R Y D E R

Ryder makes it a point to always groom himself into an acceptable level of neat. He likes the feeling of a clean body and he likes not having to worry about any flab on his stomach when he sits (not that he ever needs to anyway, the amount of work that his body does whenever he goes into the workshop is crazy).

He knows. He definitely knows how the opposite views him. The adoring eyes, the silent 'O' that ensue whenever he walk past a group of girls, especially the younger ones. He never pretends as if he's one simple man, and most of his male friends joke about him being gay.

(He's definitely not.)

But even armed with his gift, even knowing that his body is in its best shape yet, and even knowing that he's made more money than he ever thought he will make, he's still nervous as fuck.

As fucking fuck.

Ryder catches himself and then groans. He tries his damned best to reduce the swearing, but sometimes the words creep into the back of his tongue unexpectedly.

(April doesn't like swear words).

When Aubrey (or Ariel or Aldrin for all he care) kept contacting him for a collaboration, Ryder was absolutely pissed off. The only reason why he opened one of her 102 emails was because he drunkly misread her name (Adrian? Ari? Aluna?) to be April. And once he replied to her, he was doomed. She never let him go and she was relentlessly emailing and g-chatting him. He could call the police and they would rule his case as 'harassment'.

The only reason why he visited her in her apartment is to tell her directly to stay away from him. He never expected Auriel (or Aria or Arianna)'s apartment to be that nice, and he never expected to see April inside of that rainbow haired girl's apartment. April, April, April. That April. The April. Ryder had tried meeting a lot of Aprils before. The blonde ex-cheerleader April. The red haired fox April. Even one April that looked almost identical as his April.

They may share her name, but they didn't share her antics, her mannerism, her innate ability to make him want to be good.

He's meeting April Hale for today. He doesn't expect anything to come out from this meeting, though, because there will be too many people. That Audrey (or is it Aubrey?) girl, her annoying twin brother, and probably some other people who will be around just to make sure that Ryder's not going to try anything to April.

A small smile appears on his lips. She's found herself a lot of people who care about her. Yes, those people will exert an enormous amount of effort to keep April and him apart, but if he would do the same thing if he were in their place.

It's a good thing that he's a selfish fuck, because despite the obstacles, he's not giving up on her.

Oh, shit. No more swearing.

(But he's so fucking excited to meet April.)

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2.20: the only thing more erotic than making love is a stolen glance.

My schedule was out of orders.

Which means I was experiencing Pandemonium in the worse sense of word.

Today was supposed to be Strawberry day, but for some unexplainable reason, every store within the walking distance was out of strawberry.

Even worse, Audra had eaten the last of strawberry jam. Apparently, there was a thing called sleep-eating.

I don't judge. Everybody's got their own condition, but why would she eat the last of my strawberry jam at my Strawberry day?!

This was stressing me out. All that was left in my house was Nutella and some peanut butter. On other days, I would gorge the Nutella with my bare fingers, but sticking to my schedule calmed my nerves. And my schedule was already screaming for more Strawberries.

Even watching the Japanese Ichigo (a.n: japanese strawberries are so huge and speshul that it doesn't deserve to be called strawberry. It's Ichigo. Period.) didn't help. I found myself salivating and near the verge of ruining my keyboard with my bodily fluids of tears and saliva.

There were already 2 things going wrong today.

One, the case where I wasn't able to eat any strawberry.

Two, the case where I would have to meet 'That Guy' today.

I could deal with only one thing going off the rails, but two unexpected objectives is as far that I can tolerate. At this rate, I'm going blind and blue-faced.

I was also absolutely aware that I was exaggerating, but it definitely didn't feel like much of a hyperbole.

"Oh my God, April," Audra sneered at my direction. "I only ate the jam, not jam my fist into your face. Can't you not look like you're about to cry all the time?"

"Believe me, I'm trying hard not to."

"I can't believe you're guilt tripping me just because I ate some jam."

