'Sometimes life gives you lessons you never wanted to learn'

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Did I ever tell you all that I love writing quotes? This is one of my own creations. Never mind here's the new chapter which I hope you were all waiting for.

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Ryder's picture above
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“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Ryder, happy birthday to you,” Everybody starts hooting and cheering.

We have just arrived at our apartment and as expected, everyone reached the place before us. Emily and I have called them to tell our plan, in our way to pick Ryder up.

“Wow! This is just amazing. I thought we were going to celebrate my birthday casually today. Didn't you say that we don't have much money left to celebrate my birthday grandly this year?” Ryder turned towards me and asked.

“It's your seventeenth birthday how can we not celebrate it as grandly as possible!” I meant what I said. I would do anything that would make him happy. He loved celebrating his birthday with all of his friends, so I did what I thought was right.

“You didn't do anything really sacrificial to let me celebrate my birthday with my friends, did you?”

“No, of course not. Why would I sacrifice something for your stupid birthday, trust me I could totally afford it.” He nodded and moved towards our guests, thanking all of them.

The truth was that I really couldn't afford it. We were out of money, so I decided to sell some old stuff of my Mom and Dad. I know, even if they were alive, they wouldn't have minded me selling their stuff to buy someone's happiness, they were so kind and generous, it was one of the reasons I really loved and admired them.

“Hey,” Mike approached us, as everyone got busy at the party.

“Hello,” I replied.

“It's a nice idea. This whole 'club at my mini apartment' thing, it's really cool,” He said with an impressed look on his face.

“You liked it? See Em, Mike liked your idea, I told you that you have a great mind. Now look, you used it for the first time, and here is the result, everyone likes the theme. Right, Mike?” I asked turning towards him.

“Yeah,” Mike said hesitantly and leaves.

After Mike leaves Emily grabs my arm and pulls me towards her. “Why did you do that?” She asked. “Me, I didn't do anything,” I said with an innocent look on my face, which was definitely not so innocent.

“It was all your plan, I did nothing but annoy you while you arranged this party for Ryder. You didn't even let me pick a cloth through the whole process, then how did this become my great idea all of a sudden?” She said looking at me annoyed by the fact that I gave all my credit to her. That is why she is my best friend, she doesn't take advantage of me as others do.

“I just wanted to pull him off my back, so I took your name, to make him go somewhere else. You know that I don't like people around me until I want them to be around me.” I tried to explain it to her.

“Oh! I thought you wanted him to hook up with me.”

“No, I know that you don't like him anymore, I won't hook you up with someone you don't want to be with, and I know exactly who you wanna hook up with,” I said looking towards Ryder, then smirking at her, and Again she blushed.

She never denies it when I talk about her attraction towards Ryder. I definitely need to talk with Ryder about this, I know he likes her company but I don't know if he is attracted to her, the way she is to him. We are going to have a long group chat about this very soon.

The party gets over, and we all start cleaning the mess. Mia has gone to return all the rented stuff to the shop. It's 11:00 pm, “You go to your room and sleep, I will do this. It's been a long day for you” I said grabbing the plates from his hands.

“Stop being all bossy on me, I am seventeen now, I can do whatever I want to do,” he said snatching plates back from my hands.

“You still are one year younger than me so you need to listen to me and don't forget that you are just 17 you haven't yet turned 18 that you could take your own decisions, you get that now go to your room,” I said sternly.

“You know what, I am sick of this. I am sick of living under your rules. I want to live my life in my own way,” he replied angrily.

“Okay, so now you wanna live your life. Superb! You know what, go and live your life on your own but let me warn you I won't give you a single penny out of my money. If you want so much to live by yourself you really need to do it completely without anyone's help.”

“Yes, thank you so much. This is the only birthday gift I expected from you, kicking me out of the house, daring me to live a homeless life, I must say I have got the loveliest best friend on this earth. You are talking about being 18, you yourself are 18 years old, I didn't know that being one year older gives you rights to order around a 17-year-old guy. You are just my best friend act like a best friend and nothing else. If you don't have a family it doesn't mean that you will treat every other person you are close to you, as one of your family members whom you can boss around,” he shouted angrily at me.

I couldn't control my tears, I am a very sensitive person and I don't like people shouting at me as I always ended up crying.

“Wow! And now you all will see the infamous Ashley cry, just to make the other person feel guilty,” Ryder added after seeing me cry. I can't control them, never in the 15 years that I have known Ryder has he talked to me like this, I don't know what's happened to him today but it hurts even more when he talked to me with anger. I love him and I don't want him to get angry at me.

“I am sorry, I won't be ordering you anymore, I promise."

“No need to worry because I won't be living with you anymore,” he said before I could even react, he was gone.

I ran towards the door and saw no sign of him there and I cried even more. I was crying near the door when Emily reached our floor. As soon as she noticed me sitting near the door crying, she walked hurriedly towards me.

“What happened? Why are you crying? Where is Ryder? Ashley answer me,” she asked concern filling her face.

