Killing (And Other Games)

(Five)

(Five)

"Where are you going?" Be nice, I warn myself, they're being nice and they're just really nosy.

The day after Ryker apologized to me everything seemed to be solving itself. Danika made pancakes for breakfast and offered them to me with a grin, telling me it was her secret recipe. Then Ryker had invited me to watch TV with them and although it was done in silence, I'd sat in their proximity and managed to not fight.

Still, I'd appreciate it if he could stop prying into my business.

"I'm going for a walk," I say, forcing a big smile. Everything seems forced between us.

"Wait five minutes, I'm coming with you."

I falter, trying to keep the shock off of my face. "You don't have to."

"Five minutes," he assures, and he dashes upstairs. Um, what? It's only me and Ryker in the house, Danika and the rest all off doing whatever they do. I don't even know how old they are, I realize. I don't know anything about any of them.

Ryker comes down in tennis shorts, a polo shirt and runners. I stifle a laugh. "I'm walking around the block, not competing in the Olympics."

"Maybe I am," he snaps as I exit the slightly claustrophobic house. Ryker watches me out of the corner of his eye as we walk down the path to the street. It's really quiet, where the house is, with only five houses on the dead-end street and hardly any traffic nearby. Pleasant, I guess. Secluded.

I go to put my earphones in but Ryker starts talking, his voice light and relaxed unlike usual.

"You enjoying uni so far?" he asks as he picks a leaf off a tree. Slowly and carefully he folds it into a tiny square, then unfolds it and rips it to pieces.

"Yeah, it's pretty good. It's pretty easy compared to year twelve. Are you at university?"

"I was," he says, his tone and expression changing. He glares down at the pavement and his pace slows.

"Oh? What did you study?" I almost can't believe we're having this normal kind of conversation. I glance over at his perfectly defined muscles and blush. I definitely can't believe we're having this conversation.

"Biomedicine." Whoa, what?

"Holy crap! That's hard-core, you must be really smart. So what are you...wait, you're only nineteen. You can't be done yet."

"Maybe I'm just that brilliant." Ryker looks at me with his big, crystal clear blue eyes and smirks, looking away again. "I dropped out."

Something about the way he says it-there's something he's not saying. Regret fills his voice and another emotion, I can't pick. "Oh well, that's alright."

"It's not alright," he retorts. "It's disgusting. I got 99.95 in VCE, you know? I went to the best school in Australia; I had a scholarship to every university in Australia. I got a scholarship for American universities, for British ones. First I chose to stay in Australia, because I was so afraid of leaving my friends, and then I stopped talking to all of my friends and dropped out. You've got to be completely screwed in the head to do that."

"Wow," I mutter, playing with a stick I picked up a while back. "You got a perfect VCE score." I don't really know what else to say. It does sound stupid, dropping out with the world at your feet. It sounds even stupider giving up abroad education for a couple of mates. But judging by the self-hating look on Ryker's face, I can tell he knows that more than anyone else. I drop the subject entirely, praying this hasn't set back our friendship, or whatever you'd call it. I'm a little curious as to why he dropped out; with grades like that you wouldn't expect it to be too hard for him. I only got an 82 in VCE and university is easier than school tenfold. Then again he would've been studying chemistry and human anatomy whilst I just have to do basic addition and watch movies.