I actually wanted to open my mouth and say the truth: 'It's not the jam that's the problem. It's your insistence to do a strooping collab video with none other Penguin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' and then, after a considerably long pause, I would glare at her with as much menace that I could muster and then drop on my knees and thank her for giving me another chance to meet That Guy.

Thankfully, one second before I actually did that, my brain reminded me at how psychotic it would be. Audra had already made it clear that he thought of me as less than 'respectable' and I didn't want to give her more reason to hate me more.

Audra had this way to deal with people. For people whom she respected and/or liked, she would put this sweet face. The kind of face that you'd be glad to see. The kind of face that said 'I'm so happy to be graced by your presence!'

And then the 'neutral' face, when she wouldn't try so hard to impress said person. She would put on a nice face, but sometimes she would show the cracks. She would show a little bit of her diabolical smile, and she wouldn't hesitate to frown.

And then there was me.

Audra was her true self whenever she was around me, and I said it with love.

She would scream, and then throw some tantrum. She would be frustrated, make scary guttural sounds, and then cry at the drop of a hat ( once she literally cried when I dropped one of her favorite hat to the sofa). It was like she bottled up all of her negative feelings to put on a nice smile whenever we were filming her videos, and then she needed an outlet to let all the monsters out.

That outlet, unfortunately, happened to be me.

"I'm trying my best to understand your frustration, Audra, but can we please not do this today? I'm as sad as when Kylo Ren killed his father because I haven't eaten anything strawberry-ish today."

"What's that word?"

"Are you sure you're asking me who Kylo Ren is?" I said, preparing to give her a long, detailed adventure of Star War's newest anti-hero. It could be a great distraction to my lack-of-strawberry day.

Audra saw the look at my face and then turned away. "Nope. I like to stay cool."

"But Kylo has a really great backstory, and Adam Driver is amazing on that role."

The door opened and Alex came in, his hands were full of brown paper bags.

"Oh thank God you're here," Audra said to Alex. "She's about to give me an hour long history of Kiro Len or whatever. Can you believe it?"

Alex flashed Audra a thin-lipped smile, and then he gave me one of his brown paper bag. "It's strawberry cake," he announced.

"You've just saved my life. And probably another one," I said as I ran to the kitchen to retrieve a knife.

"Anyway, Audra," Alex held on to his other paper bag, his hand lingered at the edge of the paper as he focused his gaze onto Audra.

"What?" Audra's eyes were now directed towards Alex's paper bag. It was almost customary for Alex to bring something whenever he visited here, but he only brought one thing for me. Today, he brought two stuff.

Maybe...

"I'm just going to eat my carrot cake. Can I borrow your plate?" Alex said, a mischievous look glinted on his green eyes.

Audra looked visibly hurt as she had thought that the other paper bag was meant for her. "Fine."

"When will the filming start?" Alex asked. "I swear you youtubers have the easiest job ever. You don't even edit your own videos. Or did you? I always forget."

Audra inhaled sharply. Rich, well-mannered, and good looking, Alex was one of the 'cool people' on Audra's books, and it was in her nature to want to impress him. The thing was, Alex never realized all of her combined efforts, or even spare her a glance. Maybe I should tell him to notice Audra more, because she always treat me a little worse after she met Alex.

"D-Do you want my strawberry cake?" I said, offering my plate to Audra. "I mean, I'd like a spoon if you don't mind, but I can share with you."

Audra only glared at me so sharply I almost felt like she was trying to stab me.

"Just eat, April," Alex said. "I'd love to buy Audra some cake, but I remember she said she's trying to watch her figure."

Audra's glare just intensified tenfold. To me.

"Really? Still me?" I asked ruefully. "He's the one implying you're fat. Even I can sense that."

I could hear Alex laughed with his mouth closed. I wondered how he managed to master that gesture.

"I'm sure you can be nicer to her," I said to Alex. "You're nice to everyone."

