8. Wednesday Week Three

Waking up in a cold sweat after a night of bad dreams, was usual for me. Ever since my parents had died I always had difficulty sleeping through the night, sometimes I did okay and made it through the night, but often I found myself waking up with the sheets wrapped around my sweaty legs and my heart pounding in my chest.

That's why when my Nan walked into the kitchen at 5 am and saw me drinking coffee in the dark on the barstool, she wasn't the least bit fazed.

She flicked the lights on knowing Tyler wouldn't be woken up, "bad night monkey?"

I smiled at her over the rim of my coffee mug, "just a little."

She smiled back over at me and nodded in the direction of my ensuite bedroom, "better go get cleaned up before Noah gets here, he will most definitely make a comment about how bad you smell."

Smiling at her comment, I hopped off the barstool as gracefully as my sleep-deprived brain would allow and headed in the direction of my bedroom to heed her advice.

But I stopped dead in my tracks when my Nan called out to me, "Reillyn. Don't think we won't be talking about why you came home at 3 o'clock in the morning on a school night"

Oh shit. Annoyed, I trudged back into my room and climbed into the shower feeling my anger rise over last nights events.

I was going to kill Elias, it was all his stupid fault that I didn't get home until 3 am.

That's right, 3-fucking-am.

Tuesday night from 4 pm to 6 pm was now my regular tutoring session with Riley, Eli's little brother. It was also the night that Rosemary, the Ryker's housekeeper had off, and so when Debbie (Eli's mum) got called into the hospital on an emergency (she's a nurse), she asked me to look after Riley and her twin daughters (Ivy and Aspen) for 30 minutes until Eli got home to look after them. I didn't mind 30 minutes so I said I would wait.

But did he get home in 30 minutes: no.

Eli didn't show up at all, it wasn't until Debbie got home at 2:30 am that I could finally leave. To say I was fuming would be an understatement, I was downright murderous. Debbie had been so apologetic, explaining that her phone had died which was why my calls hadn't reached her and that she had no idea where Ryker was.

She offered to drive me home but she looked shattered bless her, so I turned down her offer and drove the 30 minutes it took to get home. The fact that his mum was working her ass off and he couldn't even be bothered to tell her where he was made my anger even more fierce, what a selfish prick!

At first, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was legitimately busy, maybe he had a legal job, maybe he got hit by a giant bloody bus? Who's to know?

What really pissed me off was when he opened and read all the text messages I had sent him asking where he was and then, he ignored me. The asshole fully read my struggles and aired me; that is what made me so angry that I ended up going into school out for his blood.

— — — — —

I was almost one hundred per cent certain my anger was radiating off of me in waves because for the whole morning all my friends gave me a wide berth and chose not to question my brewing anger and intense glare; even Noah left me alone and Noah never left me alone in school.

By the time the bell rang at the end of fourth period my anger was relieved a little at the thought of finding Elias and shouting at him during lunch; and Nutella of course. But just as I was going to exit my English classroom Mrs Graceford called me to her desk; the old crone was making a nasty habit of this.

She smiled up at me kindly, "I just wanted to check and see how tutoring was going. I spoke to Riley this morning and he says he's loving it."

If she already spoke to Riley, what was she asking me for? It didn't help that I could feel myself getting angry just thinking about last night, "It's fine, he's a great kid." Same can't be said for his asshole brother though.

She nodded at me, "I was wondering if you wanted to take on some more students, I have plenty that could use your help." Yeah, hell no.

"I'm not sure Miss, I'm just really busy at the moment, I could barely fit Riley in." I saw Elias walking past the classroom, bingo. "I'm really sorry Miss, but I have to go, catch you later." I ran out of the classroom at a speed that surprised me in the hopes of catching up to Eli and getting rid of all my pent up anger.

"Elias!" He surprisingly stopped at my shout probably realising it was me from the name and turned to face me, I stopped for a moment when I noticed the bruises on his face, had he been fighting again? I shook my questions from my head, reminding myself I didn't give a shit.

"You better have a stellar explanation for last night or I swear to god I will kick your ass."

"Like you did on Sunday?" He replied with a smirk; cocky bastard. He didn't even seem fazed by my anger so I knew he was aware of why I was furious.

I stomped over to him and stopped when I was directly in front of him, "you think this is funny?" I questioned loudly with a poke to his chest. I was suddenly grateful that the halls were cleared and I could yell as loud as I wanted, "you think it's a joke that I didn't get home until 3 am?" I feel my voice raise even more as I went on my tiptoes and got right in his stupidly handsome face, "you think it's okay that I spent my only night off work at your house, with your family, doing your job when I should've been at home with mine?!"

