On the road with Ryder Crawford (Haylor Fanfic)

LXXIV - Friends and Enemies

Although the night of the fashion show was a blur, today everybody's here to cheer me up.

And I mean everybody.

Ryder stayed in and slept on our couch as he so stubbornly refused to leave even after Gail practically wrestled him out saying he'll leave when he's sure I'm okay.

And to be honest, I wanted him to stay. For some reason just knowing he's close is making me feel much more safe and stronger.

Karlie came over first thing in the morning with Ethan while Scoot flew in from New York shortly after.

"So Klaire just walked in and pretended to not know you??" Karlie asked after I finished telling them what happened.

I'm sandwiched by Karlie and Gail on our couch while Ethan and Scoot are seated on opposite single sofas then Ryder's leaning on the window overlooking the street.

"Um-yeah." I mumbled I left out the part she said she told me to stay away from Ryder for some reason, it's something I want to fight over on my own.

"That nasty! I'm going to make that nose job of hers pop!" Abigail half yells making Ethan chuckle.

Ryder's face doesn't show much but his jaws are clenching uncontrollably.

"You know what honestly, she wasn't always like this. That's why I remained friends with her even after-" Karlie trailed and peered her eyes up to Ryder who just shakes his head and turns to look out the window.

"You know... she always had her eyes set on her goals and I respected that. But she just- changed after she got all she wanted she's just..." Karlie continued.

"Nasty. I don't care who she was before. Today, she just made a dumbass move of making me her enemy." Abigail bites back.

"Couldn't get it out but yeah- what she did was just awful. It showed me I did the right thing when I stopped being friends with her" Karlie replies.

"I don't want enemies Gail, I never asked for that." I said.

"Most of the time we make them even if it's not our choice but what you do have a choice about is how you're going to go about it." Ethan replied looking at me thoughtfully.

"We can tell the media about what happened." Scoot who's been quiet the whole time suggests.

Ryder snaps his head to look our way again and we caught each other's eyes for a second.

"No... I can stand my ground with petty girl cattiness." I replied immediately.

"It is a good idea" Ryder cuts in.

"Yeah do that! Expose their nasty to the whole world"  Abigail said propping her back up on her seat.

I sighed and looked blankly in front of me.

"The media already knows too much about my life than I want to. I don't want to tell them about my restroom intimidations too." I said then took a glance at Ryder.

I see him smirking and mouths "Of course" when he caught me looking at him making me snap my head away and rest my head on Karlie's shoulder.

"Oh don't worry doll, you have us. Nick's on his way with food." Karlie coos.

"Yeah all of us here- we'll always have your back." Ethan says addressing everyone.

"With all of our awesomeness *erhm-me* what else would you ever need?" Abigail says grinning making all of us chuckle.

The door bursts open and Nick Greyson comes waltzing in bringing a bunch load of food.

"Nobody start the group hug til I walk in!" He squeals and lurches over to me, Karlie and Gail enclosing us to a huge mushy hug.