Free Me From the Wolves

[13] Wolf's Out of the Bag

After Merida entered the room, Ryder decided to call our night over. He drove me back home and parked in the place where Stella's car had been just a hour or so beforehand. I wanted to know what Carol had said and why Ryder hadn't mentioned Stella even though he had to explain Aaron's story.

"I said she isn't going to ruin our night," Ryder finally told me in a huff after a silent car ride filled with my running thoughts. He hastily got out of the car and walked around to open my door.

"So does that mean—"

"Yes, I'll tell you in the morning," he answered my thoughts. I was thinking a minute past midnight, but I guess morning sounded more reasonable. He walked me to the door and I something felt weird. Instead of departing from me at the porch, he waited for me to open the door and followed me inside as if sensing the same thing. I immediately recognized the "weird" feeling as Trevor's scent.

"Back before midnight?" Andrew asked from the couch and Ryder silently walked behind me with a hand on my lower back to usher me through the house.

"I guess we were wrong to tell Stella then," Trevor suddenly said and even though Ryder sighed roughly, I knew he meant to growl. So I stopped, grabbed his hand and played into Trevor's taunting.

"Stella was here?" I asked as if I hadn't seen her car earlier. Ryder sighed stressfully and grabbed the bridge of his nose while I strayed from the path he was ushering me in. I wanted to think to him to relax, but part of me wanted to have some fun.

"Yeah," Andrew said, looking back at me from the couch.

"She was here to talk to Ryder," Trevor added and finally glanced at me instead of Ryder.

"Oh? About what?" I feigned innocence. I felt Ryder's hand at one side of my waist.

"Ash, come on," he whispered. I shushed him.

"I don't really know, but it seemed important," Andrew shrugged, not catching onto the tension between the boys.

"What's so important that she has to go to Ryder's girlfriend's house to talk to him?" Trevor inquired. "I can think of a few important things in that department."

"I'm sure you can," Ryder sneered at him. Ryder nudged my waist as if he was a dog pulling at its leash to leave while its owner stayed in place. "Come on, let's go—"

"Important like what? What do you think she could need from Ryder this late?" I asked Trevor and saw his smirk tremor.

"Well if I was in her position, I'd probably want—"

"Her position?" Ryder asked.

"Dude," Andrew said and patted Trevor's arm.

"What?" Trevor asked Drew. "I'm just saying that if I was Stella, I would've...ya know..."

"What? You would've what?" Ryder asked, raising his voice and rounding the counter to intimidate Trevor. I immediately walked with him and grabbed his back arm. I felt him calm down, physically, but emotionally, not so much.

"I would've told your girlfriend what the hell is going on!" Trevor stood up. That's when I heard Ryder growl deep down and I decided to end this.

"Wait, what's going on?" Andrew asked, confused.

"Stella—" Trevor began.

"Stella was over here to warn us that her mom knows about Aaron Hinley," I interrupted. Trevor was surprised, maybe incredulous that I knew about Aaron in the first place. Maybe he didn't even know himself.