The door opened, and this time, Quentin came. "Hey sis, I brought you some Strawberry chocolate."

Quentin was still wearing his nice clothes, which means he had just been from a meeting with his athlete friends. He had been playing a lot of football lately (and getting paid for it), and had been getting a bit of a reputation for being a really great captain. Audra always kissed him lovingly whenever he mentioned his 'Captain-y' status.

My brother handed me a pack of strawberry chocolate and then kissed Audra dutifully on the lips. I thanked God that being a twin didn't come with sensory transference. I really wouldn't like kissing girls.

"Alex," Quentin offered him his fist and Alex met it.

"Carrot cake?" Alex raised his plate towards Quentin.

"Nah, I'm only eating chicken breast and broccoli for a month."

"I can imagine how frustrated you must be, to be deprived of one of your senses," Alex observed.

"Oh, don't worry about that. Audra takes care of me well," Quentin said as he kissed his girlfriend on the cheek. Audra's face considerably reddened, but then I could hear her mouthed 'captain captain' and then kissed my brother back.

"Where's that asian girl who's in love with you?" Quentin asked Alex.

"Bella? She's not in love-" Alex began but then stopped himself. "Did you know that right now she's dating one very married man and has two side-dudes who are also very married?"

Quentin's face contorted. "She does love to live dangerously, doesn't she?"

"She's having fun, though," Alex laughed. "She said she'll drop them as soon as they show signs of leaving their wives. So that's kind of nice?"

"Ugh, I hate that whore," Audra said with a really bad face.

"She's not," I said. "I think she just attracts too many people because she's too beautiful."

"Who the hell dates three people at the same time? Married ones, at that? Ding-ding, only whores do. I bet she gets paid whenever she puts out with either of them." The words that came out from Audra's mouth were getting more and more poisonous until the strawberry that I gorged didn't fill me up with enough feel-good feelings.

"You're talking about Bella?" the voice that came out from the door was both familiar and not. I recoiled, and tried to eat all the strawberry in front of me to fuel me up. I knew who it was, and I needed to be ready.

That Guy stepped into the room and looked around all of us. It felt weird, having him here, because it seemed like it had been such a long time having Him around the people both of us knew.

His familiar scent of sandalwood and musk filled my nostrils, and my eyes reacted by welling up with tears. He really was here. Oh God oh God oh God.

"Oh, you know Bella? Bella Yen?" Audra asked in a flustered face. "She's this asian girl with crazy hair-"

"She's my childhood friend," That Guy stated firmly. "What about her?"

All of the bravado that Audra acquired from before seemed to evaporate. I could visibly see her shoulder slump and she moved behind Quentin.

"Don't say hi to me," Quentin moved away from Audra and then stepped before me, obscuring my view of That Guy and him me. "I'm trying hard to not punch you right now with my highly mega ultra trained fist."

"I get it. You work out," He rolled his eyes, refusing to be put down despite it's 4 people against 1.

"Now you," That Guy stopped on his tracks when he was on the eye level with Alex. "You're the one I want to punch."

Alex and Him were both tall men, although He was slightly taller and bigger. When standing side by side, I could see how different, and yet alike they were. Both were beautiful, and it bordered to superfluous, like they could just rely on their looks and not need to get a serious job (or until they turn 40). It was actually a wonder how come these two beautiful men had came across each other and had stayed friends for a few years and never developed any LGBT tendencies.

"You can stop your pathetic attempt to intimidate me," Alex said calmly, while cutting his cake assiduously. "You thought wrong. I'm not The Boyfriend."

If He was surprised with this information, then He held His face well, although I could see the tension on His shoulders dissipated.

"I'm still here to check up on you, though," Alex said, and then he stood next to Quentin so that it was even harder for me to get a look of Him. "I can't believe you're back after all these years."