“He left me,” I said still sobbing. “Ryder left the house?” She asked, to which I just nodded my head.

“Oh honey, don't cry. He will come back I assure you. You know how much he loves you. He won't ever leave you, babe,” she said trying to stop my sobbing.

After some time when I stopped crying, we both went to our room and I told her about everything that happened while she was not here. She comforted me and I fell asleep crying and still worrying about Ryder.

How ironic, that a single issue which could have been solved by talking, ended up creating this amount of trouble and distress in our lives.
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“Good morning, princess. Time to get up from your imaginary world.” I looked up to find Emily staring at me with a concerned look on her face.

I always do this, whenever I get stressed or upset, I start thinking about different things in my head to distract myself from these problems. But problems cannot be avoided, they need to be solved before they can take of control our lives. We were at the school sitting at our regular table in the cafeteria.

“I am sorry, I was just thinking something,” I said as I see Mia walking towards us, the same Mia whom Emily wanted to make jealous yesterday.

She is my cousin. After my parents died in a car accident four years ago, I have been living with her and her mom, my widowed aunt, Maddie. She is not very nice to me and never gave me attention. At first, she treated me like her own child, but Mia didn't like the attention I was getting from her mother, so she started accusing me of things I never did and made Aunt Maddie hate me. As soon as I turned 18, I moved out of her house and started living with Emily and Ryder in a small apartment. I thought her hatred towards me would end as soon as I move out but her insults and bullying never ended.

“I have heard that you had a grand party last night, everyone is talking about how amazing the party was, I am a little disappointed, cuz, why didn't you invite me?” she pouted

“She didn't invite you because I told her to do so. We didn't want you to destroy our party, yesterday.” Emily said looking at her faking a smile.

“Any party that includes Ashley already is a waste of time and energy, and you know how precious my time and energy is,” she said clinging to her new boyfriend.

“Really? I don't think so, everyone likes to be with her,” Emily started arguing with Mia. No, please don't create a scene here in front of everyone. I begged her with my eyes.

“Yeah, that's why she has no boyfriend and no other friends except you and Ryder,” Mia said sarcastically.

Yes, it was true that I didn't have any boyfriend or any friends other than, Emily and Ryder but it was because Mia never lets me make any friends. Since we were in the same school she used to tell her friends the wrong things about me, and no one liked me because of her. Emily and Ryder were my friends before I started to live with Mia, so they knew that she was just spreading lies about me in the whole school.

“No she doesn't have friends because you don't let anyone be friends with her, and FYI she is intimate with the richest person in the USA, Auden Rockefeller, so I guess you are not of her level Ms. Mia Richards.”

What is she talking about? How do I even know the richest person in the USA, let alone be intimate with him? Has she hit her head somewhere in the morning.

“Okay Emily, don't talk about things that can never happen,” Jack, Mia's new boyfriend speaks for the first time during the whole conversation, while Mia stands beside him with her mouth hanging open.

“I am not the one talking nonsense, it's your girlfriend job to talk nonsense. If you don't trust me then see this.” She said searching for her phone from her purse, pulling it out she showed them something now they both were standing with their mouths hanging open with shock and disbelief. I went to her side to see it for myself. It was a picture she clicked yesterday at the bakery of me and that hot ass guy, understanding dawned me. So he is the one she was talking about.

“You saw the proof yourself, now we would like to leave so can you please get aside,” she said pushing them aside. I shook my head at her but I can't deny that I really enjoyed seeing their faces after Emily showed them those pictures.

We reached our apartment and I sat on the couch looking into my phone for any calls or messages from Ryder and frowned when I saw that there were no messages or calls. I am really worried about him. I sigh and keep my phone on the table.

“Why does everyone hate me?” I asked Emily, who was sitting next to me on the couch. “They don't hate you, honey, they are just jealous of you because you are very kind, confident, and really charming. They all want to be like you,” she said as she picked the remote from the table and turned on the T.V.

“Then they are not doing it the right way because the very first step to be like me is to never want to be like anyone else, but who you actually are.” She smiles at me and hugs me tightly. Suddenly my phone starts ringing. I picked it up from the table to see who it is. It was from Ryder. I immediately answer the call.

“Hello, Ryder. Where are you? Look I am sorry for what happened yesterday but please come back home.” I said hurriedly desperately wanting him to come back.

“Hello, Am I talking to Miss Ashley?” asked an unknown voice.

“Yes, it's me. Could you please tell me why do you have my friend's phone and where is he right now?” I asked that unknown voice at the other end.

“Actually Miss, your friend was found near a broken bridge a few hours ago, he was in a very critical condition, we have taken him to a nearby hospital. We just wanted to inform his family.”

“He doesn't have a family. We will be there in a few minutes. Can you please send us the location of that hospital?” I requested him trying my best to not cry.

“Sure,” He said as he ended the call making me break my calm demeanor and cry my heart out. Why does God keep taking away the people I love?