RYAN'S POV

I'm ecstatic the moment coach tells us that we are getting out of practice early today since he worked us so hard yesterday. We did everything right throughout practice so he kept true to his word and let us out a half hour early. Mason and I skip the showers again to get to our girls sooner. Once we get to my house, I see Mel's red Porsche sitting in my driveway.

I turn to Mason and mutter: "What the fuck?"

He chuckles. "Have fun with that."

Not wanting to, I grab my bag and head inside. My parents (both home already which surprises me) are sitting in the living room and talking to Melissa. My dad is like in love with her because she puts on this fake charade but my mom always saw right through it.

"Honey," my mom says cheerily but through clenched teeth, "look who's here!" She points at Mel by nodding her head in that direction like a crazy person.

"Heyyy..." I scratch the back of my neck awkwardly, "Uh, what's up?"

What I really wanted to ask was 'why are you here' but that would be rude. I would have said the latter if my parents weren't in the room.

"I just wanted to talk Ry," she said sweetly and batted her eyelashes. Although they had similar colored eyes, Becca's held so much more. Plus, her eyelashes never had those disgusting clumps in them.

"We'll be in the kitchen," my mom states before bolting out of the living room. "Oh, and Ryan, Becca hasn't gotten home yet. Maybe you should check where she is," she shouts from the kitchen real subtle-like and I laugh.

I turn to look at Mel but don't join her on the couch. She twirls a blonde curl around her finger and looks up at me attempting a seductive look that no longer had an effect.

Clearing my throat, I take the high road and start. "You said you wanted to talk."

"Come on Ry, don't be like that." She stood and walked closer to me, effectively pinning me between the couch and herself. I had to stand straight because falling back onto the couch would be worse. She would be right there with me almost immediately. She realizes this and soon grazes her 'chest' across mine lightly. "Why let that little slut string you along? She's clearly using you and Landon." She stops and her eyes go wide. "Wait. Your mom said she isn't home yet. Does she live here?"

I remove myself from our current position and try to calm myself.

"Melissa," her eyes go wide. I've only called her that once before and it was when I broke off our relationship. "First, Becca is definitely not a slut and I can't believe you would stoop so low to say something like that. Second, although it isn't any of your business, yes. She lives in the twin's old room." Her eyes widen at this news. "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't go blabbing that around to the whole damn school."

Her shock fades away and a sly smile takes its place.

"Now Ry, why would I do something like that? I'm just trying to make you see how she's playing you."

"I think you should leave now. Unless there's more you wanted to talk about."

"I'll leave. Walk me to my car?" I nod, grateful that I'm getting rid of her and turn to walk towards the front door. She wraps her arms around my bicep and I just go with it, not wanting to prolong her visit by stopping to remove them. I open the door and take a few steps out before Mel's claws grasp my arm harder. I look at her in confusion and see movement in the background. Landon's perched on his bike giving me an odd look while Becca removes her helmet. The second her bright blue eyes look towards me; they fade quickly and she pulls her bottom lip up with her teeth. I try to flash a look with my eyes but she turns away before noticing it. I see her say something to Landon before turning to walk towards me, well probably the house, but I'm in her path. When she gets close enough to hear, Mel chooses to speak.

"I'll see you tomorrow Ry," she lets her hands drag down from my bicep and to my hand like we're involved before smirking and climbing in her car. Becca dashes past with her head hung down.

"Becs, wait." She doesn't stop and leaves the front door open behind her while running up the stairs. I hear a door slam shortly afterwards.

"Nice," Landon scoffs while shaking his head. I start explaining to him but he waves me off and revs his engine.

Well, I decide that my girl is top priority at the moment so I go to run after her only to find it locked. I knock gently but get no answer.

"Becs, please let me in." There's no response for a few long seconds and I lean my forehead against the door.

"Becca..."

The door slowly opens and I lean back expecting to see tears but there are none.

"Hey," I whisper as I attempt to push the door open wider. It doesn't budge and I see her fingers around the edge showing that she's holding it where it is. "Becs it wasn't anything. She was already here when I got home from practice."

She nods her head and speaks quietly.

"Okay." Her eyes were giving nothing away but I wasn't stupid. I know it bothered her.

"Can I come in?"

"Uh, sure, I have to study though." She releases the tight grip she had on the door and walks back to the bed, plopping onto it and pulling her math book out of her backpack. Sighing, I join her on the white comforter.

