In 7 Days [Book 1]

Chapter 39 - Ryder Lynn's Secret

The Glee club had gotten caught up in a heated conversation about Lily and Sam's kiss, and we all ended up being very late to class. Ryder was pushing me down the almost empty hallways, his hand resting on my lower back, every now and then slipping down to touch my butt. I didn't mind that he was trying to cop a feel, it actually made me feel flattered. It was distracting me so much that I kept on crashing into people. 

After we had taken a wrong turn and ended up back at the choir room, Ryder stopped pushing me and ended up running ahead, calling a race. I tried to catch up to him, but how could I catch up to a star football player? 

I hadn't been paying enough attention and saw a corner up ahead just a second too late. I tried to slow down but didn't brake soon enough, skidding to a stop - only to crash into the lockers ahead of me. 

I fell on the ground and burst into laughter, even though the left side of me face had begun to throb and ache. My eyes started to water from the impact. I looked up to see Ryder running back to me, looking really worried for me. 

"Are you okay?" Jake's voice came out of nowhere, and I felt his grip on my arm as he pulled me to my feet. "That looked really bad."

"I'm fine!" I managed to get out, still laughing. 

"What the hell happened?" Jake questioned, a large smile on his face.

"We didn't want to be late for class, so we were running," Ryder said, coming from the other side of me. He had that look on his face. The same look he had when Jake asked me out on a date and Ryder told me we had plans. The half smile, half anger look. It kind of frightened me.

"Well, are you okay?" Jake completely ignored Ryder - I admired him for not wanting to start conflict, unlike the other times they had been seen in the same vicinity with me in between them. 

"I feel good, don't worry about me." I smiled, rubbing my face to try and get rid of the slight pain.

"I don't have a good rep, so if I don't leave now I'm going to be in so much trouble. See you soon, Marley." Jake gave me a pat on the back and rushed down the hallway. 

Once Jake had gone I turned around to Ryder and shook my head. He was looking at me like he was trying so hard not to laugh. "That actually hurt a lot." I whispered, and Ryder pulled me into a tight hug.

***

Ryder gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before he left to go to his class. We had one class together, which really upset me; I wanted to spend more time with him, do work with him and get nothing done at all, send him silly notes in the middle of class that would make him blush. 

When I walked in, I saw Jake sitting up the front, not in his usual bad boy spot up the back. "Hello again, Jake!"

"Hey there." He gave me the biggest, brightest smile. "How's your face?" The memory of it must have made him laugh. 

"Oh, shut up," I shoved him, "but it's much better now, thank you for asking. I don't think it'll bruise too badly."

"You should have seen yourself, Marley..." He laughed loudly again, reaching up to push a bit of hair out of my face. It was such a flirty thing to do and I tried to hide my discomfort. I wasn't comfortable with him touching my face, but I just smiled through the slight panic. "You're so pretty," he gave me this sleezy smile, placing his hand on my thigh, not breaking eye contact with me. He slowly moved his hand upward, moving it closer to the inner skin of my thigh. 

I grabbed his fingers and used all of my strength to get him to stop touching me. "Thank you, Jake, for the complement, but... I... just..." I shook my head. I felt so sick to the stomach. I couldn't believe he had the nerve to do that!