I feel the waves getting started
It's a rush inside I can't control
Your eyes keep pulling me in

I don't know why I forgot to wear my slippers.

Ryder and I were away from the playground, walking in the light drizzle. The pouring rain a while ago was slowly vanishing, leaving us both really cold. Worst of all, we didn't have any slippers on, so we were walking barefoot on the sidewalk.

I didn't want to wet my car and the swimming pool was just near, so I told Ryder we could walk. Being in the moment, we ran away from the playground, leaving our slippers there.

"My feet hurts." I complained with a groan

"I'm used to it," he said as he splashed on a puddle. "When I'm drunk, I always forget to put my shoes on."

I rolled my eyes. Ryder was always blackout drunk at parties, hence why he was known as the Party King. "I'm sorry I'm not as dumb as you are."

"Mind you, you're the one groaning about walking barefoot right now, so who's the real winner here?"

I opened my mouth to retort, but no comeback went out. "Whatever." I decided to say.

He laughed at me before stopping in front of me. He bent down real low before saying, "Hop on, sweetheart."

I grinned and without any hesitation, I hopped on his back. I felt the muscles on his back flex when it felt my weight, and I had to do my best to avert my eyes from it.

Again, he might be an ass, but he was no doubt hot.

"Point me the way, ma'am," he said jokingly.

I laughed and did so, just playing with his blonde hair on the way.

When large rusty metallic gates came to my view, I knew we were at the right place. I hopped down from Ryder's back before walking to the locked door. I took a bobby pin from my pocket and started picking it, my tongue sticking out in concentration.

"Sweetheart, you have no idea how badass and hot you look right now," he whistled as I continued to pick on the lock. "And your red bra through your white shirt doesn't help the situation."

I rolled my eyes at him, not bothering to cover up. He already saw everything anyway.

I stood up proudly when I successfully unlocked the door with Ryder applauding me. I grabbed his hand and led him inside.

Before pushing him in the pool.

I took off my shirt since it was getting kind of heavy already before jumping in the pool with him. I burst out laughing when he resurfaced, sputtering out the water he inhaled.

Instead of cussing me out like I expected him to do, he stared at me, wide-eyed. It made me feel insecure, so I crossed my arms across my chest, averting my eyes from him.

"What are you looking at, asshole?" I muttered, blush creeping on my cheeks. I started to regret taking my shirt off and so I made a move to retrieve it.

But he grabbed my arm and gently pulled me towards him. "Nothing, it's just—wow, sweetheart, where have you been all my life?"

I rolled my eyes. "I've always been around, but you're just too egoistical to notice others than yourself and hot bimbos."

"You're hot too," he said, looking at me from head to toe. "Not only that, but you're beautiful, babe."

"Yeah, I know," I joked, not really knowing what to say. Truthfully, I didn't know how to handle this much attention or compliments, so my vain alternate ego just speaks for me.

He chuckled at me before taking off his shirt too and threw it to the side. "But I'm way hotter."

And he was back. "I beg to differ."

He wasn't joking though. I think his abs just gave me life.

"Oh, you're begging now," he teased, waggling his eyebrows. "I like that. Beg for me, sweetheart."

I splashed water at him. "You're disgusting."

"Disgustingly whipped for you, you mean."

I shook my head at him. There was no arguing with this guy. He always seemed to reply with a flirt, it was kinda amusing.

I walked away to the steps with him following me. We sat on the steps and just looked around the place.

The metallic fence surrounded the rectangular pool, a small cabin-like room at the longer side of the pool. There was a table at the other side, where people would usually put the drinks. It was owned by one of Kaden's friend's parents, but Brett and I would sometimes go here in secret and swim for a while.

"Isn't swimming your sport?" he asked once we were settled down.

I nodded. "Yeah, swimming in a pool of self-hatred and anxiety. My favorite sport."

"That's not a sport. That's just sad."

"Hey, it's a sport. It tires me, especially my mind. My brain gets muscles from it, and I train almost every night."

