•Chapter 7•
All I could think about was what happened yesterday, when Ryder saw his "dad" and started running from him.
The only things that were running through my mind were questions, questions that I needed answers to.
What was so bad about Ryder's dad that he needed to run away from him? That situation yesterday is starting to make me question Ryder's entire life! And I think I—
"Riley," Alec's voice suddenly snaps me from my thoughts, making me jump.
I squeeze my eyes together and look at Alec from across our lunch table, putting an innocent smile on my face. "Yes?"
Alec furrows his eyebrows in concern. "Are...you okay?"
"Yeah, I was just thinking about something." I truthfully state, waving my hand in signal that I didn't want to talk about it anymore.
"Well, clear out that mind and just focus, because you have soccer tryouts after school!" Alec ecstatically states, reaching over the table and poking me in the stomach.
I laugh and nod my head. The first day of soccer tryouts were this afternoon after school and that was another thing added on to my list that I was stressing about.
Soccer was a huge part of my life, which is something I didn't mention earlier. I've been playing since I was four years old and I've always been the best player on my teams. But I never thought of trying out for the school, so I thought about it and deciding on trying out. I think if I make the team, I could finally be known as something other than Ri-Loser.
"Are you nervous?" Alec asks, taking a french fry and dipping it in some ketchup before shoving it in his mouth.
I shrug my shoulders. "Nah, not really. I just really want to make it, so wish me luck."
The bell then rings and everyone gets up, emptying the cafeteria. "Good luck," Alec says, adding a smile. "Gotta go to class," he says before storming out of the cafeteria.
•••
"Alright, Eagles!" The girls soccer team coach, Coach Miller yells, calling the team by the school mascot. Well basically, we weren't a team yet, because it was only tryouts.
"Today is the day on of the Pacific Bell Girls Soccer Team tryouts, and I want each and every one of you to work hard and do your best, because I will be watching and taking note of each of you." Coach Miller announces as she paces back and forth around the field.
I make sure I pay attention to everything she says, trying not to miss out on anything. I look at some of the other girls who were trying out and noticed they were just talking to each other, not paying attention to a word that Coach Miller said. I roll my eyes and look back at Coach Miller.
"So today, I want each of you to split into groups of three and work on shot techniques. Standard shots, straight shots, inside shots, etcetera." Coach Miller explains. "You may begin,"
I look around and sigh as I try to decide who I want to be in a group with. I really didn't like anyone who went to my school expected Alec. Geesh, now I understand why my parents are always talking about "expanding my friendships."
"Ri-Loser? What the hell are you doing here?" I hear a familiar voice say from behind me.
I groan and turn around to see Layla walking towards me with her arms crossed. She was wearing soccer shoes, shorts, and a t-shirt, which meant she was also trying out, which just made this much more agonizing for me. "I'm trying out for soccer. What the hell are you doing here?" I sarcastically ask, plastering a fake smile on my face.
Layla laughs and I give her a blank stare. "You play soccer? I thought anything that involved physical activity was out of your reach."
"Hey, Riley," I hear somebody call from a distance. I look over Layla's shoulder to see that a girl named Sarah was the one who called me. "You wanna be on our team?"
Without hesitation, I walk past Layla, ignoring her last comment to join Sarah and another girl named Liz.
I guess Sarah and Liz weren't so bad. I've actually never had any problems with them, so why not?
Sarah, Liz and I each grabbed a soccer ball and began working with each other on our kicks and shots.
They were actually productive people to work with. They were nice and worked hard, so I could definitely work with them.
After we were done working on shots, Coach Miller made us exercise and run to raise our strength and technique. I could honestly say the exercises she gave us were torture, but that was just the pain you had to go through to get on the team, and I was willing to go through it.
"Okay! Great job ladies!" Coach Miller announces at the end of the first day of tryouts. By the time we'd gotten done, it was dark outside. It was only 6:30 pm, but due to stupid daylight savings, it was already pretty dark out. "Be sure to report to the field on time tomorrow for day two of tryouts! Have a good night!"
With that, everyone left the field and went and went their separate ways. I grab my soccer bag before walking down to the school parking lot. I then look around for Ryan's car. Ryan was supposed to be picking me up from tryouts for the next two days.
I look around and furrow my eyebrows when his car is nowhere in sight. I quickly rummaged through my soccer bag and pull out my cell phone, quickly dialing Ryan's number.
I wait for him to pick up, which too way longer than I expected. "What, Riley?" Ryan says in an aggravated tone as soon as he picks up the phone. I notice there is loud music and voices in the background.
