Ryder's POV
"Thank you so much for helping me out Harry." I mutter as we both stand from the bed, closing my textbooks.
It's already five in the afternoon and I really don't want to occupy his time any further. I'm pretty sure Harry has better things to do.
"It's no problem at all." He says, shaking his head. "I think you're getting the hang of it anyways."
"Yeah, well-"
"Ryder!" Shawn's voice echoes through the apartment.
I roll my eyes. "What now?" I mutter under my breath, stealing a quick glance at Harry who gave me a small smile.
"Ryder, where the hell are you?" Shawn asks again in the same loud voice from before as I step out of my bedroom.
"What are you doing here?" I ask, my brows knitted low over my eyes, seeing Shawn carrying a cardboard box in his arms, before shutting the door with his foot.
"Why didn't you answer my calls?" He asks, moving over to the couch.
"I've been busy." I shrug. "And what happened to knocking before entering?"
"I'm your brother I think I have earned the right to ignore that rule." He replies, leaning down setting the box on the couch. "Besides, if you would have answered my calls then you would have-"
"Shawn." I say annoyingly, as Harry comes to a stand beside me. "Would you shut up for a second and acknowledge my guest?"
"What? What gue-" Shawn stops, once he turned around seeing Harry standing beside me.
"Oh...hey." Shawn says slowly straightening up, blinking at Harry.
"Hi." Harry replies.
"What-"
"Before you get any ideas." I interrupt, glaring at Shawn. "Harry is just here helping me study."
Now get out.
"Precisely." Harry interjects. "But I was just leaving."
"No, you don't-"
"Yes, he does." Shawn scowls, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Shawn." I hiss.
"It's okay Ryder." Harry reassures. "I'm pretty sure you and your brother have lots to talk about. Besides, I have to go pick up my sister from her work anyways."
"I'll talk to you later." He says, placing his hand on my shoulder before turning his attention on Shawn.
"Nice to see you again, Shawn." Harry adds politely.
"You too, Harry." Shawn replied back as Harry before walks over to the door, grabbing his coat off the coatrack before exiting the apartment.
I tighten my mouth into a grim line as I move my eyes away from the door back over to Shawn.
"What do you want Shawn? Do you not realize how embarrassing that was?"
"So your embarrassed about this but you're not embarrassed about me nearly catching you having sex with Evan at my house?" He asks, in disbelief.
I roll my eyes.
I do not want to get into this. Especially not now, not with what happened down at the restaurant.
"What are you doing here?" I repeat for about what feels like the millionth time.
"I had to talk to you but clearly since you didn't answer my calls I figure I'd come here instead." He shrugs.
"Okay. So what did you want to talk about?"
"For starters, I was going to say that you had to go over to dad's house and take anything that you might want to keep before he moves into the new one." Shawn explains.
"However, knowing that you would not want to take a step into the house I took the liberty to bring a few things that I thought you might want to keep." He continues, pointing to the large box that sat on the couch.
"Thanks." I mutter, my voice bitter.
I'm supposed to be mad at him. Shawn went a bit too far at his place and his stupid brotherly gestures make it harder for me to do.
"I also wanted to give you this." He adds reaching into his back pocket pulling out a silver iPhone 6.
"A phone?" I blink at him, reluctantly reaching out for the cellphone.
"Yes, yours broke remember?"
"But Shawn-" I start to protest.
"Plus, it'll make it a bit easier for me to keep an eye on you." He adds making me frown.
"Look I know you are upset with me." Shawn mutters, while I glance down at the cellphone in my hand. "But you have to know that I'm only trying to help you. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings Ryder, that was not my intention."
I sigh, glancing up at him, dropping my hands to my sides. "I guess we both have a lot to apologize for don't we?"
Shawn's lips pull into a small smile. "Come here." He gently orders, holding out his arms wide open. I smile, walking into his arms, wrapping mine around his torso, pressing my cheek against his chest.
"I love you, Ryder." Shawn says, squeezing his arms around me.
"Love you." I reply, feeling my anger slowly start to diminish away. As much as I want to be stubborn and stay mad at him, I can't he is the only one I have that actually shows he cares.
"So, you and Harry huh?" He asks after we pull away from each other, a teasing smile on his face.
"Oh, shut up." I groan, rolling my eyes, gently shoving him on his shoulder making him chuckle.
Harry's POV
"How did things go with you and Ryder?" Gemma asks, as we sat across from each other at the dinner table; eating spaghetti Alfredo.
"Fine." I shrug noncommittal, swallowing my food. "I think she is starting to understand the material."
"That's good. Have you talked-" Gemma starts to say but is interrupted by my phone ringing in my pocket. I lean back in the chair, taking out my cellphone to read the caller ID but there wasn't one. I frown, an uneasy feeling growing in my stomach.
