Then There He Was ✓

Chapter 8: Ryder

He looked just as surprised to see me as I was to see him, but he quickly replaced the look of surprise with a small smirk.

"What's up new girl, didn't expect to see you here," he said taking a sit.

"Neither did I," I muttered under my breath, but judging from his smirk that had somehow morphed into a smile, he heard me.

"I'm guessing you two know each other," Lily stated, staring expectantly at us as she awaited a reply.

"Knowing each other is a bit of a stretch," I answered as nonchalantly as I could.

"She spilled coffee on my shirt on the first day of school," Jayden explained to his mom, all the while glaring at me.

"You got back at me for that," I whispered, my throat constricting at the thought of what went down during our lunch break.

"Please, you can hardly call that getting back at someone. All Bella did was spill her shake on you and then you were running out of the cafeteria like a big baby."

His tone was amusing, but I found nothing amusing about the situation he was teasing me about, so remained quiet not sparing him a glance.

"Jayden, why would you let Bella do that to her?" Lily scolded, her eyes narrowed into slits. She looked just about to rain terror on him.

"I'm totally innocent here mom, I hadn't the slightest idea that Bella was going to dump her milkshake on her," Jayden's reply was the truth. I had seen the expression of surprise that had been on his face when Bella dumped her protein shake on me.

The look of surprise was gone almost immediately, and the devilish glint in his eyes, along with his smirk told me that he wasn't planning on Angel about the situation. I wonder why is even considered the possibility of him helping me. He'd do no such thing, and especially not with a crowd of witnesses.

"That's still not a good enough excuse Ryder, you should have at least helped her out," Brandon cautioned, frowning at Jayden's unremorseful and unrepentant expression.

"It's Jayden, Brandon," Jayden's tone was clipped as he glared at Brandon.

My God was he an ass. But it still slightly baffled me as to why Brandon called him Ryder, and why the said boy insisted to be called Jayden. If Ryder was still a part of his name, then I didn't see a problem.

"Besides, I don't even see why I'm inclined to help her, I don't even know her."

He was doing a good job pointing out the obvious. We really were strangers to each other and if not for this dinner, I highly doubt our paths would have ever crossed again. Unless he planned to be a douchebag to me for the rest of the school year.

Lily looked like she was about to comment, but my mom swiftly cut her off, staring the conversation in another direction. I'm pretty sure she could tell I wasn't comfortable with the current discussion.

We talked about school and stuff, and were asked the regular questions adults ask teenagers. My replies we're short and straight to the point, much like Jayden's, and only Ben took time enough to elaborate. He was doing it for my sake, to sort of back my answers up so I didn't come off as rude and uninterested. My whole family got me, and that was one of the things I was most greatful for.

When they had exhausted all topics concerning teenagers, the dove into more adult related ones.

We "kids" weren't included in their conversations, thank heavens, and so we left to our own devices, and we carried on eating what was left of our meal.

Daisy was engrossed in playing with Ben's hair while he played some game I couldn't identify on his phone. He had finished eating a while ago, and although he had turned down his volume, you could still hear the sound of gunshots loud and clear.