•Chapter 21•
"Here you go, enjoy your ice cream." I say as I hand the cone of cookie and cream ice cream to the costumer.
"Thanks," the lady says with a warm smile before walking away and sitting at one of the tables.
Once the customer walks away, I sigh and scan my eyes over all the customers we had sitting inside of the shop before I turn on my heel and walk away to grab some cleaning supplies. I walk over to the storage closet and grab some cleaning spray and a rag. I was about to walk back down to the main part of the shop, but I can only take one step before someone grabs me by the wrist.
I then turn around to come face to face with my mom. She lets go of my wrist and grabs the cleaning supplies from my hands bed she puts them back in the closet. I furrow my eyebrows at her actions. "What are you doing?" I ask curiously, raising an eyebrow.
"You and Ryder's shifts are over." My mom states.
I shrug my shoulders. "I don't mind working extra hours; you know this."
"You need to get home and get some rest. You've had a long week with soccer practice, and with work, and the doctor says that your ribs aren't fully healed yet. Go home and get some rest." My mom explains, kissing me on the forehead before walking back into the kitchen. I watch my mom until she is out of eye range, and once she is, I sigh and turn around to walk off.
"Riley," I hear a familiar voice call from behind me.
When I hear the voice, I whip my head around to see Ryder, who is walking up to me. "Hey," I say before opening the door and exiting the shop with Ryder.
"So," Ryder begins before we slowly walk down the sidewalk together. "Uh, this might sound weird, but my mom wanted me to ask you if you wanted to come over for dinner tonight." As soon as Ryder utters those words, I stop in my tracks and look at him with raised eyebrows. "I didn't plan this," Ryder unnecessarily states afterwards.
This news is by far the most surprising news I've received all day. Ryder's mom actually wants me to come over her house for dinner? I don't know what this means, but if I know one thing, it's that I'm getting way more closer to Ryder's family than I ever thought possible.
"Sure," I reply with a shrug of my shoulders. "I'll come."
Ryder nods his head before speaking. "I'll pick you up at seven." Ryder says before walking off into the direction of his house.
I watch Ryder walk away until he turns a corner and is out of eye range. I think about the whole dinner situation before turning around and walking off into the direction of my house.
As I walk, I try to think of a reason for why Ryder's mom would invite me over for dinner. But, I guess there's nothing mush to think about. She probably just thinks I'm a nice friend of Ryder's and wanted to do something nice... Unless she thinks I'm Ryder's girlfriend.
I'm sure that's not the case.
I then push the thought to the back of my mind and continue the journey to my house, momentarily fanning myself from the hot, humid Miami weather. The fanning wasn't really helping, so I decided to just quit and deal with the heat until I got home.
When I finally get home, I quickly fish for my keys in my back pocket. Once I grab the keys, I unlock my front door and walk into my house. When I'm finally inside the house, I take a long, deep sigh of relief when I feel the cool air hit my skin. I stand there in the middle of the house to embrace the air before I slowly walk up the stairs, trudge down my long hallway, and walk into my room.
I decide that since I'm about to go to Ryder's house for dinner I might as well change clothes and look presentable. Because, right now I'm wearing an old pair of light wash skinny jeans and my brothers oversized baseball jersey... and don't think that's going to cut it.
With that, I walk over to my closet and scan my eyes over all my clothes. I stand and contemplate over what to wear for quite a while before I decide on a short sleeved navy blue shirt, black jeans and white vans.
I quickly slip on the outfit before looking myself in the mirror. I nod my head in satisfactory before I walk over to my bed and collapse onto it.
I have about an hour before Ryder comes to pick me up, so I decide to take a nap so I won't be so exhausted for dinner. I stare up at the blank ceiling for a couple of seconds before my eyes slowly start to close and I start to drift to sleep.
•••
"Riley," I vaguely hear a voice call in the background before I flicker my eyes open.
I slowly turn my head to the right to see a figure standing over me. I blink my eyes a couple times and when they finally adjust and become less blurry, I realize that it is Ryder. "Oh, hey," I mumble, lifting my back up from the bed.
