Baby steps ∽『boy ✮ boy -EDITED

Seventeenth👣-edited

"Are you okay?" Ryder asked, tilting his head to look at me. We were both sitting in my bed, my head being laid against the headboard and eyes staring aimlessly through the room while Ryder sat with his legs crossed Turkish style next to me.

I nodded, turning to look at Ryder. He was already staring in my direction, his gaze somehow fixed as if he was not seeing me, but rather watching through me. His face contorted a few second and then suddenly his lips parted and he burst into a hectic fit of laughter. I looked at him like he was a madman but soon the corners of my mouth turned upwards too.

"What the heck are you laughing about?" I asked and Ryder shook his head, letting it drop on my shoulder.

"Sorry, it's just... You were so adamant to get rid of me; you even made a girl ambush me for God's sake, but when you finally had the chance to kick me out, you didn't. You even stood up against your parents for me..." Ryder's lips parted into a final laughter, his head rising to look up at me. "I am just so happy."

My heart skipped a beat, my cheeks starting slowly to heat up.

"I didn't do that for you... I- I thought about our agreement and decided it was more convenient to keep you around."

I looked away from Ryder and the taller boy nodded his head, sitting up straighter against the headboard.

"Yeah, sure, the agreement. " He said, lengthening the word "sure" sarcastically, displaying me a smug smirk.

"Yes, the agreement." I insisted sternly, trying my best to hide my embarrassment.

"It sounded like you really wanted me to stay around though."

"That's because-.... Because..."

I bit my lip, my brain void of any excuses.

"I wanna stay around too. I missed the times when we were friends."

I looked at Ryder, my heart beating frenetically in my chest.

"Stop it, man!" I finally said, hitting Ryder's shoulder. "Don't go all mushy on me. I told you, this is-this is uhm... all because of the agreement."

Ryder shook his head his smirk widening as if only to irk me further.

"Okay, yeah, I get it." He said, standing up and stretching his body.

"Where are you going?"

"Home. It's already getting dark and my family should be worried because I didn't text them all day."

I looked out the window seeing that indeed the street was covered in a foggy murk.

"How about you spend the night over? Your luggage is already here, you could wait until a pickup van can tow your truck, or you could at least ask my dads to give you a ride first thing in the morning tomorrow. You must be hungry and tired, plus we were not supposed to return until tomorrow afternoon."

"Is the agreement the one that makes you so caring?" Ryder rose a brow, making me scoff.

"Of course not. It's my natural kindness and empathy. Now say, are you going to stay over or not? I wanna ask my dad if we have any leftover dinner."

Ryder nodded and I proceeded to look for dad. Hopefully papa wasn't with him because I didn't fancy seeing him yet. My complexion darkened a bit but I didn't want to think about what happened anymore. Plus, I didn't have time to let my thoughts wander because Ryder called my name just as I was about to reach the door.

"Wait, Carter! Do you have a charger ? I should text my family and tell them I'm alright."

Normally I wouldn't share my charger with someone else, but for some unknown reason I didn't mind sharing things with Ryder. I nodded and opened the drawer of my nightstand, fishing out a neatly coiled wire from inside.

"Here you go." I said, watching Ryder put his phone to charge and then the black device lighten to life. After I made sure the charger was compatible with Ryder's phone I left the room, going directly to the kitchen to see if there was anything appetizing in the fridge. Well, there was something-or rather someone- in the kitchen, but he was totally not appetizing.

Papa was standing in the middle of the room, his arms laid on the countertop and head tilted downwards. He was lost in his thoughts so I didn't bother making my presence known. However, the moment I opened the fridge he turned his attention towards me, aware that he now had company.

"Carter..."

"Don't mind me; I'm just grabbing something quick to eat. By the way, Ryder is spending the night so if he wants to go home tomorrow could you give him a ride until we fetch back his truck?"

"Yes, of course hun." Papa said, watching me grab some ham, peanut butter, jam and some bread in order to make us sandwiches.

"Sorry, we don't have any food because dad and I ate dinner in town. If you want, I could prepare you guys something quick like rice or an omelet."

"Nah, we are good." I responded, hurrying to make the sandwiches and go back to Ryder, not wanting to spend more time in papa's presence. He watched me in silence for a while but to my exasperation he couldn't keep his mouth shut until I left the room. I was just placing the sandwiches on a plate when he walked towards me.

"About what happened today," he started but I was quick to talk over him.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore. You can try telling Kathy what happened but I won't give her any details because if my own father didn't believe my words, I don't know why she would."

With this I left the room, feeling a sting in my heart I knew papa must feel ten times worse.

This sting however intensified when I opened the door to my room and heard Ryder talk to the phone, "I miss you too, Ivy. See you tomorrow. Love you."