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Recap:
In the previous chapter, Charlotte went through a scene where Jade Moore, an orphan at Nelson's Orphanage, run by Harriet Nelson, was abandoned by yet another pair of initially promising adoptees. Then, after meeting Stella at Pinkberry, a spontaneous movie 'date' was set up with Cameron, Cole, and Ryder.
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Chapter Twenty One- The Haze
Ryder Johnson
I literally dug myself a hole. Cole, of course, had to remind me about it in his Cole-like way.
“You dug your grave man.” He said, patting me on the back as if he was saying goodbye. “See you on the other side.” So I shoved him aside and proceeded to walk into our headquarters cautiously.
I was approached with the sight of Cameron looking at one of the many computer screens in the room, evidently working on the plan. Despite his calm demeanor, I felt myself go on edge.
“Cameron, buddy, we’re here.” Cole exclaimed delibrately, making me wince. But the guy barely even blinked. Cole and I exchanged glances.
“I found something.” Cameron said, his voice serious as stone. Cole gestured for me to go first, and I did, taking cautious steps toward Cameron.
Going closer to the computer screen he was looking at, I grew more confused when I was staring at nothing but a Yahoo! news article. “What’d you—,”
And then somehow I found myself planted on the floor, face down. I cursed under my breath as the wind swept out of my lungs from the blow. It wasn’t exactly helping that Cameron was sitting on top of me, preventing me from getting up.
“Charlotte Everley, huh?” He said, his voice accusing as he held me down. Shaking my arms in a helpless manner, I felt myself grow angry.
“What about her.” I grunted. Cameron tightened his hold on my interlocked arms, as if reminding me I was restrained under him. Anger spiked through my veins.
“I’ll ask again,” Cameron leaned down, projecting his voice right next to my fucking ear. “Do you have a problem with me and her?” My jaw clenched but I didn’t respond.
“Guys,” Cole said, his voice alarmed, “We’re all buds here.”
“Answer the fucking question, Ryder.” Cameron continued, ignoring Cole completely. But then I snapped, right then and there. With a grunt, I pushed Cameron off of me. He didn’t let go, but with the anger coursing through my veins, I eventually found myself holding Cameron down in the exact position I was in not minutes before.
“And what if I do.” I answered finally, my voice steely.
“Ryder, Cameron, stop.” Cole tried. But my attention was on Cameron, the punk who thought he had the right to pin me, Ryder Johnson, to the ground.
“You don’t deserve her.” Cameron grinded out, trying to escape my hold. I let out a harsh laugh, somewhere deep inside of me telling me it was true.
“Like you could judge that.” I retorted.
“Freaking..” Cole muttered, before coming up to us and ripping us apart. “What the hell is wrong with you two?!” Cameron met my stare for a moment before we simultaneously looked away.
“Fighting over a girl?!” Cole exclaimed once again, standing in the middle of us. I let out a breath, anger steadily flowing out of my body. That’s when I’d realized how rash I’d been.
You don’t even like the girl like that, Ryder, a mocking voice told me. What the hell are you doing?
My jaw clenched subconsciously, my thoughts ticking into an area where I didn’t want them to go. Charlotte was Cameron’s. But somehow, my gut reaction was to punch Cameron in the face.
“Look, Cameron,” I said, now trying to explain myself. “I wasn’t trying to go there.” Cameron remained stoic.
“You know Ryder, man.” Cole piped in, attempting to also diffuse the situation. “He wouldn’t do that to you.” Cameron’s jaw clenched as he looked at the two of us, mainly me. But after a moment, he nodded his head once. Cole exhaled and my posture slackened slightly.
“We’ll let Charlotte be the judge of that.” Cameron suddenly said, a competitive gleam in his eyes.
“Judge of what?” I bit out. But looking at Cameron’s face, I knew exactly what he meant.
