“Don’t be a smart ass,” Sloane warned and then smacked my ass for extra emphasis.

“Bye girls, love you!” I called after them while they piled into Exie’s car and headed off for their posh private school.

Even though they never said love you back, it had become our thing. Me saying it, them just…. receiving it.

Two weeks had passed since I was attacked in that hotel room. My bruises were faded, my fingernails had grown back and my voice box had returned to normal. Still images of that night haunted me, terrorized me when I let it. And I never wanted to let anyone I loved, go without knowing it for a single day.

“Well, look who’s back,” the one person I was making an exception to that rule called from above me on the steps. “Hey there, Red.”

“Ryder Sutton, when did they let you come back? Rumor has it you were sent to the big house,” I flirted shamelessly. Ryder had gone to jail, but was soon bailed out by his dad. Taylor never pressed charges and so Ryder was only charged with some minor offenses and sentenced to some community service.

Thank God.

But then again, part of me knew Nix had something to do with it and the idea of Nix helping Ryder repulsed me.

Violently.

“Fun fact,” Ryder smirked at me. “Tanner blames that on your terrible influence. Turns out your poison to a good boy like me.”

“Huh, imagine that,” I sighed. “And what do you say to that.”

“I say it’s less like poison and more like kryptonite.” His steady gaze held mine and my heart thumped in my chest, responding to his words, even if I wouldn’t let any other part of me. “Come on.”

He held out his hand and I took it without thinking. If Ryder was going to hold his hand out for me, I was going to take it. Today. Tomorrow. And any day in the future.

He led me past the offices and down the main hallway, up the stairs and to the music wing of the school. I finally figured out where we were going when he entered the band room and started walking toward the practice rooms.

A few of them were occupied this morning, an advanced cellist, a beginning bass guitar and a struggling oboist. It kind of took all of my effort not to poke my head in and ask the dying duck to give it up! Music was just not in his cards. Not now, not ever.

Ryder stopped at the last practice room with nowhere else to go. He held the door open for me and I walked into the small space just as a cascade of butterflies let loose in my stomach.

“You’re going to get me into trouble back here. I’m supposed to be in class,” I lectured.

“Well good thing I’m the office aide and can write you a pass,” he reminded me smugly. “Besides we needed to talk. I haven’t seen you since…. it’s been too long, I had to know you were Ok.”

My mother banned all communication from the outside world until I healed. I wanted to believe it was her motherly concern, but instinct told me she didn’t want anyone else remembering what I looked like after they brought me home.

It was frightening.

I sat down, straddling the piano bench. It was unladylike and completely unattractive, but then maybe that’s why I did it. I wasn’t trying to attract Ryder. I was trying to do the opposite.

And feel the opposite towards him.

Until he sat down opposite me, mirroring my pose. He didn’t look nearly as uncomfortable as I did. His long legs fit the piano bench better and Ok, his crotch wasn’t completely on display either.

Not that mine was, I was wearing jeans after all. But still.

“Thank you,” I whispered to him when we were settled. He reached forward and took my hands in his, holding them in the space between us. “Thank you for…. thank you for it all.”

He heard my words and drank them in. “Sure, it’s what friends do.”

A small part of me wondered if he was belittling the situation as a defense mechanism, to deflect whatever real emotion there was between us. I thought about it for a minute, but decided to shake that off as vanity.

Ryder really was just a good friend.

“Mmm, not all friends.” I clarified, not wanting to take away his heroics, both in what he did that night at the hotel and in what he went through to actually befriend me. “Besides I’m not the easiest person to get along with,” I admitted.

He leaned forward so that our bodies were closer, that our lips were closer. “That is a good point,” he agreed. “It’s a good thing I only like you as a friend.”

I looked up to meet his silver-gray eyes, the eyes of someone that was more than a friend, the eyes of someone that didn’t think of me as a friend at all. If the last two weeks taught me anything it was how dangerous my life was, how inescapable my future was and I cared about Ryder way too much to involve him in all my bullshit.

“It’s a good thing you don’t like me more than a friend,” I breathed out on a whispy breath.

“And why’s that?” Ryder asked, his voice rumbly and gruff. “Why is it good I’ll never be more

than a friend?” He looked down at our entwined hands and then up at me from under dark, sooty lashes. “Explain it to me.”

Nervousness shot through me, setting every nerve ending on edge, but I sucked in a breath for courage and answered truthfully, “Because you know, you would never really be sure how you felt about me," I obeyed and explained it to him. "I’m all smoke and mirrors. There’s nothing real about me. And you would be just caught up in the game. Everything between us would always be fake.... forced. Maybe it wouldn’t feel like it to you, maybe you would be convinced that everything we had was real. But it would be the curse, just the curse. You would be in love with something you wanted me to be, not the real me. You could never love the real me," I sucked in a staggering breath and held it; if he told me how he felt, if he admitted more than platonic feelings for me, right now I was gone. To hell with waiting until I turned eighteen, to hell with my mom and Nix and sticking it out for my trust, I would leave tonight. I couldn't hurt Ryder. I wouldn't hurt him. Not after what he did for me. And not just the douchebag at the hotel. He also made me believe in friendship, in caring about somebody and being cared about in return. Falling for me was a trap and I would never involve him in the screwed up soap opera that was my life.

