The Bad and The Broken

Part 76

School has been..

Odd.

I guess everyone is used to seeing me with Ryder all the time now. Some people are saying we're together, some are saying he feels bad for me, and some are saying I'm black mailing him. But all the staring has stopped, so I don't really care what people are saying. At least I'm being left alone.

Jessica hasn't done much since the day in the bathroom, but I know something is coming.

She knows my mom is dead, she wouldn't do her research and threaten me with it if she weren't going to do anything.

I don't know what she's doing, but I do know that she's one crazy bitch.

I haven't told Ryder about it. I don't want him feeling any more guilty than he already does. So, all I can do is wait and see what happens. I can handle it.

As for Ryder and I, we're getting closer everyday.

Even after our.. almost kiss, I guess you could say, it didn't make anything between us weird. We haven't talked about it, mostly because after his mom walked in it got really tense.

"Um-uh," I stammer.

What the fuck? I almost kissed him! He almost kissed me!

Oh god, his mom saw us!

"Uh, yeah.." he scratches the back of his neck.

"I'm going to go.." I think for a second, my eyes darting all over the kitchen to keep from looking at him, "I'm gonna go to my room!"

"Yeah, yeah. Sounds good!" He agreed as we both part ways and I practically sprint to my bedroom.

Yeah.. it was so awkward.

I cringe thinking about it.

At first, being around him after that was embarrassing. But eventually I guess we both just decided to forget about it.

A part of me didn't want to, a bigger part of me could not deal with that awkwardness.

"Earth to Dawn. Hello?" Jenny says as she waves her hand in front of my face, gathering my attention.

"Hey, you're back," she chuckles. I guess I zoned out for a while.

Typing a note with my phone, I say a quick apology before paying attention to the conversation again.

My phone never started working again after Ryder dropped it into the pool. Thus, I am using the iPhone he got me. It was a lot better than my old one, but I still felt bad for him buying it for me.

"So there's this party," TJ says as he eats his disgusting looking thing that our school calls a hamburger, "it's at Joseph's house. We should all go!"

"Seriously dude?" Ryder says, "Joseph is a total weirdo!"

"But his parties are awesome!"

Joseph is a lineman on our football team. However, he's known for being a total perv.

"If Dawn goes, I'll go," Ryder gives me a cheeky smile.

I couldn't tell if he said that to get out of going, or to get me to go.

I only give a shrug, as we'll probably talk about if we're going later when we leave school.

"Come on, Dawn! Please?" TJ begs.

"Yeah! Come on, it'll be fun!" Becca encourages.

Her beautiful ginger hair falls in her face as she puts her nose against my cheek.

"Pleeaase," she whispered, dragging it out.

I only shrug again. Then type an I'll think about it on my phone to get them off me for now.

Parties are not something I've ever wanted to attend. Especially with all the drinking that goes on in them.

Ryder taps on my shoulder, and passes a plate of French fries over to me when I look at him.

I guess he wants to me try to eat these. We haven't tried them yet due to the amount of grease and salt that's on them, but I've been dying to.

I slowly take one at a time, paying close attention to how my stomach feels as I eat more. My mouth was in heaven.

God, I've missed these!

After finishing the whole plate, my stomach felt fine. I wanted to do a victory dance, but I held it back. I'll save it for when we leave.