She's A Trouble Maker

Chapter Sixteen:

                             -Ryder Rivers-

I couldn't help myself but follow her upstairs. She was about to go into the bathroom and without think I gently grabbed her arm, turning her around.

"What do you want, Ryder?"  She seemed slightly irritated. I inspect her face carefully as the blood on her nose and lip slowly streaks down to her chin.

"You were great out there." I smirk at her, remembering how she took the punches so well, even when she realised blood was dripping.

"Thank you, but I need to clean my face." She turned to go back into the bathroom but I stopped her again.

"I also wanted to tell you that I have a race tomorrow, if you wanted to come." I lied, I didn't have a race but now I need to go there to race. For some reason I was compelled to spend more time with her, I was confused. She makes me confused.

"Of course." She smiles at me before going into the bathroom.

I hear the tap running and before I started walking downstairs, her phone rang.

"What?" She sounded mad, she obviously didn't have a good relationship with whoever called her. There was a long silence that followed after that, maybe the other person was speaking but I couldn't hear anything apart from Harley's voice.

"Where are you?" He voice was stern but she sounded a little bit worried. I hear the tap close and I run downstairs back to Dustin.

Dustin and I have been quite close lately since he overheard what I said to Harley when we almost had sex.

That night everything happened in a blur. One moment I was mad at Harley, the next she was straddling me whilst we were focused on our tongues dancing together. I didn't want to stop her but I knew I had to, she would later in regret it. I've never cared about whether a girl was a virgin or not but for some reason, with her, I cared.

When I reached Dustin, Tom was also there, he must've arrived when I was upstairs. I greet Tom before the front door slammed shut and before you could hear Harley's car tyres screeching at the speed she was going.

"Where's she going?" Dustin asks me, I simply shrug. Honestly I have no clue where she is going, all I know is she's going to pick someone up.  I wasn't going to tell Dustin that, he'd probably question how I knew that information and I'd have to tell him I was eavesdropping on her conversation, which is not an option.

We all agree to watch a movie, Tom had picked out 21 Jump Street. Dustin and Tom were both concentrated on the film where as my mind goes to someplace else. The conversation Hunter and I had.

Flashback:

"You wanted to speak to me, sir?" I asked, politely. Hunter nodded and told me to sit down, so I did.

"Like I said back there, I appreciate what you did for my daughter. When she and James dated, all he did was ask her for sex. She, of course, denied it, but he didn't take it so well." Hunter started to explain a little bit of Harley's past.

"I know, he ended up cheating on her. She told me." I played with my fingers as I spoke. I was afraid that I would somehow make a bad impression to Harley's father and for some reason, that really bothered me.

"She thought she loved him and when he broke her heart, she built these walls. She's a very concealed person, she won't open up easily about her feelings." I've noticed that Harley was like that, she's afraid that if she lets those walls down, she'll get hurt again.

"Harley always says she doesn't believe in love." I said as Hunter handed me a glass of whiskey.

"I believe you can be the one to change that." He took a sip of his whiskey and I just took a deep breath. Why was I the one who could change the way she feels about love?