Back to Ryder's P.O.V.
I tapped my fingers impatiently as I waited for Corey. Come on, come on, where are you? It's about to start raining. Get your butt in the car. Finally, he opened the door to the car. "What took you so long? That was like four hours to get from your house to the car."
He raised an eyebrow. "It was less than two minutes, Ryder. Why are you so freaked out?"
Because I'm afraid of thunder and lightning you dipshit. "I'm not. Just drive me home. I'll be fine once I'm there."
Corey hesitated as he turned the key, then turned his dark green eyes on me. "It...isn't because of my family, is it? My sisters and parents didn't upset you, did they? Are you just making me drive you home so that you can start ignoring me?"
Wow. Is that how this was coming off to him? "No," I said, using my that-is-the-stupidest-thing-I've-ever-heard tone. In truth, his family was great.
His father had a sort of country accent, but it was fairly faint. He had grey hair and brown eyes, and there were laugh lines all over his face. I thought he seemed like a pretty happy man. Then there was his mother; she was...a bit much. But in a very good way. She was loud, sure, and kinda...well, insanely perky for a woman in her thirties or forties, but he was kind and looked a lot like Corey did. Emily looked exactly like the both of them with her black hair and green eyes; she had really long lashes and a cutely shaped face. She was going to be really beautiful some day. Then there were the twins. They spoke almost in unison, and when they weren't doing that, they were finishing each other's sentences. Seeing as how I had seen every horror movie invented, they creeped me out; but just a little bit. The twins took after their father, with brown hair and eyes. Both of them were pretty, but I didn't trust twins based solely upon the fact that they were in The Shining.
I loved his family.
"Are you sure?" he asked slowly. "I mean...I thought that...maybe you wouldn't want to see a family like ours because of...well, you know."
Instead of snorting like I wanted to, I smiled. "I love seeing families like yours, Corey. I mean, yeah, it makes me a little sad that I never got to have a family like that, but seeing a family that works so well makes me happy. It was really a nice sight. They were all very nice, and I really liked Emily. I'd like to babysit her sometime if you guys ever want help looking after her. Actually, I was surprised that your family was like that."
"Why?"
"You're so...different, from them."
"I wasn't raised by them."
I blinked, startled. "What?"
"My mom was seventeen when she had me. She didn't want to raise a kid. So I went and lived with my grandparents until I was fifteen. Then I met my twelve year old sisters and three year old sister. I guess she kind of forgot about me." He shrugged. "Anyway. My grandparents ended up dying, so I went back to living with my parents and sisters. They're weird, and the twins don't like me very much from what I can tell, but I love them I guess."
I threw my arms around his neck, hugging him from my awkward position in the passenger seat.
He stiffened in surprise, but relaxed a little after that and hugged me back to the best of his ability. "Why are you hugging me?" Corey sounded surprised, but not like he was objecting to the contact.
"Because I thought you were someone that grew up really easily with a perfect family. And I feel bad about assuming that."
I felt him smile against my hair. "It's alright, Ryder."
When I released him, he was still smiling at me, and laughed a little bit.
"What?"
He kept smiling. "You're a really good person, Ryder. I hope you know that about yourself. You really don't give yourself as much credit as you deserve."
I turned away from him immediately. "Shut up,"Â I said, embarrassed and hiding my blush. "I am not."
"Yeah," he said more quietly as he began backing up the car, "you actually really are."
* * * * *
I fumbled for my key, my hands shaking violently as I did. "I can't find it! My keys are at your house and I'm going to die here because I can't get inside and just..." I looked at Corey, not bothering to try to hide my fear. "I left my spare key inside my house."
"Why was it inside your house?"
"That's not the point!"
He shook his head. "You are one of the most confusing females I've ever met in my life, Ryder."
I didn't care. I needed to find a way inside. I began stepping toward Corey, but thunder clapped suddenly, loud enough that I could feel it in my bones. Without warning, I launched myself at Corey and wrapped my arms around his waist, burying my face against his chest in fear. Since I was always alone, I never had anyone to really comfort me when it rained, so I never got over it. Even Kale hadn't ever been able to get me over my fear of the loud noises and flashing lights of death.
