Bastiana has a loving family, two amazing best friends, and a secret.
Over summer vacation, Bastiana and her besties do their best to focus on their bucket list in order to distract them from all the secrets they're keeping from one another. When a...
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"Bastiana! Ryker is here!" my mom calls from the bottom of the stairs 45 minutes later. My bedroom door is open, so I can hear the hum of their voices and then a minute later my best friend appears in my doorway.
Ryker McPherson is 6'1" of pure muscle, with naturally tanned skin, dark hair, and cold gray eyes. He's an offensive tackle on the same team as Abi and Jaxon, even though he's only a sophomore. His face is composed of hard lines and a chiseled jaw that's always set in a scowl. Just looking at him, most people only see anger and danger. On the outside, he's aggressive and unapproachable, but I know better.
He and I have been friends since we were 6 and I moved in down the street from him. We met a few days after I moved, at the small park between his house and my apartment, Gander Park.
Gander Park isn't much; less than a city block with a slide, a swing set, a merry-go-round, monkey bars, half a basketball court, and some picnic tables on one side. On the other side is an open field and the whole park is bordered by trees and a short chain link fence.
The park is across the street from Ryker's house, which puts it on my side of the street, a few houses down. If I stand at the end of the driveway leading to our parking lot, I can see Ryker's house and the park.
The neighborhood is quiet, and one of the safest in our already safe, small town. Since we don't have to cross a street to get there, mom always let us go to the park by ourselves, as long as we went together.
The first time we went there was the day I met Ryker. He was there with his older brother, Roy, tossing a football back and forth. They didn't pay much attention to us at first.
I've always been a clumsy person, but as a child it was much worse. I was always falling and hurting myself. So, when I fell off the monkey bars and cut my knee open, Ryker and his brother finally looked over at us. I started crying and Abi was trying to console me when they walked up to us.
"You guys alright?" Roy asked, crouching down next to us. He was 12 at the time, and much taller than the rest of us.
"No, she's bleeding a lot, and I don't have anything to stop it with." My sister told him.
"Don't worry, it doesn't look so bad." He said, trying to soothe both of us. "My name is Roy, and this is my brother, Ryker." he said, gesturing to the boy beside him. "Mind if I take a look?" He looked down at me. I nodded slowly.
"My name is Abigail, and this is my sister, Bastiana." My sister told them, moving back to let Roy have a look at my knee.
"You guys new to the neighborhood? I haven't seen you here before." Roy said as he examined my wound.
"Yeah, we just moved in down the street a few days ago." Abi told them.
"Well, welcome to the neighborhood, girls. Sorry it started on a sour note." He gave us a small smile. "We live across the street." He gestured over his shoulder to a brown, single story house. "Your knee doesn't look too bad. Nothing a few band-aids can't fix." He smiled down at me.
