Grace
I wake up and walk into the kitchen to make breakfast but Ryder is already done making it and is eating. Alex must still be asleep. I look at how many pancakes he made and there must be close to 15 there! I ask him "Why did you make so many pancakes?"
"Well you know how I eat. I also didn't know how many you guys ate so I made as many as the box called for. There's 14 here so dig in." Then he goes back to eating. I eat and then I decide to go for another swim. I get changed and then I ask Ryder to come again. Even though its only 8:30 there are a lot of people already out on the sandbar. He joins me after changing. He holds onto me again on the way out there because of what happened yesterday. I again give him a peck on the cheek. He smiles down at me and hugs me tightly. Then we played beach volleyball again but I have quickly learned that Ryder is not very good at it so he stopped and just watched. He then walked up to me and said "We forgot to tell Alex where we were going.I will swim back and tell him and then I will be right back here as fast as possible. Is that okay?"
"Yeah that's fine."
"If you don't feel comfortable you can come with. It's not a problem."
"No it's okay. Just hurry back some if these guys about our age look a little creepy. So please just hurry."
"Don't worry I will beautiful."
Then he swam away quickly. I continued to play beach volleyball but then suddenly I felt someone touch my butt. I turned and sure enough it was one of the creepy guys I told Ryder about. He just winked and smiled at me. I just glared and said "Don't touch me."
He just laughed and said "Oh kitty's got claws."
"Yeah I do and I'm not afraid to use them."
"Hah! You're hilarious! You can't do anything to me!"
"Wanna bet?" I ask and then begin to walk away. He walks up behind me and says "Bitch don't walk away from me!" Then he grabs me by the waist and turns me around and is about to kiss me when I try to push him away but I can't because he's too strong. I continue to try to get him off of me while he kissed me. I kicked him in the shin and ran away. He cursed and then followed me. He was yelling "Bitch you're gonna get it!!"
I kept running. I tripped over a branch and he caught up to me. He then picked me up and held my arms in a bruising grip. Then he told me never to hit him or run from him again. I spit in his face. He got a really scary look on his face and then he wiped the spit off. I took off running again. He was faster than me and he eventually caught up to me. Then he said I was going to pay for what I did. He raised his arm and everything went in slow motion. He brought his arm back and I shrunk back and closed my eyes ready for the blow just like I had all of the other times with Carter. But when I thought the blow should come, it never did. I cautiously opened one eye and I saw a hand on his arm. I traced the arm up to the face. It was Ryder. He then said "I suggest you don't ever raise a hand against a lady again or I will hunt you down and put you in a damn hospital for a year."
"Oh no I'm so scared." Then he and his buddies laughed. I knew better than to laugh. I walked up to Ryder and touched his shoulder. He turned and looked at me and I said
"Ryder come on let's just go. Please. Don't do this, I don't want you to get hurt."
"Don't worry I've been in fights before I will be fine baby. This pretty boy couldn't do anything to me." Says the ass that tried to hurt me.
"I wasn't talking to you dick."
"Oh you little-"
"I wouldn't finish that sentence if I were you."
"Oh what are you gonna do pretty boy?"
"This."
And Ryder throws a punch at his face and because of the alcohol that the other man had, it slowed his reaction time and he tried to dodge it but failed. Then all of his buddies join in and it's now 7 against 1 including the guy on the ground. The friends tried to gang up on Ryder but little did they know that Ryder was trained to defend himself and others against multiple attackers. He dodged the hits and kicks. Slowly he took down attacker after attacker. They all wound up with bruises on their faces and abdomens. Then the guy who was about to hit me got up and he tried to hit Ryder. Ryder caught his fist and he squeezed his hand. The guy screamed in pain and Ryder drove his knee in the guys groin and then again into his stomach and then finally his face. Once he was knocked out, Ryder turned to me and crushed me to his rock hard chest. I mumbled "Thanks so much. I knew you'd come. I was waiting for you to come. But you're forgetting that I've had to take hits before."
"Yeah I know but I will not stand for a man hitting a woman."
"Well thank you for always being a gentleman Ryder. It means a lot. But we should probably get back huh? We have to get ready for the beach party later."
