•Chapter 6•
It's been two weeks since Ryder started working at Cherry On Top. The first week, he worked as the janitor, and the second week, he bumped his way up to ice cream server/cashier. And I'm surprised to say he hasn't been screwing up like I thought he was. I've actually never seen Ryder work so seriously at something in all my sixteen years of living.
And for once, ONCE, I thought that Ryder had finally changed into a normal, responsible teenage boy. But I was immensely wrong, because by the next day, he was back to his old, childish, asshole-ish ways.
"Eh, she's like a five on a scale of one to ten," Ryder whispers in the middle of calculus class.
I scowl and turn my head to the left to see Ryder and Ethan whispering, pointing at random girls in our class when they were supposed to be doing their assignment.
"Yeah," Ethan agrees, nodding his head. "Uh, what about Emily?" Ethan and Ryder then look at each other and smirk. "Eight," they both say at the same time.
I shake my head and put a look of disgust on my face. "Will you two assholes shut up!" I whisper-yell.
"You shut up, one," Ryder says, calling me "one", referring to what he rates me on a scale of one to ten.
I let out a laugh, signaling to him that I really didn't care what stupid rating he gave me. "You couldn't get any of these girls anyway." I mumble, putting my focus back on the calculus assignment.
Ryder looks at Ethan as if I'd just said the most idiotic thing in the world before looking back at me and chucking in amusement. "I bet I could get laid by every girl in this class." Ryder cockily states, and I let out another small laugh. His ego is too big for his own good.
"Get over yourself," I deadpan, turning back around to face him. "The only way you'll ever get laid is if you crawl up a chicken's ass and wait."
"Riley Simmons!"
My eyes widen and I whip my head around to see my calculus teacher, Mrs. Bennett standing with her arms crossed, giving me a stern stare. I knew she heard what I just said, and I already knew I was gonna get into some kind of trouble.
"Yes..." I trail, putting an anxious look on my face.
"That type of langue is not expected in this class!" She yells, stating the complete obvious.
As you can see, Mrs. Bennet is a complete pain in the ass, and she was about the only teacher that I had a problem with. All my other teachers were fine, but she just had to ruin it for me. And you would expect a teacher like her to be old and wrinkly, with gray hair and no husband. But she's actually the complete opposite.
Mrs. Bennet was actually pretty young, maybe in her early thirties, and she was married. She was short with dark brown hair. Her life seemed pretty in check, so why her panties were always in a bunch, no one really understood.
I roll my eyes and shrug my shoulders. "Okay, what's the punishment?" I ask in an unamused tone, just wanting to cut to the point.
"Detention this afternoon. Be there, or it's automatic suspension." Mrs. Bennett finalizes before sitting back down in her chair.
I let out a huge sigh of disappointment and slide down in my chair. My mom was gonna kill me, because not only did I get detention, but I was gonna be late for work too.
Ryder looked at me and laughed as I gave him a blank stare. "Have fun in detention," Ryder says in between laughs.
"Martinez, that's detention for you also." Mrs. Bennett adds.
Ryder's smug grin quickly drops and I put a huge smile of satisfaction on my face. "Have fun in detention," I mock in an annoying voice, continuing to work on my assignment.
•••
Detention at Pacific Bell High School wasn't your average detention. It wasn't just sitting in a classroom in silence for two hours. No, it was never that simple. Instead, we had to clean the classroom.
We had to wipe down the desks, clean the board, scrub the floors, and even scrape gum from the bottom of the desks.
"Martinez! I did not tell you to stop scrubbing the floor!" Mrs. Bennett yells, looking up from the gigantic book she was reading and slamming it on her desk in anger.
Ryder rolls his eyes and picks up his scrubbing brush. "My arm is tired,"
"I don't care. I want the floor so spotless that I can see my reflection."
"Why would you want to see your reflection?" Ryder mumbles, continuing to scrub the tile floor.
"And Simmons, you should be done scraping that gum by now." Mrs. Bennett adds.
I glare and her before continuing to scrape the gum. I didn't respond to her because I didn't feel like hearing anymore of the pointless crap that came out of her mouth.
