Broken Faith ✓

Chapter 4: Nothing More!

It had been a few weeks and my anger had managed to calm down. By calm down it was still there as ripe as ever I just masked it under a very thick fog of indifference.

Ryder tried to push my buttons sometimes, I think out of pure and utter boredom. He didn't seem to have anything better to do in his life and seemingly as I happened to sit next to him I became the target of his amusement.

I always hated that even when I was a little girl. Becoming the target of someone's constant pestering violated something inside of me; no I was not going to allow you to make me into the subject of your ridicule purely for YOUR entertainment purposes.

But I gave him the reaction that I knew people like him hated: ignorance. You know how they say ignorance is bliss? It really was in this situation. See when you ignored them, it took a hell of a lot of patience but with time they slowly but eventually gave up on annoying you and then you could live the rest of your life with peace. It had worked ever since I was a little girl, and fortunately for me in this situation life had given me an abundant amount of patience.

Although he did manage to get on my nerves I never let him realise it; never even an ink drop. That was the secret to this system. I was just hoping his pestering antics stopped soon. It was as if guys like Ryder were trained and had a black belt in the art of trying to annoy any girl. But I had faith in my system. It hadn't let me down and it wouldn't. Yet in those rare moments that I was near breaking point and about to give Ryder a piece of my mind I instantaneously suppressed my pungent emotions by breathing and thinking of Arlo. My baby could get me through any crazy situation.

But there was one thing inside of me. A tiny fragment of a voice that I tried to dissipate but it managed to speak to me anyway. It kept nagging at me and I couldn't seem to get it out of my head. It reminded me with great vividness that Rory turned round a lot more to speak to Ryder as the weeks had gone by. And when he did, he always managed to pull me into their lumber some excuse for a conversation.

It would be mindless, childish nonsense but when they both couldn't agree they seemed to want my opinion. I outright refused.

What? You actually think I would willingly engage in a conversation with the person that had become the root cause of my frustration and his whiny sidekick buddy? NO THANK YOU.

But they were such stubborn fudge blocks that unless I answered them they didn't let me focus on my work. They both started irritating me. So I learned through their negative reinforcement that I should answer them quickly so I could get on with my work in peace.

NO that didn't mean I answered Ryder when he was trying to push my buttons. That was a completely separate part of him that appeared with smirks and his annoying little whispering voice long after Rory had usually turned around, I was seriously considering whether Ryder had a split personality.

How I was supposed to survive the year with them was the thought that tormented me and kept me awake at night. Yup, I was just that fed up.

"Hey smiley". "You're smiling even more than usual! Wow" sarcasm infused so heavily in Ryder's every word.

"Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith, Fai-"

"WHAT?" I glared at him. That was something even I couldn't ignore.

I really tried not to listen or give in but when he was so near my ear constantly chanting my name and this guy irritated me so much more than I had ever experienced. I didn't know that irritation of this magnitude existed within me until Ryder.

"Nothin'" he smirked.

I closed my hand into a fist to prevent the incredulous suggestion by my mind to literally slap that smirk off his face. I smiled, oh how I wished. The shock and irritation that would appear on his face as his smirk was taken off by that slap. It was so sad that I could only imagine it and not actually do it.