Welcome to Isabella Wilder's story aka the third book in the Wilder Series!

I hope you enjoy the book(:

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Isabella's POV

"Which one should I wear tomorrow?" Lynnex asks from inside her closet

I glance up from my book to stare at the golden haired girl.

In one of her hands she is holding an obnoxiously bright pink dress.

I remain silent as I glance over towards her other hand which is holding a neutral colored skirt.

Lynnex has stuck up, conservative parents.

They force her to dress 'girly', which for them means that if she walks outside without a dress or skirt on then there will be consequences.

The consequences consist of basically isolating her from the outside world or forcing her to learn old etiquette techniques.

It infuriates me to my very core how uneducated and unwilling to learn they are.

Thankfully Lynnex and her younger brother were much more open minded and actually willing to become better people.

"Neither" I reply, looking back down at my book

I hear her groan with irritation and stomp her foot against her hardwood flooring but I continue to read my book, ignoring the brown eyed girl's mini temper tantrum.

"Isabella!" She states frustratedly

I look up to meet the hotheaded blonde.

"That's my name, don't wear it out" I tease her with a smirk

She frustratedly groans again, a bright pink blush slowly making its way onto her cheeks.

I smile at the small reaction from her.

"I'm serious, if I don't pick an outfit my mom will not let me sleep over at your house" she stresses

Lynn likes staying over at my house way more than she likes being in her own house.

It could be because my parents actually uplift her rather than criticize everything she does.

Or it could just be the fact that she can actually wear comfortable clothes and be herself around me.

"Fine, the skirt" I sigh out as I go back towards my book

She thanks me before assembling an outfit out of my option.

I seriously do not understand why she could not have just chose an option herself.

She does this a lot, especially recently.

She will pick two clothing items and make me choose between the both of them only to assemble a full outfit within a few seconds based on my option.

It's like she knows which one I am going to pick but still asks me anyway.

"Was that so hard to say?" She teases with a much calmer demeanor

I hear her zip up her suitcase before walking over to her bed where I am currently splayed out.

"Yes" I vaguely reply as I continue to scan through the bold words in my book

The golden haired girl girl rolls her eyes at my sarcasm only to furrow her eyebrows at my focused nature.

"What are you even reading? I've never seen you this focused" she asks

I sit up from my previous position so that I am now sitting across from the curious girl.

I bookmark my page before handing her the hardcover book.

"It's one of my mom's old books from when she was sixteen" I tell her

She gently takes the book from my hands and observes it carefully.

She gently runs her hand over the worn down cover, almost as if she was afraid of it falling apart in her hands.

I don't blame her for wanting to be careful with it.

I recently found out that this book has been in our family for twenty seven years.

The brown eyed girl opens the ancient book only to furrow her eyebrows at all the words.

"What kind of book is this?" She asks with obvious confusion in her tone of voice

"It's just filled with complicated words and their definitions" she adds as she carefully flips through the pages

I lightly laugh at her confusion.

Whenever she is confused I always compare her to a confused hamster because she puffs out her cheeks.

It is a cute look on her.

"It's full of rare words, I want to expand my vocabulary" I inform her

I reach out to accept my book which she ends up gently placing in my open hands.

"Please, like you're ever going to use those words" she scoffs

I raise a challenging brow at her.

I open my book and quickly flip through a few pages before smirking and shutting the book.

"Selcouth, adjective, something unfamiliar, rare or strange, yet marvelous," I begin

"In a sentence, you're the literal definition of a selcouth person" I finish with a knowing smirk

Her brown eyes widen in shock.

She quickly pulls out her cellphone and begins to furiously type on the keypad.

I chuckle when I figure out that she is looking the word up.

She is silent for a few moments before rolling her eyes.

"I hate it when you're right" she groans out with pink cheeks

I smile at this and reach over to place my book on her nightstand before tackling the girl.

This catches her off guard judging by the way she falls back first onto her mattress.

I laugh as I softly hover over her hips since I do not want to accidentally hurt her.

I seriously do not want to explain to her over dramatic mother how I accidentally hurt her only daughter.

Who she doesn't even care about!

I carefully lean down so that my joyful face is hovering over her panicked one, my long brown hair creating a curtain of privacy around our faces.

She is probably panicked that I might kiss her, which I am not.

I cannot blame her for the slight internalized homophobia that she may have since that is the way that her parents raised her.

"Get used to it, I'm going to destroy you in that spelling bee tomorrow" I smile

Our English teacher gives us a spelling test every Friday as a more interesting way of testing us versus having us take a paper test.

Sometimes she even lets us throw a dodgeball at her for every correct answer.

The golden haired girl under me smirks as she gently rests her hands on the exposed skin of the tops of my thighs.

Her touch is so gentle and careful that it causes my heart to speed up.

"Bring it on, Wilder, loser owes the winner their favorite homemade food" she says confidently

I silently chuckle at this.

We both compliment each other in the kitchen funnily enough.

Lynnex can successfully bake anything that you ask her to, I cannot.

I can skillfully cook anything that you ask me to, Lynnex cannot.

It is weird, but it is also equally fulfilling.

"Deal" I agree

Some random person chooses this moment to burst into Lynnex's bedroom.

I sit up so that my ass is resting against her slightly elevated thighs, bringing my hands up to fix my messy brown hair.

I glance over at the wide opened door only to raise a brow when I see Lynnex's younger brother standing in the doorway with his jaw dropped.

He does this a lot.

He is only thirteen so he thinks that if two girls are in an enclosed room for a prolonged period of time that they are doing it.

"Who is it?" My best friend asks since she cannot see the door

I notice her brother's brown eyes glance down at my chest which causes me to roll my eyes at him.

Ugh.