This was only the second detention I've ever had in my life. And this one seemed like it was never going to end. Detention was only two hours, and I feel like I've been in this one for eternity.
"You will be released from detention in approximately ten seconds." Mrs. Bennett announces, earning a scowl from me. She would be that teacher that lets us out at the exact time we're supposed to leave.
I sit there, counting down the seconds until the time was up. Before Mrs. Bennett could say anything else, Ryder and I get up from where we were on the floor, quickly grab our book bags, and run out of the classroom.
"That was torture," I state, opening the glass door to the school and walking outside.
"Stop whining. This was probably like, only the first detention you've ever been to."
"Second," I correct.
Ryder gives me a blank stare before speaking again. "Um, I don't have my car. So we're gonna have to walk to work today." Ryder mentions.
I give Ryder and annoyed look and let out a huge groan of frustration. "Are you serious?"
"The shop is only like ten minutes away in walking distance... Man up," Ryder says before walking off school campus and down the sidewalk.
"Man up," I mock, quickly following behind him. I guess walking was marginally better than dealing with Ryder's unnecessarily fast driving.
Ryder and I were the only people in the street. Literally, there were no cars driving by, no other people walking by...just Ryder and I which was quite awkward.
The beginning of the walk was quiet between Ryder and I, which gave me some time to think. I thought about how my mom would react when I told her I got detention. I knew she was gonna ask me why...I think I might have to lie because I'm definitely not telling her what I said. My mom would kill me if she found out what I said. My mom usually didn't flip out if I used a swear word for a good reason, but otherwise, she didn't like it when Ryan and I swore.
But it was Ryder's fault. He was the cause for all of this. Which brought me back to when he rated me a one on a scale of one to ten. Was I really a one? Was I really that ugly and never noticed it?
Why do I even care what Ryder thinks?
"Am I really a one?" I ask, looking up at Ryder. I mentally slap myself for asking that question.
Why did I ask that?!
"What?" Ryder asks, looking down at the sidewalk as he walks.
I roll my eyes before speaking. "Never mind," I mumble, dismissing the topic and looking straight forward as I continue to walk.
"Nah," Ryder suddenly says, causing me to look back up at him. "You're more like a two."
I glare and Ryder before he chuckles and looks in another direction.
Ryder suddenly stops in the midst of his walking, making me stop. I look up at Ryder, a confusing look etched across my face. I watch Ryder as the small smile on his face quickly fades away. He jaws clench and his eyes suddenly go cold.
I furrow my eyebrows in extreme confusion and look over Ryder's shoulder to see what he's looking at.
The person he was looking at was some random man, who was looking around like he was lost.
I switch my gaze to Ryder, then back at the man. "Who is h—" I stopped mid sentence when Ryder suddenly swoops me in his arms, carrying me bridal style, and running for his life. "Hey! Put me down!" I yelled, using both my hands to hit him continuously on his broad chest, not that it was working.
"Shut up!" Ryder hisses, continuing to run like his life depended on it.
I put yet another confused look on my face and shut my mouth. At this point, I didn't know what the hell was going on. One moment, we were peacefully walking to work, and then the next, Ryder sees some random guy, picks me up, and starts running like the guy is about to kill us...
Was he a killer!
"Ryder, who was that man?!" I yell, looking up at him.
"Don't really have time to explain right now," he states, running until we reach the parking lot of the ice cream shop. When we finally reach the parking lot, Ryder slows down to a stop and slowly puts me down on the ground.
I push my hair behind both of my ears and look at Ryder, obviously waiting for an explanation from him. "What the hell was that about?!"
Ryder sighs and looks down at me, shoving his hands in my jean pockets. "It was my dad."
I furrow my eyebrows and shrug my shoulders. "That man was your dad? W—why are you running from your dad?"
"He left a long, long time ago. And he's obviously back, which is not good."
I look at Ryder, taking in what he just said for a few moments before speaking. "Why isn't it good? What–"
"I...really can't explain right now, Riley," Ryder states before walking past me and into the shop.
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