The asshole didn't even look slightly guilty, he looked straight at me as he replied, "sounds like a fuckload of your problem." He stepped back from me with a shrug of his shoulders.

The hand which was poking his chest fell to my side and I felt my anger rise again at his blasé attitude.

"My problem? My problem Ryker!" Something flashed in his eyes at the use of his last name, "you were the one who was supposed to come home last night and look after your family, where the hell even were you? Do you have any idea how worried your mum was?"

At the mention of his mum his face twisted into a vicious scowl and if it wasn't for the weird reason that I felt safe around him, I would be downright terrified.

"Fuck off Reillyn. My family is my fucking business, stay out of it. Where I am and what I do has nothing to do with you."

"It does when it means I have to let my brother down because your dickhead self couldn't come home to look after YOUR OWN DAMN FAMILY." By the end of my rant, I'd completely lost it and I was certain I looked like a madwoman with my hands flying all over the place but Elias didn't seem to care as he took a step towards me and stood so close that our toes were touching. My anger was so intense that I didn't even care about how he smelt as good as always.

"Exactly, Reillyn, my fucking family, not yours. So why don't you keep your nosy ass out of my business and fuck. Off."

He strode past me after that and I heard the doors to the school slam as he stomped himself out to the car park. I was still angry but clearly it wasn't getting into his thick skull that he acted like a prick last night by not showing up when his mum expected him to.

But maybe he was right, maybe I was sticking my nose where it didn't belong. But then I thought about Ty and how he wanted me to build his Lego with him last night but I couldn't and now I wouldn't have a chance to until the weekend and just like that my anger felt justified again.

Deciding that Elias wasn't worth my time, I headed to the cafeteria with the intention of allowing my friends to put a smile on my face.

However, when I spotted my friends in the canteen around a circle table, they weren't completely alone. I scanned through the added faces of Kyle, Kie and Jasper. When I was completely confident that there was no sign of Eli, I strode over plastered a fake smile on my face and sat down opposite Noah and in between Kins and Kie after greeting everyone at the table.

"Woah, what's with the clown smile Rei? It's creepy as fuck." The smile dropped off my face at Noah's words and I flashed him a scowl before I decided to check my phone.

"Now, now, is that the sort of behaviour you show to someone who got you a Nutella sandwich?"

My head whipped up from my phone and I saw Noah waving a Nutella sandwich in the air and felt actual drool forming in my mouth.

"Oh my god! Gimme, gimme." My hands stretched out to grab it but he pulled it back at the last second so I couldn't reach it, I scowled at him again, "I'm not in the mood for games Noah."

He smirked at me, "apologise or I eat the Nutella...right here...in front of you."

I gasped, "you wouldn't dare"

"Try me."

My focus on the chocolatey goodness momentarily swayed as I noticed everyone at the table watching us with amusement. But my attention instantly snapped back to Noah as I heard him removing the cellophane from my Nutella sandwich and going to take a bite.

"No!" I screamed at him, "I concede, I concede. I apologise, you are the greatest, I love you. Now please Noah."

He leaned forward and stuck his cheek out in my direction just like I did to Ty when he ran from my kisses, I didn't even hesitate, I kissed his cheek and grabbed the Nutella from his hand before I took a huge bite out of it.

"Mmm, so gwood." I raised the sandwich as if to say 'cheers', "fwank you" I garbled around the Nutella in my mouth. Lana grimaced from beside Noah but I was too happy to care.

Noah shrugged, "don't mention it, you seemed down this morning so I thought you might need it." Aw, this boy. My heart swelled with love for him and I realised how insanely lucky I was to have him in my life.

"You guys are so cute together, I swear."

Noah burst out laughing and my head whipped around to face Kie and I started shaking my head vehemently. I wanted to tell her she was wrong but I wasn't gonna speak to her with my mouth full, we had only just become friends so I looked over at Noah for help.

He just shrugged with a smirk, "sorry Rei-Rei, if the shoe fits..." Why the little...

Lana elbowed him in the side meaning it was my turn to smirk and Noah's turn to frown as he rubbed his ribs, "they aren't together Kie, just good friends."

"Ohh, sorry, my bad."

"Not mine though. Does that mean your single Rei-Rei?" Kyle teased with a wiggle off his eyebrows and a smirk.

Noah sat up straighter in his chair and glared over at Kyle, "piss off blondie, only I get to call her that. And you will never be allowed to date her. Ever. She is off-limits." His protective side, which had developed after the incident, coming out.

The boys started bickering back and forth about which girls they could and couldn't date and the smile that I knew my friends would provide me with graced my face.

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2080 words^

Edited ✅