The next day was spent only in my room aside from one quick trip to the store for gray paint. They told me I couldn't buy paint being under eighteen, which made me wonder how old Ryder must be or else how he got the paint yesterday. I just texted Cassandra to pick up paint anyways. I assumed forgetting about our argument would be resolved, seeing as me texting her about paint implied that Ryder wasn't carrying out the job.

But still, I found myself completely content on painting whatever I wanted to with the royal purple paint that I did have possession over. I had even mixed it with the white to form different shades. I was actually proud of the design on my wall. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. My heart sped up at the thought of Ryder finally being here. I didn't care if it was for five minutes, but the thought of seeing him excited me.

I looked out of the open window and my heart sank at the sight of Bailee.

"Hey, I thought we could hang out today," she told me when I went downstairs. She laughed. "...seeing as you're so dressed up and all."

I didn't know what she meant, but I looked over to the window near the door and saw a smudge of purple paint on my face that was nothing in comparison to my hands or old clothes.

"Sorry. I was painting my room," I apologized and let her in as I wiped my face with a handy towel.

"So how about it?" she asked. I hummed in question. "We can get you out of your Jackson Pollock outfit choice and into some normal clothes to go see a movie and go out to grab a bite."

Originally, my mind wondered on what Ryder would do after arriving to an empty house, but then I reasoned that I had only known him for two days. Technically less than that. I had no obligations to him, no more than he had an obligation to keep his word and help me paint a room in which Cassandra made it clear he wasn't allowed in.

So I told Bailee yes. She waited for me to change and look presentable and thankfully didn't question for Evan to tag along. I sent a text to Cassandra to let her know where I was going, which she responded with an: "I know." But I wasn't surprised considering she worked with Bailee's mom. With one last hope Ryder would show before we left, I took my time, but alas it was useless. We still headed to the movies in my mustang.

***

"So why are you living with your aunt?" Bailee asked me while we were now at the diner I had seen all the teens at one night prior. Right now, there were a few but not nearly as many as the other night. I figured that with only Bailee here, I could tell her why I was here.

"Well my dad was a detective in Florida," I gulped. "And one day, I guess someone just sort of picked up on his case or retaliated on him from a prior one, and shot him while he was off duty."

"Oh my God, I am so sorry," Bailee said with complete shock written on her face. I just shook my head. It wasn't her fault, after all. "What about your mom, though?"

"She...she hasn't been around for a while," I told her and my eyes made contact with her dark ones. I forced myself to laugh at the memory of her. "Even though my dad wants to say she went missing or something, I know what happened."

She must have died. I didn't know why or how, but I knew it was the outcome. My father said nothing but the most heart wrenching things about how beautiful of a person she was in and out, and swore he'd never have any desire to commit himself to anyone else. Since I was a little girl, he's avoided the subject of Mom. I had access to any part of her life, but he would never share what happened to her. And I never pressed it after I was old enough to see how much heartbreak it caused him.

"That sucks," Bailee expressed. "So why didn't Cassandra just move to Florida for you?"

I shrugged and wondered that for myself. It hadn't occurred to me much before now. Up until this point, moving here didn't seem like much when I wanted a fresh start. But she made a point.

"She had a life here," I shrugged. And I wanted to get away.

"Yeah, but don't you think it's weird how she moved into a new house in the same area rather than just move cities? Why not just stay where she was, ya know?" she asked. Moved houses?

"What do you mean new house?" I asked her.

"Cassandra grew up outside the town," she started. "This really old family house that your dad grew up in too I think. It's out near the old highway—or at least it was...Maybe twenty years ago, there was a fire there and she moved out seeing as she was the only one left..." Bailee was tip-toeing around the knowledge that it was that fire my grandparents had died in. "Then I guess she felt like she had to stay here for some reason even though your dad left and she's been living in one of the town homes until she bought the new house...I don't know if it's true or not, but it doesn't take much to find out about someone's past in this town."

The Obsidian house. That's the one she must be talking about that I so obviously dreamt about Cassandra playing in. Even if there was nothing to see, this was an Everton house. That made it all the more valuable. I had to go back there.

"But don't get me wrong, the house she has now is really nice," Bailee added, not knowing how to take my silence."Don't me ss it up with whatever painting you're doing in your room."

"I'll try not to," I laughed and then as if that only trigger of happiness was apparent in his presence, Ryder walked in with Stella at his side with Preston and Carlo behind him. Part of me wanted to hide behind the menu like a schoolgirl with an unobtainable crush. Part of me wanted to be angry at him blowing me off. And the last part...well, the last part wouldn't be very approved by Stella.

"So what's his story?" I asked, nodding over to Ryder who had failed to see us all somehow.

"Whose?" Bailee asked, looking to where I noticed to be glaring at. The four of them took a booth seat on the complete opposite side of the diner, but I had a perfect view of Ryder, who sat with his arm outstretched over the back of the seat where Stella would sit if she wasn't asking for the boys' order that she could take up to the register. But soon enough, she'd sit there. Bailee turned back to face me, expecting an answer.

"Ryder's."

"Oh," she started to pout or frown. "I'm not exactly close friends with him, but what do you wanna know?"

The thing was...I felt like I already knew enough about him. I certainly knew how I felt about him and that alone filled in some of the blanks with high hopes though. It sounded incredibly stupid.

"Him and Stella," I clarified. She let out a laugh as she ate a fry. I started to frown in confusion, but it spread into an unsure smile and single laugh. "What?