I scowl and looked around once again before speaking. "What do you mean what? Where the hell are you?"
"Oh crap! I forgot I was supposed to pick you up!"
"You're the biggest idiot I've ever met! Where are you?!" I yell in anger. I honestly wasn't too surprised of Ryan's actions. Come on, we're twins for heaven's sake, I know he's too irresponsible for his own good.
"I'm at a party..."
"A party?!" I yell in incredulity. "You better get your ass over here and pick me up!"
"Just walk, the house isn't even far from our school," Ryan states like everything was just a-okay.
"Yeah, but, I don't wanna—"
"Bye, Ri!"
"Wait—" I try to say before I notice Ryan had already hung up.
I sigh and put my phone back in my soccer bag. "I'm gonna kill him," I mutter to myself before walking in the direction of my house.
I am definitely making sure I get this information to my parents to they can punish him and I can watch him suffer.
I just had to look at the bright side. This was extra exercise for soccer, and Ryan was gonna get in a lot of trouble.
I was about three minutes into walking when I heard someone grunting as if they were in immense pain.
I furrow my eyebrows and look around to see if I could tell where the noise was coming from. I look everywhere I can, until I finally see someone on the ground, squirming in pain.
I slowly walked closer to the person. I knew I probably shouldn't even be getting mixed into the situation, but I was too nosy for my own good.
When I feel like I'm was close enough to the person, I squinted my eyes and stare at the figure. I let out a huge gasp when I finally make out who the person is
"Ryder?!" I yell, running over to him and dropping down on the ground, taking a close look at him.
My mouth widens in shock when I realize Ryder practically looks like someone beat the crap out of him, which is most likely what happened.
Ryder's eyes were squeezed shut and he looks like the pain is killing him. His face and arms are all bruised and scratched up, and his lip is busted. Some parts of his face and arms are bleeding, and to sum it all up, he looks like a total mess. And at this point, it didn't matter how much of an asshole he was, he needed help regardless, because it honestly looked like he was slowly dying...
"Ryder? What the hell happened?" I ask, lifting up his arms to see if there were anymore cuts or bruises.
Ryder opens his eyes and looks at me. "Riley? What are you—what are you doing here?" Ryder asked, cringing in pain in between his words.
"That's not important right now. What happened to you?" I ask again.
"I...I got in a fight,"
I furrow my eyebrows before yanking Ryder's arm. "Come on, get up,"
Ryder then tries with the little force in his body to get off the ground, placing his hand against the edge of the sidewalk to steady himself. Once he's finally up, he slings his arm across my shoulders and leans most of his body weight on me as we walk. He was actually extremely heavy, but I didn't want to look weak so I forced myself to hold most of his body weight as we continue walking.
"Why are you helping me?" Ryder asks. That was actually a very good question.
I sigh. "Just... stop asking questions."
•••
I take out my house keys from my pocket and quickly unlocked the front door to my house. I sling the door open and Ryder and I walked in.
"Riley, is that y—" My mom begins, coming down the stairs, but immediately stops when she sees Ryder. Her eyes widened in shock before she walks up to us. "What on earth happened?!"
"We'll explain later. Can you fix him up?" I ask, walking into the living room and sitting Ryder on the couch.
"Of course, I'll go get my first aid kit." My mom says before running upstairs. She quickly comes back with her small first aid kit. I didn't know if other moms carried first aid kits, but I considered it very embarrassing... Getting off topic here.
I sit on the couch and watch as my mom fixes Ryder up by spraying his wounds, putting a bunch of bandages on him and wrapping his arms up where the big scratches were.
"Are you alright?" My mom asks after she made sure she was done with everything.
"Yeah, thank you, Mrs. Simmons," Ryder thanked before looking down. "My mom would never do this for me..." He unexpectedly mumbles under his breath.
I look at Ryder and my face drops. What he just said actually made me want to cry a little bit.
"You're very welcome. But, I'm sure you're not going to be able to walk home like this. And I would drive you home, but my car is in the shop and I have no idea where Ryan is." My mom explains, shaking her head.
I put a smirk on my face, remembering to tell my mom that he forgot to pick me up tonight. But that was another topic for another time and it probably wouldn't be the best time to talk about that.
"You would let me stay here?" Ryder asks.
"Of course... But I hope you don't mind sleeping on the couch."
"No, it's fine." Ryder says, putting a small smile on his face.
My mom nods before getting up and walking upstairs, leaving Ryder and I alone in the living room.
We both lapse into silence for a couple of seconds before Ryder turns towards me. "Thanks..."
"You're welcome..." I awkwardly reply before putting a small smile on my face.
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