BARELY ✓

3: The Pastel Sky

*

Kara's POV:

Through the rest of the car ride, Ryder and I were mostly silent. He'd hummed to the music in his car, but that was about it.

After a while of driving, the car finally stopped at a cliff, with the whole ocean standing gloriously below us. 

The sun was barely setting. The sky was pastel pink and orange and purple. I had never seen a sunset this beautiful in the city.

"Well little sis, I present to you, Hawaii." Ryder said proudly. "Not too bad, huh?"

"Wow. This is even better than my desktop wallpaper," I said in awe as I took my phone out to snap a couple pics.

"This here is one of my favorite spots on the island. Sometimes I come here when I want to be alone and think..." somehow Ryder found himself staring at me, and not at the view.

But when I turn to him and caught him looking at me, he quickly turned away and opened his car door. "Come on," he said. 

He went out and leaned against the front part of his truck. I decided to follow him out, taking the spot next to him.

I could smell the ocean from up here. Warm summer breeze was blowing softly through my hair. Below us, I saw the waves came colliding towards the shore, again and again. And that sound was like music to my ears.

I couldn't help but to smile.

"Can't get this view in New York City, huh?" Ryder said, taking off his sunglasses.

"Yeah, you really can't" I said with a bright smile. Somehow I found myself looking at Ryder again. This was the first time I got to see his eyes in close proximity. It was a deep shade of blue and it seemed to hold many stories, many mysteries.

Ryder's eyes were fixed towards the ocean with a longing gaze. A somewhat melancholy gaze. And suddenly, he turned to me and caught me looking at him, again. Dang. I quickly flipped my brain, trying to find something to say to distract him.

"Err... hey Ry, what's that tattoo about? What's it say there?" I pointed to a tattoo on Ryder's arm. He pulled out his arm to give me a better look. The tattoo spelled "Layla".

"This one is a special one," Ryder said.

"Layla... is that your girlfriend?" I laughed teasingly. "What is that 05 09 09? Is that like when you guys started dating?"

His face suddenly became serious. "Layla was my mother's name. And that was the date she died."

I felt my heart dropped to my stomach. My smile fell to the ground. I couldn't believe how insensitive I was.

"Oh I'm sorry.." I said slowly.

"I would never tattoo a girl's name on my body," he said with a scoff. "It's only for my mom," he said again, and I knew he meant it.

The atmosphere became somewhat gloomy as the topic of Ryder's dead mother came up.

"I'm really sorry, Ry, I didn't mean to.. uh.." I mumbled my words out.

"It's fine. It's been a long time. She's in a better place now."

Both of us were looking to the front now, towards the sky, and not at each other.

"It's funny that you call me Ry. All my friends call me RJ, only my family calls me Ry. My mom gave me that nickname,"

"Oh.. well, should I just start calling you RJ, then?"

"No. You can call me Ry," he smiled, and it was one of those really genuine smiles that you don't often see on his face.

Ryder narrowed his eyes, looking intently at the churning waves below us.