Ryder (Fallen Brook High School YA Series)

by J. L. Wyer

  I leave my place at the entrance and saunter over to him. Ryder sets the mug down on the center island. I walk into his embrace and inhale. I love the way he smells.

  “I’m sorry I woke you,” I tell him while rubbing my cheek lightly against the soft hairs of his chest.

  “I was already up. I don’t think any of us slept much. Well, other than Julien, clearly.”

  I smile at his joke. “I think a stampede of elephants doing a tap dance on his head wouldn’t wake Julien up,” I reply, lifting up on my tiptoes. Once I’ve raised high enough to reach Ryder’s mouth, I whisper, “Good morning.”

  Ryder bands an arm around my lower back. “Good morning,” he says back and gives me the kiss I have been wanting since I walked into the kitchen.

  No matter how out of control my world feels right now, this boy — no, this man — right here brings me back. He grounds me with his love and support. He heals me with every kiss he gives. I press closer and a low grumble of sound passes from him into me. I could stand here and kiss him all day, but we both hear someone coming down the hallway and we know it’s more than likely Jayson. With one final touch of our lips, we pull apart. I lift the coffee from the counter and take a sip just as Jayson walks in.

  He walks over and wraps his arms around me from behind, resting his chin on my shoulder. I don’t try to move away, and Ryder doesn’t say a word.

  “I foresee a very long nap later today,” Jayson says next to my ear.

  I sip more coffee and nod in agreement. “I should call Meredith and Trevor to let them know how I am.”

  “If you think you’re up for it, why not invite everybody over tonight?” Ryder suggests handing Jayson a steaming mug.

  “Maybe. Let me see how I feel later today.”

  Julien walks into the kitchen at that moment. “Do I smell coffee?” He makes his way over to where we’re standing between the counter and the middle island. Julien pulls me away from Jayson and I get a third morning hug.

  “I hope we didn’t wake you.”

  “Nah,” he says and grabs my coffee from where I put it down.

  “Hey! Hands off.”

  Julien takes a long sip, grinning the entire time. He finishes and licks his lips with a smack. “It’s eight in the morning. Everybody’s up but Elijah and Daniel. Want to help me wake Elijah?” Julien waggles his eyebrows at me in a mischievous way.

  “Race you,” I call out, already dashing out of the kitchen to the guest bedroom.

  The guys easily catch up with me. Julien holds his finger up to his lips as he cracks the bedroom door open just a crack and peeks inside.

  “Let me make sure he’s decent,” Julien whispers and quietly sneaks over to the bed. Elijah doesn’t wake up as Julien lifts the corner of the sheet up before giving us a thumbs up. Backing away, Julien rejoins us.

  “Ready?” he asks quietly, and we nod.

  The four of us then shout as loudly as we can, “Wake up, Elijah!”

  Elijah yelps, arms and legs flailing as he topples off the side of the bed. “You assholes!” we hear him holler from the floor.

  Julien takes a running dive over the bed in an impressive belly slide, landing on top of Elijah with an umph.

  I try to leap on top of the bedcovers, but Ryder tackles me from the side. I’m close enough to the edge of the bed to see Elijah and Julien wrestling on the floor between the tight confines of the bed and the wall. Elijah’s attempts to push Julien off are accompanied by a mixture of half-hearted bouts of cursing and laughing.

  Jayson lands beside me and starts to tickle my ribcage as Ryder holds me down. I’m flailing and shrieking in fits of giggles.

  “Say ‘flubberjizz.’” Ryder laughs down at me.

  “What does that even mean?” I snort because I’m laughing so hard, but he and Jayson don’t stop. I shriek again just as Jayson finds the place under my knee where I’m most sensitive.

  “So cute,” he says and attacks the other knee.

  “Julien, help!” I screech while trying to squirm away from Jayson’s fingers, but Ryder’s hold on me is too strong.

  “Julien’s not going to save you, princess.”

  Ryder bends down and zerberts my neck under my jaw. “Say ‘flubberjizz’ and we’ll let you up.” He zerberts me again and Jayson does a dual attack on the soles of both of my feet.

