On the road with Ryder Crawford (Haylor Fanfic)

XXXV - Territorial

"I told you I had no idea! Precautions?! Oh piss off! What do you take me for a pillock?! I haven't left this house in two days!"

It's early Saturday morning and Ryder is yelling over his phone the last half hour while Abigail and I are sitting on the edge of our seats watching Ryder pace back and forth the living room.

"Stupid fan girls. Stupid tweet!" Abigail hisses under her breath silently, obviously something she's saying to herself.

I slide my hand up and down her back to comfort her but look at Ryder with concern. He's holding his temples with his hand, jaws clenching ferociously and eyebrows cutting deep corners on his forehead.

"It's their job to fix it, isn't that why I pay them loads?! Oh Piss off will you!" He shouts making both of us squint then abruptly ended the call. He huffs out a breath and lifts his head to face the ceiling with his eyes closed and biting his lower lip.

Then his phone rings again, he checks it and quickly answers.

"Yeah-" He says and then begins to nod "I know... no you know very well I'm not going anywhere... hold it down, yeah I'll do my best. Thanks Scoot." he finishes calmly then tucks his phone to his pocket and plops down to one of the single couches.

"What's going to happen" I say very tentatively scared he might last out on me.

But to my surprise he looked at me calmly and began "It's only a matter of time before they connect Abigail to you-" he begins.

I swallow visibly and steal a sideways glance at Abigail who has her head down.

"Then..." I trail but gets interrupted.

"They'll figure out how much of a liar we all were when we shot down all the Arizona rumors. The media's about to get one hell of a feast." He says letting out a laugh and shaking his head.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know this'll happen I mean, who even reads my tweets? I don't even read my tweets. Do you read my tweets?" Abigail scrambles, talking double speed.

I form a straight line with my lips and shake my head.

"Don't fret about it. It's done, they'll figure out a way out of this. Besides, I've been through worse. But-" He then stops and lands his eyes on me.

"But?" I ask not really wanting to hear the reason.

"This will swirl more than just lying rumors, they'll already know why I'm here. The whole reason I've been hiding out was I didn't want dating rumors between us. It... it can get difficult for you" He answers and then sighs.

"You mean thousands of girls trying to slit my throat" I filled in cringing.

He nods and says "Basically."

"We can do something right?!" Abigail suddenly chips in and we both look at Ryder.

"Unless you know someone with relatively same built and hair... I don't know how we'll fix it." Ryder answers then frowns when he looks up to us, me and Abigail looking at each other knowingly.

"Will it work?" I ask skeptically.

"It's worth a shot. I'll go take Lux, you call him" Abigail answers and scurries out of the house.

I dart towards my phone and dial hastily, it rings for a couple of times then the other line picks up.

"Hi, could you drop by the house as soon as possible?" I say and breathed out relieved.

"Alright, what's going on?" Ryder suddenly demands.

"We'll try and fix it" I said vaguely.

"Well, mind telling me your genius plan before you make things anymore worse?" He then says in an amused tone.