waist, I got caught up in the moment and leaned in. Our lips caught together and I felt my body give the sparks off that I've missed, no matter how many guys I've kissed, none of them give me sparks. Our lips move in sync for a couple seconds, his lips are still a bit chapped and he still kisses hard. All those other guys don't leave me wanting more, I crave Ryder Johnson kisses, but I won't fall for him this easily. He pulls away and looks at me with sadness in his eyes.

"Walk with me." I motion for him to follow me into the hot sun of California.

"Aspen. I've missed you. Everyone's missed you, Alison and Blair have been cutting because you left. Sometimes I cry myself to sleep, just wishing you were there. Daniel always asks about you, so does my mom. The group isn't the same without you. Hell, Hailee even misses you," he says when we walk outside and I put my sunglasses on.