"I think you need help," he said with certainty. "Anyway, how do you know about this place?"

"When my brother was still in high school, he would go to wild parties instead of hanging out with me," I reminisced with a smile. "One time, I got so angry with him because he promised to bake cookies with me and he broke it. Instead, he went to this pool party that apparently, everyone was invited to."

"Well, I don't blame him," he chimed in. "I mean, cookies over hot girls wearing bikinis? Kaden knows his priorities."

I wasn't even surprised he knew Kaden. Even though he graduated, men looked up to him and women were still in love with him.

"Um, cookies are way better," I defended. He simply shrugged. "Anyway, because I was so annoyed, I decided to sneak at the back of his car. I don't know what I wanted to prove, but it seemed like a pretty good idea back then. And I was really bored."

"You're still as wild as ever I see," he commented.

I disregarded his comment. "It was so hot on the floor that I sat up, and the idiot didn't even notice since he was too busy singing Taylor Swift. Yes, Kaden Solace, the ultimate playboy was jamming on to Taylor Swift, and it was priceless. Anyway, I took note of my surroundings and we ended up here."

"Hey, everybody loves Taylor Swift." Ryder admitted.

"Sure whatever. So Kaden went out of the car and I followed behind him. He had to knock some secret code before he was let in, and that was when his friends noticed me. Kaden screamed when he saw me and started calling me crazy, but then his friends called him a bad brother and took me under their wing. It was my first ever high school party, and I wasn't even at high school back then. So yeah, that's how I found this place."

He whistled lowly. "Wow, you had a wild childhood."

To be honest, I didn't tell him the whole story. I was actually with Brett that time. My brother promised that he'd bake cookies with us and when he didn't, Brett was the one who offered the idea of following him. Me being me, I agreed enthusiastically. We partied hard at this party, even intaking our first ever booze at eight grade.

Kaden didn't know though. He had this Alpha thing where he didn't like influencing his younger siblings badly, especially me.

And yet he was the one who was always using his WWE skills on me.

"The wildest." I agreed, smiling to myself from the better years.

"You know, if only I had my camera right now, I'd take a picture of you," he said, staring at me with a look of wonder.

"That sounded really creepy," I pointed out. "But why?"

He was silent for a while, as if he didn't want to answer the question. In fact,  think he was blushing. I nudged him gently on the shoulder with mine when he still wasn't talking.

"I don't know, you just looked so happy and beautiful," he said, not meeting my gaze. "And I like taking pictures of beautiful things."

I disregarded the beautiful thing. "You like taking pictures?"

Being a photographer wasn't a bad thing, hell, my best friend loved taking pictures. But it was hard imagining Ryder appreciating the beautiful things around him and pausing to take a picture of it. He just didn't seem that passionate.

"You got a problem with that, sweetheart?" he tried to sound threatening, but I couldn't take him seriously with a blush on his cheeks.

"No, of course not!" I denied. "It's just that... you don't seem like it."

He snorted. "And you're easy to judge."

"Not really. It's just that after Zoe, I had this image in my mind that you're the devil's child—or actually the devil himself."

He looked pained at the mention of one of his exes. "Zoe was a nice girl, but I didn't deserve her."

I rolled my eyes, suddenly forgetting about the guy I just sacrificed getting sick with and remembering his douche bag ways. "That wasn't your choice to make. And you broke up with her through text. Through text! She was really heartbroken, you know."

He was now facing away. "Well, I told her not to get too attached. That's her fault."

I scoffed in disbelief. He was unbelievable!

Before I could even fathom the right response, there was suddenly light in my eyes, blinding me.

"Hey, you two! You're trespassing!" A woman yelled, marching towards us.

I widened my eyes. "Ryder, we gotta go."

He was frozen.

I grabbed his hand and pulled him away as the lady guard who was ridiculously tall and thin with black hair in a bun was coming closer, a scowl on her face. He shook his head away from dream land and ran with me, making the guard lady yell at us in protest.

"You horny teenagers get back here, breaking and entering is illegal!"

