COMPETITION

C H A P T E R F O U R

Ever since I left Theo's house yesterday, I haven't stopped texting Ryder. I kept it hidden from Megan most of the time because she was complaining about how she hadn't received a text back. I didn't want her to see that Ryder had been talking to me more than her. 

I was sending everything and anything, often resorting to memes to try and keep the conversation flowing. It made me feel better that he had sent some back, probably trying to make me feel less dumb about sending them in the first place. 

"Girls, come on, we're going to the beach." My mom shouted. I finally got out of the bed, groaning whilst doing so. After getting into a bathing suit, I put a cover up on top. I texted Ryder to check if Theo and everyone was coming with us. His reply made me smile. My mom walked in, probably wondering why I was smiling like a madman. If she was, she ignored it and led me out of the house.

"The beach is about 15 minutes away, then we will play a game together, as a family." She announced as everybody arrived. I sighed and walked ahead, again. Megan seemed to be fine with waiting behind - probably waiting for Ryder. 

I pretended to know where I was going until it was evident I didn't know from the left turn I had missed. 

"Rose, this way." Theo called. My mom, step-dad and the rest had walked ahead, not caring that I was going the wrong way.

"Thanks."I said, happy that someone was paying attention to where I was going. 

Now being at the back of the group, I realised that I didn't enjoy it. The creepy path we had taken had a faded walkway that made it hard to know where you were going. Someone is bound to get lost on this holiday, no doubt it will be me. 

Walking for another 5 minutes, the path was irrationally bumpy and unclear. Somehow we made it to the beach. After laying out some towels and the bags, my mom kicked off her shoes and took a soccer ball out of her bag. 

"Who's ready to get their ass kicked?" She asked, smirking. Nobody bothered to argue because she was way too competitive for her own good. I looked around at everybody and they all seemed up for a game of soccer. 

"Lets play." Theo said, cracking his knuckles, trying to seem intimidating. It didn't work. We had to make our own goals and the teams were boys against girls. The goal at each side was show by a line and some shells at the end of each side. 

I was chosen to be in net, being the tallest girl, I was used to it. 5'7 didn't seem that tall. As the game kicked off, my mom immediately ran in for a tackle on a Theo, who didn't have the ball. Ryan's girlfriend, Mia, was playing as the referee. Theo stood immediately, arms waving in the air whilst shouting for a penalty.

"Oh, please." My mom mocked. What a caring mother. 

Mia thought it would be fair to allow them to have a corner. It made me nervous because I could see that Ryder was in front of my goal, winking as if he knew he would score. My brother kicked it in to Ryder and he managed to score, barely. The ball was on the edge of the line. Nobody had seen how close the goal was until Ryder wasn't celebrating. Instead, he acted like he had dropped something on the sand whilst making my goal smaller, making it seem like he didn't score.

"Sorry, I don't know what happened, it went wide." Ryder apologised to Theo. I laughed, it's a game, no need for apologies. 

--

After a while, the boys had one despite the goal that Ryder had hidden, it was a close game. Everyone just gave up playing the game and started messing about. I was putting my shoes back on, tying the laces when I felt two hands push me face first into the sand. I turned around and saw Ryder smirking at me. 

"You have no idea what you have done." I threatened and proceeded to chase him around the beach, failing miserably because I tripped over the sand and fell, face first, again. It takes some skill to trip over sand. 

"Are you ok?" Ryder asked, chuckling whilst the rest of my family were too occupied dying from lack of breath after laughing at me. He offered me his hands, I grabbed them and pulled as hard as I could, only having him raise an eyebrow at me. "Did you just-" He was cut off by Theo pushing him, causing him to almost fall on top of me.

His elbows stopped him from actually landing on me and left him hovering over me instead. I stared into his dark brown eyes, not being able to look away. A sharp cough brought our attention back to the family around us. Megan was glaring at me whilst I sheepishly pushed Ryder up and off me. 

What a day.