The Story of Me & You

Chapter One

Thank you to @corvums for the cover!

In my life I had had better ideas than the one that landed me in my best friend's brother's car at midnight on an unfortunate Saturday night. That isn't to say that I hadn't been compelled to act by my fair share of badly planned and executed idea but this one takes the cake. How I ended up in this college town with said best friend, now drunk and passed out is a story for another day. The plan of action for the moment is to figure out how to prevent her brother from abandoning us in the woods only to eaten alive by a grizzly.

Are bears native to this area? Don't ask me, Nat's the one who watches National Geographic religiously.

But sadly she's started lightly snoring by my side and her elder brother, who I might add I have known since pre-school looks at me like I'm the devil corrupting his innocent little Natalie.

Okay so he's probably right, in this case only but I have a genuine reason as to why we found ourselves at a frat party we were definitely not supposed to be at, in a town our parents definitely didn't know we'd be visiting this weekend.

Ryder's piercing blue eyes glare at me through the rear view mirror, "Can you make sure she keeps breathing until I get you guys home?"

I mutter something about him being overdramatic under my breath which he undoubtedly catches.

"Madison you don't even want to know how mad I am at you two for showing up here alone. Do you even realise what could've happened if I hadn't...forget it. I'll talk to Sam when I drop you off. Now do me a favour and keep an eye on her. She's not a heavy drinker."

Unlike you, is what he omits.

What a condescending jerk! He acted as though I'd been drinking straight up vodka from the bottle since infancy. I'd have him know that I was very much a lightweight who couldn't even handle her beer. I'd told Nat to lay off the booze, repeatedly. But she'd seen a guy who'd graduated from our high school last year, someone she'd dated and had her heart broken by so of course she'd taken to the 'punch' like LA native to flavoured water.

I tried to stop her, I really did.

Little did we know we'd run into Ryder Shaw, her older brother who very much wasn't supposed to be on campus this weekend.

Busted.

I know better than to argue with him, especially when he's this angry. For reference, I've known the Shaws my entire life. Ever since I met Natalie on the first day of pre-school and we hit it off, our moms knew it'd be a great idea to stick us together for any and all activities. It'd reduce the time they would each have to parent and the two of us wouldn't be deprived of each other's company. We each had siblings that were slightly older and not interested in spending any length of time with us. My sister, Sam was only a year older than Ryder and had just moved back home to attend grad school. Ryder was four years older than us and a senior at one of the most prestigious colleges in the country, about to graduate in the summer. He'd been a constant in my life for as long as I'd known him, filling the annoying elder brother void that it lacked. For the most part he treated Natalie and I like one would treat a piece of gum stuck under your shoe. You know its there and you tolerate it because removing it would just be annoying. But he's definitely not indifferent right now, nope Ryder is radiating with more anger than I've ever seen before and I shrink into the back seat of his car next to an oblivious Nat.

"Please don't tell Mom." I whisper, half an hour into the journey. He's not said a single word to me.

He laughs, not an ounce of humour in his voice.