“We’ll let her choose.” I saw him say. “You or me.” My posture grew tense again, my stare turning hard and cold once again. Almost subconsciously, I gave him a look that said:
“Game on.”
*****
“What the fuck are you doing, Ryder.” Cole gave me a hard look. “First of all, you don’t treat a girl like she’s some sort of prize.” I didn’t respond. “And second, if you play it like that, nobody’s going to win. It’s a lose-lose, don’t you understand?” I kept my focus on the road.
“Don’t do it, Ryder.” He continued, his voice grim. “You two can’t do this now. Not with the plan in the middle of all this.” My grip on the steering wheel tightened.
“He challenged me.” I said, my tone serious. “He and you both know what happens when I’m challenged.”
For a moment, neither of us spoke. But then Cole let out a long breath, like he didn’t know what to do with either of us. But after another moment, he spoke again.
“Forgot about Faith already?” He taunted. I almost veered off the side of the road.
“If you know what’s good for you, shut the hell up.” I warned, my voice low now. Cole shook his head.
“You and Cameron need to get your heads straight, man,” He continued, his taunting now over. “This plan won’t work unless we’re all in it completely.” I remained silent. “You know what’s at stake here,” His tone grew grave, “You’ve seen it for yourself.” Drawing out a breath now, I took a turn.
“Where are we headed?” Cole said, a little alarmed now. Which was understandable, as I was currently headed in the opposite direction from his apartment. It wasn’t until we finally arrived to the place, or, rather, house, that he groaned, evidently knowing and not liking it. Reaching in the back seat, I grabbed my leather jacket and shoved myself into it. Then a familiar smirk formed on my lips.
“Time to party.”
*****
Everything was hazy.
Music pounded into my eardrums at a constant beat as I danced and made new ‘friends’ on the homemade dance floor, uncaring of my actions.
“Slow it down,” Cole yelled. I ignored him, smirking lazily as I placed one of my hands on the waist of the girl in front of me. My other hand was preoccupied holding my drink.
“Name, sweetheart?” I leaned in towards her. Even through my haze of sight, I spotted a pair of unusually light green eyes. If I wasn’t so hammered, I might have seen the resonating sadness in them. She took a moment to respond.
“Jade.”
I smirked again, taking a final drink from the cup I’d been holding before throwing it away behind me; most likely hitting something or someone, but I didn’t care at the moment. My empty hand then placed itself on the other side of her waist.
“Let’s dance, Jade.” I whispered, pulling her close to me. She didn’t at a first, looking up at me with a speculative look on her face. But then she chugged down her drink just like I had and gave in to me and to the music. I smirked again.
In that moment, thoughts of Cameron, Charlotte, and Faith fell away from my brain. Thoughts of my parents’ disapproving looks, Max’s cold demeanor, and the plan faded away in that single moment of time when I was on a dance floor, dancing with a pretty girl.
It was one big blank. And I was content to keep it that way—too content. Because I knew it wouldn’t last. No, nothing like that would last for long. Eventually, we all had to return to reality, no matter how much it sucked. People had different ways of coping with it, but this was mine.
One big blank.
*****
“Who are you?” I asked, feeling myself being supported to an upright position. “Cameron?” I heard myself ask. “Charlotte?” I felt somebody reach into my pockets and smirked. “Couldn’t resist this?”
“I have no idea what you’re saying,” a voice that sounded way too deep to be Charlotte’s said to me, “But we are getting out of here.”
“Don’t take me back to them, Charlotte,” I said sluggishly. The person supporting me chuckled before throwing me into a leather cushion. The sound of a car starting occurred not long after.
“Where are we going, Charlotte?” I said, closing my eyes tightly as I laid there. I heard the mutterings of something like, “Never doing this again,” and “Freaking Ryder,” come from the front seats. Eventually, the car came to a stop, and I felt myself being pulled out of the car.