Despite the two tall guys in between us, He managed to steal a glance at me. As soon as I caught his eyes, I felt my knees wobbled, and I sat on the chair. My heart-rate quickened, and with aghast horror I found myself unable to recite the opening text of Star Warx IV: A New Hope.

"Hello," he waved his hand towards me.

Since I couldn't trust my mouth enough to make a non-embarrassing sound, I blinked a morse-code of 'Hello' back to him.

Without words, he handed something to me. It was a box of Strawberries.

"I hope your eating schedule hasn't changed," He said.

I gulped a lot of saliva.

He smiled, and I had to close my eyes so that I wouldn't lose the rest of my Star Wars knowledge.

"Can we start filming?" I heard Audra said from back there.

His eyes lingered on me for three more deadly seconds, before then he turned around and said, 'Okay.'

As soon as I saw the back of his head, I found myself being able to breathe again.

This was bad. This was really bad. This was really really bad. Audra's filming usually took 2-3 hours. When she had a guest, it could stretch to as long as 4 hours. I was the camerawoman, so I had to constantly look at His face.

Sometimes I might even have to zoom.

I didn't think I could handle looking at him in such short distance. Especially if he started to smile like that. I would be dead within the ten minute mark.

"So I'm just gonna sit here?" He asked Audra as he motioned to the sofa. Audra nodded, and then proceeded to detail to him about the things that they would cover in this collab video. Then Audra motioned something to Him, and then he shrugged off his jacket, revealing a few added tattoos alongside of his old ones. I saw a very well-drawn Sloth on his right sleeve, and something written in complicated cursive on his shoulder blade.

"The Sloth is inspired by a really memorable ex," he explained when Audra prompted him. "She was cute and loveable."

With neither Alex nor Quentin to stand in between us, it was easier for That Guy to steal more glances to me, and believe me, he glanced at me a lot.

Sometimes it was a 0.5 second glance, that one was easier to deflect. But then there were times when he just... gazed at me. As if we were never broken up. As if he never dropped me and then left me cold for years. As if we were fine and happy and still whole.

And for a moment I almost believed that we could do just that. Just... resume things. Just hit un-pause and let things go back to normal, just like before.

Until I put my hand on my chest and the familiar muted pain began to suffuse to every inch my skin.

It was so unfair. So unfair.

So really sexing unfair.

I felt a hand on the top of my head. I jerked, but then the hand was warm and gentle and Alex's presence always had this calming aura. I found myself leaning towards his hand, as he patted my head and brought his mouth close to the side of my face. Not close enough until his breath brushed my cheek, but enough for me to feel the warmth of his skin.

"Still hurting?" he asked.

"Still hurting."

"Don't worry," I couldn't see Alex's face, but there was a smile in his words. "I won't let you get hurt that much."

And I believed him.

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Hello!!!

Thanks a lot for reading :D I hope you like this chapter. I have fun writing this, and I have fun confusing you guys about which ship will sail. (Hint: no it's not gonna be what you guys predict in the previous comments. But believe me it's gonna be epic.)

Anyway, what do you think of this chapter? For the first time I finally added a bit of Ryder's POV at the start of the chapter. Do you like it? I plan to add a bit of other character's POV just before the chapter stars, to be some sort of pre-chapter-prologue, if that's ever a thing.

Don't forget to vote and comment :D I love reading those! I've also written a new story, although it's waaay more angsty and dark than this one. It's called Beauty and the Damned, and if you have the time, please check it out. :)

Again, thank you so much for reading, and especially to Bonitabanana, wow, your theories and character analysis is really cool. :D I love you <3

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BY THE WAAAYY

I think it's about time for The Quirky Tale of April Hale to have a new cover, will you guys help me make one? For the chosen cover, I can think of a few rewards:

1. I'll shout out your name and dedicate the next chapter

2. I'll also put your name at the description of this story.

3. If you have a story, I'll read and critique it if you want.

Please help me, because despite spending $$ and years in a design school, I found myself to be a really shit designer.