How To Kill Ryder Blake (COMPLETED)

{Five} Party Girl In A Party World

I would have liked to blame my lack of sleep on my klutziness, but that would just be a bold-faced lie.

I wasn't able to fall back asleep after my little late-night adventure with Ryder. The image of him completely crumbling had become ingrained in my mind and stared back at me every time I shut my eyes. I had given up even trying to doze off around four this morning, knowing I'd be at Max's helping prepare for the party at seven. Max had hosted the end of the year parties for the last four years, and he always made sure to leave a mark with them. He went all out; so much so that his parents usually disappeared for the night and most of the next morning.

My klutziness decided to reach its peak as I pushed myself up on the chair to hand some dumb banner Max had been insistent was needed for the background of photos he thought would be circling social media by midnight tonight. I had just forced a tack into the end of it when my foot slipped from the edge of the chair and I fell forward, banging my head hard on the corner of the table.

Max jumped from where he stood on the small step stool across the room and raced across the room, but his father was crouched in front of me and touching my forehead within moments of me falling.

"Are you okay, Zoey?" Mr. Park questioned, eyes narrowed. "You've got a pretty nasty laceration here."

I stared at the RN before me for a couple minutes before I started laughing. Whether it was because I was coming off the adrenaline and out of the shell shock I was in or because I genuinely found the accident funny, I wasn't entirely sure.

Mr. Park wasn't at all amused. "Maybe we should get her to the hospital, Maxw-"

"Come on, Dad, it's Zoe. You've watched her nearly meet her demise for eleven years. She's fine. Just needs one of those giant bandages you have in the First-Aid kit."

"I am not walking around with a giant bandage on my head all night." I groaned, glaring up at my best friend.

With the look Mr. Park gave me, I knew I was going to have a bandage on all night. He cleaned me up quickly, Mrs. Park joining in on the worry when she walked through the front door to see what was taking her husband so long. Once he was sure I didn't have a concussion or any serious injuries, Mr. Park hugged me and muttered something about trying not to run into a wall tonight under his breath. I shot him a dark look as he slipped passed his son and out the door.

Mrs. Park hung back for a second longer, eyeing her son down. "Please make sure Max nor any of his crazy friends burn my house down please, Zoey."

Max crossed his arms over his chest with an eyeroll as his mother crushed me against her, kissing the eyesore on my forehead. It was such a motherly gesture I couldn't help but return her smile.

The Parks had always treated me as one of their own. Having always wanted another kid but not able to have more, the moment their son brought me over to do our homework together in first grade, I had been welcomed into the family with open arms.

Max stepped away from the fridge, a milk carton in his hand, as he followed his mother to the front door to see his parents off. He took a swing of milk as he waved, sighing in relief once the car was out of the driveway. I caught his arm on his way back to me and wiped the milk mustache from the top of his lip.

He ruffled my hair playfully, but didn't say thank you. Instead, he shoved the carton of milk back into the fridge and leaned back against the counter, grinning in my direction.

"I don't know what I'd do without you, Zoey Summers."

**

Gabrielle Mason had joined our little squad the summer before Freshman year. She had moved here from a small little town in Ohio and had accidently run into me in front of some restaurant in the mall food court. Seeing how shy and confused she was, Max and I came to the agreement we'd show her the ropes of living in a big city. From that moment forward, the three of us were inseparable. While Max climbed the social food chain in high school, Gabby and I weren't far behind. She decided to join the cheer squad while I went the opposite direction and studied more core academics. We all somehow still managed to graduate with honors, though Max almost failed mid Senior year do to trying to juggle Football and his classes every day.

I wasn't at all surprised to find her walk in a half hour before the beginning of Max's party caked in so much makeup she was unrecognizable and wearing a royal blue dress so tight her breasts were seconds from popping out.

I loved Gabby with all my heart, but she had a bad habit of falling into the social norms and wanting to be everyone but herself. She was absolutely gorgeous without makeup, but outside of cheering, she had always wore a whole face of it, even more so on special occasions. She had also struggled with an eating disorder in middle school, so finally seeing herself as she should, she wore the tightest and most revealing clothes possible. I knew deep down it was all her insecurities that made her wish to be someone else, but I stood beside her regardless of her choices and my feelings in regards to them.

"You're not going to change?" She directed the question at me, pointing toward my sweatpants and Max's flannel hanging loosely over a white tank top. "The party starts in like twenty minutes, Zoey."

I opened my mouth to speak but Max appeared in the hall and interrupted. "You know how Zoe is, Gabs. She is Queen of last minute. She'll be fine."

Our friends green eyes devoured Max, and for a moment my heart hurt for her. She had confessed her feelings for Max to be our Junior year of high school, but had yet to tell him. She was under the impression he had romantic feelings for me and didn't want to mess our entire friendship up by saying something. No matter how hard I tried to deny her accusation, she remained dead set on it.

Watching her eyes rake over his toned bare chest as he slid a black v neck over his head, I didn't know what hurt more. The fact that it was extremely obvious she was in love with him and couldn't do anything about it or that he was completely oblivious to it all.

"You got a little drool right there." Max joked, wiping the corner of my mouth with a smirk. I swatted his hand away, but he had already moved on to Gabby and was trying to readjust her dress so it wasn't so revealing, scolding her about her fashion decisions. I took it as my cue to head up the stairs and to Max's room at the top of them. I was nearly blinded by the sunlight bleeding through the blinds and bouncing off one of Max's trophy's. I held my hand over my eyes, shielding the sun, and closed the blinds.

Max's room was exactly what every young adult movie and show stereotyped a teenage boy's room as; a complete disorganized mess. A huge pile of dirty laundry sat in the corner beside his computer desk, currently inhabited with old paperwork from high school. His Batman comforter was a lump at the end of his bed, revealing dirty sheets beneath it. The floor under me was a mess of snack wrappers, dirty socks and underwear, and an occasional flannel he'd just discarded on the ground because he was too lazy to walk it across the room and drop it off in the hamper.

The only part of his room that was immaculate was the small trophy case on top of his dresser, holding awards from fifth grade to now, the biggest being the trophy he'd won as Quarterback the last game of Senior year.

Kicking a dirty sock off my foot, I pushed Max's closet open and yanked a short burgundy dress so hard the crappy plastic hanger snapped. I tossed the remnants of it in the trash can outside the bathroom before stepping into the bathroom to change. I didn't put as much makeup on as Gabby, but enough to hide my exhaustion and enhance my features.

Tossing my change of clothes on Max's bed, I hurried out of the room, shutting the door and hanging Max's DO NOT ENTER sign off the screw in the middle of the door. Rushing down the stairs, I slowed to a stop on the last step seeing the whole bar of alcohol Max had set out on the kitchen table.

"Seriously?" I huffed. "Did you not hear a word your parents said?"

Max smirked. "This is our last party as teenagers, Zoe. We're going out with a bang."

Gabby nudged me with her elbow and laughed. "Kris is bringing a keg too. Please, Zoe, keep an eye on my intake tonight. You know how I get."

I squeezed her forearm and smiled. "Of course, Gabby." I pointed a finger in accusation toward my best friend. "I will be limiting your intake too, young man."

Max flipped me off childishly, but was peeking out the blinds, too distracted to focus on my words.

He turned back to us with a grin, rubbing his hand together maniacally. "Are you beautiful girls ready for the best fucking party ever?"