He Came Back

Prologue

Freshman year 2013 December 28

My heart starts hammering in my chest when I hear the familiar knock at the front door. I get up from the couch and walk towards the door. I smooth out my Johnny Cash shirt before opening the door. "Hey Bails."

My smile spreads across my face at the sight of my best friend. "Hi." I feel my cheeks burning when he reaches out for my hand. I take it before we begin to walk to the park around the corner from our houses.

Ryder Williams. He was three things to me, my next door neighbor, best friend, and well the boy I was head over heals for. I know. I know. What do I know about boys? Heck, I'm only a freshman in high school! Boys are the last thing I should be thinking about. But Ryder... Man was he SOMETHING.

I looked over to look at his face. It was emotionless. Which kind of scared me, for the 6 years I've known him he's always worn an expression. Always. Happy, excited, angry, sad. You name it. I could read Ryder like a book. But as of this moment I had no idea what he was thinking.

"Ryder?" He look at me as if to ask 'yes?' "Are you.... Ok?" He didn't answer me. Instead he opened the gate to the park and lead me to the playground. We squeezed into those small tunnels. It was our spot since we were little. Still is. Even though neither of us could barley fit.

"I need to tell you something. I don't want you to get upset with me got it?" I slowly nodded my head. "My dad found a job in New Jersey."

"Ryder. April fools for like four months. Your a bit early, buddy." He looked at me with that same emotionless face. My heart raced realizing he was serious. I couldn't help the tear slide down my cheek. He looked away, he couldn't stand seeing me cry.

"We leave tomorrow afternoon." Now I was pissed off.

"Tomorrow afternoon?! How long have you known about this?" He flinched at my sudden outburst.

"Two months." He says his voice cracking in the process. I groan in order to keep myself from screaming at him. Screaming wasn't going so solve anything.

His head snaps back to me and I give him an annoyed look. But before I can understand what's happening he presses his lips to mine. My eyes widen as I stare at him. Not moving. He pulls away, his cheeks and neck turning a shade of pink.

"Sorry." I shake my head and hold a finger to my lips. Ryder just kissed me. That means he feels the same way right? My hope immediate gets squashed. "That was a mistake. I don't even know why I did that. Please don't take that the wrong way. I was... Experimenting."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't um worry about it. I understand."

"You do?" He said a small smile spreading across his lips. I nod my head yes before checking my watch my grandmother gave me as a birthday present last month. It read 6:30 PM.

"I should go, Ryder. Dinner should be done. Come get me tomorrow if you want. I would love if I got a proper good bye from you."

"Yeah defiantly! I'll come see you before I leave. I think I'm going to stay here in the tunnel for a while longer. I'm going to miss it." He sighs tightly shutting his eyes.

"I would stay with you but, you know how my mom gets when I'm late for dinner." I frown.

He nods. "Stacey. I'll miss her she's like a second mom to me. I'll miss you the most Bails. I hope you know that." I sigh before crawling back into the tunnel.

"I'll miss you too Ryder. Well text every night and Skype as many times as we can during the week." I get on my knees before giving him a tight bear hug. He wraps his arms around me. We stay like that for a few seconds before I feel him release me.

"Yeah. We will." He salutes me as I get up to leave.

I feel his eyes on me as I walk away. As soon as I'm out of sight I let myself cry, not caring if my sobs echo through the neighbor hood.

I'm going to miss my best friend.

---

Hello readers! So here's just a prologue to the book, the actual story will take place when Bailey is a senior in high school. Anyway the chapters won't be this short I promise.

Also, you won't see many author notes during the story. Most people don't bother to read them anyways so I'll just right the story. Occasionally I'll write a authors note but not that often.

-Kelsey