Free Me From the Wolves

[9] Team Ryder

The next morning, everyone was at the pep rally for the football game. Even though Ryder had never actually told me he was on the team, I couldn't deny it when I saw him sneak into the gym in a dress shirt and tie like the other football players had done minutes before. But I didn't even go to the pep rally. I had just seen him when I was leaving the locker room to put my clothes away. I had more important things to attend to.

When I found my true target, I excused him from his crowd of friends and took his wrist to pull him away from the gym he tried to enter and around the corridor outside.

"What—"

"What's going on between you and Ryder?" I asked Trevor. He smiled brilliantly and then looked around briefly.

"You don't enough about your boyfriend to comprehend what's between us."

"I know enough," I told him, causing him to laugh.

"Which is what?" he chuckled. "Because if you knew enough, you wouldn't be talking to someone like me."

"I know that this summer he didn't have any problem with guys like you."

"That's because guys like me—hell, even guys not like me, are threatened not to like you and they stupidly listened," Trevor hissed in a low tone. I glared at him now more than ever. "And I don't know what Ryder's told you, but I guarantee he's starting to talk about me because he knows I want to get to you."

"And why's that?" I wondered. "What's there to get at? I'm with Ryder."

"That's what to get at," he replied and then left me in the hallway alone. I didn't pay attention to the fact that he admitted some interest in me because I didn't care. But one friendship with me and whatever attempts at conversation shouldn't have had this much of an effect on Ryder and our relationship. There was something more to it, but not enough to where it had bothered Ryder over the summer.

***

"You're kidding me right?" I heard Ryder's voice startle me while I was sitting in the living room reading Twilight. Andrew had gone to the football game and Cassandra went out with her friends. I looked up and saw Ryder enter the house as if having a key of his own or maybe knowing that the door was left unlocked. He sat on the couch beside me and flicked the hard cover copy. "Twilight? Can you be any more ironic?"

"It's not as if I'm all for the whole star-crossed, lion and lamb love story with a vampire. I just got bored sitting here in an empty house," I humored. He disappointedly shook his head with a reluctant smile. But then when I returned to reading the last few pages in silence, I was curious as to why he was still so quiet. I looked over the book at him. "What?"

"So..." he stared. "Team Edward or Team Jacob?"

"Definitely Team Jacob," I smiled. Then, I was able to see his perfect smile. He quickly reached out to put a hand on my waist while I laid down on the couch and he stood on his knees in front of me on the floor.

"I think you're saying that because your judgment is clouded," he said in a laugh.

"Maybe," I shrugged and then he started leaning in slowly to press his lips against mine. Captivated by the envelopment, I had dropped the book, careless to whatever page I was on, and kissed him back with my outside hand behind his head. Then I pulled away. "I think you're wrong. About my judgment being clouded."

"Oh really?" he asked with a skeptical grin.

"Yeah. I mean Jacob was all around the better guy the whole time anyways," I said and then sat up correctly. At the same time, he had taken a seat next to me, so I turned to him and felt my bent knee rest on his thigh. I also felt his hand lower to that same knee. "I mean, he was cute..."