"Nothing I feel for you is forced or fake," Ryder confessed sincerely. His eyes turned into silver pools in the darkness, promising me truth, promising me authenticity and honesty. His words and the deep, hopeful meaning floated on the air between us; wrapped around me whole and sank into my skin before I could stop them. “Nor will it ever be.”

The urge to flee was so strong and dominant that I thought it would propel me from the bench on its own but I couldn't make my feet move, I couldn't find the courage to leave him. It didn’t exist inside of me. All my lectures, pep talks and hours of reasoning to give Ryder a better life, a life without me fell to the ground in a pile of ashes when presented with the challenge. I chose Ryder. And even though I hoped to keep him as a friend, I knew without a doubt I would always choose Ryder.

A flutter took off in my stomach, flapping wings of reluctant hope and distant excitement. My heart clenched in my chest, an unfamiliar pang of affection I was starting to associate with Ryder. Only Ryder.

"How can you be sure?" I challenged on a whisper, afraid my own voice would prove him wrong.

He smirked at me then, wicked and taunting, "Because I don't like you.... at all. You can't fake this level of irritation. You could quite possibly be, the most obnoxious person I’ve ever met," He explained everything on a smile so that I know he was teasing me.

But that was also how I knew I was in trouble. I was falling for him and in every single way. I wasn’t supposed to. Hell, I didn't even want to, not really. I didn’t want the baggage, or the mess, or the unrequited feelings. But there it was. I was falling. And I couldn't stop it from happening.

The way he played his guitar.... the way he drank his coffee.... the way he didn't bother with his hair, the way he laughed at me, the way his silver eyes cut to me from across a room and he could determine in once glance if I was alright or if I needed to be rescued, the way he protected me from everything, even myself.... but most of all the way he made me feel when we're together, when we're not together, hell the way he made me feel anything at all.... the butterflies and blushing.... the rush of it all. Damn it. I'd fallen for the rush.

“You are such a brat!” I rolled my eyes and leaned back, forcing our hands apart.

“Takes one to know one,” he droned, still making fun of me.

“That was so clever and creative, I’m speechless,” I teased. “So speechless. Did you make that up? How did you get so smart? I want to be like you when I grow up!”

“Alright, smartass, let’s get you to class before Tanner hunts you down and performs the Spanish Inquisition on you.” He stood up, legs still spread across the bench seat and reached for my hands again.

I gave them to him and let him pull me to my feet. We had another moment of staring into each other’s eyes until he reached down and cupped my face in his hands. “I will never let something like that happen to you again, Ivy.”

I knew exactly what he was talking about. And so I stayed quiet. Because knowing my life, knowing what Nix had planned for me, I knew there was no way for him to keep his promise. He didn’t react to my silence, or try to argue his way into my belief system.

But he did close the distance between us and press an utterly heartbreaking, devastatingly sweet kiss to my lips. I just responded. There was nothing else I could do. I couldn’t pull away, or even press back. I just let him kiss me and in doing so, take away some more of my pain.

“We’re going to get you out of this,” he promised.

And this time, I didn’t know why or what changed, but I believed him.

“Ok,” I agreed.

He took my hand again and then led me back to the main upstairs hallway. We walked quietly down the staircase and back toward the office. Just as we passed the closest classroom to the main office, Phoenix and Chase emerged from the room, carrying that same stupid oversized wooden board.

“Well, look who decided to grace us with her presence again,” Chase called out sarcastically and then nudged Phoenix in the rib.

I cringed for a second, even closing my eyes against the awkwardness, but after a moment I realized there wasn’t really any weirdness going on. Chase sounded…. just…. casual.

“Ah, the Ginga-Ninja. How are you sensei?” Phoenix did his best impersonation of my Kung-Fu apprentice maybe….? And then turned to bow to me with palms pressed flatly together.

“Did he tell you, he’s trying to make t-shirts of that?” Ryder laughed. He had dropped my hand a few steps back, but now he threw a friendly arm across my shoulder.

“Obviously that would be awesome!” I laughed too.

Mrs. Tanner stepped out into the hall at the sound of our raucous behavior and frowned at all four of us. “The prodigal daughter has returned,” she grunted at me, leveling me with her angry-wench eyes. “Didn’t I warn you about missing more school? Mr. Costas wants to talk to you about summer school, unless you’re seriously considering doing us all a favor and just dropping out?”

“Sorry,” I shrugged apologetically. That was not an option yet.

Mrs. Tanner’s attention snapped up to the three boys that surrounded me, my three friends. “Don’t you boys know better than to hang around Ivy Pierce? She’s no good. She’s going to get you all into trouble.”

Surrounded by this loyal company I barely even felt the sting of her words.

Ryder looked back and forth between Mrs. Tanner and me and then said in a proud, raised voice, “It’s too late for that. Ivy Pierce may be trouble, but she’s exactly the kind of trouble I’ve been looking for.”

I smiled at him for sticking up for me again and then my grin grew when Chase started clapping and Phoenix hollered a “Preach it.”

Things were still bleak. But not nearly as desolate and depressing as they had been.

Besides, tragedies were always easier to face when you had friends.