The Quirky Tale of April Hale (Quirky Series #1)

3: The Awkward Conversation of the Goody Girl and the Bad Boy

3: The Awkward Conversation of the Goody Girl and the Bad Boy

“Are you awake now?”

Technically, I hadn’t been awake because my eyes were still closed, but for a while I’d been able to hear things out and had regained the feelings in all of my senses. What I heard wasn’t just the voice of a guy, but a guy who was the source of my fainting.

Ryder Black.

My voice chords gave out a whimper that I caught before my lips could voice it out. I could do it the animalistic way. Play dead. Play dead was the way to go. I shut my eyes tight and moved on the bed.

Wait.

I’m on a bed?

I tried to grope around my surrounding as surreptitiously as possible.

Whose bed? Where am I?!

Oh God. Ryder mentioned to my friends that he was going to kidnap me, surely he couldn’t really go down with the idea, right?

RIGHT?

“Hey,” there were sounds of him shuffling closer to me. Before long, I felt his hand on my shoulder-

EEEEEEEKKK-

“Okay, if you can stop acting like I’m some kind of Slenderman,” Ryder sounded legit offended as he jerked his hand away from me.

I opened one of my eyes, hoping that I would be transported back to the oblivion that was my dream, but it was impossible. This was the reality. I really was on a strange bed in a strange room with Ryder Black watching me.

Worse. He looked angry.

I pulled up the blanket to cover half of my face. This time, I was forcing my mouth to say ‘Sorry’ or something appeasing to put that scowl off his face, but my mouth was refusing to collaborate for the sake of my safety.

And thus, I was stuck with “Urmmrummrrumm.”

Ryder cocked an eyebrow incredulously.

Again, my mouth was being a total and absolute fink. “Urumrumrmm.”

“What the hell are you trying to say?”

“Y-You look,” I gulped, a little bit surprised that my voice found me. “Scary…”

Ryder let out a muted curse word as his finger massaged the skin in between his eyes. The frustration he felt was so palpable. Oh, right. I nearly forgot that he was a troubled kid with lots of troubles with the thugs of the streets, the jocks in our school, and also with his own parents. Maybe I should try to be nice with him.

But then, as I saw a glimpse of a skull tattoo on his bicep, I found my fear for him returning in a scurry. No, no, I couldn’t! He was way too intimidating!

“You know what? You’re actually the first girl who’d describe me as ‘Scary’,” Ryder went back to the seat on the corner of the room. “Most would say something in between ‘handsome’ and ‘asshole’”

Oh God. I could feel the Yoda was claiming my control over my mouth.

“Handsome you are, scary also.”

What?

“What?” apparently, my stream of consciousness clicked with Ryder’s. “Neighbor, you need to stop watching Starwars. I counted that you watched it like, 5 times already, and that's only in this month.” He sighed.

Since I still couldn’t trust my voice to flap without causing me more embarrassment, I nodded. 

“You’re in the infirmary,” Ryder said. “The nurse’s outside in case you’re afraid of me. There will be witness and all that shit, so pull down the blanket and for God’s sake, try not to freak out when having a conversation with me.”