Midnight Memories

t e n

"The brightest flame casts the darkest shadow." - George R.R. Martin

"Ryder Hartley." His name escaped my lips. "You're back."

He shook his head, sapphire colored eyes seemingly baring into my soul. "I was never gone."

I shuddered, both at the icy truth in his words and the fact that after all this time, after everything that had happened, he was standing right in front of me in the flesh. "How did you find me?" I wasn't specifically asking him, it was more a general question for the universe, but he answered anyway.

"Where there's smoke, there's fire angel. I knew wherever he was, you wouldn't be too far away. But you shouldn't be scared. Like I said, i'm here to talk, not to hurt you."

"What is there to talk about?" I asked, trying to hide the fear I knew he would sense in my tone. "You ruined my life, then you tried to end it."

Ryder shook his head. "Oh, angel. You're still hung up on that?"

I looked at him, shocked. "You're really asking me if i'm over the fact you tried to murder me?"

"Stella, darling, it was never about you. If anything, you know that i've always had a weakness for that beautiful face of yours." He watched, a prideful smirk on his face as I shuddered in disgust. "I'm talking about the fact that you're still chasing after Louis when it's been what, a year since you two last spoke?"

"You don't know anything about me and Louis." I said through gritted teeth. "Nothing."

Ryder nodded solemnly. "You're right Stella. I don't know anything about you and Louis. But I know a lot about you. I know that most nights, you still cry yourself to sleep over him. I know that the only reason you still sleep with Niall Horan is because you're trying to fill the void Louis left behind. I know that's it's driving you absolutely, positively insane."

"Oh yeah?" I said softly, looking down at my pathetic, alcohol soaked jeans. "How do you know this?"

"Isn't it simple? You and I have exactly the same problem. Louis Tomlinson ruined both of our lives, and we let him get away with it."

I scoffed. "Oh? How did he ruin your life? Because you seem to be doing just fine to me."

Ryder glared. "Just fine? I'm on the FBI's most wanted list. I can't leave the house, eat, sleep, breathe, do anything without worrying if i'm going to get caught. I've spent the last few months holed up in an apartment in Brooklyn with no one but Sloane Rooney's henchman and my pathetic excuse of a brother for company. I lost my house, my cars, my fortune, my empire. All because of some stupid little boy who somehow managed to get the best of me."

"You can't handle the fact that Karma finally got to you." I shook my head. "You're a murderer, Ryder. A felon, a thief, a monster. You can't exactly spend a lifetime hurting people and expect nothing to come of it."

"Is that why Tomlinson is living in a penthouse apartment with a couple million in the bank, having some girl who could date anyone she wanted throwing herself at his drunken, drugged up feet? I hate to break it to you, but he's just as much as a monster as I am." He shrugged.

I looked down at the puddle covered sidewalk, grasping for words. "Louis is a good person. I know he is."

"You keep telling yourself that, angel. But just remember, you gave him your heart, and he gave you nothing in return." Ryder said, a somewhat sympathetic tone in his voice.

Deep down inside, I knew that Ryder was right. They had all been right, since the beginning. I had been warned not to fall in love with him, not to give him my innocence, but I had. Now I was left with an empty hole in my chest where my heart was supposed to be. I had wasted it on him.