  “Flubberjizz! Flubberjizz!”

  “Good morning you loud, crazy kids,” Daniel says at us as he passes the doorway on his way to the kitchen.

  “Good morning, Daniel,” all five of us shout back.

  Still breathless and a little sweaty from being tickle-attacked, I roll to my stomach and poke my head over the side of the bed. Elijah and Julien are no longer wrestling; they’re making out.

  Jayson smacks my butt and I look over my shoulder to stick my tongue out at him. He pops up from the bed. “Who wants pancakes?”

  Four voices yell “me.”

  I roll over the side of the bed and fall on top of Julien and Elijah. “Good morning, Elijah,” I say cheerily. He’s on the bottom of our people sandwich. Elijah shifts his head to the side so he can see me. “Good morning, Liz.”

  I pinch Julien’s backside and he jumps, causing Elijah to cry out, “Watch the balls!”

  Ryder lifts me off Julien’s back and tosses me back on the bed. Jayson’s already left the room to start making pancakes.

  Ryder is hovering over me with his elbows on either side of my face. Then he lowers down and kisses me.

  Elijah's head pops up like a whack-a-mole. “Wait. You guys are hooking up?”

  “They are,” Julien replies to his boyfriend.

  “When did this happen?” Elijah looks from us to Julien, his expression almost comical. “Does Jayson know?”

  “He does, but don’t mention it around him,” Julien says and kisses Elijah. “Come on. Let’s go help him make breakfast. I promise to explain everything later. For now, mum’s the word.”

  Elijah still has a confused look on his face as he gapes at me and Ryder. “Okay,” he says, then, “Where the hell have I been lately?”

  “Shh. I said I’ll explain later,” Julien reiterates and drags a reluctant Elijah out of the room.

  Ryder looks back down at me when they’re gone, and I smile up at him.

  “Poor Elijah,” I say.

  “He’ll live,” Ryder replies and drops down so that our bodies are touching. He kisses the tip of my nose. “I know Jay is being cool about everything, but I have a feeling if I try anything more than to hug you around him, he’s going to rip my head off. Then again, I did have to sit by and watch him kiss and hug you before, so…”

  Taking a lock of his hair that has fallen over his brow, I push it back into place. “That was before with the Old Elizabeth. I’m not her,” I tell him. “I love you, Ryder. Right here and right now. You.” I lift up and plant a hard kiss to his soft lips. “Now let's go eat some pancakes.”

  Chapter 30

  That's What Friends Are For

  Elizabeth

  Around a quarter ‘til twelve, I finally boot up my phone and am not surprised to see several voicemail messages and about twenty text messages waiting for me. Spying the time, I realize that lunch period at school just ended, so Meredith and Trevor should be arriving in AP English right about now. I hit the green call button.

  “You’re alive!” Meredith answers. “What's going on, Elizabeth? What the heck happened to you?”

  “I thought Ryder texted you about it?”

  “Yes, he did. But I want to hear it from you. Now spill,” she demands.

  “I’m sorry. I’m a horrible friend.”

  “You will be if you don’t tell me what happened. Where are you? Are you not coming to school today?”

  “Don’t freak out.”

  “Okay,” she drawls out in skepticism.

  “I fainted and was in the hospital last night.”

  Me telling Meredith not to freak out is like trying to tell a room full of
people not to panic after someone yells fire.

  “What! You passed out? Where are you? Are you at home? I’m coming to you right now. When I get my hands on you, I’m going to smack you first then hug you, or hug you first then smack you.”

  I hear Trevor say, “What do you mean she passed out?”

  “Is that Trevor?”

  I hear some scraping noises and then, “Yes, it’s Trevor. You know, the other friend of yours who has also been worried sick about you,” a male voice says.

  “Oh, hey, Trevor. Before you start yelling at me too, could you please make sure she doesn’t leave class to hunt me down. I’m fine. Honest.”

  “You weren’t fine last night.”

  “Trevor, give me my phone back,” Meredith says in the background.

  I hear some more shuffling noises and can only imagine Meredith trying to take her phone away from her brother. He’s over a foot taller than she is so could easily keep it out of her reach.

