Hey, I Still Love You

Chapter 7

OKAY. I want to apologize about the mix up with the age of Ryder & Azalea. I had wrote up a small paragraph on my main page if you wanna read it! Okay, now on to the story :)

Azalea's POV

          It was around nine pm when I was lying down on my bed, scrolling through my phone.

I had swapped from Snapchat to Instagram in the last twenty minutes. Allison would occasionally send me a snap on Snapchat then I'd go back to Instagram to see if anything new has happened.

I suddenly felt my stomach dip when I came across one of Ryder's pictures.

I never had the heart to unfollow him.

Guess he hasn't had the heart to unfollowed me either. . .

I saw he had posted it this afternoon. It was a picture of him in his football uniform standing next to his two teammates. They all were smiling.

I zoomed in on Ryder and couldn't help but just stare at his smile.

His smile always lit up the room whenever he walked in. His smile made you wanna chase your dreams and never look back. His smile made you smile.

I didn't realize I was smiling until I had caught myself.

No.

I swiped right past the picture. His memories are so heavy on my heart and mind that it physically can drain me.

I continued scrolling through Instagram for a couple more minutes until my door opened. I looked up to find dad.

"Hey, kid." He greeted, clearing his throat.

I slowly put my phone down. He never usually says hi to me. Usually he's 'too busy' with work.

"Um, hey." I sit up on my bed, studying him carefully. "Everything okay?"

That's when I heard commotion going on downstairs. I slowly frowned. It sounded like quite a few people.

"Everything's fine. Your mother and I have some business to take care of with work. So we just. . ." He cleared his throat again, seeming like he didn't know how to put his next words.

"Dad?" I question.

He looked at me and choked out a chuckle as if what he was gonna say was silly. "Just stay up here."

I blink at him. "What?"

He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Azalea, you heard me."

I stared at dad with pure confusion with a mix of hatred. This is what my parents did. Keep their work away from me. They keep their work classified.

I tuck strands of hair behind my ear. "I wasn't planning on it anyways." I reply softly.

He nodded, looking at me. He was making sure I fully understood. With one final nod, he turned around but I stopped him.

"Why can't I come downstairs?"

He froze in place but I didn't take my eyes off of him. It seemed like my question had caught him off guard.

He turned around and sighed, a small smile lingering on his lips as if what I had asked him was a silly question. "Business. Now stay in here."

"But-"

"Azalea, I swear to god." Dad's voice goes low causing shivers to run down my spine. His eyes were so hard and dark, I almost wanted to cry.

When he saw my face, he seemed taken back by his voice too. But before he could even soften up a bit, he hurried out of my room.