hey jealousy || Liam Dunbar

10

A/N: There's a lot of time skips

After Lacrosse practice was chaotic, Ryder went to home to find Brooke sitting on the couch watching star wars and eating popcorn, and Ryder joined her. Then, when they got bored, the two of them decided that they would bake, because Brooke loves it apparently. They got into a flour war, throwing flour at one another and laughing over it. They were having such a blast, they didn't even realize Mark walk into the house. "What the hell?" He asks in disbelief, walking through the threshold. "Without me?" Ryder laughs and throws a handful of flour in his direction, and the three of them get into a two to one flour brawl. White covering the floors and counters. They ran out of flour and had to stop, all taking a look around the kitchen. "The crime comes with a cost." Ryder mumbles, and Mark nudges him. "You would know." He says, and Ryder punches his shoulder, both wearing playful smiles. Brooke looks confused. "What?" She questions, head tilted adorably, and Ryder sighs. "I'm not that much of a good kid. Your young, so I don't expect you to fully understand, but I was taken into custody overnight once. I was expelled from my last school too. There's more, but I don't want to make you hate me when your probably the closest thing I have to someone who cares about me and shows it the way you do." Ryder explains, not wanting to go into detail. Not wanting to scare his sister away and make her want to stay with Katrina. Brooke looks unfazed though. "I get suspended a lot. Since I started understanding what mom did to you, I haven't been as caring about what I do at school. She couldn't have that anymore, so she came to get you so I would feel better. I knew it work." She shrugged her small shoulders, and Ryder feels his tense shoulders relax, and he gives her a warming smile. "Well, you take after your brother." He tells her, messing up her hair. "Good." She grins, showing a missing tooth. "Let's try not to get in trouble, okay?" He asks of her, and she nods at him, and then flicks the flour on her hands at him. "You fuckin' rascal." He teases, looking up at his dad, who's smiling, and then chasing after his little sister. Who's giggling like a mad man.

"Alright guys, we gotta clean up-" Mark walks into the living room, to find his children passed out on the couch. He smiles, glad to finally have his daughter back in his life. Even if it's just for now. Not wanting to wake Ryder or Brooke, Mark exits the living room, and starts cleaning up the mess of flour by himself. Smiling to himself. 

***

The next day at school, nobody had seen Scott or Kira all day, and everyone was getting pretty worried. It's the game, and everybody is freaking out, Stiles and Ryder have been texting him all night, to no reply. Both friends seem to have vanished. The game wasn't going too well, but they kept playing, unable to do anything else. "Anything?" Stiles asks, looking over Ryder's shoulder. He shakes his head no, and Stiles huffs out a breath of air, and runs a hand through his hair. Ryder looks towards the bleachers, where he sees Brooke and Mark looking disappointed that Devenford had scored yet another goal. "Canova! Get on the field!" Coach shouts, and Ryder jumps up, handing his phone off to Stiles. He runs onto the field and hears Brooke cheering for him excitedly, her little voice soft and delicate in the crowd of adults and teenagers. 

Ryder plays hard, and he ends up scoring a singular goal, giving Liam a high five. Of course, Liam's not looking too good. Radiating fear as he stands, frozen on the field. "Liam!" Ryder shouts at him, continuing to run with the ball, down the field. He watches as Talbot bowls the boy over, knocking Liam out of trance. Liam pulls off his helmet, right as Ryder makes the shot, and misses. He tunes in to Liam speaking. "What the hell was that for?" He asks, annoyance in his tone. "Your afraid. I can smell it on you from a mile away." Brett says, his deeper voice stern. Liam growls. Brett continues. Are you hurt?" Liam gives him a weird look. "No." "are you alive?" Liam gives him an even weirder look. "Obviously." "Then get. Up." Brett orders, him, jogging back to his side of the field. Ryder stops at Liam's side. "You okay?" Liam nods, a scowl etched onto his face. "You sure? He's right. You are definitely afraid." Liam ignores him, getting open for a pass.