"Yeah we probably should and okay." We started to swim back and like yesterday, Ryder grabs my hand and doesn't let it go until we get to shore. That is when it truly sets in what Ryder had done for me. I stop him from walking any further and I run up and hug him as tightly as I can. He immediately responds and wraps me up in a tight hug as well. We just stand there in a tight embrace until I pull back and say that we should get ready. He drapes his arm over my shoulder. I lean into him. He suddenly says "Please keep your promise to stay close to either me or Alex at all of the beach parties we go to."
"Yes I promise but to be honest I will probably stay close to you way more than Alex."
"I'm perfectly okay with that. This might be weird but I like you Grace. You're sweet, kind, funny, caring. Honestly you're everything I want in a girl and more."
I don't say anything. I just lean up and kiss him in the lips. It wasn't a very long kiss but it conveyed how I felt. Then we continued walking back to the house. We then went our separate ways to get changed. I took a quick shower and then did my hair. Then I got dressed in a purple sequin shirt and dark blue jean shorts with a black bikini underneath it. Then I went out into the living room where I met up with Ryder and Alex. We all left together. We started walking down the beach to where the party was. Once we got close we could hear the over the top loud music. We all wandered over and got something to drink. I pulled my old trick of pouring a coke in a red solo cup that way if anyone asked me what I was drinking I'd say a rum& coke. Ryder looked at me weird and I told him why I did that and he just nodded. Then we talked for a while. Then a song I really liked came on so I unthinkingly grabbed Ryder and dragged him towards the crowd of dancing teens and college students. I put my back against his chest. Then I guided his hands to my hips so we were grinding. We danced for a long time. Then Ryder went to get something to drink. He told me to stay where I was. I did as he told me. Then some guy started dancing with me and I figured it was Ryder so I went with it. Then when he whispered in my ear I learned that it wasn't. I tried to get the guy off of me but he wouldn't let go. I kicked him in the shin and took off running in Ryder's direction. Once I got close I said "Ryder help me!" He turned around and saw me running and a guy chasing me. He reached out and grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward him. As the guy got closer Ryder pushed me behind him. The guy then said "Hey! I was dancing with her! She is going to dance with me!"
"Does she want to dance with you?"
The guy says "yes" at the same time I said "hell no".
"Well then I don't think I'm going to let her dance with you."
"What are you going to do about it pretty boy?"
"Do I really have to go through this twice in one day? This."
With that Ryder punches the guy in the stomach twice and then in the face once and I hear a sickening crack with both of the guys body parts being punched. Then he says
"Get up and leave with whatever pride and dignity you have left."
With that said Ryder grabs two sodas and grabs my hand and drags me down the beach away from the party. When he was finally satisfied with where we were on the beach he spoke up. He said "Twice in one day! Wow where would you be with out me?"
"I honestly don't want to think about it."
With that said he asked if I was okay. I assured him that I was fine thanks to him. I then told him that he didn't always have to save me and he replied "It's in the job description."
We grinned at each other for a minute and then he pulled me under his arm. We sat there for a little while just talking about how he constantly has to save me and he just shrugged as if to say it wasn't a big deal. We then decided to go back to the party except this time we didn't leave each others sides. After a few hours of talking and dancing we decided it was time to go and to find Alex. We found him getting a beer. He was already stumbling so Ryder convinced him to put it down and leave. We were walking back to the house and Alex almost fell over because he was that drunk. Ryder put his arm around Alex to keep him upright. Alex passed out quickly after we got back to the house. Ryder then went and took Alex to his room and left him there and walked back into the living room. We watched a movie and cuddled on the couch. We watched the last song. Even though it was a chick flick I knew it wouldn't scare Ryder so I made him watch it. After the movie it was 1 in the morning so we decided to go to bed. We went our separate ways and I changed into my pajamas and went to bed. I fell asleep quickly.
A/N: I am so so so sorry for the long wait. I was busy with school and I got an iPhone and the story is on my iPod that I don't really use at all anymore! I am so sorry! But now that school has been out for a while, I will continue writing the story and send it to my phone so that way won't take so long to update! Again, I am so sorry!
