Senior Year to Remember

Chapter 9

      So, homecoming was coming up and I decided that I was not going to go with Ryder. I texted him today, and told him that I can't go with him to homecoming. He texted me back, why? But I just ignored him.

     Just as I headed upstairs to grab my water bottle to head out and run for a bit. Since my ankle was getting better really fast, my therapist said, that I could strictly jog, or walk. As I was getting ready to go for a walk/jog, I heard the doorbell rang. "I'll get it!" I called to my parents. Then I ran downstairs, because I thought it was Bailey. She usually stops by at randoms time at my house, and she is more likely to stop by today, because I told her that I wasn't going to homecoming, but she doesn't know why.

     "Hey, Bailey," I mumbled before walking into my kitchen. I hear footsteps following me. "Umm...It's actually Ryder," he muttered while scratching his head. "What are you doing here?" I questioned giving him a suspicious look. " I was just wondering, why you just left me hanging with a text." He replied. "About that I just didn't want to go anymore," I lied. "Sure, you did," he sarcastically said, and he was looking at me like he didn't believe it one bit. "Well, you don't need to know the reason," I told him slowly getting p*ssed. "Well, I kind of do deserve to know, because YOU dumped me two days before homecoming. Now I'm dateless, so I think I do need to know the real reason." Ryder said raising his voice an octave higher. "Why, don't you just get out of my house?" I told Ryder nearly on the verge of tears. "You don't get to tell me what to do." He answered and then wrapped his arm around my waist. "Don't touch me!" I yelled and push him away from me, by this time I had tears streaming down my face. "Why do you always do this? Push me away, and I don't even know what I did wrong." He said now losing his calmness. "Just leave," I said pointing at the door. He left after that.

     That conversation had just made me want to go on a run even more. I grabbed my water bottle, and phone, and then headed out for a run.

     The cold air against my face felt so nice, even though it was fall. I ran for what feels like hours to clear out my brain. My feet just took off on their own, and I somehow ended up at Ryder's house.

     I knew I should have went inside, and apologize, but I didn't just have the heart too. So, I just went home, and slept on it.

     The next day was homecoming. Urggg...just great. I had ten missed calls from Bailey, three texts from Ryder, and oddly one messages from Landon. I called back Bailey first, and I was welcomed with Bailey yelling. "Why haven't you picked up any of my calls?!" Bailey yelled into the phone. "Sorry, I put my phone on do not disturb. Why do you need to talk to me so bad, anyway?" I questioned. "Haven't you heard, Ryder had gone awol since last night. His family has been wondering where he went, and everyone is out looking for him. Have you seen him yesterday at all?" Bailey asked and then sighed. "Yeah, I was talking to him yesterday night, and we got into an argument about homecoming. Where are you?" I asked her. "I'm at Ryder's house, you better get down here, because his mom needs some answers, or she'll call the police, which will make everything worse." She told me over the phone. "Ok, I'm coming," I said, grabbing my jacket, and walking out the front door.

     When I got to the Ryder's family household, I saw his mom with bloodshot eyes, which looked like she has been crying with her daughter. Where was his dad? I decided to look at the text messages that I got from Ryder and Landon, which I had totally had forgotten about. I read Landon first, it said. "Come now to the Lucky Bar downtown, before things get out of control!" Then I got I read Ryder messages, which said. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this." What is going on? What is happening downtown? My heart was racing after I had read the messages. I looked at Ryder's mom, and told her that he had told me that he had just stayed at a friends house for the night. She let out an exhausted sigh, and thanked me for knowing about her son whereabouts. "See you soon, Becca. I missed you. Long time no see, right?" She said. I smiled, and give her any excuse that I had to leave.

     Not even after 5 seconds, Bailey came out of the house after me. "That is a bunch of bullshit. What really happened?" She said trying to keep her voice down. "They both sent me a text message from last night that said that they were at Lucky Bar downtown. I have a feeling something went down that was really bad, because I even got a message from Landon." I replied with a worried smile. "What are you going to do now? Don't tell me you're about to go downtown by yourself." Bailey said. I gave her a sheepish look. "I'm going with you. I'm not letting you go by yourself." Bailey said with determination as if I was going to say no, I needed her there with me.

     We both hopped into my car, and headed downtown. Half way through the car ride, I asked, Bailey about homecoming. She then said that she wasn't going to homecoming, if Landon is there with Ryder. So looks like none of us are going to our senior year homecoming.

Arrived at Lucky Bar

     Just as Bailey and I got there, it looked just like a regular bar. I texted Landon that we were here, and he told me to talk to the bartender. He told me to mention something about a hawk.

     We both walked over to the bartender, and started having a conversation with the nice handsome man. Bailey somehow mention the word hawk in her sentence and he heard how she mention hawk, so he told us to follow him. He took us down to a long hallway, and told us to head down the hallways and stairs.

     As we arrived to the big wooden door, we opened it, and it looked like an alleyway. Bailey and I quickly headed down the stairs. There are a big red door that had the sign employees only, but Bailey apparently didn't see it, and opened the door. We heard yelling, and speakers once we closed the door. I saw two people fighting in, which looked like a boxing rink. Is this a underground boxing rink bar? Bailey and I both look at each other, and then Bailey finally spoke up. "I knew about how Ryder was boxing." Bailey finally spilled out. "Why didn't you tell me? How could you not tell me?" I hissed at her. "I didn't know that he would box again after what happened in Texas. I swear I didn't know anything until you told me about the messages, so I just assumed that he was back to his old ways." She quickly answered. "I honestly, don't want to deal with this right now. Why don't we just find Ryder and Landon? Then you all can explain to me about what is going on." I muttered. "Ok" Bailey agreed and then sighed.

     As we were looking for both of them, we saw that their was a lot of girls wearing low cut clothes and what looked like gang leaders. Bailey and I both spotted Landon talking to some four random strangers. We both approached him, and Bailey tapped on his shoulder. She started to pretend to flirt with him, which I questioned but didn't say anything. Then after the four men left, Landon started chuckling to himself. "Why are you laughing? Do you know how much explaining we have to do to Becca." Bailey snickered, and hit Landon up side the head. "Well, sorry. I didn't want Ryder to kill himself, and she was the only person how could stop himself." Landon replied, and rolled his eyes at Bailey.

     If someone told me on the beginning of freshman year, that this would all happen, I would just probably laugh in their face. It has become so real now, we are all going off to college soon and probably going to different colleges, which honestly scared the hell out of me. How was I supposed to go throughout college without my best friends? Are my friends really the people I knew back when I was in 7th grade?