"What? Then how come the boy that broke my heart after entering it didn't go to jail?" I hollered back as a joke before realizing that it actually happened to me.

"That's—that's," the lady started angrily before slowing down. "That's the realest shit I've ever heard."

I wanted to stop running and go to her since she had this depressed look on her long face, but I kept running. Ryder, on the other hand, stopped and approached the lady, who already squatted down and was looking at her reflection on the swimming pool.

"What are you doing?" I mouthed as I wore my shirt quickly before grabbing Ryder's.

He simply winked at me before squatting down beside the lady.

"Would I get arrested if I broke down your walls and entered your heart?" he asked, making me face-palm myself.

Was he seriously flirting with her?

"No," she sniffed. "If you're gonna take care of it."

"Of course I would," he said in a soft voice, placing a hand on her shoulder.

And then she turned with a really cold look on her face. "All men lie, and that includes you, pretty boy! That's what he said to me too!"

Ryder had this uh-oh look on his face and tried to stand up to get away from her, but she also stood and grabbed him by his arm with a steel grip.

"Save me," he mouthed, but I was too busy laughing.

"Men promise you that they'll take care of you, but then they'll leave you in the end! Why do you guys do that, huh? Is it fun to break hearts? Is it cool to collect hearts? Well, no, because it sucks! It sucks to trust someone and have them break it!" she full on ranted in Ryder's face, tears already flowing down her cheeks.

I felt bad for her, I really did. I would have given her a hug, but I was guffawing at how flustered Ryder looked. His brown eyes were wide open, looking so lost and scared at the same time. He was trying his best to escape from the lady, but she was holding on to him so tight that his arms was turning red.

The lady kept ranting and angrily letting out her feelings, to the point that she was pounding on Ryder's chest in frustration. He looked so desperate for help, it was priceless.

Served him right for being one of those men the lady was talking about.

When the lady started hugging Ryder and crying on his bare chest, I realized that it was time to take him out of his suffering. Laughing, I strolled over to them with him flipping me off bitterly. I stuck my tongue out at him before gently tapping her on the shoulder.

"What?" she sniffed, backing away from Ryder to look at me.

I opened my mouth to say something mean about boys when she grabbed my face with both of her hands.

"Oh, you sweet, young, poor thing! You must know the pain of having your heart broken, don't you? Men are evil!" she cried as she squished my face.

It was Ryder's turn to laugh at me.

"Yes, I know the pain, ma'am, but I came to the realization that men don't deserve us! We are simply too amazing and independent to be tied down with those pigs. Believe me, we are better off without them."

She stopped squishing my face and let her hands sway back to her sides, her eyes shining with wonderment. She wiped her tears away and stood taller.

"You're right, I am a strong, independent woman, and I don't need no man!" she exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips. "It's his loss that he chose that 18 year old nothing over me. At least now, no one's dragging me down!"

"Amen, sister," I agreed. "Now that you've realized all of that, go out there and show him you're better off without him!"

"You're right, sister," she said in a determined way. "I'm going to go to his house and yell about how much I don't need him!"

"No! That's not what I meant—and, she's gone." I sighed, staring at the empty space.

"I've never seen a woman change moods so fast and storm off that angrily," Ryder chimed in, still bewildered about everything that happened.

"Then you never met a girl on her period," I shrugged and tossed him his shirt before walking away.

He didn't wear it though, claiming that it was wet anyway.

Whatever, he was a pretty nice view to me.

We silently walked back to my car, casually splashing each other with small puddles from time to time. The rain had stopped, leaving a really cold and moist atmosphere. Luckily, we both had extra clothes in our training bags, so we changed into that, underwear and all before getting in my car.

Don't ask how. I just did without Ryder taking an obnoxious peak at me.

I wanted to bang my head to the steering wheel when I realized there was school tomorrow. The adrenaline I was feeling earlier had died down, leaving me feeling cold and very tired. The sore pain in my muscles from training was burning, and all I wanted to do was lie down from the pain.

I yawned really loudly before starting the car.

