Don't Fall for Me

Part 22: An Old iPod

I glared at the drawing on my cast and reached for the water bottle again. It was even darker in the room than before, with no sunlight coming in through the window. It must have been late. I figured my friends had all gone home for the night to get ready for school in the morning. My mom couldn't afford to miss work for me, so she was probably working somewhere in this building, with her being a nurse and all.

My fingers wrapped around the bottle and I lifted it off the table, bringing it towards me. It slipped from my fingers and plopped to the floor, making a loud noise. I cringed. Ryker's visible eye snapped open. I froze. The intense blue made my heart beat pick up. I was so glad I wasn't hooked up to one of those heart monitors, otherwise it would be beeping like crazy. 

Ryker flipped his hair so his other eye was visible as well. Then he slowly sat up straight. He leisurely folded his arms behind his head, tipping the chair back on two legs. His tattoos stared at me and his lip piercing winked in the dim light.

"Want me to get that for you?" He asked, nodding at the fallen water bottle, yet never leaving his eyes from mine.

"Uh, yeah," I said.

He shrugged, "Too bad."

Was he being serious?

"Ryker..." I warned.

The chair slammed back down on four legs as he got up and stalked over to my bed. I crawled as far away from the edge as I could get from him. I felt naked in the standard issued hospital gown I was wearing. I yanked up the white sheets to cover myself.

Ryker laid a hand on my bed and leaned down. His eyes were shut as his hair dangled in his face.

"Don't do that again," he said gruffly.

"Do what?" He opened his eyes and they flashed with something I couldn't identify. Using a finger on his other hand, he shushed my lips. I didn't move.

"Scare me like that," he said, lifting his finger off my lips. I stared at him. I'd scared him?

I plucked at the soft material on the teddy bear Finn had given me. A tattooed arm streaked across my vision as the bear was torn from my grip.

"Cute," Ryker said, standing back up with the bear in his hands.

"Hey! Give it back, jerk!"

"Did your boyfriend give this to you?"

"He's not my- yes, he gave it to me," I admitted.

Ryker said, "Hmm," as he dropped the bear back on my bed. He reached in his jeans pocket and pulled out a small device. A pair of headphones was attached to it. He handed it to me. I looked down at the small screen. It was a tiny iPod.

I scrolled through all of the songs on it and was shocked to see all of my favorite songs already downloaded on to it. Towards the end was my favorite album of Two-Strings. I looked back up at Ryker.

"It's my old iPod, not anything special. I didn't go out of my way to download those songs on it for you. They've been on there for years from when I used to listen to that iPod."

I ignored him and kept scrolling. I didn't recognize the last song on the list.

"Hmm, what's this?" I wondered out loud.

Ryker's eyes grew huge as he panicked for a second. His arm snatched out to grab the iPod from me. I held it out of his reach and pulled the top of my gown away from my neck, dropping the iPod inside my bra. Then I patted the gown back in place.

"Give that back, right now. Don't test me-"

"You gave it to me. You can't take it back, it's mine now. You snooze, you lose," I said, grinning.