Losing Love

5

Hope's POV:

"You got really drunk and passed out, the bartender brought you back" Kyle explains bluntly as he holds my phone up at eye level in front of me, practically shoving the imagine of me passed out over his shoulder in my face.

I look up into his desperate blue eyes once again, the tears now beginning to spill out of my eyes and drenching my eyelashes in the salty liquid. My gaze leaves Kyle's eyes and turn back to my phone, I use my index finger and thumb to zoom into the background before bringing my eyes back to Kyle. I watch as his expression completely changes; his once upturned, laughing lips falls and his mouth opens slightly, his eyes suddenly glaze over and I can already see the thoughts overflowing in his head.

I look back at the zoomed in screen of my phone and focus my eyes on the man in the back. Ryder. Or at least someone who looks a lot like him.

Ryder, my ex-boyfriend, or my boyfriend. I can't say for sure considering we never officially broke up. He was also Kyle's best friend.

Ryder, the first boy I loved. The first boy I lost.

He disappeared a year and a half ago after we had a fight and has been presumed dead since then. Everybody gave up hope of ever seeing him ever again. I watched as the men in black lowered my boyfriends empty casket into the soiled ground.

I always blamed myself for Ryder's disappearance and possible death. We were arguing about something, it was so small and irrelevant that I can't even remember what it was anymore. He got into his car and sped away, leaving me in the middle of nowhere. I remember calling Nora over and over again, with the tears drenching my scorched face. She came to pick me up, on our way home there was a huge accident slowing down traffic. I didn't care much for it until I saw the car from the passenger seat's window.

It was Ryder's burned out car, a bright red mustang. The entire front bumper was smashed, practically flattened. There was glass covering the entirety of the ground, blood coated a few pieces. Loose parts of the car were spread amongst the road. It was completely trashed. However, Ryder was nowhere to be found.

Apparently when the police and paramedics arrived, Ryder wasn't in the car. But the car was left in front of the guard rail that it had collided with. There were no witnesses because it was nearly 2am and not many people went through this road to begin with. It was a straight road with a forest guarding both ends of it and dim with barely any streetlights.

Every night before I went to sleep, I always thought about Ryder. What if he is still alive? What would he be doing right now? Where would he be?

So many thoughts would flow through my head on a daily basis.

Snapping out of my very vivid flashback, I turn my attention back at Kyle who looks as if he had just seen a ghost - literally.

He slowly walks back, without saying a word, and falls onto the couch with his head in his hands. He stands up abruptly, seconds after he sat down, and punches the wall, forcing a hole through it. I don't make any efforts to stop him and I sit down next to the spot where he was previously sat.

***

It's been three days since we found Ryder in the photo. I decided it was best to stay in New York and just have Nora send my work to me.

Nora and Matt are officially dating. Yay?

Kyle has obviously been pretty shaken up, as have I. We've been trying to do everything we possibly can to see where Ryder is, or if that really was Ryder.

If it was him then I don't know what I would do. I loved him so much but it's been so long, if he was alive then why wouldn't he come back?

I need answers, we all do.

Kyle's friends have been in and out of the apartment throughout the past few days. Dominic held a cold and hard expression most of the time, while Carter would just be plain weird. Cole didn't really come in much, and if he did then he wouldn't stay for long or say much.

Today I'm meeting Nora at a diner that's halfway in the middle of Rhode Island and New York.

She would stay the night but she has plans the next day, with Matt.

I step out of my car and walk towards the diner. The parking lot was a bit far from the diner. I turn around before walking through the door when I see someone with a hood run past my car, whoever it is placed a note on top of it. I look around quickly before cautiously walking back to my car.

Meet me behind the diner. Burn this note.
-R

My heart stops when I saw who it is from. I don't want to waste any time so I pull the lighter out from my bag and set the note on fire, making sure I step on it to kill the flame before running to the back of the diner.

Is it really him?

Is he going to hurt me?

What's he going to say?

Why did he not come back?

So many thoughts are flowing through my head but I don't care at this moment. I just want to speak to Ryder. Maybe he can answer my questions.

I finally reach the back of the diner, completely out of breath.

I look up to see a tall, muscular, shadow.

"Ryder?"

I ask through my breaths. That's when the guy steps forward into the light.

My eyes widen and I take a deep breath in. My heart pounds out of my chest.

It's him.