The Boy Next Door (Editing and Rewriting)

Chapter 12

I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of him, what was he doing here, what did he want? I had to try and control my breathing, so I stopped looking at him, hopefully he would just disappear the same way that he appeared. Still frozen in my spot I allowed my eyes to drift over the crowd of students moving through the halls, they all looked completely normal. None of them seemed to be scared of the boy that is leaning against the front desk, the boy that made me cower away from him by simply breathing.    But of course they wouldn’t see him as anything out of the ordinary, they don’t know him.

Looking back at Ryder I saw that luck was still on my side, he hadn’t seen me yet, if I could just slip away then he’ll never even know I was here. But, right at that very moment he looked up and his eyes met mine, I guess I spoke too soon. As soon as our eyes met recognition flashed across his face and I had to resist the urge to turn and sprint in the other direction as fast as humanly possible. But, then again, even if I wanted to I wouldn’t have been able to because I was rooted to the spot as pure fear ran through my veins. As I remembered the last memory I have of him, in my old kitchen as he dragged the knife’s point across my stomach. The pure fear and terror I felt in that moment came rushing back to me as I stared into the eyes of the boy that made me how I am today.

“Alison!” Ryder shouted, waving to get my attention, if I didn’t know any better I would have said that he looked happy to see me. To any other person that was seeing this, would think he was seeing a long lost friend, a person that he wanted to see, someone that he actually liked. But I on the other hand, still probably looked as if I’d seen a ghost, and at this point I was starting to hope that he was only a ghost. After a few seconds of me saying nothing in response to his exclamation Ryder dropped his hand and starting walking towards me. This was not good, I needed to move, but my legs weren’t listening to me, they wouldn’t move, I was still rooted to the ground. In this case screaming wouldn’t help, no one here would try and help me, and it’s not like he was hurting me yet, maybe he just wanted to talk to me.

“Alison, my dear, I’ve missed you, why did you move all the way out here, to London?” he asked, a fake sweetness dripping his voice, but I heard the venom behind his words.

“You know exactly why I moved Ryder,” I said as soon as I found my voice, putting as much power and venom into it as possible.

“Aww come on, tell Ryder why you moved darling,” I heard a voice from behind say, turning around I saw Jack. Another person that sometimes had a guest starring role in my nightmares, not only was Jack Ryder’s best friend, he also enjoyed tormenting me.

“Jack, I would say how lovely it is to see you but, well, I would be lying,” I told him before turning around to face Ryder again. I heard a faint mutter behind me that sounded like, the feeling is mutual, but I wasn’t sure nor was I going to find out.

“What do you want Ryder?” I asked him, again trying to put as much power and venom in my voice as possible.

“Aww darling, I missed you, didn’t you miss me too?” Ryder asked, again the faked sweetness overpowering the venom in his voice.

“Not one bit.” I replied, short and sweet, well not really sweet but you get the point, before turning to the left and trying to walk away from the two boys. Bad idea.

“Where are you going?” Ryder asked me, no more sweetness hiding the venom, as he reached out and grabbed my arm, stopping me from moving any further. I managed to keep my breathing calm as I uttered my next words,

“Get off me Ryder.” I told him, without looking back at him, and when he didn’t let me go, I turned to face him to make him let go of my arm. Even though I was a good ten centimetres shorter than Ryder, my built up anger made up for that difference as I reached around with my other hand and slapped him across the face. That made him let go of my arm as he reached up to touch his cheek to see if that was real, when he pulled his hand away again I saw that I had left behind a handprint. “Let that be a lesson to you, don’t touch me again.” I said before I walked away from him, leaving him standing there in pain and Jack in a state of shock as they both watched me walk away.

I was sick and tired of being the victim, that’s what I told my dad about a month after Ryder attacked me, I didn’t want to be defenceless so I made him sign me up for a few defence classes. That is how when Ryder came back to reality and ran after me, trying to tackle me to the ground, I simply side stepped away from him and brought my elbow down on his back, causing him to flatten out on the floor, groaning in pain.

“What did I say Ryder? Don’t touch me.” I said, “I thought you would have got that, I used nice simple words so you would understand and everything, but I guess there isn’t much you can do to help the mentally challenged.” I said, fake sadness coating my voice towards the end of my sentence. I turned around to see Jack standing there, in a fighting stance, but after taking one look at my face he backed down, apparently I scared him, good.

I was through being the victim to their little games that they play for their own enjoyment. I was sick of it, and I was sick of them, sure I would still have nightmares about what happened, but I will not let it happen again. Ever. I was through being the little girl, the little helpless victim. I could handle myself just fine as those two boys now know, if they want to mess with me, let them try. But, they won’t win, not this time.

A/N: What do you think about her little rant at the end? Comment below :) I hope you enjoy this chapter, it was a lot of fun to write towards the end, so I hope you guys enjoy it! Thanks for reading !