u n o r t h o d o x.

Her hair was tied up in a messy bun of long ginger curls, Clubmaster glasses clinging to the bridge of her nose that was stuck in the pages of an enthralling book. She had been reading all night, and the ending was coming on quickly. The novel had sucked her in so deeply that she hadn’t even realized the time, nearly 11:30 at night, and she needed to go to sleep in order to be well rested for the following school day. With a light sigh, Winnie pressed her flower bookmark between the pages and slid the book onto her nightstand beside her alarm clock. Her body felt heavy as she swung her legs off of the bed, swiped her toothbrush out of its case in the hallway closet, and wandered towards the bathroom. The door was shut and locked, but the light shone beneath the crack, so she knocked lightly. After a few moments, her knuckles rapped a little harder on the wood. “Tyler, hurry up,” she huffed impatiently, toothbrush dangling out of her mouth as she smooth the wrinkles on her frilly pink pajama cami. “I need to brush my teeth before bed.” Another long moment of silence passed, and her patience was draining quickly. Winnie lifted her hand, ready to start pounding on the door, when suddenly it swung open and a stranger emerged. Color and flames were kissing her normally white freckled cheeks, lips falling open slightly in awe. She felt exposed in her short pink cat-print shorts and revealing cami, and a mixture of dread and intrigue washed over her. This man was absolutely breathtaking. His tired blue eyes twinkled with mischief, and he smiled like the devil. The realization that she had been shamelessly gaping at him hit her when he spoke to her, causing a blush to creep up onto the tips of her ears, and she clamped her lips closed over her toothbrush and tried to play it off. “Tyler’s friend,” she murmured in a greeting, eyes darting to the mirror in the hallway, before slowly, timidly returning to his captivating face.

A cloud of smoke made itself apparent through the contrasting darkness that fell outside just beyond the window it was pointed to. As it left Ryder’s lungs to that window, as did a bit of anxiety that was for the night to come – or so he convinced himself.

It wasn’t until a slight knock at the door that broke Ryder away from his always racing thoughts caused his blue hues to finally make an appearance from under his eyelids. Great. Not only did Ryder have to deal with leaning against freaking shower tiles to blow smoke outside in the Wright’s supposed precious home atmosphere, he now had to deal with running into a parent. Tyler’s mother, he presumed. He was never the best at parents.

Ryder’s chest rose to its point as he inhaled and savored the last long drag of the cigarette he bartered for, while crushing the bud on the granite sink and ending its demise behind a crack in the cabinet. The lasting smoke that left his lungs painted a circle of fog upon the bathroom mirror, giving a second for the tall blond to stare at himself – something he rarely did without ending up looking though shattered glass moments after – and left all of his anger and pent up emotions reside. His façade was back on.

The male wearing all black slowly opened the door, expecting an elder woman who was about to scorn him for smoking in her bathroom, but instead looked down to scene that couldn’t help but throw a smirk on his face. Tyler had a little sister? Who liked pink, wore glasses, and went to bed before midnight? He almost couldn’t believe it, how opposite they were.

The male acknowledged the power he contained over her already, it was something he was good at, especially since the amount of control he craved was impossible. Her cheeks were just about as pink as the frills on her shirt and Ryder took notice, a smug expression sewing across his tired features. He couldn’t tell if she was intimidated, interested, attracted, or all three – but it didn’t matter.

“Something like that,” he responded in a hoarse voice with a low register, the pungent smell of smoke lingering on his lips. It was now Ryder’s turn to stare, to speak; the only difference was when he scanned her body up and down, there was no blushing apparent. It was almost like he was ridiculing her and his next words would prove that mocking true. “Nice uh—Nice fuckin’ pajamas, princess.” A scoff left his smirk as he met his eyes back to hers, lifting an arm above his head to lean on the doorframe. His height was almost towering over her and with his torso now stretched, their many differences among height began to show. For one main difference that set the two apart, she was about to end her night while he was just starting his.

