Free Fallin'

“You’re only gone for a few months and the teachers can’t remember your name. Unbelievable,” Alex commented jokingly, shaking his head. 

“Might be because you’re entirely forgettable.” 

“There are so many choices for halloween I can’t seem to decide between sexy batman or a sexy dalmatian?“

“Batman.” He muttered as he closed his locker, overhearing the conversation going on next to him. 

It doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks. My relationship with Maddie is between me and her.

I love Maddie. 

Alaska had been using the gym to get her mind off of things, plus she hadn’t realized how out of shape she was until the dance. The little family that she had built was falling apart Kai was gone Alex had moved away and Raf was starting to feel like the only person she really had left. All she wanted to do was go find Raf and get high in her car but of course she couldn’t even do that. When she saw Ryder in the car park she groaned praying he wouldn’t see her but of course he did. He was so much help after Kai died and that had been amazing but now it just felt messy. Then again when is sleeping with an ex never not messy? Alaska wasn’t a moron she had heard about Ryder getting back together with Maddie, even though she thought it was extremely stupid of Maddie to even take him back she kept to herself about it, since after all it was none of her business. She said not looking at him as she kept walking to her car. “No thanks. I don’t talk to pussies.“

Ryder knew after the dance Alaska wasn’t at all impressed, but he’d always managed to apologise and get her forgiveness eventually. He knew this time was different though, she seemed really mad and he didn’t blame her. He’d made many mistakes over the years and somehow he’d managed to mess everything up within one night. He just wanted the chance to apologise and say how much he’d appreciated her support through the past few months, but he knew that Maddie wouldn’t even like the two of them talking. There was something telling him he had to though. Alaska had always meant a lot to him, even if it was in a totally different way now. He’d been so confused when she’d become a burnout, they’d been happy and he would always feel like that was partly his fault. It was almost like he just couldn’t let go of that memory, like he held onto the way the two of them had once been. His mum still asked about her all the time, Ryder found it hard to explain the situation. He knew secretly that his Mum wished that the two would get back together one day, he knew that it wasn’t a possibility though. He walked behind her as she made her way to the car. “Seriously? Why do you have to be so damn annoying?”  

The car park was pretty much empty when Ryder walked out of school that evening, he hadn’t expected any one to be around, after all he’d stayed to practice some more after the rest of the team had left. He threw his bag into the trunk of his car and was about to close it when he spotted the blonde haired girl in the corner of his eye. Half of him was saying ignore her, drive off but he knew he had to talk to her. 

Shutting the door to the trunk, he turned to her, putting his hands in the pockets of his jacket. “Can we talk?”

“Of course you are.” She laughed, smiling when he opened the door for her, sitting down in the car. He was certainly giving this his all and she appreciated it. “I know you’re not lying.” Maddie smiled her tone soft. “I promise too. We’re gonna make it work this time.”

“Yeah we are.” Ryder smiled, totally content with the moment. Only twenty minutes ago had they been arguing and now they were vowing to make it work. He knew deep down that he had to be totally insane for that to make sense to him. “Let’s get you home.” He put the car into gear and pulled away from the party. 

“Not everything is about her. I hate her, but I don’t hate you. You see, guys are simple. If they don’t like you, they say so. Girls will just pretend to be your friend but drop you the minute you really need them. I appreciate the honesty of men, so I don’t hate you as much as most people,” she explained honestly. “So I’m being honest with you. If you’re happy, cool. I don’t think it will work out but I never have faith in relationships.”

“That sounds like a load of bullshit to me. I cheated on her and I lied to her, guys lie too. Don’t kid yourself Summer.” Ryder shook his head. “I am happy and I certainly don’t need your opinion on my relationship, okay?”

“You sound so genuine.” Maddie laughed, rolling her eyes. Her smile softened at his question. “That’d be nice, yeah. Thank you.”

“Don’t joke, I’m totally genuine.” He grinned. Ryder nodded at her reply to his question, pulling out his car keys and leading her towards his car. He opened the door for her first, before moving to the drivers side. Starting up the engine, he turned to her. “I’m not lying when I say I really want us to be together again. No messing about this time, no pushing each other away when we have problems, no lying. I promise.”

“Nope. Not at all.” She nodded in confirmation. When he continued she shrugged, knowing it wasn’t a question but answering despite it. “Fuckboys who wanted to see girls in their bikinis.” It was quite simple in her mind. “I guess so.” Maddie smiled. “Sounds good.” She’d have to add some songs to her Spotify playlist something she always had fun doing when she was looking for new music for the Cheer routines. 

“Yeah, well don’t add me to that list of guys. I hate seeing girls suffer the cold in their bikinis. It’s almost barbaric.” He joked. “Okay good. Do you need a ride home or... I mean cause I’m going that way anyway and I thought I’d offer.” 

“Why would you punch Aidan?”

“Because he had his hands all over Maddie.”

“It’s not bullshit, dude. I mean it. Look, I wasn’t trying to argue with you, okay? I didn’t know that, about you and Maddie. How’s that going?”

“I’m sorry. It’s just annoying that everybody thinks I’m the bad guy. He totally provoked me. And yeah it’s actually going well, we’re getting there.”

“I’m so sorry for not taking your feelings into consideration. Because you’re just so great at doing that yourself.”

“Can we just talk about this seriously? I’m sorry about what I did, but I couldn’t keep lying to her.”