"Come on," Ryder says, taking my hand and yanking me up from my bed. Ryder looks at me for a few more seconds before he smirks and let's out a small laugh.
I give Ryder a confused look before speaking. "What's funny?"
Ryder chuckles for a few more seconds before shaking his head and looking at me with a small smile. "You know your nose squeaks when you sleep?"
After Ryder says those words, my face drops and my cheeks burn up and turn a bright shade of red. I look down at the floor and roll my eyes, slightly embarrassed that he heard my nose-squeaking, and annoyed that he pointed it out. "Yeah, I know." I mutter in embarrassment.
"It's kind of adorable," Ryder says before turning around and existing my room casually, like what he just said was completely normal.
I raise my eyebrows in a shocked manner as Ryder walks away. Did Ryder just say that my nose-squeaking was adorable? I never thought in a million years that Ryder would ever even say the word adorable, let alone use the word on me.
I push the thought to the back of my mind before I shake my head and walk out of my room. I walk down the stairs and exit the house before I walk down the driveway and get into Ryder's car. Ryder starts up his car and backs out of the driveway before he starts driving down the road in the direction to his house.
For the most part, the drive was completely silent. Momentarily, Ryder would look away from the road and glance at me for a quick second, but he never said anything or started up a conversation. But, the silence between us wasn't eerie or awkward like it usually is.
It took about ten minutes for us to get to Ryder's house, and by the time we got there, the sun had gone down and the sky was dark.
Ryder slowly drives his car up the driveway before parking it. We both then get out of the car and walk up to the front door. I watch Ryder as he takes the keys out of his jean pocket and unlocks the font door. When the door is unlocked, Ryder walks in and I follow behind him, closing the door behind myself.
"Mom, we're here," Ryder calls in a slightly bland tone.
A few seconds later, Ryder's mom, Vanessa comes from the kitchen and smiles and both Ryder and I. "Hey, guys!" Vanessa greets with a smile before kissing Ryder on the cheek. After she's done with Ryder, Vanessa walks over to me and envelopes me into a warm hug. "Hey, Riley!"
"Hi," I say with a smile before I return the hug. Ryder's mom still seems awfully nice, so I still have yet to come to the conclusion how Ryder turned out to be such an asshole...
"I'm so glad you came!" Vanessa exclaims, letting go of our embrace so she can look at me while she continues speaking. "I hope you don't think this is weird or anything, I just figured since—"
"No, it's not weird at all, I'm glad to be here." I reply with a smile.
"Great, I made spaghetti. It's Ryder's favorite—"
"Mom!" Ryder snaps with gritted teeth, telling his mom that he wants her to stop talking.
Vanessa glares at Ryder for a while before she rolls her eyes and walks back into the kitchen. Ryder turns his head to look at me and he also rolls his eyes before following his mom into the kitchen.
This has been interesting so far, I think to myself before I walk into the kitchen and sit down at the circular dining table.
Ryder then pulls out a chair to the left of me and collapses down into it. Once he is settled into his chair, he turns his head around to face me. "I don't know why, but my mom has mom has been acting less... frazzled and bitchy since she met you." Ryder whispers and I raise my eyebrows. "I mean, she's still pretty frazzled, but she's usually pulling-her-hair-out-stressed. And... ever since you came into the picture, she seems... more calm."
I look at Ryder with complete absorption and I slightly furrow my eyebrows as I think about what he just said. After a few seconds of thinking, I shrug my shoulders. "I don't know..." I trail awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.
I open my mouth to say something else before I see Vanessa walking over to the table with a big bowl of spaghetti. My mouth starts to water when the smell starts drifting towards me, and I only find myself getting hungrier and hungrier.
When Vanessa is close enough to the table, she puts the bowl in the middle of the table and quickly walks back into the main part of the kitchen to grab a big, metal spoon. She walks back over to the table and sticks the spoon inside the bowl of spaghetti before she takes a seat across from me. "Alright, you guys can eat now."
With that, I grab the big spoon and begin plopping huge amounts of spaghetti on the glass plate that was already set on the table. Once I get enough spaghetti, Ryder gets his, and then Vanessa.