  “Trevor!”

  “Your firecracker here is about to lose it. When are you coming back to school?”

  “Tomorrow, I hope,” I tell him. “Pizza and a movie with me and the guys later tonight at my place if you and Mer want to come over.”

  “We'll be there.”

  “Where will we be? Let me talk to her,” Meredith demands. More shuffling.

  “Do what now?” she asks me when she gets back on the phone.

  “You guys are coming over tonight. You can yell at me then. I deserve it.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “Stay in class. I’ll see you tonight, firecracker.”

  She huffs at me before hanging up.

  “Your friend is a bit of a handful,” Jayson comments from one side of the sofa, his eyes closed.

  After we ate breakfast, we piled onto the couch and finished watching season three of Cobra Kai on Netflix. All the parentals were very understanding about the guys skipping school today so they could be here with me. I don’t why that makes me feel so loved and cherished, but it does.

  Ryder is currently passed out on the other end of the sofa. Daniel is working from home in the study, and Elijah left with Julien twenty minutes ago for a run. I’m pretty sure that Jayson and I will be joining Ryder in nap-land soon.

  Jayson pats the place beside him on the couch and I join him, laying my head on his shoulder. He reaches an arm around me and settles back.

  “This is nice,” he says. “I’ve missed this with you.”

  “Napping?”

  “No, princess. I’ve missed the days when we would sit around the house being lazy. Me and you snuggled on the couch doing absolutely nothing. It’s nice. Peaceful,” he finishes.

  “Shh,” I tell him.

  Jayson leans his head against mine and closes his eyes again.

  “Jayson?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thank you.”

  He makes a humming noise.

  I hesitate, trying to come up with the right words. “I'm sorry.”

  Another hum.

  “I can see how the old me would have fallen head over heels in love with you.”

  “Liz,” Jayson breathes out and I feel the exhale of his breath like a soft flutter against my hair.

  “I’m so sorry for hurting you.”

  His arm tightens around my shoulders and he kisses the side of my head. “Go to sleep.”

  “Okay.”

  ∞∞∞

  “Spill,” Meredith demands, pointing at me. As soon as she walked through the front door with Trevor tonight, she grabbed me, marched me into my bedroom, and locked the door. “I will hog-tie you to this bed and not let you leave until you do.”

  I cross my arms and size her up. She may be tiny, but she’s fierce. I have no doubt that she would do it.

  “The ER doctor said that I had low blood sugar.”

  Meredith’s eyes narrow on me. “I call BS. You becoming a hyperventilating mannequin was not caused by low blood sugar. Try again.”

  “You are a pit bull, you know that?”

  “Stop trying to sweettalk me, Elizabeth. You frightened the crap out of me and Trevor. Is there something wrong with you? Are you sick or something?” She drops her defensive stance in front of the door and plops down on my bed, dragging me with her.

  “I’m not sick. As you can see, I’m perfectly fine.”

  “Don’t make me call BS again. I’ll MacGyver an answer out of you if I have to.”

  This crazy girl. “What? Like, you’ll fashion a paper clip with a stick of gum to create a human torture device to get me to confess?”

  “Exactly,” she says brightly, and we both giggle.

  Meredith falls back onto my bed doing what looks like snow angels with her arms and legs.

  “I'm glad you brought Darrel tonight. How are things going with him?” I ask her.

  “Nope. You have to answer my question first. Was it really low blood sugar?”

  She’s not going to let up, and I’m not prepared to tell her everything. “Partly, yes.”

  “And? Details, please.”

  “My brain overloaded from a memory of my sister that tried to resurface.”

  “Are you serious? Because it was scary as hell.”

  “Totally serious. A memory tries to break free and I become a zombie. It’s been happening more and more lately.”

  “Oh, Elizabeth, that’s horrible. But you’re okay now, right? Is there anything I can do?” Her eyes go big as saucers. “Wait! Did you get your memory back?”

