Thirty Reasons Not to Date a Player

11. He's Overly Competitive

If someone had warned April that Ryder was going to make her fall in love with him and then break her heart, she wouldn't have believed it.

Real life isn't like the movies, where break ups are just temporary setbacks before the grand finale. When you hate someone you used to love, and think he's done something awful, he probably has.

And he's not sorry about it either. He's not going to apologize and come back to you, and you're not going to forgive him. Maybe not ever.

April certainly hasn't.

*

"When did you guys plan on telling me about this?" A very agitated April shouts through the phone. I'm on a three way call between me, her, and Mel and it isn't pretty.

Apparently, one of April's Facebook friends posted some pictures of the sweet sixteen party, and one of them happened to include me and Ryder. Just my luck, right?

"We didn't want to upset you," Mel says. "It's not what it looks like."

"You were in on this too, of course. What, do you guys not trust me or something?" April says, her voice cracking slightly.

"Of course we trust you," I begin, "We just didn't want to get you all worked up all over again."

"Yeah right," she deadpans, "but who wouldn't get worked up over the fact that her best friend likes such an asshole of an ex-boyfriend!"

"I don't like him!"

"As a matter of fact, we hate him!" Mel chimes in, "AJ went with him to that party because it was like, the only way to stop him from blackmailing her."

"He was blackmailing you and I'm hearing about it now?" Clearly, nothing we say is going to calm April down.

"I needed him to do me a favor," I say, "and he wanted me to go with him to this dumb party, but that's it. Nothing else happened, I swear."

"So it wasn't blackmail? What favor?" April asks frantically, and I can imagine Mel cringing on her end. She didn't mean to lie, but neither of us want to tell April about the video, although we might not have another option.

"Listen, it's a long story," Mel sighs. "We'll explain all of it, but you can't jump to conclusions. AJ is your best friend, and she hasn't been hooking up with your ex behind your back all this time."

I hear April gasp. "Not helping Mel," I say through gritted teeth.

"I have to go do something," April says finally. "I'll see you guys at school." Her voice is bitter, and I know this conversation is far from over. She hangs up, leaving Mel and I to talk among ourselves.

"She wasn't supposed to find out," I say pathetically. Just when I thought this whole thing was over and that I'd be free from Ryder forever, this happens. Clearly, April never got fully over him, like she's pretended to be since she started seeing Aiden.

"No duh," Mel jeers. "Now what are we gonna do?"

"We'll figure something out."

*

Once I get to school the following day, I contemplate hiding out in the girl's bathroom so that I won't have to face April. But if I act guilty, then I might as well be. I didn't do anything with Ryder, besides dance (while spewing out harsh insults every couple of minutes because it would have been unbearable otherwise). I don't have the slightest crush on him; as a matter of fact, I probably hate him now more than ever.

True, he did flirt with me, but he's Ryder. He flirts with anything that breathes.

I'm on my way to my first period class where I run into April and Mel in the hallway. I'm not sure what I should say, but I know that I can't just run from this. We've been friends forever, and I'm not about to let Ryder ruin that.