"You know what?" Ryder began out of nowhere. "I'll drive you home. I'll just take a cab back to mine since you don't look like you can handle driving alone in the dark right now."

I wanted to deny his abnormal kindness, but I let out a yawn again. He simply raised an eyebrow at me, so I sighed and switched seats with him, finally agreeing.

I reclined my seat back as he started to drive, snuggling into my seat and closing my eyes. "Why though?" I asked since I still wasn't sure why he was being so nice.

"Because you actually made me feel like I wasn't alone, sweetheart."

I always knew that whatever Ryder had to say was bull, but this one however, I could feel it was genuine.

The biggest playboy in the school can be sweet, after all.

*~*~*~*~*

My whole body was on fire.

It was already one in the afternoon, and I was supposed to be in school. I was about to sit up and panic, but I distinctly remembered waking up earlier and groaning at every movement, so my mom just made me go back to bed and sleep. I sighed in relief and snuggled into my pillow before reaching for my phone.

Aly had texted me and told me she was absent as well. She asked me if I would carpool with her on the way to school later for practice. I typed back a quick yes before letting my phone go and just relaxing.

If training was really tiring, most of the swim team would ditch class and get back before training started. The school didn't allow that, but there was this small entrance at the back of the school that they didn't guard or know about, and that was where we go in.

I was just about to sleep again when my door was swung open.

"Hey, honey, you feeling better?" Mom asked with Dad trailing behind her.

"A bit, but my body still hurts like hell." I admitted, stretching a bit.

"Well, good," Dad said before crossing my arms. "Because we need to talk about how late you went home last night and how you even got here."

I gulped. "You know Karl's friends were here and I don't like them—"

"Oh, we know," Mom nodded, her arms crossed as well. "Those kids are creepy. But two in the morning is too much, young lady!"

"Especially if you were knocked out in your own car and had a boy carry you to the house." Dad chimed in, a stern expression on his face.

"I nearly fainted!" Mom exclaimed. "I thought you were dead or something."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, you're overreacting."

"Overreacting? Most parents would've kicked you out of the house now by going home at such an ungodly hour with a boy!" Dad fumed.

Even though they were literally yelling at me, I couldn't take them seriously. My parents were down-to-earth parents, and I was really lucky to have them. They always trusted me and let me be, until Brett broke my heart for the first time ever. From then on, they were scared that I would break any moment and were overprotective of boys I hung out with.

In the end, I know they just cared.

"Relax, guys. Relax." I soothed, and they slowly inhaled and exhaled. "After training, I bumped into Ryder, the guy from last night. He didn't have a car and it was raining, so I took him home. By the time we reached his house, it was raining so hard that he didn't let me leave to be safe, so we watched movies. Nothing happened, you guys."

Okay, I might have lied a bit, but if I told my mom I played in the rain, she would freak.

"Oh," Mom said after a few moments of silence. "You could've texted us."

"I'm sorry, I left my phone in the car." I apologized.

"Okay, we're sorry too." Mom said and nudged Dad when he didn't say anything.

"We may have overreacted a bit," he admitted.

"It's okay," I laughed, shooing them away now. "I love you guys, but I'm gonna rest."

"We love you too, baby." Dad mumbled, and I know he was still worried about his baby girl.

"Don't rest yet though, Kaden has been trying to call you since morning." Mom informed me before stepping outside the room with my dad.

I shook my head at the both of them before reaching for my phone again, hitting the speed dial for my brother. After two rings, he picked it up.

"Kath," he started with an urgent tone. "I have a problem."

*~*~*~*~*

Hello!!!!

I finished writing at exactly 2:10 AM, so I am sleep deprived and a bit crazy, please excuse my mistakes. Feel free to point them out to me tho!!

I actually feel Kath's pain rn, since vball training just started and I literally can't move. My whole body is literally on fire 😭

I hope you guys like this chapter and if you did, please vote and comment! I really appreciate that and it inspires me to write more and update faster hehehe.

Thank you for reading y'all and have a blessed day <3

~Ysabel