This Rose Bleeds

Chapter ~Nine~

He hid my bag. He hid it! Apparently he didn't trust me enough to not run when he wasn't looking. He called his mom, asking her to call Mrs. Clair to inform her I wasn't coming to work. His conversation sounded like this:

"Hi mom." He paused. "Um, can you call Mrs. Clair? Nathan has a high fever and he really shouldn't be working." There was a pause. "He's, uh, here with me. He stayed over last night cause he collapsed, and..." There was a rambling, muffled voice on the other end and Ryder's face turned red. "Mom!" He hissed. He glanced at me then away. "He just...no, he just needs to rest and I know he'll go to work if I'm not blocking him so...ew! Don't ever say that again!"

I frowned and when he hung up I asked, "What did she say?"

He smiled and said, "You don't want to know."

Oh...yeah, I probably don't. He forced me to sit across from him on the floor as he brought out his game controllers. He offered one and I shook my head. He shrugged and left it next to me. I held my knees close to my chest.

I've never had a friend before. There was no time for playing. Plus, I've never been in someone's house if I wasn't cleaning or tutoring. It felt weird not doing...anything.

"You need to relax." He muttered. "When was the last time you've played video games?"

I remember once, when I was little with my mom. "Nine years old."

His head snapped to face me in disbelief. "Okay, when did you last have fun?" He asked jokingly.

"Nine years old."

He paused the game and turned to me. "What happened when you were nine?"

I looked him in the eye. I owed him for helping me. I knew better than to leave things unpaid. But for some reason, that wasn't what made me say the words. There was something in his eyes that were different from before. "My mother died."

He leaned in close to catch my whisper. I looked down at my hands holding my knees and suddenly he was next to me, holding me in a tight hug. I jumped but didn't pull away.

"How?"

I sniffed my nose that had chosen to act strange. "I don't...know." I really didn't. She just seemed to disappear, but my dad's words stung my ears, "You're nobody! You're the reason she's gone!"

"Shit, you're crying!"

"What?" I raised a hand to my face to find it was true. "Sorry." I hid my face in my arms.

"No, no! It's okay." He wrapped his arms around me once again.

This made me confused. When his friends were around, he acted like I was nonexistent. Then why was he acting like this? And why was he hugging me?

"Why do you care?" I asked, pushing him off.

He was silent before he answered, "Because...I..." He didn't finish. I looked up at him from the side and he looked frustrated.

There was a knock on the door. Ryder muttered a, "Perfect timing" before getting up and answering.

"You." He asked narrowed his eyes.

"Mr. Kenneth." Said a voice just as cold. I got up and timidly looked around Ryder's shoulder.

"Hi Mattson." I said.

He looked genuinely surprised and replied, "Nathan? You're here already? You weren't at school."

"He was sick." Ryder answered in an indifferent expression. He eyed Mattson as if he were dangerous.