Tyler called for Ryder from the back room; they were going to be handling some deals tonight across town and would probably be planning a route soon, but Ryder remained, intrigued. “Going to bed so early? —Shouldn’t you be going against mommy and daddy, and - sneaking out for that boyfriend of yours?” He sounded condescending to say the least, teasing her to gain whatever more control he could before he’d inevitably leave.  

task 007/?? —— i wanna know you

Bodhi groaned the first few times Ryder would jerk him around, but the longer it went on, Bodhi simply bit his lip and grimaced. He decided to just remain quiet and shut up until Ryder finally decided to speak. That would probably make things easier, plus, it gave Bo a chance to rest his sore jaw. As they walked along in silence, the younger of the two kept himself occupied by chewing on his lip, worsening the cut that was already there. He knew that, in his own way, Ryder was worried. And for a split second that comforted Bodhi. But, that thought immediately fell away. Ryder probably just felt sorry for him and was embarrassed. When the pair finally made it to Ryder’s dorm, Bodhi felt relief. Part of him wanted nothing more than to hide out there and never come out. And he would try to until his cousin inevitably forced him out. He was harshly brought back into his senses as Ryder shoved Bo onto his bed. “Piss off,” Bodhi muttered, “We deal with shit differently, you have no idea what this was about.” He glared at Ryder for a second before deciding the window was a much better victim for his stare. “You have no idea what I need. What I need is to get the fuck away from here. What I need is for these stuck up asswipes to get a taste of their own damn medicine,” he growled. Bodhi let out a slow deep breath, trying to calm himself. For the first time, he realised how angry he really was. How hurt. No sound came out of Bo’s mouth as Ryder more or less shoved the icepack onto the side of his head. Bodhi did as he was told and held it, moving it so it sat over his aching jaw. He was so caught up in the aches that seemed to be popping up all over his body that he didn’t notice that Ryder was cleaning up the cut on his eyebrow. “I do need to learn to fight… when 2 people aren’t holding me down,” the teen murmured in a bitter way. He looked over at Ryder and his mouth drew up halfway into a small one-sided smile, “You can’t fight all my battles.” Bodhi sucked air in through his teeth as Ryder began to clean a cut on his cheek. “Feel like shit,” he agreed with Ryder. Bodhi moved the icepack from his jaw to his eye and looked up at his cousin. “Thank you.”

It was early, extremely early, and Ryder was in no condition to deal with Bodhi’s misplaced anger and unfamiliar harsh words; he was exhausted and his drooping features could represent that. He continued wiping off some dried blood from his cousin’s face until it was time to move on to making sure things wouldn’t get infected, using a solvent that stung and hardly caring about the pain on the other side. He’d use these small actions as his defense since his mind wasn’t yet working properly to argue with such venom back. It wasn’t until the younger of the two spoke with such rage and hatred that made Ryder’s brows raise, letting out a mumble, “Throw a fuckin’ tantrum, why don’t you.” He scoffed, tossing the dirtied fabrics to the side and taking a seat at his desk chair in front of where Bodhi sat. “What the fuck are you talking about, Bo— Who?” Knowing who these ‘asswipes’ were would help Ryder get back revenge he felt was appropriate – but the world being plural made him a bit more skeptical. Since when did Bodhi emit this much rage towards someone – or more? Something was up. “—Just fucking promise me you’re not gonna’ get into any more fights, or at least don’t be dumb about it and go after shitheads with friends around.” Ryder eyed the obvious pain the rest of his counterpart’s body was in and reached towards the fridge to grab another ice-pack for his torso, ignoring the comment regarding him fighting his younger cousin’s battles. That was kind of what they did – look out for each other. “—Fuckin’ I don’t know, go to sleep or something,” he said, ignoring Bodhi’s ‘thank you’ just the same. “You’re not going to class today and dealing with teacher’s asking about why you looked so fucked.” Ryder was just about to stand up to head towards his first morning class, and on no sleep of course, but refused to for just a moment as he locked eyes with Bo once again. “You’re alright, right?” The way he paused should’ve given the backing to his question right away; he wasn’t talking about Bo’s new wounds, but his mental state as he promised himself to never ignore a sign again since Bo’s birthday.

Evelyn: Evelyn didn't really want to answer the call, because she didn't truly know who was going to be on the other end. Old versus new Ryder. If it was the old Ryder, the one who trusted her, then she wouldn't have let it ring for more than a second. But considering her last experience with the blonde, the teen hesitated. Finally answering, she could hear the unwariness in his voice. The complete trust and or lack of reluctance in his words. "Are you okay? Has he tried to contact you?"