The Quirky Tale of April Hale (Quirky Series #1)

2.30: Black. The name's Ryder Black.

B E L L A

Three years after the breakup, Ryder called her.

At that time, it had been a few weeks since the last time Bella heard anything about Ryder. It was okay. She knew that her best-friend had a habit of not giving updates about himself.

Still, as understanding as she was, she couldn't help yelling at him for being MIA for almost a month.

"I thought you got killed!" she said. "Those people beat you up good the last time!"

His tone was somehow level, calm. So unlike him. "Me, too. I thought I'd never pick up the phone and tell you this, Bella."

And when he told her that, she fumed. She fumed, because her best-friend had been an idiot. She fumed, because as much as she wanted her bestfriend's idiocy to come back, she had to scurry him back to the reality.

Because her best-friend's idiocy would be detrimental to Bella's new bestfriend April Hale.

"It's not fair for you to come back now, Ryder," she couldn't believe herself for saying that. She had been saying the exact opposite thing just a year ago. "She's just... she's just recovering."

The silence on the other side was very loud. Bella had almost thought that Ryder hung up on her, right before his words came in a careful drawl. "Has she found someone?"

Bella bit her lip, wondering if she should report the sightings that she had seen. April and Alex had grown considerably closer these days. So close that even casual bystander would have thought of them as more as friends. Bella knew for sure that April still hadn't figured out her own feelings toward the blonde billionaire.

But she had a hundred percent certainty that Alex wanted her.

She was just confused as to why he hadn't made a move. Alex had made a move to everyone. Well, not everyone everyone, but girls he were attracted to. Hell, Alex made a move to her that time!

But Bella could feel the sense of dread coming from her phone, even though the receiver was far away from her. She shook her head and said, "Well, no."

"Then why can't I come back, Bella?"

"Because, Ryder, you idiotic buffoon," Bella sharply inhaled. "Once you're involved with those kind of people, you never really get out."

Bella hoped, though, at the bottom of her heart, that none of her speculations would come true.

Her words were enough to keep Ryder away. For now. She knew that time would come in which he would try to come back to April again. She knew her bestfriend. She knew how determined he could be.

But she also truly knew how very self-sacrificing he could also be.

Ryder would probably be okay with hurting himself, if he knew that it was the best option for the other party. He had done that before. Countless times. To people that he loved. His grandmother, his ex Linda, his friends, even Bella herself. Ryder kept sacrificing and sacrificing a little bit of his happiness, a bit of his comfort, and they were all the people who benefited from this.

The next time Ryder asked her opinion whether he should find his way back to April or not, Bella knew that she would answer 'fuck yeah' with a lot of enthusiasm.

-

2.30: Black. The name's Ryder Black.

A name said a lot of things.

A name contained histories of other people with the same names. A name contained hopes and dreams from its givers. A good name could make the person associated with it flourish. A bad name could squander all the potentials of a person associated with it.