I need to keep it together. I cried the whole way here; I won't cry anymore.

I grab my steering wheel tightly and take a deep breath. I tried calling my mom; she didn't answer. I have to know if she knew about this.

As much as I want to say she would never do that to me, I can't.

I didn't think my father would ever do something like this to me, but yet he did.

It wasn't until now I realized that people, including parents, are liable to do anything.

No matter if they're your parents, friend, boyfriend, girlfriend. They're still people, they're still human beings, and humans always have darkness somewhere in them.

You think a parent would shield their children from this evil thing. My father is proof that the darkness within all of us is stronger than anything. Stronger than even the most powerful force of all... love.

I wipe my warm tears from my cheeks and get out of the car; the parking lot is filled with cars and kids; there are people everywhere. This is the last place I want to be, but I have nowhere else to go.

I could've stayed in the car but, I know if I did, the thoughts would come, the voices that tell me to harm myself.

So this is not the place I want to be, but it's the place I should be; I will be distracted here. I need to be distracted, and this is the perfect place for that.

I walk out the lot and between the bleachers; when I get past them, I see that they are filled with hundreds of people; I stand at the bottom and search for Violet and Liam, in the stands,

"Are you okay?" Ryder asks, startling me.

I turn around; he's on the opposite side of the fence, his black helmet is in his hand, "I'm fine," I lie,

"Were you crying?" His green eyes search mines, "What's wrong?" he asks frowning, it sounds and looks like he is genuinely concerned, but I know better than to overthink things when it comes to him. He looks past me at someone; his lips press together.

I turn to see who it is; Caleb is walking up to me along with Logan and more of the boys on their team. They're all in their gear; I can see the anger in Caleb's eyes from here; when he walks up, he stares Ryder down. Ryder stares at him, not breaking his stance; I'm really not in the mood for...whatever this is right now, "What are you doing?" Caleb asks him.

"I'm asking her if she's okay," Ryder candidly responds,

"You don't need to do that," Caleb spits,

"You don't need to tell me what the fuck to do and what the fuck not to do," Ryder sarcastically says back; I shake my head, knowing this won't end well.

Caleb's jaw clenches, and he says, "Well, I can tell you to stay away from her, or I can just beat the shit out of you every time I see you talking to her!"

"Caleb," I snap, scorning his words,

"What the fuck did you just say?" Ryder narrows his eyes and walks around the fence that was once separating us.

I step in front of Caleb, trying my best to keep them apart, "Stay the hell away from her! Why is that so hard for you to do? She isn't your girlfriend,"

"I don't want her to be," Ryder responds bluntly, "I just was asking was she okay,"

"Well, don't!" Caleb growls

Ryder glances at me as if he expects me to say something, but I don't. I don't have anything to say. Ryder and I are at a cordial stage, I wouldn't go as far as to say we are friends, but we are friendly, cordial acquaintances.

Caleb doesn't know this; he still thinks I've been staying away from him, then again, not really.

It's not even my fault. It's not like I want to be around Ryder; he just keeps coming back.

I can't blame it all on him, though; oddly, there's just always something linking us to each, pulling us together, making us have to be around each other even when we don't want to be.

Ryder's eyes are still glued on me, "I'll see you after the game Jayda," he smiles and then walks away.

I turn around quickly; Caleb's jaw is clenched, "What the fuck does he mean, he'll see you after the game?!" he yells, people around us start to stare.

I grab his hand and say, "He was just joking," Ryder knew exactly what he was doing. Him saying that was just part of the game he likes to play to get other people rilled up it clearly worked because Caleb is furious,

"Is there something going on between you two?" he blurts out.

My eyes go wide, "No, what no!" I stammer.

"Why was he asking if you were okay?"

I narrow my eyes, "Because that's the decent thing to do," I don't think the old Ryder would've come up to me and asked if I was okay.

"Oh, so now you're saying he's decent?!" He throws his hands in the air,

"No," I yell back, "Wait, Yes!" I groan, "Are you mad because he was being nice to me?" I've never seen Caleb this upset before; he's heated; I can't feel the anger radiating off of his body,

"He was a dick to you, now all the sudden he nice; I want to know what the hell changed between you two to make you think he is a good person,"

I sigh, "Caleb, nothing changed," I say, leaving out details about the fight Ryder had with Matt and whatever the hell else happened after that. Things have been different; Ryder has been different; at least towards me, he has been. I don't know in detail why he's finally stopped being less of an ass, but it must have been something big.

His eyes search mine, "I'm sorry," he says and drops his head,

"It's okay," I assure him and grab his hand again.

I understand him questioning my relationship with Ryder or anyone. He has trust issues, so do I, but he has to know I would never cheat on him, especially with Ryder.

I lift on my tiptoes and kiss him on the lips, I can feel the looks on us, but I don't care. I stand back, flat-footed on the ground.

"Caleb!" Logan calls from the field.

"Good luck!" I tell him and smile

"I don't need it; you're here," he says. "Remember after were going to have our talk,"

"About the future, I remember," I smile, he smiles still holding onto my hand; he then releases and jogs onto the field.

...

The crowd burst into screams as soon as the game starts; Violet and James both scream, indulging in the crowd's energy.

Liam, Thomas, and I both roll our eyes. "It's crazy, all these people here to support guys tackling each other, but yet no one wants to support the smart kids who build robots," Liam says,

"I will never understand it," Thomas says, agreeing,

James sits back on the bench, "No one wants to watch robots toss balls into a basket; that's boring,"

"And this is not," Liam asks, pointing at the field.

