*Hands over a pack of mini Oreos*

Hello lovely people, I've missed writing. It's almost like an escape for me and not being able to do this just made me feel suffocated.

I'm doing a lot better and as promised, I'm back with a fresh mind.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Ryder's P.O.V.

I make my way towards Miles' locker and just according to my calculations, I found her there.

I sneaked out of my classroom where my last class was and tip toed through the halls towards her locker.

I know her last classroom is close to her locker and she won't leave this opportunity to get away from me today.

The final bell rang and I reached just in time to see her shoving her books in her locker.

I sneaked behind her and bent a little to whisper in her ear. "Hey, beautiful."

Instead of hearing her breath hitch, I felt pain shoot up my side and I doubled over, grabbing my side.

She turned to look at me, annoyed as if she didn't just literally stab me with her elbow.

"What do you want?" She said, closing her locker shut.

I took a deep breath before standing up straight. "Well, hello to you too..."

She rolled her eyes, before pulling out her phone.

She's still mad at me. I kinda thought she knew the reason why I acted like the way I did that night, but apparently not.

"Got any plans for today?" I asked, sheepishly.

"Yes." She immediately said, turning towards the exit.

I sighed, preparing myself for what's about to come.

"No, you don't."

She stopped in her track and turned to raise an eyebrow at me. "Excuse me?"

I tipped my head to the side, with a small smirk. "I said, you don't- scratch that, can't have any plans today."

She narrowed her eyes at me with a look of disbelief on her face and I knew that I was testing her patience.

I rolled my eyes at her. "We have a tutoring session idiot."

"Did you not hear me?" She raised her eyebrows at me. "I have plans."

"What plans?" I crossed my arms over my chest.

She narrowed her eyes at me, before turning to walk towards the exit.

I, obviously followed her. "You know I'm gonna follow you till you answer me, right?"

She stopped walking right in front of her car.

My eyes widened slightly and I stepped closer to her. "Please don't tell me you're gonna fight today. Miles you're hur-"

She slapped her hand on my mouth making the words die in my mouth.

"Can you be any louder?" She whisper yelled, eyeing the people giving us weird looks.

She looked back at me. "I do not have a fight okay? Calm the fuck down."

She removed her hand and I frowned.

"I'm just worried about you." I shrugged. "And your grades. You know we have exams next month right?"

She let out a frustrated sigh. "I know."

I raised an eyebrow at her, making her whine. "Fine! We can have the damn tutoring session! But only because I don't wanna fail and I'm still mad at you." She said, quickly tossing her car keys at me.

I caught it with zero effort and looked at her walk towards the other side, with a small smile.

"I know." I said to myself before getting in.

*****

"No no no, you've got it wrong again." I sighed. "We've been over the same thing thrice, Miles."

We are currently at my place with the maths books spread open in front of us, on my bed. I could feel the bomb slowly ticking inside the both of us.

Miles was dead-set on having no other conversation than what we're supposed to do and I couldn't do anything but oblige.

She's too stubborn.

We've been at it for about half an hour and the level of frustration just keeps rising.

"Well, if you could explain it calmly, without overreacting like you always do, I would've understood it better." She rolled her eyes, making me run a hand down my face.

I sighed. "Let's go over this again."

She slid the notebook towards me and I took a seat next to her before speaking in the most soft tone possible.

"In an equation like this, only the X is affected because the Y is with a coefficient. So, we can only slove this one by splitting Y from the coefficient and placing it with X." I pointed at the book to emphasize the point.

She frowned before pulling the book towards herself slowly.

"Well, the X needs to learn how to mind it's own business." She said slowly, making me purse my lips and I decided not to say anything.

"Jealous ass." She muttered, almost to herself, but oh man, I heard it.

I slammed the book shut with one hand and turned to face her, leaning closer.

"Alright! I get that you're mad at me okay? But you're the one who said you don't wanna talk about it." I gritted, scanning at her face.

As soon as I leaned closer to her, her intoxicating scent enveloped me.

I felt the fire inside me, disguised as the fire of rage. I didn't exactly know what it was but I knew it was a dangerous feeling which would devour us both.

"I don't." She matched my tone, narrowing her eyes at me.

Surprisingly I saw something similar to the fire I felt inside me, in her eyes.

My gaze took in every single detail of her beautiful face. Her rosy cheeks, her long eyelashes brushing against them and her slightly furrowed eyebrows, everything just made me want to never look away.

"You keep implying otherwise, beautiful." I said, my gaze dropping to her lips and I automatic gravitated closer to her.