“Charlotte?” I asked, holding her face in my hands. It felt a little rough, but in my hazy state, I didn’t even notice at all. I was seeing double and triple. “Hey,” I whispered. “I like you.” Then, after leaning forward slightly towards the person’s face, I was then shoved off onto the gravel.
“Dude, what the hell?!” The person exclaimed. “Do I look anything like Charlotte to you?” Ignoring the voice, my head lolled to the side and my eyes dimmed shut. I was then lifted again by the person, though he mumbled his breath throughout the process.
“Freaking heavy too,” the person muttered. But nonetheless, I guess the person was pretty strong and lifted me anyways, supporting me upright. My eyes remained closed, because suddenly I was tired, too tired.
But after a few moments, a voice made me regain consciousness.
“Cole?” The feminine voice seemed alarmed. “What happened?” The person supporting me grunted. Then I heard a door close.
“Fucking Cameron.” I mumbled in a half awake, half gone state; my head lolling to another side. Neither of the people said anything, but then I was thrown onto a plush cushion of sorts. “Couch,” I said, smiling ridiculously at the feel of it.
“Naomi’s asleep?” A person asked.
“She has been for three hours now.” The feminine voice answered, slightly irritated. “You made me babysit your sister so you could party?”
“I was forced to,” The person with a deeper voice explained. “Ryder was my ride home.” A pause. “And I couldn’t just leave him there by himself, you know.” Somebody sighed. “I hope it’s all right with your parents,” The deeper voice continued. “I didn’t mean to come back so late.”
“Oh it’s fine.” The feminine voice said. “I’m not, uh, I don’t have a curfew.” A short pause.
“I’m just going to check on Naomi for a second and go get the money I owe you.”
“Its—,” But then there was a rapid movement of footsteps, and the feminine voice stopped mid-sentence.
I groaned, twisting myself in the opposite direction from where I was facing. That’s when I found myself face to face with the carpet.
“Are you okay?” The feminine voice rushed towards me. I groaned again. Blinking my eyes open, I saw Charlotte in front of me, her lips twitching as if she was holding in a laugh.
“Let’s get you back up, Ryder,” she said, her voice tinged with amusement. Lifting one of my arms and putting it around her shoulders to support me, I was then placed back onto the couch. But then a wave of haziness hit me once again, another side of me—the tabloid side—pushing Charlotte down so she was right beside me on the couch, my arm still wrapped around her shoulders. Staring at her round face and blue eyes, I took it all in sluggishly.
“Beautiful,” I whispered, not knowing which side of me was saying this. My mind was hazy once again. She was staring at me with a questionable look on her face, like she was bewildered.
Then I found myself placing one hand on her cheek, loving how silky her skin felt under my rough hands. A small sigh escaped her lips.
“I owe you $20 an hour, right Char—woah.” Charlotte squeaked, jumping out of my arm and onto the floor. A wave of alcohol-induced cloudiness went over my head, making me groan once again and close my eyes. Two voices continued to talk as I sank deeper and deeper into sleep.
“What—,”
“I’m just going to go now,” The feminine voice was rushed, like she was embarrassed.
“But your mone—,”
“Keep it,” the feminine voice said. “I don’t need it.” A pause. “Good luck with Ryder.” And then a door was being closed.
My mind, like a switch, turned off then, plunging myself into a hazy darkness.
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A/N: Hope that ^^^ was a good recap for you guys(: I can't do a recap of what went on in the whole book so far-because that would take forever-but for each chapter from now on I'll do a recap of the previous one, just like the one above, that'll also include information you might need to know for the current chapter.
Hopefully that'll stop comments about forgetting things because of my late updates lol. And please don't hate on that--I have a life outside of Wattpad you know (:
Amazing cover on the side by xgirlonfirexx. Do you guys like it? (: Nevertheless, check her out you guys!!
If you liked it, feel free to Vote/Comment!(: Literally, reading any comment/message will push me to write more hahaha (:
Have a fantastical dayyy~~