Once everyone gets their food, I grab my metal fork and start eating. With once bite, I already begin to find myself in food Heaven.
As I chew, I roll my eyes to the back of my head. "This is the best spaghetti I've ever tasted." I mumble before taking another fork full of noodles and shoving it in my mouth just as forcefully as Ryder shoved the dirt the in my mouth in first grade.
"Thanks... I try my best." Vanessa says with a smile. We all eat in silence for only a couple minutes before Vanessa starts up another conversation. "So," Vanessa begins, looking at me as she continues. "I thought you two hated each other... How'd you become Ryder's girlfriend?"
After Vanessa utters those words, I nearly choke on my food. I start coughing for a few seconds and I have to take a huge swig to water to calm the choking rampage that I was on. It might have seemed a little dramatic, but what she said really caught me off guard.
As I cough, Vanessa looks at me with her eyes wide in a shocking and concerned manner. "Riley? Are— are you okay?"
"Riley's not my girlfriend, mom." Ryder informs to Vanessa once I finally calm down my choking.
"Oh..." Vanessa trials awkwardly, flipping her long dark hair. "Well, she must be at lest a little important to you since you haven't taken advantage of her like you do to most girls."
"Mom!" Ryder yells with gritted teeth, sending his mom an icy glare.
"I'm just saying," Vanessa mumbles before she picks up her fork and starts twisting up her noodles.
All of us then lapse into a marginally awkward silence. The silence continues for a few more minutes before I ultimately get sick of it and open my mouth to start a new conversation.
"So..." I trail, looking across the table at Vanessa, who is giving me a small smile as she waits for me to speak. "How did you react when Ryder told you that his dad was back?"
Right after I say that, Vanessa's face suddenly drops and her eyes suddenly turn a whole shade darker. And at that moment, I knew I said something that I probably wasn't supposed to.
I turn my head to the left to look at Ryder, who is currently giving me an unidentifiable look, but I know for a fact that he is pissed.
I flick my eyes back over to Vanessa to see that she is looking down at the table with shock and despondency etched all over her face.
All I can think at this moment is 'why the hell did I say that?' And all I want to do now is turn back time.
"Mom, I was gonna tell you—" Ryder begins before Vanessa interrupts.
"I'll be right back," Vanessa says quietly before she quickly rises up from her chair and walks off to another part of the house.
I stare at the empty seat across from me in complete shock before I slowly turn to look at Ryder. "Ryder–" I begin before Ryder interrupts by grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me out of chair and all the way upstairs.
Once Ryder has dragged me up the stairs and down the hallway, he goes into his room as slams the door. Once we are inside of Ryder's dark room, he let's go of my wrist and turns to face me. "Why the hell did you say that?!"
"I don't know!" I yell, running my fingers through my hair. "It just slipped out."
"For once my mother was happy! She was happy, and you fucked it all up!" Ryder yells with indignation, taking a few steps closer to me.
"I didn't mean to," I reply, flicking my eyes down to the floor.
"Why did you do this, Riley?! I was going to tell her the news another time, at a better time! She's probably going to be depressed and stressed and worried for days, maybe months! Why did you do this?!"
"I said I was sorry, okay!" I yell to the top of my lungs, letting a small tear fall from my eye. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! Now, would you stop yelling at me and stop making me feel like shit!"
Ryder's face then drops and he looks at me with a regretful face expression. Ryder closes his eyes and let's out a long, deep sigh before taking a few more steps towards me and slowly wrapping his arms around me. "I'm sorry,"
I sigh and close my eyes before wrapping my arms around Ryder and hugging him back. Ryder and I stand in the middle of his dark room, hugging each other for a little while longer before he slowly lets go of me and grabs onto both of my hands, intertwining his fingers with mine. Ryder then leans his head down and slowly and softly plants his lips on mine, and the horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach actually starts to go away.
The kiss lasts for about four more seconds before Ryder slowly pulls away and leans forward to whisper something in my ear. "I can't stay mad at you,"
_