"This town has a lot of drama and secrets and those two are part of the bigger questions," she informed. It made me wonder about what she meant about other secrets, but I was only concerned with Ryder right now. I didn't want to have such strong feelings for someone who was apparently matched with another girl...another girl who was beautiful and had been friends with him for probably ever. I hoped they were only friends, but I knew better. They were beautiful people. They would essentially deserve each other if not already. "As far as anyone knows, they've always been best friends. Now that we're all older, people just assume they're together and Stella would probably swear by her life that they are, but..."

"But what?" She said it herself. They were together.

"But...if I had the nerve, I would ask Ryder what they are," she admitted. "I mean, don't get me wrong, the kid is a delinquent in everyone's eyes, and Stella tries to keep him out of trouble, but I don't think a relationship should be a babysitting job, ya know? I just...I just don't actually know what goes on with Ryder and his pack."

"His pack?" I laughed. I glanced past her and looked at Ryder who waited around with the guys. Preston and Rod talked, but I saw that Ryder looked down at the table as if he was focusing on something and then his ear raised and his jaw tightened. Part of my stomach turned and I looked back at Bailee.

"Well yeah," she laughed back. "At least that's what my mom calls them."

"They're just friends, chill out," I laughed.

"Hey, it was your aunt she picked it up from," she pointed.

"Cassandra?" I scoffed in a laugh. "Pretty sure she would rather use the term 'gang.'"

I looked back over at Ryder, who for a brief second I thought the corner of his lip turned up sharing in my amusement, but I lost sight of him when Stella sat by him and his arm coiled back to his own side. Thankfully.

"She thinks Ryder's nothing but trouble," I notified and refused to look over at his table.

I'm no one that you have to worry about getting in trouble with, I thought I heard a familiar voice say in my mind and then when I looked over to where Ryder was, he was gone. What?

"Because Ryder Ramon is nothing but—"

"Nothing but what?" Ryder himself asked, now kneeling at the end of our table. My breath was caught.

"Nothing but...but..." I didn't know why Bailee couldn't speak, but then I saw how Ryder looked at her.

He didn't look at her with the same gaze towards me. The way he looked at her was as if he was a predator determining the exact weaknesses of its prey before wounding it long enough to weaken it even more for the kill later.

"Use your words..." he suggested.

"Trouble," I finished for her right when he taunted her. Ryder looked over at me with the complete opposite intentions he had with Bailee and maybe that's why I was frustrated. I didn't know why he would deliberately treat me so different and be a jerk to my friend right in front of me. I avoided eye contact with him, but recognized that his face twisted in a new way of incredulous realization of what I just said. I stood up, finished with my food just as Bailee was. "Let's go."

Bailee adherently followed suit and when I took two steps, Ryder caught my forearm with his hand and spun me around to face him. He searched my eyes as if he was studying my response...like he depended on it.

"Is this about...?"

"About what?" I asked with more underlying pain in my voice than I should've given even through anger. I even slipped my arm out of his grasp.

"Please," he scoffed, not as some player's request at a conversation was rejected, but because I was shutting down on him due to the unknown. "Is it because I didn't come over? Because I have a reason, okay?"

"Yeah, your reason is sitting over there in that booth wondering why you're wasting your breath on me," I somehow managed to tell him.

"Ashlynn, just—" he tried to say, but I continued to walk away from him. Despite my insides scolding me for leaving the boy, I felt like it was the right thing right now only because I didn't know why I was so attached in the first place. I didn't know his intentions and I didn't know if he could even feel the same as me.

"What was that about?" Bailee questioned as I unlocked the doors to my car

"Nothing," I lied as I sat in the driver's seat and could see through the windows of the diner that Ryder stood in distress for a moment before knocking an adjacent chair to the side.

"Didn't look like nothing to me," Bailee commented. I looked over at her and wanted to tell her it was none of her business, but I needed advice right now.

"Yesterday, he spent the day at my house helping me paint my room and promised to come over today, but he never showed, so there's that."

"Wow," I heard her breathe as I backed up out of the parking spot. Yup. I knew it. I had amazed her with my stupidity enough to make her go silent.

"That's it? Just 'wow'?"

"Well I'm still stuck on Ryder helping, that's the thing," she frowned through her voice. "He just showed up at your house and wanted to help paint your room?"

"No," I denied. "He originally came to apologize for running out after the party, and heard my conversation with Cassandra about my room and then offered to help me—no actually, he insisted that he would for some reason."

"Are we talking about the same Ryder?" she asked. "Because that fear-inflicting monster in there isn't the kind to apologize or help people for nothing."

"Well he did and then he stood me up and then acted like an ass to you," I said. "Which I don't know why I feel so hurt when he has someone like Stella."

"He doesn't have Stella," she corrected.

"You know what I mean."

"Well he said he had a reason, at least, and you didn't listen," she shrugged. I glanced over at her and then back at the road.

"Oh no, don't tell me you're on his side," I whined. "I already think I'm the bad guy here."

"Why do you think that? It's not like you're a heartless liar," she shrugged and I looked over at her after what she just said. "What? He might be the cool guy around here, but I don't trust him. Evan doesn't trust him. Ask Preston or Rod and even they might not trust him. "

"And Stella?" I asked, amused at her conspiracy.

"Her judgment is clouded."

"Alright," I laughed at her persistence. "Well, I just don't know which Ryder I'm dealing with."

"That's because you're dealing with the Ryder you want to see instead of the Ryder that is right in front of you," she suggested.

"Yeah, maybe," I agreed. I drove her home and I had the urge to travel back to the Obsidian house one more time, but I had to make a decision just like I had with Ryder.