The Fighter and His Tiger (Unexpected Love #1)

8. Wednesday Week Three

8. Wednesday Week Three

Waking up in a cold sweat after a night of bad dreams, was usual for me. Ever since my parents had died I always had difficulty sleeping through the night, sometimes I did okay and made it through the night, but often I found myself waking up with the sheets wrapped around my sweaty legs and my heart pounding in my chest.

That's why when my Nan walked into the kitchen at 5 am and saw me drinking coffee in the dark on the barstool, she wasn't the least bit fazed.

She flicked the lights on knowing Tyler wouldn't be woken up, "bad night monkey?"

I smiled at her over the rim of my coffee mug, "just a little."

She smiled back over at me and nodded in the direction of my ensuite bedroom, "better go get cleaned up before Noah gets here, he will most definitely make a comment about how bad you smell."

Smiling at her comment, I hopped off the barstool as gracefully as my sleep-deprived brain would allow and headed in the direction of my bedroom to heed her advice.

But I stopped dead in my tracks when my Nan called out to me, "Reillyn. Don't think we won't be talking about why you came home at 3 o'clock in the morning on a school night"

Oh shit. Annoyed, I trudged back into my room and climbed into the shower feeling my anger rise over last nights events.

I was going to kill Elias, it was all his stupid fault that I didn't get home until 3 am.

That's right, 3-fucking-am.

Tuesday night from 4 pm to 6 pm was now my regular tutoring session with Riley, Eli's little brother. It was also the night that Rosemary, the Ryker's housekeeper had off, and so when Debbie (Eli's mum) got called into the hospital on an emergency (she's a nurse), she asked me to look after Riley and her twin daughters (Ivy and Aspen) for 30 minutes until Eli got home to look after them. I didn't mind 30 minutes so I said I would wait.

But did he get home in 30 minutes: no.

Eli didn't show up at all, it wasn't until Debbie got home at 2:30 am that I could finally leave. To say I was fuming would be an understatement, I was downright murderous. Debbie had been so apologetic, explaining that her phone had died which was why my calls hadn't reached her and that she had no idea where Ryker was.

She offered to drive me home but she looked shattered bless her, so I turned down her offer and drove the 30 minutes it took to get home. The fact that his mum was working her ass off and he couldn't even be bothered to tell her where he was made my anger even more fierce, what a selfish prick!

At first, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was legitimately busy, maybe he had a legal job, maybe he got hit by a giant bloody bus? Who's to know?

What really pissed me off was when he opened and read all the text messages I had sent him asking where he was and then, he ignored me. The asshole fully read my struggles and aired me; that is what made me so angry that I ended up going into school out for his blood.

— — — — —

I was almost one hundred per cent certain my anger was radiating off of me in waves because for the whole morning all my friends gave me a wide berth and chose not to question my brewing anger and intense glare; even Noah left me alone and Noah never left me alone in school.

By the time the bell rang at the end of fourth period my anger was relieved a little at the thought of finding Elias and shouting at him during lunch; and Nutella of course. But just as I was going to exit my English classroom Mrs Graceford called me to her desk; the old crone was making a nasty habit of this.