Ryder Collins is a player...Party animal...Hot guy extraordinaire...The kind of guy girls pine for.

The kind of guy who looks like a model, but isn't...The kind of guy who looks like a rockstar, but isn't.

The kind of guy who seems fearless, and never backs down, only people don't realize he is like that for one reason, and one reason only. He has no regard for his own life.

Ryder is charming. Well spoken. Friendly. Witty. Smart.

But underneath any polished surface lies a beast?

A beast that can be awakened by the influence of alcohol, and Ryder loves to drink.

When he drinks, his charm transforms, morphs and distorts into rants of profanity. Hostility. Sarcasm. Ignorance.

He drinks, and then he goes from hot guy to douchebag. He goes from smart to dumb in a nanosecond. He goes from docile to domineering, and he's infamous for it! Ryder is never the one to shy away from a fight. He has a bad temper, and when you fuel it with alcohol, there is no controlling it. There is no way to tame that roaring fire. He loves taking in that magic potion - preferably Vodka - the brand doesn't matter to him, the taste won't interfere with the effect. That liquid potion makes him capable of disappearing for a moment, it makes life tolerable. At least for a while...until he wakes up hungover and dizzy. Well aware it's going to be a groundhog day!

Every day it's the same thing.

He gets up, goes to work...if he has a job on that particular day. He goes through the motions mechanically. The only thought on his mind, is getting off work, to go meet his friends. All they do is drink and drive. It all ends the same way too. Ryder is usually passed out in some blond no-name's bed. He rarely brings them back to his place, he needs his space, and he doesn't want some lovesick girl turning up on his doorstep - no way!

He's keeping it casual. No connections, no strings - means no ties.

Ryder wasn't always like that, he was part of a normal family, he lived a normal life, untill it happened. His dad left when he was 3 or 4. Ryder was too young to understand, he just remember crying and missing him, he found out - as he got older - that his dad fell in love with his co-worker, he started a new family with her. He remember his dad coming for a couple of visits, but one day he just never came back! By then Ryder was about 10.

From there on, Ryder's life changed.

Something inside him changed.

That incident changed him.

Understanding, grasping the fact that his dad was never coming back - broke his spirit.

He was wired differently all of a sudden. He loved his dad, he looked up to him, having him turn his back on him, changed who Ryder was. He blocked out the memory of him, he had to. Everybody used to say he was the spitting image of his father, the same light brown hair, the same mesmerizing blue eyes, and high cheekbones to die for...but that's only genetics, right? Ryder just hoped that was the only thing his dad had left him...his looks.

His mom did her best, they lived a decent life, although it felt like she was always between jobs. They struggled, but he never felt like he was deprived. He didn't care about the material stuff anyway, but what he did care about was the different stepdads, that wandered in and out of his life, through the course of his childhood. He remembered it vividly, how she cried during the day, during the night too. It didn't leave any room for him to grieve, and he just stored all those feelings away in the back of his mind. After his dad left, he had to pick up the pieces, forcing his mother to be a mother. She had to cook for him, tend to her job, and keep a clean house. She managed, but her comatoze behavior hurt him - even though he was just a kid - he understood her inability to provide for him emotionally.

She stopped hugging him.

She stopped kissing him.

She stopped caring about him.

She stopped talking to him.

It happened gradually, but he noticed her detachment.

She only offered him the bare necessities, nothing more. She had nothing more to give apparently?

His mother couldn't bear the thought of being alone, and so she welcomed every willing low-life Dick and Dom into their home, and more often than Ryder cared to remember, he was slapped around by some drunken s.o.b with a bad temper. Every time his mother would promise him, this would be the last time, but it never was. She willingly gave away her limited amount of affection to strange men, ignoring the hurt in his eyes. She just chose not to act. She acted like nothing was wrong.

By every promise she broke, her words became more and more hollow. Finally, Ryder no longer believed in anything she had to say. Promises are make believe, they are never honored, they are never kept. Words are just words, they tend to mean nothing, so you might as well just stop talking, and stop listening.

Maybe that toughened him up somehow?

Maybe that made him numb inside?

Maybe that made him disregard his own worth, and maybe - that did in fact crush any dreams of a normal future, in his impressionable young mind?

Maybe.

Maybe that is how Ryder became so reckless?.........

Authors Note:

"Hi guys! Thank you so much for reading my story. 💕 There is something beautiful about having to face your life and consciously wanting to change it, realizing that you are on the wrong path all of a sudden. It is never too late to change. Never. And when you meet your soulmate, a new path might very well appear ❤ It did for me...I was a lot like Ryder, in a female version, once I met my soulmate I could hardly recognize the person I used to be. I stopped looking back and decided to move forward instead ❤

Out of all my stories this is my personal favorite. I had such a hard time letting Ryder and Skylar go and I actually missed them once I finished the story. I hope you fall in love with them too...❤💋

Lots of love

PrettyPinkAndie

Characters:

RYDER - Hero Fiennes-Tiffin

SKYLAR - Lily Collins

DAVE - Woody Harrelson

CHARLIE - Ansel Elgort

HANNAH - Madelaine Petsch