"Jayda, right?" The wet girl says.

"Uh yeah." My eyes flash to the door number, making sure that I'm at the right room. I am, this is room 423, maybe he told me the wrong number, nope, I'm wrong. A tall shirtless figure comes out of the bathroom. He walks up right behind her and takes the door out of her hands. He doesn't say anything. He just stares at me intensely. My eyes lock onto his.

Katherine looks at him and then back at me. "Well, I'm going to go get dressed."

"Yeah, you go do that," my subconscious says as she walks away.

"I can come back," I tell him.

"No." He opens the door wider, gesturing for me to come in. I hesitate but then walk into the room; my eyes scan the whole place, from the ceiling to the floor. The bed is all messed up. Covers are hanging off, touching the floor. I look beside the bed and notice a blue purse on the nightstand, my eyes move to the floor, and there's a pink lace bra lying there. I guess soon she'll realize its out there.

I pull a black chair out from under the desk and take a seat, placing my folder onto the desk. I then pull out my phone, pretending to do something.

I'm trying my best not to look at Ryder, not at his body but his tattoos. I'm intrigued by all of them; I wonder what they mean; they aren't designs—their symbols. I don't know what they mean. I think back to the figure I saw on Caleb. I didn't know what his meant either.

It's funny, really, that Ryder has tattoos; his parents are so elegant and... fancy. And Ryder is so—not. He sits on the end of the bed and pulls out his phone also. He is texting someone, probably Ashely.

"I have a question," I say, allowing my curiosity to take over.

He blows his breath angrily.

I ignore him and continue. "Why did you get it?"

"Get what?" He growls, still looking at his phone.

"The tattoos." He looks up at me and shrugs his shoulders. "There has to be a reason."

"There isn't." He says sternly.

I sigh. "Ok." I start to spin around in the chair.

"I did it to piss my parents off." He says. I stop the chair from spinning and look at him.

"Why?" I ask.

"There's no why. I just did it because I knew they would be mad. " He snarls. He gets up off the bed, walks over to the dresser, pulls out a blue shirt, and pulls it over his head.

"There has to be a reason; you wanted to make them mad. Why?"

"There you go again." He rolls his eyes. "You're thinking too deeply into things when there's nothing to it. I wanted to make them mad; that's it."

"Oh."

He walks away from the dresser and towards me; I feel my heart stop, and for some reason, I hold my breath. He reaches behind me and grabs my folder off the desk. I stand up, trying to get it from him. He raises it above his head. "Ryder, give it back."

"No," he says, "I want to read it." a small smile grows on his face. I've never seen him smile before, at least not like this; this seems... real, it's nice.

"Well, I don't want you to." I reach up again, trying to grab it from him. Our bodies touch one another; I feel a fiery burn on my chest as it touches against his lower waist.

"Why not?" he narrows his eyes at me.

"It's private." I look up at the folder that's still high in the air.

"Do you not trust me?" he asks.

I laugh at that stupid question with an obvious answer. "Of course not."

His smile fades, and he hands me my folder. He walks over to the dresser and leans back against it. The bathroom door then comes open, and Katherine comes out. She stops at the side of the bed, grabs her purse off the nightstand, and then bends over, picking up her bra. When she leans back up, I know she must have put it in her bag because it's not in her hand.

She walks over to us and hugs Ryder. He stiffens as she embraces him. Her hug is more seductive than passionate. How old is she anyway?

"Come find me when you're in New York again," she says. She looks at me. "And Jayda, this is for you." she reaches into her bag and pulls out a little white card. It has a number on it.

  I don't want whatever you're providing my inner self says.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Alexander's number, he told me that if I saw you give it to you. I had a feeling I was going to see you," she says and hands me the card, "Well, I have a flight to LA to catch; I'll see you guys around." She turns around and walks out the door. I look back at the card and flip it over on the other side. There's something written on it.

Why wait another life when we have this one?

...

"Wait, and who gave you this?" Blair says from beside me, flipping the white card back and forth over and over.

"His name is Alexander," I tell her.

"And he's British?" she asks. Even though I already told her.

"Yesss."

"Well, damn, if I had gotten all the boys like you in high school, maybe I wouldn't be gay." she jokes. I narrow my eyes at her.

"Just kidding, I've known since kindergarten that I was gay; I didn't know that was the word but, instead of kissing boys under that parachute, I was with a girl." We both burst into laughter. "So, are you going to call him?" she asks.

"No, probably not."

"Why not?" she whines.

"Because..." I don't want to say Caleb's name out loud. I know Ryder will get mad, and I'm liking the silence right now. He hasn't said anything to me since Katherine handed me that card.

