One Thousand Sundowns [RYLEY AU]

~The Second Sundown

Marley was agitated. The whole day, she had been on edge about what had happened the night before. She was angry at herself for upsetting Ryder, the boy who she'd only known for a couple of minutes. She was just so upset with herself, and she'd spent the whole day beating herself up about it. She just wanted to go home and maybe go back to the spot where she'd met Ryder and apologise. She just hoped he'd be there again that night, staring at the sun like he was yesterday.  

"What's got your knickers in a knot?" Marley looked up from her book – which she hadn't been paying any attention to – and looked at her best friend, Kitty, who was seated next to her and painting her nails a bright shade of orange.

"Nothing." Marley replied sharply, shaking her head and looking down at her book again, biting her lip. She tapped her foot impatiently against the bench and glanced at her phone lying on the table, staring at the screen. Lunch wasn't even half way over, and she was already desperate to go home. Just one more period, she told herself.

"No... something's wrong. You seem like, anxious." Kitty raised an eyebrow at her friend and cocked her head to side, curious. Kitty had noticed a change in her best friend since this morning – normally she was the "good cop" of the two but today, she was so snappy that Kitty had decided she was now the "bad cop".

"Something just happened last night, that's all." Marley whispered, closing her book and resting it on the table, leaning against the brick wall behind her. She ran her finger over the pages of the book with a sigh and rested her head on her knees. Why couldn't she just see Ryder again?

"What?" Kitty asked slowly, quickly abandoning her nails. Kitty faced her best friend and put her hand over Marley's Converse shoe, staring at her friend worriedly. She normally didn't give a crap about anyone else's wellbeing but her own, but she'd found that over the years, if you want to know something, you have to act like you care.

Marley shook her head and picked at her nails, trying to remove the dirt from underneath. Marley just really needed to apologise to Ryder... she was desperate to make up for her mistakes.

"No, Mar, tell me." Kitty said, patting her friend's leg and leaning forward, ready to listen if her friend were to whisper why she was acting so... weird.

"Kitty, leave me alone." Marley said, standing up from her seat. She grabbed her things from the table and walked away from her best friend, gripping the book tightly.

Not long now, she told herself. Not long at all, I guess.

{x}

Ryder climbed the hill, gripping onto the nearby rock to stop himself from slipping. He'd hurt his leg when some of the boys at school pushed him over a bench and into the lockers; his leg smashed against the metal bench and then he fell over, twisting his ankle in the process and ended up hitting his head against the locker. His head still ached, and he couldn't really move.

He fell onto his butt as soon as he reached the cliff and sighed, running his hand through his greasy hair. Ryder was so tired, and it was another one of those days where he wanted to give up. Die. It would be so, so easy. He wouldn't have to worry about anyone or anything ever again. And it's not like anyone would actually care if he was gone – they all wanted him dead anyway.

Ryder took a deep, shaky breath and scooted closer to the edge, hanging his legs off and staring down at the light blue sea. He could still see it – the sun had only just started going down, making the sky a dusty blue colour.

He could jump off the cliff, he could possibly hit his head on one of the rocks and knock himself out, and then he could drown happily, with no last thought as to who would miss him.