By the Playbook

By the Playbook (27)

                My heels clicked against the tiles of The Black Stallion, marble floors so polished I could almost see my reflection in them. The restaurant was lavish and dripping money, making dinner a strictly black-tie affair. Black curtains swathed the decorative windows, billowing slightly in the slight breeze coming in through the open French doors on the far side of the room. Candles lit the room, shadows dancing on the walls, an orchestra playing a slow, romantic tune in the corner. Women dripping with diamonds and men with watches more expensive than my college tuition chatted around the tables, trying and failing to pretend like they weren't just using their money to seduce each other.

Ryder offered me his arm, and I took a moment to admire the way he looked in a suit before pressing my lips against his cheek. He gave me a sidelong glance and a crooked smile but said nothing, leading me to the private room Olivia had reserved. I fought the urge to sigh; Ryder and I were fighting every day to keep from growing apart. After I had returned to the house and told him that I had gone to talk to Alec, he hadn't even been mad. The look on his face that had broken my heart then, a look of exhaustion, of such sadness I couldn't fathom it, had become a constant. We took turns sneaking into each other's rooms at night, but though he wasn't avoiding me, I knew he wasn't seeking me out for a reason. Ryder blamed himself for the hurt that I was going through, for the gossip that never seemed to end, and I knew he was wondering if the things I had said in the video were things I was feeling but not sharing. When we were together, he treated me better than ever, but I knew he was doing it only because he was terrified that I was going to leave him.

The video, as I knew it would, stayed up. In the three weeks that passed after the posting, Ryder and I went from being gossiped about because I had 'tamed' him to being gossiped about because most people thought he was abusing me, a bad-tempered dick who took out his stress on me. Because Oliver was Oliver and his fans cared more about his family than they did their own, the video soon went viral. It took tweets from everyone in Gold Rush, the Green family, and the football team to try to get the rumours to calm down. Oliver lost his shit on an interviewer who hinted that Ryder would ever hit me, nearly punching him in the face, and the rumours grew that it was the entire family who was crazy. Crosswell kept winning games, but the only ones who would talk to Ryder or I were the other players on his team. He still owned the school, but only because people were afraid to get on his bad side. Teachers had come to me, asking first if he was hitting me and secondly if he was doing okay in the wake of the video. I'd said no to both. It had gotten to the point that Olivia had demanded the entire family accompany her to Seattle for a shoot, even if we weren't the models – she wanted us out of Riverbrook, out of the way of the rumors.

Olivia led the way behind the hostess, Dawson looking extremely uncomfortable at her side. As soon as Kasey had realized that it was his birthday on the weekend we were away, she'd demanded he'd come with us and celebrate. He looked smart in his suit but was even quieter than usual, pulling out Olivia's chair for her but saying nothing as he sat next to her. Kasey sat beside him, looking like she was planning something, but I didn't bother to try and figure out what it was. Worrying about Ryder and Alec had left me with little to no sleep for the past few weeks, and I was more exhausted than I'd been since the months after the crash.

Trenton took the seat next to Kasey, Ellie beaming at his side. Neither of them seemed fazed that Jayden wasn't there – he was still in San Francisco with his other brother, but since we were in Seattle near where he was living, Cassie had forced him to join us. They were holding hands and Trent looked happier than I'd ever seen him, and I couldn't help but glance at her left hand. The ring finger was still bare, but I knew it wouldn't stay that way for long. I didn't know Trent like Kasey and Cassie did, but Cassie was practically floating whenever Trent smiled at Ellie, giggling excitedly with Brent.