Only the Beginning

Chapter 9

||Carmen Anders||

Ryder stared.

I stared.

He continued staring and so did I.

I lifted an eyebrow and he squinted.

I didn't know where we were going with this to be honest.

It was my second time over at his place and this is what we were doing: sitting across from each other, and staring.

I couldn't tell if he was still mad at me anymore. His black eye was now barely visible and all his cuts were healed.

"You're eye looks better." I told him.

"Yep."

"Where's Alden?"

"Not here."

I gave him a flat look. "Really?"

"What do you want, Carmen?" He asked.

"For you to get over this. It's been 2 weeks. I haven't talked to Asher like I promised, he's left me alone, and it looks like even he's over it."

"I am over it."

"Then why won't you forgive me? I was wrong to get mad at you, I was just scared. I know you were only trying to help, Ryder."

"You want me to forgive you?"

"Yes."

"Okay," he shrugged," On one condition."

I sat back in my chair. "It depends."

"Tell me everything about you and Asher. How you met, how you got together, how you ended."

I stayed quiet and he raised an eyebrow.

"I can't do that." I finally said.

"Then I can't forgive you."

I took a deep breath and bit my lip. I didn't know how to tell him without him finding out the truth. Jason played a big part in it and I didn't want him to start getting curious about him. I didn't want him asking questions.

"So?" He raised his eyebrows.

"He was my brother's best friend," I started, "I never even thought of him in that way till high school and at the time I had zero self esteem."

"Wait, wait. We need some alcohol for this." He said as he got up and walked into the kitchen.

I rolled my eyes. I definitely wasn't going to drink it.

He returned with three bottles of beer and slide two over to me.

"Why do I get 2?" I asked.

He shrugged as he sat down. "I figured it'll be easier to tell the story if you're more intoxicated than I."

I rolled my eyes again."May I continue?"

"Hold on," he opened his bottle, "Proceed."

"I went through that whole thing, you know, the doubts that he'll ever like me back, the whole 'I'm so ugly and he's so cute'. I thought he'd never like me in that way but turns out, he did."

"One day, he came over but my brother wasn't home and so he hung out with me. That's when I had the feeling that he was actually interested in me, as in my life not just seeing me as his best friend's little sister."

He took a gulp of beer and his jaw clenched. I was a bit confused at this but I continued anyway.

"He kept on doing this, coming over when my brother wasn't around and pretending he had no idea Jason wouldn't be there. I knew that he knew Jason wasn't home and I liked it. I liked that he wanted to be around me but I didn't like that he couldn't just do it when my brother was around."