I hate the male species so fucking much sometimes.

"Your perverted brother" I state dryly as I look down at the golden haired girl

Unfortunately the two of them look pretty similar considering the fact that they are two different genders.

I blame the genes.

She groans at this with annoyance, digging her nails into my thighs.

Sure, use my thighs as stress balls.

"Ugh, What do you want Jacob?" Lynnex groans out from under me

Her younger brother is silent for a few moments before finally finding his voice.

"I love women" he breathes out, taking a long pause between each word

I laugh at his confession while the golden haired girl groans with annoyance since he interrupted us for basically no reason at all.

"And I like men, that doesn't explain why you interrupted us" I question since he seems to be paying more attention to me than his sister

Well more so my breasts but they're a part of me so I guess it counts.

"Mom told me to tell you to tell your parents to call them, something about the call going to voicemail" he informs me

I nod my head and motion with my hand for him to get out.

He rolls his eyes but leaves nonetheless.

"Ugh, I swear he and I have different parents" the brown eyed girl states as she stares up at me

I smile as I climb off of her so that she can sit up.

I go to check the time on my phone only to read a text message from my mother saying that she is waiting outside.

"My mother is here" I tell her as I slip off her bed

"Thank goodness!" She practically praises

I quickly slip on my black and white converse before grabbing my cellphone and my mom's book.

The golden haired begins to make her way out of her bedroom, rolling her small suitcase behind her.

"Do you have everything?" I ask her since she tends to forget things whenever she stays at my house

One time she left a bra at my house.

A bra!

How do you forget your own bra?!

"Yes ma'am" she teases mockingly

I roll my eyes at her but help her carry her suitcase down the ridiculously large staircase anyway.

As we descend down the staircase I do not miss the small glare that her mom gives us.

I mentally groan at this.

Ugh, I bet that she is going to scold her about her clothes.

"What the hell are you wearing?" Mrs. Williams whisper yells since her husband is currently taking a nap in the living room

I roll my eyes at this.

She has a deadbeat husband, which she is upset about, so she takes that internalized anger and pushes it onto her daughter.

You would be surprised how many parents do it without even realizing it.

"A hoodie and leggings" Lynnex replies as if it were obvious

I smirk to stop myself from laughing out loud.

Her mother raises an angered brow at her which immediately wipes the smirk off of my face.

I take a step towards the golden haired girl to protect her if anything were to happen.

Her mother has serious anger issues.

"You're not leaving this house looking like that," her mother states

I glare at the older woman as she analyzes and scrutinizes her own daughter.

"Why aren't you wearing makeup? We've talked about this-" her mother continues to put her down

I glance over towards Lynnex who is fuming with anger.

From the angered red color on her face to the way her fingernails are digging into help palms I quickly decide to cut this conversation short.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but my mother is waiting outside" I tell the woman

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath of air before relaxing her face.

"Fine, we'll talk about this when you get home" she says

Her mother walks off, her heels clicking against the marbled flooring.

I grab Lynnex's hand so that I can quickly get her out of this toxic environment.

Once we are out in the cold November night I release a breath of relief.

That could have gotten really ugly.

Too bad I cannot legally have Lynnex stay with me, believe me I have tried.

Long story short her mother called the cops and claimed that we 'kidnapped her'.

Why would I kidnap my best friend?!

I mean, yes we took her away from her home and kept her in ours, but she came along willingly!

My parents would literally kill me if I kidnapped someone.

Apparently it's a running theme in our family, first it was mom then it was my older sister Hanna.

We try not to bring it up around Hanna, although it happened six years ago it still haunts her.

I continue to lead the girl towards my mother's awaiting car.

I go to let go of the brown eyed girl's hand only for her to hold it tighter.

What?

I turn to face her only for my heart to constrict in my chest when my eyes land on her broken facial expression.

I shake my hand out of her tight grasp and place them on her cheeks so that she is looking me straight in the eyes.

I hope that my hands are not too cold on her face.

"Don't listen to her, she is just upset that her husband isn't who she thought he was," I assure the brown eyes girl

She nods her head but she doesn't seem to believe me.

"Hey," I whisper so that she meets my eyes again

"Believe me when I say that you're beautiful," I tell her

She nervously bites her bottom lip as her eyes never stray away from mine.

"Because you're so fucking beautiful, Lynn" I praise as I use her nickname

She takes a few moments to nervously scan my face only for a small smile to breakthrough her nervous exterior.

I nod my head before ushering her in the car and placing her suitcase in the trunk of my mother's car.

I practically jump into the car which causes my mother and Lynnex to laugh at me.

"I think that you may be acting a little over dramatically" my mother suggests as she begins to reverse out of the driveway

"Mother, I don't think you understand how cold it is out there" I tell her as I put emphasis on the word 'understand'

Lynnex laughs at my dramatic nature.

"Isabella, it's literally going to be thirteen degrees tonight" my mother states with an eye roll

Thirteen degrees?!

Ugh.

"Don't worry, I'll be there to cuddle you incase you start shaking like a scared chihuahua" My best friend teases

I turn in my seat to glare at the smirking girl only for it to turn into a smile when she I meet her childlike facial expression.

I am so glad that the universe decided to make the two of us best friends.

I couldn't have asked for a better friend.

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Yep, this is the third book in the 'Wilder' series.

It's hard to believe that there is only one more book left lol.

I thought that I would give you guys the ages of everyone since it has been six years since you last seen Hanna as a Sophomore and over twenty years since you've last seen Charlotte and Aspen as Juniors.

Hanna- 21 years old
Aurelia- 22 years old
Isabella- 16 years old
Lynnex- 16 years old
Haley- 13 years old
Aspen- 43 years old
Charlotte- 44 years old
Carolina- 46 years old