Chapter 22: (Mia's POV)

"Incoming." Harper said as she pointed to the entrance of her park with her eyes. I looked to where her eyes roamed and saw Jeremy walking in. And he was walking over to me. "Jeremy? What are you doing here?" I asked confused as the boys who were sitting opposite to Harper, Grace and I glared at him. All the boys except for Daniel. "I invited him. He's a friend of yours and a friend of yours is a friend of ours." Daniel said as he got up with a proud look on his face as he referred to me. "Not a friend of mine." I heard Ryder mumble under his breath as he got up, grabbed a bicycle and rode away. "I'll be right back." I said as I swiftly got on a bicycle and followed Ryder. "I'm joining." I heard Jeremy yell, immediately making me freeze in my tracks. I came to a screeching halt, making Jeremy do the same right next to me. "Um, Jeremy you uh- you can't join. I need to speak to Ryder. Alone." I said, trying to be as nice as I could but obviously not really succeeding. "Oh. Got it. Got it." he said as he turned around and went back to the group, leaving me to catch up with Ryder.

I rode my bike, speeding up whenever the distance between our bikes increased. "Ryder. Wait! Please!" I yelled, informing him that I was not too far from him, and that made him stop, park his bike, and get off. He walked over to where I was standing, with anger burning through him as he spoke with anger, "What?" he asked as he put his hands in his pocket and looked straight at me since I was now standing right in front of him. "I did not invite him here. You know that. I didn't even know he was going to be coming." I said in my defense. 'In my defense?' what is this a court? "I didn't say anything to you did I? I didn't blame you. I didn't get upset with you. I-"

"What do you mean you didn't get upset with me? Ryder, look at you. You stormed off on a bicycle for god's sake. What do you mean you're not mad at me?" I asked as I subconsciously walked closer and closer to him. "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at Daniel for inviting him, I'm mad at him for showing up after getting punched may I add and I'm mad at myself for getting mad at them. If anything, I'm mad at everyone but you!" he sighed out in frustration.

"Well you can't just be mad at them because the reason he showed up after all, is because I am here. So if you're mad at them. You're mad at me." I huffed out.

"I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at them." he said through gritted teeth.

"And I said if you're mad at them, then you're mad at me. Yeah, I know I can't decide who you can and can't be mad at, but I am, ok so suck it up and deal with it." I argued.

"I hate how you're always right." he uttered under his breath.

"I am never right, you however are. The few times I am, are the few times you and me argue like this. Ryder, come on. You know I don't have feelings for him, he is literally nothing but a friend to me and I'm not going to fuck up things between us when they just started getting better." I sighed as I intertwined our hands. "Fine." he sighed in defeat. "I'm not mad at them, or you." he finished. "Do you want to get out of here? The ice cream parlour is probably empty right about now?" I offered. "We can ask the others to join us if you don't want to go alone with me." I shrugged. "No, don't invite the others. We can tell them to join in later. Let's go." he said as he pulled me closer and kissed the top of my head.

After that, we got on our bikes and rode back to tell them we were leaving for a while.

Then, we drove to the ice cream parlour.

We walked into the ice cream parlour and we ordered our ice creams. "One mint chocolate chip and one cookies n cream with oreos please." Ryder ordered for me. He remembers my order even though I order a different ice cream every time but some-freaking-how, he knows that I want right now and every time I go to get ice cream with him. We were sitting at our booth, having ice cream, talking, and laughing our asses off when I looked at him and just saw him smiling and watching me while I laughed my ass off. "Do I have ice cream all over my face? Is that why you're staring?" I asked as I grabbed a tissue and wiped my mouth. "A little on you nose but that's not why I was staring." he chuckled as he took the tissue from my hand and wiped some ice cream off of my nose. "How does someone get ice cream on their nose?" I asked myself confused, which made him laugh. "I wasn't staring for you information. I was admiring." he said, looking proud of himself.

"Hmm, admiring what?" I asked cockily as I leaned forward in my seat, taking a spoonful out of his mint chocolate chip ice cream. "You and your laugh and your stupid habits. And, the fact that you somehow managed to get ice cream on your nose." he laughed.

"It wouldn't be the first time I did that. And clearly you managed to do that too." I smiled as I took a tissue and wiped some ice cream off of the tip of his nose like he had done to me.

We just sat there looking at each other for a minute until the bell at the door jingled, breaking our trance. I leaned out of my booth to look at the entrance and saw two terrifying men walking into the parlour. They were heavily built and both of them had two full sleeve tattoos. Ryder had a few too which I had seen numerous times since the boy does not know how to keep a shirt on. The two men looked around the parlour for a second, before their eyes met Ryder's and they came marching towards us.

"If it isn't the fox himself." said one of the two men.

"You sneaky little shit. You did that deal perfectly. I have no clue why they busted you up." the other one said, making Ryder visibly stiffen. "Who's this beauty?" said the second guy as he took my hand and kissed the back of it. "Patrick. Hands off." Ryder almost growled, immediately making Patrick back off. "Mia, this is Patrick and Thomas, we call him Tommy. They're the nice ones. They play on my team." Ryder introduced them to me while he did the dude nod with them. "They're part of the gang but they don't think I should be in it. Kind of like father figures." he sighed. "She knows?"

"She knows everything." Ryder sighed as they looked at me wide-eyed.

"Oh, she's the one you love isn't she?" Patrick said, earning a smack on the back of his head Thomas. "She's not supposed to know." Thomas hissed, making me laugh and Ryder look down at his ice cream... blushing?

"Well, we'll leave you two alone now." Patrick said before they walked out.

"They've been trying to help me get out of the gang for ages. They're family." Ryder shrugged as he watched them walk out. "And yes, I talk to them about you." he admitted nervously.

"He blushes?" I teased.

"Don't push it." he warned leaning in.

"Or what?" I challenged.