"You know I had nothing to do with it right?" She doesn't look up from her math but I see her tense up slightly.

"Yep. I know."

"Ryan!" my mom shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

I gently rest a hand on Becca's small shoulder and run it down her arm softly. Her blue eyes look up at me and I recognize a sliver of sadness in them.

"I'll be right back if you want to talk," I say apologetically before going to see what my mother wants. As soon as I get halfway down the steps she goes off on me.

"What was she doing here Ryan? Are you seeing her again?" My mom was absolutely livid.

"Ma of course I'm not! I'm with Becca you know that - everyone knows that." She was about to continue her lecture but I cut her off. "I'm sorry but I need to talk to Becca."

As I turn to go back upstairs she grabs my arm to keep me in place. Her voice is much softer towards me when she speaks than it was a few seconds ago. "Didn't you already talk to her?" I nod. "And what did she say? Was it like 'it's fine'?" I nod again because Becca acted nonchalant about it even though I knew it bothered her.

"That's why I want to go talk to her. I know she isn't fine, I'm not stupid."

"Oh honey," my mom rolled her eyes and gently pulled on my arm so I would come down the stairs. "Do you know what it probably looked like to her?" I must have made a weird face because she explained: "Melissa came over when nobody else was home and you conveniently got out of practice early. I'm guessing you didn't text Becca to let her know that either. It also doesn't help that you two were walking out together in a rush. It looked like you were trying to get her out of here before anyone got home Ryan."

Geez. I knew it didn't look good but I hadn't thought it would be that bad.

"I think you should give her a little bit of time before going up there again."

I nod in acknowledgment to my mom before heading upstairs and popping my head into Becca's room. She doesn't look up from her homework so I lightly knock on the door frame.

"Can we please talk about it?" I ask, practically begging. I would have listened to my mom's advice but I told Becca I would come right back.

She sighs loudly. "Ryan, I really should study." If that wasn't a very dismissive no I didn't know what was.

"Later?" I was hopeful when she cracked a teeny smile and nodded. I went to shower quick then hid out in my room for a while, texting Landon. I've never felt more awkward about texting my best friend.

___
|Ryan Bradley > Lan - 8:12pm|
Sent: Hey. I know what it looked like but I got out of practice early and when I got home, Mel was already here. You can ask Mason. He dropped me off.
Received: I'm not going to go investigate if you're telling the truth. If that's what happened I believe you.
Sent: It is. And thank you.
___

I should never doubt Landon. We've been through thick and thin for each other so I'm not sure I was worried about what he'd say.

___
|Ryan Bradley > Lan - 8:28pm|
Received: What does Becca think?
Sent: I tried to talk to her but she said she has to study...
Received: Well it did look pretty bad man. I know how Mel is but I'm not sure if Becca's known her long enough to understand.
Sent: What did she say to you before she ran inside?
Received: ...
Sent: Please. She won't let me explain.
Received: She said "I told you."
Sent: Told you what?
Received: We went to the library after school and were talking about what happened in gym class... it just led to a different conversation.
Sent: Why? What happened in gym?
Received: I really think you should talk to Becca about it instead of me.
Sent: She will barely look at me right now.
Received: Give her some time to cool off... I can text her about giving you a chance to explain but I'm not sure how she'd take that.
Sent: Yeah don't do that. She'd feel bombarded I think.
Received: Just try to talk later or in the morning if that doesn't work out.
Sent: I will. Thanks man - for everything.
Received: No problem.
___

I tried to get Becca to talk to me a few more times that night but she wasn't ready yet. I wanted to explain everything before whatever she was thinking got stuck in her head but didn't want to push her too far.

I thought there might have been a breakthrough when I saw her tiny figure in the shadows of my doorway.

"Ryan?" Her voice was a soft whisper.

I sat up in my bed. "Yea Becs?"

"I'm just... can I..."

I didn't wait for her to finish and just threw the side of the comforter back so she could climb in.

"I don't want to talk yet though... I'm sorry," her voice was shaky but I couldn't see her face in the darkness.

I still wrap my arms around her and pull her close. I can feel how tense she is and feel horrible that I've caused her to feel this way even if I didn't actually do anything. It's because of me she's upset.

"We don't have to right now. Just sleep." I kiss her temple and she relaxes into me before sleep overcomes her.