Shit.
"I'll be right back, Gemma." I say standing from the table walking to the back door.
"Hello?" I answer, pressing the phone to my ear, stepping into the back patio, shutting the door behind me.
"Hey Harry, its Ryder." Her sweet voice, echoes through my ear slowly fading away my anxiety.
Thank God it wasn't who I expected.
"Oh hey, Ryder. How are you?" I ask, clearing my throat.
"Good, thank you." She replies. "Am I interrupting something?"
"Uh, no not at all." I shake my head, glancing down at my feet. "What's up?"
"Well first, I wanted to thank you again for helping me out today and to apologize about my brother."
"It's alright."
"Also, I was wondering if tomorrow we can go and study at the library on campus, that way we can get information on the content we didn't have today."
"Yeah of course."
"Great." She replies, and I can hear the smile in her voice. "This is my cell so I'll text you later, okay?"
"Okay."
"Bye, Harry. Thank you so much."
"Bye, Ryder." I say before hanging up the phone.
"That was Ryder!" Gemma gasps behind me, making me jump.
"What the hell,Gemma? You almost gave me a heart attack!" I gape at her, holding my hand over my chest. "Why were you spying on me?"
"I don't know." She shrugs, standing in the entry way of the back door. "I was watching you and you seemed kind of nervous so I had to see if everything was alright."
"Are you two going on a date or something?" She smiles, resting her hand on the side of the opened glass door.
"No." I shake my head. "She just called me to ask if we can go study at the library tomorrow instead." I say, moving around her stepping back into the house.
"So it's a study date?"
"No." I groan. "Now, will you please stop?"
"Oh come on. Why not?" She asks, as I walk out of the kitchen no longer wanting to eat.
What I want is to be alone.
"Because she has a boyfriend." I answer jogging up the stairs then stop halfway realizing my words came out wrong. I hear Gemma gasp and before I could say anything she speaks.
"Wait so if she didn't have a boyfriend you would ask her on a date?" She asks, as I turn around to face her. Gemma was standing at the bottom of the stairs, casually holding onto the railing dressed in her warm grey pajamas.
"No I-"
"Harry, come on." She whines. "You bought her a pair of shoes! Why not ask her out? I bet she is pretty."
"I never said she wasn't." I mutter shaking my head. "You know why I can't."
"Yes but Harry-"
"I'm done talking about it." I say turning around quickly heading up the rest of the steps before she could say anything else.
You are not my psychiatrist and even if you were I wouldn't talk about these things with you. Plus, I can never put into words what I want to say. I just write them but lately not as frequently. It's been two years since I have stopped writing everyday. I barely manage to write once a month. To say that I have no inspiration is an understatement.
Ryder's POV
Currently, Shawn and I are sitting in the living room on the cream colored couch across from each other. We are watching a few of the home videos that Shawn had brought over in the cardboard box, which also contained a few of my cheerleading and sports trophies and other small meaningful trinkets.
" You know you said that dad was never around but he went to every volleyball game for you. He was the one that recorded all of this." Shawn says, pointing to the television screen with the hand that held the black remote.
I roll my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest, leaning back further into the couch watching the video. I remember this day; this was the volleyball final against the panthers. It was a tough game; we kept going back and forth for the lead.
I was on the screen, waiting for the other team to spike the ball. I was already set in place a few feet back ready to hit the ball into play. On the screen you could see one of the other team members tossed the ball into the air before slamming their hand, tossing it over to our side. Quickly, I saw that the ball was going to be spiked closely towards the net, I run and dive for it, extending both of my hands out in front of me, unfortunately I wasn't quick enough and end up missing the ball; falling onto my chest on the polished floor.
I groan, slamming my hands on the floor in frustration before picking myself up.
"Come on, Ryder. Pick up your damn feet!" My dad yelled behind the camera. I shake my head at him, rolling my eyes before moving back to my original place.
"Yeah, it was great having him there." I nod, in a sarcastic tone.
"Okay, so his word choice wasn't that great." Shawn shrugs. "But he was trying to encourage and cheer you on."
"I guess so." I sigh, standing up from the couch, walking over to the DVD player to get the disk out.
"So, how's the studying going? You only have a few more days."
"Yeah, I know." I say, letting out another sigh, placing the disk in its box before setting it down on the coffee table. "It's going well, thanks to Harry. I feel like I'm already getting the hang of things a bit."
Shawn nods. "Are you two... like friends? Or is he just helping you study?"
Are we?
"Well, I mean... yeah." I shrug. "Why else would he offer to help me?"
"I can think of another reason."