"Right, because of Caleb." she nods her head, understanding. Ryder looks up from his phone and looks at me. He puts his head back down and continues texting. Who is he texting? "Did you call him?" Blair asks.

"I did, but he didn't answer. And I called him again this morning, and he still didn't answer." I sigh.

She looks at me. "Well, I'm sure he's just busy." She says, trying to cheer me up.

Ryder POV

Well, that explains why she hasn't gone off on me yet. He's ignoring her. I for sure thought he would've called back later, trying to get answers from her. He was pretty mad when I told him that I was here in New York with her. Which technically wasn't a fucking lie. Because I am in New York... with her. I kind of feel bad about picking up her phone—kind of.

But shit, she shouldn't have just had it lying around. I wasn't even going to answer it until I saw who it was. I was bored, and I thought, why the hell not. I just wanted to mess with him. I guess I succeed now that dick isn't even answering her calls. I guess he's in his feelings like a little bitch.

He'll move on. I know he will. I know guys like him, fuck I am a guy like him; we get over shit quick. He'll get some pussy from some other girl and move on with his life. What the fuck would he stay for? It isn't like shes giving him shit. Or did she? Did she let him fuck?

Probably not she gets nervous when I fucking look at her and the way she was staring at me when I didnt have my shirt on. There's no way she let him fuck. She's too weird.

I did Jayda a fucking favor. She shouldn't be around someone like that; there are things about him that I know she doesn't know because I know his ass hasn't told her shit. Which I'm partly grateful for; if he did, she wouldn't be here right now with me. She would've only listened to his fucking side of the story without listening to me.

She doesn't fucking trust me. She would never believe me, even though I would tell her what really happened. There's no need for me to lie to her. I don't care about her feelings, I don't care if I hurt her feelings, and I don't care if she never talks to me again. So there's no need to fucking sugar coat anything. I'll always tell her shit exactly how it fucking is.

My phone vibrates in my hand. It's Matt.

*His name is Travis Ford; he's a drug dealer on the other side of town. -Matt

How the hell does she know a drug dealer? I also took it upon my fucking self to see who the fuck this Travis guy was. It was irritating the shit out of me, not knowing who the fuck she was talking to. I remembered his name from the first time I met him when she got into that fucking car with him. I should've never let her. I should've dragged her ass to my car and drove her to wherever the fuck she was going.

Anyway, I'm glad I went through her phone. I found his number and then sent it to Matt to search it up on his dad's computer. I guess having a cop for a dad has his perks. Minus the fact, he beats the shit out of him like every day because his dads stressed out from all the problems that come with being a cop and the whole thing with Matt's mom. Still, that's no excuse to hit your own fucking son.

*Anything else?

*Zach was here when I was looking up that shit. A picture of him came up; Zach said the guy used to sell to people at school and someone at school used to deal for him, But last year, whoever was dealing for him stopped. -Matt

*When?

*January. -Matt

*Did you find anything else?

*There was more but I couldn't finish looking, my dad was coming in... I'll finish later -Matt

I click my phone off. I surprised he didn't ask me abo--

*You still with that bitch -Matt

I spoke too soon. My whole body heats at what he just called her. I used to not care what people called her, but now, it... it does something to me.

*Yeah

*Did you fuck her yet? -Matt

*No.

*Why not?-Matt

*She isn't my type

*Who gives a shit her body is fucking hot that's all that matters; anyway, does Ashely know your down there with her? -Matt

*No, I didn't tell her because I don't want to hear her fucking mouth, so keep yours shut!

*Dude, I will. I don't like the girl, but I don't want to see what Ashely would do to her if she found out -Matt

I click my phone. I don't want to see that either, even though Jayda held her own fighting Ashely the other day. She doesn't know what's coming for her when she gets back to Crossland; Ashely doesn't need to know that I'm here with her; she doesn't need another reason to want to ruin her.

I don't like Ashely, but I've known her for a long time, and I know what she's capable of. I look over to Jayda. The sun is shining down on her causing her smooth brown skin to glow. She looks happy. She isn't the same girl that walked into Ms. Moore's office crying weeks ago. She looks... stronger.

Hopefully, she's strong enough. Ashely has gotten worse, especially after what she did to Jessica. I mean, that was her fucking best friend, and she did that shit. I mean, she loved her, maybe a little too much.

I can only imagine what Ashely has in store for the girl she hates.

(I was so excited to do Ryder's POV. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Hopefully, I can do more POV from him. But I don't know cause he knows EVERYTHING! sooooo we will see. Hopefully, I didn't give away too much. But did you guys like it? Are you ready to go back to Crossland?)