Addison's P.O.V
Fix.
That's his definition of fix.
I shoot him a death glare and he raises his hands, the universal sign of 'I surrender'.
"Just saying," he says, looking away.
I swear it takes all my will not to go all Karate Kid on him.
I glance at our assistants.
Mine was laughing and the other looked... stunned.
She looked shell shocked, sick, pale and at the same time... sad.
What just happened?
She saw me looking at her and whatever expression she saw on my face made her shoot up from her seat excusing herself to go to the bathroom.
Again, what just happened?
After a few minutes and out of total concern, I went looking for her.
I entered the girls' bathroom in the ambassadors' lounge but she wasn't there. Deciding to look for her in the students' bathroom, I walked in and found her there, hunched over the sink... crying.
"Brook?" I started in a really low and soft voice but she still got a bit startled.
"Are you okay?" I asked in pure concern.
Why did I even ask that?
Of course she's not okay!
Sometimes you just have to use your head, Addison.
She just looked at me then back down at the sink.
I walked closer and put a hand on her shoulder. She sniffled a bit then turned around hugging me.
She broke down and cried harder.
When she finally calmed down, she didn't want to pull away from our hug.
"Mind telling me what's wrong?" I asked quietly, not wanting to rip her broken self into shreds.
I've been here enough times to know that she needs support, love and quiet.
"I... I-It's Leroy," she managed to get out mid-sniffles.
I stiffened and my jaw clenched at the mention of his name.
What did that man-whore do this time?
I rubbed her back, to provide some sort of comfort, and let her continue.
"Last week we went to a party. We didn't do together. We just met by coincidence," she explained when I kept quiet, still holding me in our little hug.
"He flattered me and made me actually think that he has feelings for me. We spent the night together and I got drunk. I don't know if he got drunk though. Then one thing led to another and finally-" her voice cracked.
I pushed the worst possible thoughts to the darkest corner of my mind.
"And you made out?" I stupidly said and regretted it at soon as it came out of my mouth.
Oh snap.
She pulled away and held me by the shoulders shaking me vigorously as she yelled, "He fucked me! He frikin' jumped my bones!" she snapped and fell back to our previous hugging position, sobbing a little.
"A-a-a-and yesterday, Ava told me the he fucked her the day before. And today, I saw how much he likes you and-" I cut her off.
"Wait," I pulled away and looked at her, "Hold up, likes me? More like looking for another girl to 'have fun' with," I said, putting air quotes around 'have fun'.
"I know that's what you think, but I saw how hurt he looked when you turned down ice-cream with him," she said trying to hold back more tears but failing despondently.
"Addison, he likes you. I saw the way his eyes lit up when he saw you today," she added, sadly.
Not wanting to continue this conversation, I hugged her again.
"I'm so sorry for what happened Brook, but you know how stupid Leroy is and his record with girls isn't exactly clean, at all," I said in an attempt to comfort her.
"I know, but I really thought he could change, ya know?" she said, hope spelling out her words for her.
"Girlfriend, this is Leroy Rider we are talking about. He's never gonna change his playboy ways. Now will you let me go knee him in the crotch and strangle him with my bare hands for hurting you like this?" I say not losing the same tone of concern for Brook all through.
I mean, he usually goes for sluts who don't give a shit about such things, not girls like Brooklyn.
But of course, he's Rider.
He just rides and doesn't care.
That pun was unintentional, by the way.
"That won't be necessary," she said chuckling, "Besides, you can't lose your ambassador-ship because of me, you still have one year of it left."
"Okay. But when he does something like this again, I won't care about that," I say to her, meaning every word.
"Thank you so much Addie, I'm so lucky to have you as a friend."
"Don't mention it, just don't let what he did change you in any way," I smiled at this.
"I won't. By the way, sorry for snapping at you earlier," She says, sniffling a bit.
"It's okay. You needed to get your feelings off your chest anyway," I tell her as we pulled away.
I watched as she fixed her face, or at least that's what she called it and we headed back five minutes before the one-hour line of the meeting.
We found him flirting with Naya.
Uggghhh!
The nerve of this guy!
Good thing Naya was just staring at her phone, ignoring him in the process.
Seriously Rider? A senior?
I mean you're just a junior.
I sat down and so did Brook.
I looked at him and my body went stiff again.
My nails dug into my palms and I felt my ears eat up.
But before I could tear his balls off, I felt a hand on mine. I looked at it and trailed it up to the person's face.
Brooklyn.
She gave me a pleading look and I forced myself to calm down.
If she wasn't here, God knows what I would have done to him.
After what seemed like twenty-seven hours, the meeting was finally over and I left.
Popping in one earphone, I headed for the school's exit when someone grabbed me by my elbow and slammed my back on the lockers.
I closed my eyes tight, wincing in pain. When I opened my eyes, I'm met by blue eyes.
Oh.
"What the hell Rider!?" I half yell, pushing him away.
"You should've seen your face, totally worth it," he smirked, proliferating my hatred for him.
Before I could do anything that would be cogitated as 'socially unacceptable' or 'completely unladylike-like', I start walking away.
He stops me by grabbing hold of my wrist.
Crap.
"What is your problem Addison? Why are you always mean to me?"
Does he not see how many people he hurts?
But then again, he's Rider.
He doesn't care.
I hate this guy with a passion.
I wrench my hand out of his grip and my hands naturally balled into fists.
"You're my problem Rider," I say in and low and warning tone and walk away.
I spot Julia's Volvo and walk over to it.
I could tell they were both in there even though it was getting dark out and the car was tinted.
I thrust the back door open, threw my bag in, hopped in, and banged it closed.
I felt like the blood in my veins was boiling hotter than the frikin' center of the earth.
"Babe, are you okay?" I hear a voice beside me.
Ryan.
I hug him, real tight, burying my face in his chest, letting his scent calm me down.
When that happened, two questions popped up in my headed.
How is he here?
Why is he here?
I looked at him and it's like he read my mind.
"The girls picked me up and I wanted to surprise you," he said.
"I like it when you read my mind like that," I smiled at him.
"Yeah, I know, I'm awesome, now back to my question, are you okay?" he said, looking really worried.
"Yeah, now I am," I said snuggling further into him and taking a deep breath.
He wraps an arm around me and pulls me into him.
"But a minute ago you weren't. What happened?" Julia asked.
"Yeah, what happened?" Iris added.
My body went cold and my jaw clenched at the memory.
And my brother and father still like him that much.
Do they know this side of him?
"I don't wanna talk about it," I say through gritted teeth.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Exhale.
I guess Ryan felt my tension because he started rubbing my upper arm, calming me down.
What would I do without this guy?
He puts his finger under my chin an I'm forced to look up at him. He looked so worried.
"I'm fine Just had a small fight with one of the ambassadors but I handled it. No bruises I swear," I reassure and he asks nothing more.
He leans in, pressing his lips against mine.
The man knows what I need right now. Slow, soft and passionate.
We pull away and watched as Julia drove to a nearby take out restaurant, that doesn't have a drive through.
Ah, I see what she's doing.
"Uh, Ryan, could you go get us burgers?" she asked so innocently.
"Why can't any of you do it?"
"Need I remind you that you haven't earned our Best-Friend-Stamp-Of-Approval to date our best friend?" Iris says smugly.
We've been dating for five months and they haven't approved yet.