She gulped and flicked her tongue out to wet her lips, making my hands tighten into fists as I struggled to keep them where they are.

All I could think of was her soft skin against my own and the feeling of her soft lips on mine.

"I'm not implying anything." She raised an eyebrow. "You're just good at over-analysing anything."

Ouch.

"It wasn't anything." I said without missing a beat. "It might have been irrational of me to do that but it was not for nothing. Everything you did, everything that was remotely related to you mattered to me."

She blinked, biting her lip.

At this point, she had her weight on her elbows, and I was practically hovering over her.

I have no idea how we ended up like this, but I'm glad we did.

The tank top she was wearing exposed her smooth neck and collor bone.

It took everything in me to not latch my mouth onto her skin like a fucking leech.

Focus.

"I just..." She let out a frustrated sigh. "Forget it, get off me."

"No."

"Ryder."

"Talk to me. Communicate." I said, not liking the fact that she's hesitating from telling me something.

She looked away, and her jaw clenched.

"Miles..."

"It's just hard to digest the fact that you could assume something so fucking stupid, out of nowhere." She said looking at me, with the same intensity.

My eyes softened. "It wasn't just 'out of nowhere', Miles. I was just a boy who had a crush on a girl who was way out of his league."

"A girl who was in love with you, idiot!" She exclaimed with her eyes slightly wide.

My eyes softened further and I felt my heart flutter.

"I can't help but think how things could've gone so differently that night." She said, slowly.

I stared at this mesmerizing girl in front of me before placing a hand on her cheek as I spoke.

"You're right." She opened her eyes. "What I did can't be justified and you have no idea how sorry I am."

I raised my other hand to cup her face, gliding the pad of my thumb on the soft skin of her cheek.

"But we're here now and I promise to do anything in my power to make up for all the time that we've lost." I placed my forehead on hers as we gazed into each other's eyes.

This was another one of those moments when it's hard to believe that she's actually here, with me, in my arms. The number of times I've dreamt of this happening is insane.

"You're a little too good at this." Miles muttered, frowning slightly, making me chuckle and place a small kiss on her lips.

I pulled away to see her lips turned into a very adorable pout.

"How many girls have you already tried this on?" She grumbled and I almost didn't listen to her as all my attention was on that adorably little pout on her lips.

"None, actually." I said, absentmindedly.

"What?" She gaped, snapping my attention away from her mouth.

I frowned. "Why is that so hard to believe?"

"But- but, you're-" She stuttered, making me smirk.

"Hot? Sexy? Totally irresistible?"

She paused and grimaced. "More like, an egoistic jerk."

I rolled my eyes at her.

"It's just hard to believe you've never had a girlfriend since you're, well... not bad looking." She said, her eyes wavering. "Three years is a long time, after all."

My smirk slowly fell as a realisation set in. "Wait... Have you dated any guys?"

Her eyes suddenly met mine before she quickly looked away. "Uh weren't we studying?"

I tilted my head to the side. "Miles..."

"I cancelled my training for this okay? I need to prepare for my exam." She said, trying to get up but I obviously didn't let her.

I grabbed her hands and held them above her head as she now completely laid on the bed and I hovered over her. "I don't think s-"

I realised how risky this position was, a little too late. I looked down at her and the fact that she was completely under my control right now just stirred something unholy inside me.

Her wide eyes were sparkling and I could feel both of our breathing turn ragged.

Without waiting to think twice I slowly lowered my head and placed my lips on her cheek, followed by a kiss on her nose and slowly reached her mouth.

She moaned into my mouth, driving me off the edge and I groaned in return as I felt her squirm under me.

The kiss was heated as I could see her struggle to keep up with my hungry mouth. Her chest rose and came in contact with mine making me feel how much she's affected as well.

My hands tightened around her hands and waist, as I deepened the kiss.

I was about to pull away as I knew if we went any further, things would get, well, out of hand.

Just then, I heard soft footsteps and suddenly Miles' hands were out of my grasp and I was on the floor, wincing at the impact.

"Uh.. who are you?" I soft voice came from the door.

Miles' worried gaze shifted from me to Grace who was at the door, with her thumb in her mouth.

I got up from the floor, still wincing.

"Rydie!" Grace squealed before running up to me and latching onto my leg

I chuckled and bent down to pick her up. "How was school, Grace?"

"It was good. I got a paper cut, but I didn't cry because I'm a big girl." She said, grinning a toothy smile, while she was missing a few teeth.

