Cross My Heart [2]

1.) Prologue

With a huge ring of people surrounding him, fawning over him like they’ve done all day, it wasn’t hard to find him.

“Ryder!” I yelled, running towards him. And in that moment, I didn’t care if I was a whore. I didn’t care about how wrong it was. I didn’t care about what could happen if I did this. I didn’t care about anything.

He looked up at me just as I pushed myself through the ring of girls, earning me a lot of dirty glares and without giving him a moment to question me, I wrapped my shaky hands around his neck, standing on my tippy toes.

-Never in a million years did I think I’d ever be able to say this-

I kissed Ryder West.

To say I was shocked would be an understatement when I felt his hands rest on the small of my back as he ducked his head down. He actually kissed me back.

Some part of me didn’t think he would, but he did. The cameras were snapping pictures, but I didn’t care. People were hollering for Ryder to look in their direction, but I didn’t care.

That shocked feeling came back when time paused and he started moving his lips against mine. I leaned in closer to him and moved my lips with his.

I don’t know how long that kiss lasted or who pulled away first, but when we did, we were both breathless and just stared at each other for a few moments before I broke our staring contest.

“What was that?” Ryder whispered breathlessly.

“I don’t know.” I told him honestly. “But whatever it was, we just really fucked up.”

He nodded in agreement. “I know.”

“M-my taxi’s waiting.” I mumbled, pointing towards the door where I’d entered.

“You should go then.” He said slowly and, even staring intensely into his eyes, I couldn’t read his emotions. His face was completely impassive.

“I’ll go then.” I repeated his words awkwardly, spinning on my heals and turning towards the door without as much as a goodbye. I mean, that was probably one of the biggest mistakes I’d ever made and now I’m just going to leave him to deal with it on his own. He’s the one who has to go back to LA and explain to everybody that I just attacked him in the middle of the airport. But, knowing Ryder, he probably wouldn’t blame it on me.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Goodbye, Kale.

“Holly! Wake up!” Libby’s soft voice was shaking me awake.

“What?” I mumbled tiredly.

“Stop crying.” She said.

I sat up and realized that she was right, I was crying. I did that a lot in my sleep. I’d wake up with tears running down my face. Probably due to the unforgiving nightmares I had every night since I got back to Minnesota- 8 days to be exact. Kale’s birthday was in a week.

“You’re on the cover of every important magazine, Holls.” She told me with an uneasy smile, which was weird. If what she just told me was true, they why wasn’t she jumping up in down with joy.

“Really?” I asked skeptically.

She nodded and held up a tabloid, to which I gasped and all color drained from my face. “It’s, um, it’s all over the news too.”

“This can’t be happening.” I gasped in a panic as I stared horrifically at the cover of the magazine, which was plastered with a huge- HUGE- picture of my face smashed flush against Ryder’s in the middle of a heated kiss.

“I think you should call your Hollywood friends and once you’ve calmed down from all of this, you have a lot of explaining to do for your best friend.” She told me, standing from my bed, leaving the stupid tabloid with me. “I’ll give you your privacy, but I’ll be in the living room if you need me.”

I nodded numbly and when Libby was gone, I pulled out my phone and gasped, once more, when I saw that I had ten missed calls. Two from Ryder, three from Jackson, four from Andy, and one from Elle. None from Kale.

He hates me now. Plain and simple, he hates me.

Despite this new thought, his was the first number I dialed.

“Pick up, pick up, pick up.” I pleaded. “God damnit, Kale. Pick up!”

The ringing stopped and I sighed in relief, waiting for his voice on the other end. It’s only been a week, but already, I wanted to fly back just to hear his voice- see his face- feel his hugs again. But his voice never came and the line went dead. Meaning only one thing- he’d ignored my call. Which reinforces my previous theory. He hates me.

The next number I dialed was Ryder’s, who actually picked up on the second ring.

“You’ve seen it?”

“Yeah.” I croaked. “I just did.”

“And…?” He drew out.

“I have no idea.” I mumbled, running a hand through my ratted mess of hair. “What are reactions over there?”

“Jacksons pissed. At me, not you. Andy’s freaking out, so is Elle and Tommy and everybody else on the surface of this planet.” He grumbled irritatedly.

“And um…” I trailed off.

“He’s not talking to me. Or anyone, really.” Ryder said quietly, knowing exactly who I wanted to ask about.

That, oddly enough, made me feel a little bit better. If he wasn’t talking to anybody, then maybe it wasn’t personal when he ignored my call.

“I told you we fucked up.” I mumbled, putting my face in my hands. “I’m so sorry, this is all my fault.”

“It’s not all your fault.” He told me.

“It is. I-“ I stopped myself from going on to prevent awkwardness. “Well… um, yeah. It is my fault. Tell them that. Tell them that this is all my fault.”

Ryder let out a strangled laugh. “I’m not going to tell anybody that, and you know it.”

“That’s what I’m going to tell Jackson when I call him.”

“I’ll talk him out of it.”

“Ryder, that’s stupid. He won’t hate me if he knows that it’s my fault.”

“He doesn’t hate me, he’s pissed. Like when I found out that Tommy was dating my sister. Kind of like that. But I’m still friends with Tommy.”

I sighed. “Just don’t mess things up over there.”

He chuckled. “I’ll do my best.”

We said our awkward goodbyes and then Libby was back in my room, sitting beside me while I forced myself not to cry.

“So what happened?” She asked patiently.

I shrugged. “I made a really big mistake.”

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Like I said, sorry it's so short. 

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