Corey wrapped his arms around me after he regained his balance. "Are you afraid of thunder?"
"Shut up."
He did.
After a moment, I stood away from him and took a deep breath. "Okay. I need to get inside. Is there any way that I could just, like, break a window?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because one, that would mean rain could get in your house, two, you could cut yourself in the process, and three, I would probably be the one that you made fix the window. So no, you can't break a window to get in to your house."
"I could try the back door."
"Now you think of that," he muttered.
I shot him a glare and stepped in the direction of my back door, then hesitated. "Um...could you...maybe come with me?" I asked awkwardly.
He nodded.
Thunder clapped again, much more quietly, and I grabbed his hand.
We walked to my back door, which I had thankfully left unlocked. I flicked the light switch on and off but no lights came on. Great. It was a power outage. "Lights are out," I muttered to Corey. Which, of course, was needless seeing as how he was probably very aware of that fact. Thankfully I knew my house well enough to navigate through it without bumping in to anything. "I have candles in the upstairs bathroom," I informed him.
Once there, I pulled out some candles and a box of matches. I lit a few and took them to my room to illuminate it. "Do you want some for wherever you're going to sleep?" I offered.
He laughed quietly; I could barely see him. "So I'm sleeping here?"
"Yes."
Even in the dark, I knew he was smiling now. "Alright. I'll sleep in the room next to this one, alright? That way if you need me you can just, I don't know, knock or something. I'm a light sleeper."
I nodded. "Alright. Thanks for driving me home so abruptly, Corey."
"No problem."
The second he left, the rain was much worse. I laid in my bed whimpering softly with the covers over my head. Yes, it was pathetic for a seventeen year old to be cowering under her blankets because of rain. Unfortunately, no one could tell my brain that, and so I just laid there, shaking and making small noises of distress whenever thunder clapped a little too loudly.
This went on for about an hour before I heard shuffling in my room. I squinted through the dark, my heart beating hard, and tried to search for a shape. "Corey?"
My bed shifted downwards; he was getting in to my bed.
"Wh-what are you doing?"
"I'm sleeping here so you'll quit screaming every time thunder goes off. I told you I'm a light sleeper, didn't I?"
"B-But you're in my bed." I could make out his shape now against the white sheets of my bed. He was laying on his back with his hands behind his head. "Didn't you say you sleep shirtless?" I asked nervously, afraid to reach out and check.
"I'm not going to assault you."
"I know that," I snapped. "I've just...never had a guy sleep in the same bed as me before."
Corey sighed quietly. "Just lay down, Ry."
I shifted awkwardly to a laying down position.
"Paranoid virgin," I heard him mutter from beside me. Glaring, I smacked his chest. He was very definitely shirtless. "Bite me," I growled at him.
"You wanna tell me that again?"
Oh no.
I could almost hear the smirk in his voice as he repeated, "Do you want to say that again, Ry? This time loud enough for the whole class to hear you?"
I couldn't help it. "Bite me," I snapped.
Almost immediately I felt his breath against the skin of my neck, just like the last time I had told him to bite me. "One more time," he dared softly, his lips hovering so barely beyond my neck that I could feel them brush against it when he spoke. "Go on, Ryder. I dare you to say that to me again. After all, who am I to deny the request of a scared girl?"
I shivered. The scent of his skin was wrapping around me, and the feel of his breath against my neck was a mixture of tickling and pleasant.
Then I realized the reality of my situation. I was in a bed. In the dark. Alone with the shirtless bad boy of the school, who had probably had his way with a dozen girls by this point in his life. His lips were legitimately less than an inch from my neck, and I was in a very vulnerable position, laying on my back beside him. The thought sent chills through my spine as images flooded my mind against my will.
He laughed softly and pulled away from me, going back to laying where he had been before. "Don't worry, Ryder, I'm not after your innocence, I promise."
"Shut up," I managed to say finally. Had I been breathing quickly? I felt out of breath.
"Make me."
"Dill weed."
"Paranoid dork," he shot back.
I relaxed as the tension in the air returned to zero.
This boy was going to be the death of me.