I frowned, looking at her bandaged finger.

She gazed at something behind me and laid her head on my shoulder. "Who's she?"

I shook my head at her. "You were dying to meet her all this time and now you don't even recognise her?"

"Gracie?" Miles said in a smooth voice.

Grace lifted her head from my shoulder to look at her and her eyes widened. "Emie?"

Miles chuckled, nodding and Grace wiggled out of my grasp and jumped onto Miles. "Emie! You came to meet me. I thought you didn't come because you don't like me anymore."

Miles gasped softly kissing Grace's forehead and pulling her into a hug. "No Gracie, I'm sorry I didn't come sooner but how can I not like you? You're still my favourite person."

I scooted closer to where they were sitting. "What about me?" I asked innocently.

She looked at me with a blank look. "You're in the top 10."

I scoffed before packing up the school stuff because the way Grace was latched onto Miles, I didn't think she'd let go of her easily.

I, on the other hand, was just trying not to think of the very hot moment before Grace came barging in and I can't help but imagine how things would've gone if she didn't interrupt us.

I groaned before excusing myself to go take a cold shower and by the smug look on Miles' face, I think she knew exactly what I was thinking about.

She's gonna be the death of me.

*****

Emily's P.O.V.

"I'm going left." Diana said, and I blocked my left but I felt the impact of a punch on the right.

"You said you're going left." I wheezed, grabbing my side.

"And you're gonna listen to your fucking opponent?" She scoffed.

"We're just sparring, woman, calm down!" I exclaimed laying down on the side of the mat.

She rolled her eyes before moving towards the punching bags. "Don't forget to get your shit from the backroom before you leave."

I nodded, too tired to talk.

"Someone ordered coffee from a Greek God?" Ryder's voice echoed through the room and I heard his footsteps approaching me.

"Hey, beautiful." He grinned down at me before he frowned. "Diana beat you up again?"

I scoffed at him and nodded.

I am a very self aware person, and I'm very much aware of the fact that I look anything but beautiful right now.

I rose to my feet with Ryder's help and suddenly felt his lips on mine in a deep kiss.

It's been almost a month since we've started the tutoring sessions and Ryder has been extra touchy and loving towards me.

And I'm not at all complaining.

We haven't made things official yet and we try our best to be subtle at school as well.

Well, at least I do.

I still think that our friends haven't noticed anything yet because they are still not over the fact that Lexi and Alec are a couple now.

Yeah, that happened too.

"Ready?" Ryder said, pulling me out of the trance he put me in, with that sudden kiss.

"Yeah, just need to get my stuff." I nodded towards the backroom.

He handed me the Starbucks. "Wait. I'll get that."

I smiled as I watched him walk away.

Sadly, we haven't been able to go on our date either because we keep putting it off in order to stay safe and I can't help but feel guilty about it.

Since I'm now working with Jacob, I need to be extra careful with every step I take.

I've been happier than ever with Ryder, though. He makes me feel things that I couldn't imagine feeling again, after what happened three years ago.

I try my best to keep him out of this mess as much as I can, because I love him a little too much and I can't lose him again.

I'm currently at the gym owned by Ron, training with Diana. Since we're going to be working together, we figured that we should be training together and help each other improve.

Diana, is a very strong fighter and has the same fire she had all those years ago, even after having a baby.

She hasn't talked about her baby as much and I didn't try to intrude either.

I've been fighting for Alex as per our deal so that he doesn't grow suspicious of me.

I'm done with 8 fights and have already helped King earn a fortune, but a deal's a deal.

I sighed.

"Here. Let's go." Ryder said, slinging my gym bag over my shoulder.

I nodded. "BYE DIANA!" I yelled.

"FUCK OFF!" She responded, making us chuckle.

I've realised after training with her for almost a month that she's actually a sweetheart under that hard exterior.

We turned to walk towards the exit.

Just when the exit came into view, Lexi came barging in.

"Oh hey Lex!" I pushed Ryder away from me to create some space between for a reason that even I'm unaware of.

I waved at her but instead of getting a reply with a similar energy, she rushed towards me, with a worried expression.

"Em..." She said between breaths.

I frowned as she handed me a piece of paper.

I looked closely only to realise that it's not just a piece of paper, it's a lot fancier than that. And it's also a lot more familiar.

The familiar sign of a red serpent made my jaw clench before I opened it to find one single sentence neatly written on the centre of the page.

I'm watching you.

*Author's note*

Don't forget to vote and comment.

Until next time <3

I love y'all :)