For Rylie

Chapter 23

A/N: Hey everyone! New chapter, sorry it's short and pretty terrible as well. It's another under 1000 words but hey, what can I say? I'm lazy and I needed this to end here for the next chapter, which will be up tonight or tomorrow morning! So please just give it a go because I promise you'll understand why it needed to end where it did. So yeah, read, comment, vote and enjoy! 

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We had moved outside to lie on the grass in the warmth that the sun provided.

Leah was still getting over her hangover and claimed that the sun was helping, while I felt as awful as if I was hungover.

Last time I fell in love was with Zane, and we all knew how great that one turned out...

"Rylie," Leah grumbled, disturbing the quiet of the afternoon. "Answer your god damn phone."

I rolled onto my stomach and grabbed my phone, looking at the caller ID. I wasn't surprised that it was Max, but it didn't make me want to talk to him any more.

"Nope," I said stubbornly, turning my phone off then resting my head on my arms.

Leah groaned but thankfully didn't argue. If this was a few weeks ago she would be forcing me to pick up the phone and threatening all types of uncomprehensible things that she would do if I didn't.

I think Nate had made her soft.

Then something clicked in my head. Nate told me he was going to ask Leah out at the party on Saturday night. Which was yesterday.

"Did anything happen with you and Nate last night?" I asked, trying to keep my tone casual and not give anything away in case he hadn't.

When I looked over to Leah, her mouth was curved into a wide smile but she shook her head, no.

Awh damn...

"Well, we kinda hooked up but other than that, no."

"WHAT?" I exclaimed, sitting bolt upright. "When were you planning on telling me this?"

Leah just laughed and raised an eyebrow, her eyes still closed against the sun. "I just told you, didn't I?"

"Yeah yeah whatever."

After a little while longer Leah said she had to go. She was going over to Nate's because he wanted to talk to her, but before she left she instructed me to call Max, only leaving when I nodded in agreement.

But I wasn't going to. It's not like I wasn't not calling him for no reason.

For starters, I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I was pretty sure I was in love with him. I had no idea how to go about harbouring those feelings. The last time I did that I fell and no one was there to catch me. 

Secondly, I was still pissed that he forgot. Leah had said that when you're drunk you do thinks you don't have enough courage to do sober, but I wasn't sure I believed that. I just wish he remembered what he did.

And lastly, I just didn't want to talk to him. Simple as that. 

After dinner with my father and brother, I did some homework for Japanese and Bio, then showered and went to my room. I switched my phone on and grimaced at the number of texts and missed calls. 

And they were all from Max. 

I decided to call him back, not wanting for him to come over as he had threatened in his last text, sent two minutes ago.

I looked through my phone and clicked on his contact, dialing him. It didn't even make it to the second ring before he picked up. "Rylie? Are you okay? Where were you?" His voice instantly came through my phone, worried and urgent. 

I forced a laugh, wincing at exactly how bad it sounded. "I'm fine, Max. I just spent the afternoon with Leah."

"Oh that's good," he breathed a sigh of relief. "W-what exactly happened last night?"

I sighed, knowing this would come up. "What do you remember?" I asked, hoping he would remember something. Anything.

"Well," Max cleared his throat. "I remember dancing with you, then I asked you to stay at my house last night. That's about it." His voice sounded off, almost as if he were lying.

Almost. 

"That's pretty much all that happened. We danced, I drove everyone home, you wouldn't get off the gutter to go home and said you'd only leave if I stayed at your house, so I did." I explained, leaving out any details that he didn't need to know. 

"Hmm," Max said, and I could almost see the frown on his face through the phone. "Okay."

"You sound worried," I observed, switching off my light and crawling under the covers. I tried so hard to keep my eyes from squeezing shut but they just wouldn't stay open. 

"A little. It's very worrying not knowing what you did when you were in a room at night, completely drunk with a beautiful girl," he said. My cheeks involuntarily warmed and a wide smile spread across my face. 

"Anyway," Max continued, his voice a little shaky. "You know how I said we need to have the real day? Without masks and stuff?"

I nodded, then remembered that he coudn't see me. 

Oops.

"Yeah."

"Could we move it up to Wednesday? It turns out Hayley can't go see our cousins so I can go instead," he explained while I struggled to keep concious. 

"Hmm? Yeah, no problem," I mumbled, rolling onto my side. 

"You sound tired. Get some sleep," Max told me softly, his voice caring.

I didn't even get the chance to hang up before I fell asleep, not so much as muttering a goodbye.