"No," James says, seriously shaking his head, "If you think it boring, why did you come?"

Liam looks over at Violet, giving us our answer.

...

"Caleb's, good!" Thomas says to me,

"Yeah, he is!" I look at the scoreboard; Ravenswood is six points ahead, all because Caleb threw a ball halfway across the field to one of the wide receivers allowing him to score a touchdown. He's fast too.

Ravenswood may win the game after all; then again, there's still time for Crossland to get ahead.

They're back into the three-point stance; my eyes shift from Caleb to Ryder; I know who they are because of the numbers. Ryder is number 20, Caleb is 12.

"Is it just me, or does this game seem more intense than any other," James says.

"It is the championships,' Violet states,

"Duh, but like I don't know, this shit seems like pure hatred and aggression,"

"Isn't that the definition of football," Thomas says,

James fakes laughs, "Very funny,"

"They are our rival team, so it's expected," Liam chimes in.

James nods his head, agreeing. I didn't want to say anything either, but there is definitely more to it than them being our rival team.

Ryder POV

"How's the knee?" Matt asks Caleb, who is bent over in front of him,

"How's the girlfriend he spits back?" Referring to the time, at the party when Matt put his hands on this girl, whose name I forgot.

Matt grits his teeth. "Don't respond," I tell him.

"Is Jayda here?" He asks Caleb, "You know I was thinking about taking her back home with me after the game, to you know, do the same thing Ryder did to your sister!"

I rise up out of this dumb ass position and push him hard; he falls to the ground,

Everyone breaks the three-point stance,

"What did you just say?" Caleb crosses the line, his teammates hold him back.

"What the hell are yall doing?!" Coach yells from across the field.

I take my helmet off, so does Caleb. Matt gets off the ground, laughing, removing his helmet also "Shit, I forgot both of you are fucking her!" he points at me and then Caleb.

Caleb's eyes go wide at the lie Matt just told. He looks at me and then lunges, tackling me to the ground; everyone around us breaks into commotion, team against team, punching, shoving, and tackling each other. Caleb's fist connects with my jaw, something triggers in me as it always does, everything goes black, but then I feel my fist connect his jaw.

Jayda POV

The crowd in the stands stand up, trying to get a better look at what's going on, on the field. The coaches run out onto the field, trying to break up the brawl.

"What the hell happened?" Violet asks,

"I don't know," James says; he grabs Violet's hand, "Let's find out," he pulls her out the row and down the steps.

I look back at the field; some coach finally pulls apart Ryder and Caleb. Ugh, what is wrong with them? They couldn't have waited until after the game to hash all this out.

The cheerleading coach walks up to the cheerleaders that are sitting at the bottom of the bleachers and signals for them to get up. They all stand and walk on the field; black and white pom poms in their hand. I look to the left of the field and outcomes the marching band. I guess they're starting the halftime show now.

Back on the field, everyone is separated now; Ravenswood walks to the left, Crossland is not on the field; they are probably in the locker rooms, getting cursed out by their coach for their unteam-like behavior.

.My phone rings, my heart immediately stops. I really hope it's not my father; I pull it out of my back pocket, it's Jessica. "Hello,"

"Hey, I'm here!" she says.

"Oh, um great!" I say I forgot I invited her, "Where are you?"

"Almost at the parking lot,"

"Okay, call me when you're out there, i'll meet you,"

"Kay," she hangs the phone. I put it back into my pocket.

James and Violet march back up the stairs, "Sooo," James says and looks at me, "Looks like your boyfriends were fighting,"

I know who he is referring to, "Oh,"

"Shocker," he adds; he and Violet sit down; by the way, their stance is I can tell they are upset.

"They're about to perform the halftime show." Thomas chimes in, trying to cool the tension.

I sit down and sink into the bleachers; my phone rings again; it must be Jessica, I answer. "Jayda," A shaky voice says, it isn't Jessica,

"Katie!"

"Jayda I-"

I hold my other ear to block out some of the noise; the band has started playing, "Katie's repeat what you said I didn't hear you,"

"Travis is gone!" she sobs into the phone,

"Wait. What? Your letter, You said--"

"I know, but he's gone; he left,"

"Where are you?" I as urgently,

"I'm in the parking lot!"

"My schools?" How is she here?

"Yes, I knew Ryder would be here, but he's not answering his phone," she says. Of course, he's in the game,

"Okay, Uhm, stay where you are. I'm coming," I hang up the phone, "I'll be back," I tell everyone, even though I'm sure they don't care.

I walk past them and down the bleachers. I walk between them and into the dark parking lot. I look around and then spot Ryder at his car in the trunk, "Ryder!" I call his name from afar and stop right in the middle of the lot,

"Kaite is-" My eyes go to the bag of money that is still in the back of his truck, "What are you doing?" I ask. He opens his mouth,

"Jayda!" Caleb calls my name before Ryder could speak. I turn the other way. He walks from between the bleachers and onto the lot, standing between a red car and a black one.

"Caleb, I-" Before I can even defend why I'm out here with Ryder and what it actually is rather than what it looks like, a figure in a hood appears from between two cars; it isn't into the person comes into the light I see who it is, "Travis," I saw weakly squinting my eyes making sure they aren't playing tricks on me.

He pulls something from behind his back, a familiar silver object I saw in the glove department of his car.

A gun.

My heart stops, my body freezes; everything around me slows down. He points the gun at Caleb. "No!" I scream through my breathless frozen body; even in the dark, I can see the crooked smile on his face.

Bang

Bang

Bang

Bang

To be Continued !