Hooray! It was finally the weekend. At least...that's how she would have usually felt. Not this time though...

Throughout her first week at school, everything that could possibly go wrong, had gone wrong.

Starting on Tuesday when her mom's car had broken down, which meant that she had to walk to school. On the journey there, she had got splashed by a bus and shown up, absolutely soaking wet. That was when she had become the laughing stock of the school. The girls that she had made friends with, were still talking to her though which she appreciated, and Dawson had kept their little hang out plan.

It only got worse after her second day. Ryder kept bugging her in lessons, warning her to ditch the "date" as he called it. Literally every time he laid eyes on her, the same topic always came up. Not only was it annoying but it was also making her nervous.

Dawson had also spoken to her a little more throughout the week. Mostly it was asking to borrow stuff, and when it wasn't about that it, he asked some awfully strange questions.

But finally it was Saturday. The day that she would hopefully find out the truth.

It was around half ten in the morning, which gave her enough time to get ready. Starting with her choice of outfits.

For this, she really had to dig into her closet, which was now fully installed and had been since Wednesday, as she wanted something that was right for the occasion.

She didn't want anything that gave him the wrong message, since she wasn't the type of girl to give herself away that easily.

Then again she didn't want anything that would give him the impression that she was a plain Jane. Of course she liked to have fun...but not the reckless kind of fun.

Eventually she found something that was suitable, something that said fun but responsible. It was the same flare jeans that she had worn on her first day, along with a pure white t-shirt with a band name splattered on the front. To cover her arms, she picked out a light blue denim jacket.

Now that she had her clothes sorted, she started on her hair. Unlike on her first day of school, this time when she went over to her dresser, she picked up her straightener instead of the curling iron.

It didn't take very long until her hair was perfectly straight. Once she was completely ready, she went downstairs to ask her mom if she could borrow the car.

"Hey mom...can I borrow the car?" She asked, approaching her mom in the living room.

"Yes, but what do you need it for?" Diane answered.

"Some friends I made in school asked me if I wanted to hang out at the mall today." She informed her.

"Oh okay. Know where you're going?" Her mom asked.

"Yeah, one of them showed me." She answered before picking up the car keys from the table and leaving.

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Pulling up in the parking lot of the mall,  Erica stepped out of the car and headed over to the front entrance to wait for Dawson.

While she was waiting she looked around the place. It was massive, just as she had expected. It had a parking lot that took up one side of the area around it and on the other side were little coffee shops and snack stalls.

Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw someone who she wasn't expecting to see today. Ryder Griffin. She had glanced over to the corner of the building and seen his unmistakable appearance. However when she looked again properly, he was gone.

Shaking her head, she scolded herself. Imagining Ryder while here to meet Dawson was completely and utterly disrespectful and she would not allow herself to present such poor manners.

Breathing a sigh of relief, when Dawson finally arrived, she greeted him with a friendly smile as he approached her.

"Hey, how you doing?" He asked.

"Good thank you, and yourself?" She answered, hoping that their conversations wouldn't get awkward.

"I'm good. So what do you wanna do first?" He asked politely.

"I was thinking that maybe we could grab lunch." She suggested since it had just gone twelve.

"Excellent. Where do you wanna eat?" He asked.

"Uhh....Subway?" She suggested, not knowing what places they had.

"Great choice." He complimented and began leading the way.

The inside of the mall was even bigger than the outside. Thousands of shops were lined down the aisles, so much to explore yet so little time.

While heading for what she could only assume was Subway, she took in all the different shops. There was Game, Burger King, Wendy's, McDonald's, Dollar store, American Eagle, Tiffany and Co and so much more...all shops that were ones that were way too expensive for her to shop at. Most of her clothes came from Good Will.

They then headed up the escalators and past a few more shops, including Target, KFC, Victoria's Secret, Game Stop, and many more that she once again would never be able to afford to shop at.

Finally, they arrived at Subway and joined the queue. She glanced around at how many people were in there...which was loads. Her eyes scanned all the different people with different lives. Then she once again thought she saw Ryder. Sat at a table by the window, he was munching on a sandwich and staring right at her. In response, she reached out and grabbed Dawson's hand. She saw Ryder roll his eyes

But then when she looked back, he was gone again, and turning back to face the person she was with, she felt uncomfortable.

Dawson was giving her the weirdest look for grabbing his hand. He had every right too. It was the strangest thing ever to do when hanging out with someone casually.

"Sorry...sometimes I have a habit of doing things randomly." She quickly explained, feeling stupid.

"That's okay, we all have...stupid habits." Dawson replied.

Something about the way he said the last part of that sentence made her feel totally uncomfortable. A pit formed in her stomach, suddenly she felt like she couldn't breath. But she knew that she had to remain calm. Taking a deep breath, she stepped up to front of the line and placed her order.

It wasn't long before they were seated at the table, but even then...something about the way he was looking at her made her begin to regret coming. She began to look around at the other people sat eating, anywhere to avoid making eye contact with him. Her eyes frantically searching for that familiar face she kept seeing. Disappointment settled in her when she found no one even resembling him.

"Excuse me Tootz, I believe that we had plans..." A familiar voice spoke from behind her.

Turning around, she was relieved to see Ryder stood above her.

"Oh! Crud! I completely forgot. I'm so sorry Dawson but I have to go. My uhh...cousin and I made plans. I'll make it up to you. I promise." She stated, playing along before letting Ryder lead her away.

Instantly she felt better. Though glancing back, she saw the jealousy and the rage in his stare. It made her anxious but she somehow knew that she would be safe with Ryder.

"I believe that is twice I have saved you now." Ryder commented as soon as they were out of ear shot.

"Yes, I uhh...I mean, thank you." She stammered, her heart only now calming down.

"Hate to say I told you so, about him...but I told you so." He replied cockily.

"Alright. So you were right, but that doesn't mean that he had anything to do with the disappearance of his girl." She stated.

"Seriously? You're still gonna believe that he is innocent, after that." Ryder exclaimed in disbelief.

"I never said that he was innocent, just that you don't know the full story. I mean how could you? Unless...." She rambled.

"Unless what?" He asked curiously.

"Well unless you were there." She answered.

Surely not. Could it really be that the golden boy wasn't so golden? His image was so betraying of what he was really like. It was absolutely bizarre. But then again, you could never judge a book by its cover.

The hardest part would be trying to avoid him during school time. Especially since he was sat right next her in class. But so was Ryder, in a strange way his presence was comforting for her, particularly today though. She didn't know what she would have done if he hadn't shown up.

Dawson was really starting to creep her out, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it, even if that involved setting the boy up. She didn't care, just as long as he never got the chance to creep around any other girls, ever again.