"Shawn, if you are saying that Harry is helping me out because he likes me, I doubt it. We hardly know each other." I say shaking my head. "Besides, if you do remember he also helped me out at the train station and I was a complete stranger to him."
"Well you're not a stranger now are you?" He asks, smirking at me leaning back into the couch, crossing his leg over his knee. I frown.
"Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I can't..." I say shaking my head, waving him off before turning; heading towards the kitchen.
"You know I have a point." Shawn says behind me, hearing the bottom of his shoes click against the wooden floor as I step in the entry way of the kitchen. "Think about it, Ryder."
I shake my head turning around to face him.
"You can say that the train station was just a coincidence on a shitty night." He nods, coming to a stand in front of me. "You can also say that he is offering to help you just to be polite, but who would spend his week off of work with a random girl he just met when he can spend it with his family?"
"But the raid down at the club, I don't think you can say that it was just a coincidence." He mutters, gazing down at me with soft blue eyes.
"I mean it was a very unfortunate event but the fact that it was Harry's team that came to the rescue... " Shawn trails suggestively. "If you ask me, this means something. If I were you I would try to figure it out because as cliché as it sounds things do happen for a reason. The world can change your life in a second, maybe this is the start to a happier chapter in your life."
"Now, I have to get back home. I'll see you later okay?" He says leaning down giving me a brief hug before kissing my cheek.
The apartment was quite after Harry left. Kate told me she went to dinner with Michael on the phone after I called her from my cell and she also told me she was going to stay over; so it looks like I'm alone for the night.
As I lay on my bed, gazing up at the ceiling in the dim light, my thoughts kept coming back to what Shawn had said. I'm not a firm believer of destiny but the small part of me that has a strong vulnerability towards old century romance thinks otherwise. Quickly however, I push those thoughts aside not wanting to dwell on them and focus on something else that Shawn had said. My dad.
Am I being to harsh on my dad? Is it wrong that I hold anger towards him?
I bit my lower lip, furrowing my brows together in thought as I twirl a piece of my hair around my index finger. After one last pondering moment I sit up, pushing myself off the bed walking over to my desk turning on my MacBook. The memory of my dad sending me this to my apartment, when I started university, makes me feel a tad bit guilty; just a tad.
I sigh, sitting on the black revolving chair, opening up my email scanning my contact list. Seeing that he was online I sent him a chat.
To:Dad
Hi,dad.
I purse my lips and press send not bothering to write anything else. I want to see if he will answer first. A few seconds later my laptop pings.
From:Dad
Hey sweetheart. How are you? Is everything okay?
To :Dad
Yeah, everything is fine. Just studying for finals.
From:Dad
Don't fret you have this in the bag. How's Evan?
To:Dad
We are kind of taking a break.
As I type and send this I don't know how he will react. However, considering he wasn't bothered about Evan not showing up with me at Shawn's party, I don't think he will be upset.
From: Dad
Sorry to hear that but if it's meant to be it'll work out.
To:Dad
Anyways, I was thinking earlier and I was wondering if after I'm done with my finals would you want to go to diner or something? I have a few things I want to ask and tell you.
From: Dad
I'd love to sweetheart. You just tell me when. I also have a few things I'd like to discuss with you.
After sending a few more chat saying goodnight and finalizing the date of our dinner I shut off my laptop, patting my way back to bed. I climb in the bed, letting out a small yawn leaning over turning off the lamp. Scooting down into bed getting into a comfortable position I grab my cell and unlock the screen seeing an unopened text.
From: Harry
Hey Ryder. Thank you for inviting me into your home.
Harry's POV
As soon as I sent the message I regret it. I told myself I wouldn't but I did and I hate myself for it. A tiny part of me however, makes the excuse that I have to be polite.
From: Ryder
Hello Harry :) Thank you for your service of knowledge.
I smile, placing my thumbs on the screen.
To: Ryder
My job is to serve.
From:Ryder
Your job is to serve for the common good not to save an almost flunking college student.
Ryder's POV
From:Harry
Didn't I tell you that saving almost flunking college student is my new hobby?
I giggle.
To: Harry
No sir, you did not.
From:Harry
Sir? I'm not old! I'm only a couple of years older than you.
To: Harry
Lol. So what's up?
From: Harry
Well I do have one question to ask...
Author's Note
Hello loves! How are you?
What did you guys think of this update? Who do you think it was that Harry thought was calling him and why was he so worried? What do you think Harry wanted to ask Ryder?
Love you all so much! Oh and also please I would love it if you would all give me song suggestions because I do enjoy music while I'm writing. Or even better you can suggest a song that describes Harry's or Ryder's character :) please do not be a ghost reader. Don't forget to vote and share! Xoxo