  “I’m good. And no. No memory resurgence. Still as clueless about my past today as I was yesterday and the day before that and the day before that,” I say with a bit a relief because I’m absolutely terrified of my memories returning, knowing that the life I’m creating now would get taken away from me.

  “Oh.” Meredith frowns with a pout. “I truly am sorry, Elizabeth.”

  “It’s really okay. Honest. I’m sorry if it scared you. Daniel and the guys have been taking good care of me. They haven’t left my side once. They even slept here last night.”

  “That must have been a bit awkward having both Ryder and Jayson here under the same roof,” she comments.

  I take her shoulders. “Don’t freak out.”

  Meredith glares at me. “You really do need to stop saying that to me.”

  “Jayson found out about me and Ryder.”

  Meredith’s face shows surprise. “How? I swear I haven’t said a word. Neither have Beth nor Celeste as far as I know.”

  I shake my head at her. “Jayson found out about me and Ryder at the library because I have a big, stupid mouth. It was totally and completely my fault.”

  Meredith puffs out her cheeks before expelling the air. “They’re both still standing so I guess they haven’t killed each other yet. But, OMG, girl! How awkward was it last night when they all slept over?”

  I don’t mention that, with the exception of Elijah, the guys all slept in my bed. “They’ve been great, actually. No fights or arguments.” Yet. I have a feeling that won’t last forever. “Now, you said you would tell me about you and Darrel if I answered you.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to have amnesia?”

  “Meredith!”

  “I slept with him,” she blurts out and grabs my pillow to shove over her face.

  “Wait. What?”

  “I said I slept with him,” she muffles from under the pillow that she’s apparently trying to suffocate herself with. I rip it away and stare at her.

  “When?”

  “Last weekend. It just happened.”

  “How was it?”

  Meredith flies up and grabs me by the shoulders. “A little awkward at first. We were both virgins.” She winces at me with one eye open, an embarrassed grimace on her face.

  “Oh.” I really have nothing to say to that. Every girl should have an amazing first time. I did with Ryder. And I have to assume I did with Jayson. Those two sentences sound so weird when strung together. />
  “What is that goofy look on your face?”

  I wipe it off. “Nothing. I'm sorry your first time wasn't good.”

  “No, I said it was awkward. At first. But trust me when I say that Darrel knows—”

  I slap a hand over her mouth. “No details! I don’t need to know!”

  Meredith dissolves into a fit of hyena laughter and pulls my hands away from her mouth.

  “You are so crazy,” I tell her.

  “But you love me anyway, right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Elizabeth, you are too nice for me not to keep you. Next time, though, don’t make me wait to find out how you are. You know that Trevor and I would have been sitting right there with your boys in the hospital waiting area if we’d known. That's what friends do.”

  I tackle-hug her on the bed. “You're the best, firecracker. I'm glad we became friends.”

  The doorbell rings and Elijah yells, “Pizza!”

  I pull Meredith up. “Come on. Let’s go eat and watch a really crappy movie. Preferably one that makes no sense whatsoever.”

  When we enter the living room, Meredith whispers to me, “Girl, look at all this male yumminess. Yay us.”

  All the guys are lounging around in various places in the living room. Pizza boxes are already scattered across the floor and coffee table. Celeste, Beth, Keith, and Davis couldn't make it tonight because of an away game.

  And Meredith is right. We are surrounded by six totally hot, gorgeous guys. I find my guy on the couch.

  “What’s up, Ace?” Trevor says from the armchair, a slice of meat-lover’s pizza in his hand.

  “Why do you call her Ace?” Jayson asks him.

  Instead of the usual ‘I’ll rip your head off’ look he gives to anyone who he thinks is trying to flirt with me, he seems more curious than anything. He really is trying to adapt for me. That little squeeze of my heart hits me as I look at Jayson. I lock it away and beam a smile at him.

  Jayson does a doubletake at me when he sees me smiling at him. “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Ace is short for AC which is short for Amnesia Chick,” Trevor tells everyone.

  Meredith and I sit together on the floor, and I slip down to position myself between Ryder’s knees. I reach for the small, thin box that I know will have my bacon, turkey, pepperoni and black olive pizza in it.