Lovers of Yesterday

Chapter 24 • Yourself

The moment we stepped inside Lynch's apartment, he set about putting everything away. I just hovered, feeling like I was in the way. He returned a few minutes later with empty plastic bags in his hand. As he tossed them in the trash, he looked at me who was still standing in the middle of the living room.

"You ok?"

I nodded then amended, "I'm not sure I really know anymore."

He approached me while tucking his thumbs into his pockets. "Wanna watch something? It'll keep your mind busy."

I shrugged. I was itching to do something more useful than sitting on the couch. He seemed to noticed my indecision.

"What would you like to do, Ryder?"

"Clean," I said on a laugh. "I want to be useful."

He didn't seem shocked. "I think there are still a few boxes that need to be unpacked in the guest bedroom. We could work on that."

"Ok."

He turned and led me back to the spare room. When he opened the door, I noticed there were more than a few boxes. There was a bed frame that hadn't been set up yet and a large pile of boxes occupied the wall diagonal of us.

He flicked on the light as he stepped in and I followed. "You wanna set the frame up first?"

"Um, yeah."

He nodded once and began hefting boxes out of the area the bed would be set up in. I pushed the rest out of the way while he laid pieces down onto the floor. Knowing I would get hot with moving around constantly, I shrugged off the jacket and set it on top of one of the many boxes.

"Ry, can you go in my room and grab the screwdriver? It should be in the top drawer of my nightstand." I nodded and followed his instructions.

His room seemed to hold only what he needed. While there was personality in the furniture he used- dark, solid wood furniture- there was nothing displayed that gave me any insight to who he was. I pulled open the top drawer of his nightstand and found the screwdriver he referred to.

I grabbed it and closed the drawer. When I walked back into the guest room, Lynch wasn't there. I set the screwdriver where he had been and walked out to find him. I made it to the end of the hall before I heard voices. I didn't step out. I recognized both voices.

"Ryder? No, I haven't seen her since I left work."

"Hm, she still should've been at work. I'll send her a text to figure out where she is. Thanks, man."

"Not a problem. Tell me if you find her."

"Got it."

I leaned on the wall for support. Did Liam go back? Does he know I was with Lynch? Was he following us? More questions continued to plague my head. My breathing was picking up.

"Ryder?" I heard his voice but it was distant.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Air whooshed around me.

"Shit!" Black was all that remained.

• • •

I opened my eyes to a dark room. I groaned and rolled over, burrowing further in the thick, heavy blankets that covered me. As my memories returned I jolted up in the bed. It was Lynch's room with no sight of Lynch.

I crawled out of his bed, noticing that I was in his jacket again. The door opened and he stepped in with a bowl in his hand. He lifted his head and saw me standing up. While keeping the bowl steady, he ran over to me and gently pushed me back down.

He set the bowl on the nightstand before turning to me. "How's your head? Do you have a headache?"

I shook my head and slouched. "I'm ok. Do we still need to finish the bed frame?"

He frowned. "You shouldn't be worrying about that right now. You blacked out earlier and hit your head."

"Oh, um-"

He crouched in front of me, "Ryder, how often to you take time for yourself? How often do you worry about yourself?"

I bit my lip and focused on the bowl. He sighed and his hand wrapped around my calf. "I'm taking care of you whether you like it or not. You're gonna eat that soup while I work on finishing the bed so you can sleep there tonight. When I come back, the bowl better be empty."

He wasn't asking; he was demanding. Even then, his voice was gentle. He released my leg and stood up, grabbing the bowl and passing it to me. I took it and stared down at its contents. Chicken noodle, my favorite kind of soup.

Before I could take a bite, his hands ran through my hair. His fingers were kneading my scalp. My eyes shut vecause of how nice it felt. When it seemed he had gone over my entire head, his hands pulled away.

"You don't have any knots on your head so you probably didn't hit your head as hard as I thought. Eat your soup. I'll be back in a little." He stepped back and turned to leave. He disappeared and left his bedroom door open.

Not thinking about it anymore, I began eating. Partly because I was hungry and partly because he told me to. It was the perfect temperature so it wouldn't burn my mouth. Before I even knew it, I was drinking down the rest of the broth.

I set the bowl back on the nightstand just as Lynch walked back in. He looked at the bowl as he got closer before moving his eyes to me. He crouched in front of me again, never breaking our eye contact.

"Tired?" I hadn't even realized I was fighting to keep my eyes open. I nodded.

He stood up and offered his hand. Once I took it, he pulled me up so I was standing. Then he moved over to the dresser and dug around, coming back with a pair of sweatpants. He silently passed them to me while nodding his head in the direction of his bathroom.

I quickly changed into the sweatpants, pulling the strings as tight as they would go and tying them off. I took off the halter top and replaced it with the zipped up jacket. I looked at my neck in the mirror, taking notice of the darkening bruises. The one on my cheek was still an ugly purplish-yellow. Then I took a glance at what I looked like in Lynch's clothes and began giggling.

I stepped out still giggling and earned a weird look from Lynch. He directed me back to his bed and helped me pull the covers over me. Then he sat down on the edge of the bed and reached for the phone on the nightstand. My phone, I realized.

"Could you put your password in, please? I need to see if Liam texted you yet." Ice cold fear shot up my spine and brought me out of my sleepy state.

"Yeah," I mumbled, taking it from him and using my fingerprint.

I handed it back to him and he angled it so I could see that he was only going into my texts. He clicked on Liam's name and turned it away from me. As his eyes scanned over the texted, his jaw clenched.

He started taping on the texts and I pushed myself up to see what he was doing. I was only able to read a couple before they were gone.

You lying bitch I know you're with that limp dick cocksucker.
Don't ignore me you whore
You better hope you have someone with you because the next time I see you, I'll kill you