Broken Until You

Chapter 41 - The Presentation

Shorter chapter :)

Autumn

Today is finally the day — the day Ryder and I have been practicing for since the day we starting working on our project.

It was finally time to present it and take home the best grade possible.

Before we had to leave for school, Ryder and I sat on his bed and reviewed our flash cards one last time.

We dressed professionally for this; I wore a pencil skirt with a black blazer and a nice top while Ryder wore a bussiness suit. We had to wear something professional because this presentation is supposed to train us for what's yet to come in our life.

"Are you ready?" I asked Ryder.

"Hell no." He didn't even look up at me because he was so busy scanning his flash cards.

I sighed, anxiety taking place in my chest. "Yeah, me neither."

I got up and walked over to his bedroom mirror to fix my bun. "I'm scared too, but with you by my side I know we will do great."

"Mhm," Ryder mumbled in return. He was still scanning his flash cards. In fact I don't think he even heard me.

I looked at him with a straight face but of course he didn't notice.

A loud knock on the door caught Ryder's attention.

"May I come in?" Ryder's mom asked from outside his bedroom.

"Yeah," Ryder responded.

The door creaked open and his mother walked inside.

"It's time to leave or else you're going to be late," she told us.

"Oh shit, it's time to go?!" Ryder looked confused.

Lisa had a shocked and mad expression on her face. "Ryder, language!"

He looked embarrassed and scratched the back of his neck, his brown hair falling in his face when he did so. "Oh...shoot, it's time to go?"

His mom looked pleased. "That's more like it."

I giggled but returned calm when I realized Lisa was right and we actually had to hurry.

"I can read the flash cards to you while you drive, Ry, but we need to go right now," I told him and he nodded and stood up.

Lisa cupped Ryder's face in her hands. "Look at my baby boy, all grown up! I remember when you were just learning to walk and how you ran around the house naked when you were a baby and-''

"Mom!" Ryder turned his head away from her hands. "Don't say that!" His cheeks turned a bright red.

I laughed loudly at his face.

Quickly, Ryder grabbed my hand and pulled me out of his room. "Come on lets go."

We walked downstairs hand and hand until we got to his Porsche.

Long story short: I couldn't really focus on reading the flash cards out loud to Ryder because the whole ride his hand was resting on my thigh. It made me feel flustered and I knew he could tell because he had this cocky smirk on his face the whole ride.

I wanted to punch him for making me feel this way but I also wanted to kiss him, so I couldn't really understand what I was feeling.

Then again, I never can tell.

When we got to school, kids from our grade were already outside practicing for their presentations. Some people actually dressed up even nicer than Ryder and I did, if that's even possible.